Ethel's Tomatoes

Ethel's Tomatoes

My aunt Ethel was born in 1906 and lived in Horton, Kansas.  She died a few years ago.  I wanted to do a painting from an emotional memory of her.  Neither house nor setting is accurate, but it's the way I remember her.  This is mostly acrylic with knife and brush.

It's always an adventure....

Corner Pasture

Corner Pasture

I took this photo just southwest of Salina, Kansas last summer.  I'm working on capturing sense of place through simple paint strokes and simple form.  Black Angus cattle aren't that short - they're all sitting down.  Not much going on that afternoon.

It's always an adventure...

Green Boat

Green Boat

I took artistic license and combined some scenes to do this piece.  It's acrylic underlay with water-base oil over.

As with all my posts, you can click on the image to enlarge

It's always an adventure...

Sun Through the Vines

Sun Through the Vines

Another view through the vines using sunlight.  I painted this from a combination of views and memories of observations.  I used a mix of acrylic underlay and water-base oil over.  Acrylic paint's quick drying properties force you to mix small quantities and work extremely fast.  Tough if you need a particular color dynamic mix from 2 or 3 paint tubes.  A 'happy accident' is usually just around the corner.

It's always an adventure.

Seattle Central Library

Alone Together

Second outing with the Seattle Urban Sketcher's League.  I chose to sketch two folks, both equally immersed yet worlds apart technologically.

A small group of artists meets a few times a month, meets at a location, disperses for an hour or so, and comes back together to critique each other's work.  

When sketching scenes at the SCL, one cannot avoid the diamonds.  

It's always an adventure...

Lunch on the Deck

Lunch on the Deck

This started out as a light/dark study of chairs in the bright sunlight.  It's from a photograph I took.  I liked the random spacing of objects and the shadows.  Last minute I added companions starting a lunch in the sun.

My goal was to do all with just a palette knife, but used a liner brush for some shadow and chair detail.

It's always an adventure...

Section Corner

Section Corner

As usual I got carried away with color intensity.  Didn't mean to be so strong on the red but its growing on me.  This is the first of 9 paintings I'm going to show this summer on "The Prairie" at Parklane Gallery.

Its from a satellite image from space.  Supposed to read both as abstract and as a planet scape of reality, which can be abstract - all in the way you view it.

Yep, that's a tractor...

It's always an adventure...

Seattle Reflections

Seattle Reflections

More study paintings from my photos of the Seattle waterfront this last summer.  This is a mix of acrylic and water-base oil, mostly oil.  I used a palette knife on about 80% of the work.

It's always an adventure...

Reflected

Reflected

I completed this one in the midst of working on a larger 16 x 20 work on water reflections.  This is a 12 x 12 painting from a series of photo studies I took this past summer at the Seattle waterfront.  I'm learning how to paint reflected images on water, kinda teaching myself by observing and trial/error.    Lots more of these to come.  They're fun.

It's always an adventure...

Windmill Hill

Windmill Hill

Did this from my photo excursion around Salina Kansas this last September.  Experimenting with knife and brush painting the prairie grasses.

It's always an adventure...

Reflections

This is from my photograph taken along the Seattle waterfront this last summer.  

I thought it would be interesting to let the eye decide what is not in the picture, using only information seen in the reflected images.  I tried some finger painting with this to smooth out the water.  

It's always an adventure...

Homage to Frank

Homage to Frank

I have this stained glass panel at my studio, on the door.  I bought it at the Frank Lloyd Wright home, studio and book store in Oak Park, Illinois back when we lived in Chicago.  

It's a panel replica of a series of panels in one of his dining room window designs.  I did this in acrylic paint and oil pastel pencil stick.  It's on 12 x 12 x 2 stretched canvas kinda sketchy and the lines aren't straight, but it's what I wanted to do.  It's fun doing what you want to do.  Boy, that red really pops!  

I'm going to submit it to our Parklane Gallery "around the block" show coming up in October when I get back from Kansas.

It's always an adventure...

Kansas Cotton

Kansas Cotton

When I was a kid the sheer size and majesty of the clouds over the prairie made me just stop in my tracks sometimes.  I wanted to capture that feeling of how absolutely enormous the clouds could be.  I painted this from that memory.  Somewhere north of Salina, Kansas.   The green is the rich, spring color of the winter wheat coming up.

This 12 x 12 will be at the 'Around the Block' show this October at Parklane Gallery.

It's always an adventure...

Sarlat Market

Sarlat Market

This is another view and study of life at the market in Sarlat, France.  Trying to capture the sense of being there and walking into the painting.  The sun was extraordinarily bright that day and I wanted to get a sense of it.  I'm not that tall, I was standing on a step.

It's always an adventure...