Indian Summer in Pangone 2

Well, I made my week's quota. Nothing to write home about, but what the heck: it's an hour or two on a Friday night. (Truth is that this is always the way I do things.) They say there's another three or four days to go for this spell of 70's weather, so I expect I'll be painting at night for a while yet.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Indian Summer in Pangone

Actually it's indian summer here, and with the long winter just around the corner, I haven't been able to stay inside to paint. I whipped this piece last night just to make an attempt to meet my 2 paintings a week budget. I wanted some different colors and feel this time around, hence the reds and gloom.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Sheds at Lilyfield (revised)

Minor revisions, mostly to the buildings and wall just to bring them out more.

Sheds at Lilyfield

This is today's version of yesterday's The Barn at Lilyfield. There are three types of paintings, ones that are 'it', ones that aren't 'it' (but might be, if things work out) and ones that are never going to be 'it'; which most paintings fall into. It is this last category that makes being a painter so damn hard since you have to decide if they're good enough or not. Yesterday's version was not good enough, today's... we'll see how it strikes me tomorrow. The one thing it has going for it is that it has so much paint on it that I'd not like to paint over it again...  The thing is that this would have been a very nice 12x16" piece. It might be just too big.

18x24" 45c60cm acrylic on hardboard.

The Barn at Lilyfield

Well here's today 's painting as it looks today. Never sure these days how done I am. I had an image of a high horizon painting going into this, but only this, the afternoon version actually went in that direction, mostly because I could not get any buildings to look anything but clunky so I wanted to crowd them out. I petty much just roughed this barn in and left it as it. Buildings are not my thing.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Lilyfield Meadow (revised versions)

Above is the final (ha!) version of this painting. I've cut back the trees on the left: opening up the painting and making it less unbalanced. In addition I added a bit of highlight to the wall and a bit more detail to the house.

Below is this morning's first revision. I had decided to take the trees up to the top of the painting and lighten up the sky to get more of a milky light look rather than overcast. The fact that I have this photo says that I was ready to go with this version, but it never quite felt right. It was just too unbalanced.  This is pretty much how I paint: if it looks good, it is good, but I have to get there by looking at it and changing it until it looks good. I don't have a picture in my mind to paint to or a plan except to start painting in the upper left hand corner...

Lilyfield Meadows

I just wanted an extravagant painting today. I scooped out extra acrylic medium to get a lusher brush stroke, grabbed a big brush to make sure I didn't get fussy and went at it.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Autumn Arrives in Lansworth

Not the most productive of weeks, but I did get my budgeted two paintings out. So what the heck.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Rain in Kimla Gardens

Last night's painting with some addition of cadium yellow light this morning to brighten things up a bit. A rather marginal painting again, I'm afraid. But then, you really can't expect masterpieces every day, with two on Fridays, can you? Not from me, in any case.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Grimshaw Road (revised)

Lordy, I'm getting fussy in my old age. I decided that the original version had a too closed in feeling and that the walls took up too much space. I've tried to correct those errors with this morning's revision.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Grimshaw Road

Poor Rowboats in the Park, always fated, it seems, to be painted over. This is what I painted over the most recent of rowboat paintings. I spent all day getting nowhere, and then last night, I just painted this before going to bed. In part it's inspired by what was left on the board of all the scenes I tried before and scraped off. The name of the road hints at the painter who's work, I was thinking about: John Atkinson Grimshaw, recently (mid-Sept. '11) in a Telegraph.co.uk picture feature of a collection of Grimshaw's paintings:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/8762559/Atkinson-Grimshaw-Painter-of-Moonlight-at-the-Guildhall-Art-Gallery-in-London.html?image=5

I really like the November Morning 1883 piece. I'm going to have to explore those colors more.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

In the Wilderness of Dunes

Today it's another light and space...and umbrella painting. Don't ask me. I'm an intuitive painter and when my intuitive says 'now paint a lady with an umbrella' I go: 'Huh?' and paint a lady with an umbrella. Must be channeling Jack Vettriano today. Still, it works for me.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Rowboats in the Park (again)

Wanted to give the idea one more try today. I thought painting it on a smaller scale might work better, but it didn't, so I turned the board upside down making the sky water instead: channeling a bit of Whistler.  On a smaller 12x16" board, it is easier to let something iffy like this slide than on an 18x24" board so I'll likely keep it.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Edge of a World, Edge of a Day (Revised)

Fussing with this painting last night: the lady took off her jacket so that she would be more readily visible in the painting, put more highlights in the foreground grasses, messed around with the sky and cloud, and processed the resulting photo a bit better so that the yellow in the sky does not quite glow as much as in the first one.

This painting is a bit more literal, that is to say more realistic, than I care to paint as a rule. Just sort of happened that way, though when I start using several smaller brushes to get details, I should know I'm in trouble. Still, it pretty much expresses the feeling I was looking for, so I guess I'll not complain too much.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Edge of a World, Edge of a Day

I painted this piece today over the Rowboats painting of the weekend. Back to space and light.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Rowboats in the Park Revised

Today's revised version. I like the more asymmetrical look, more open feeling. But I still don't think it's enough to save it...

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Rowboats in the Park

Spent all day working on an interior still life, but couldn't get a pleasing combination of shapes, so with a hour to go before my afternoon tea break, I gave up and did this piece to get something done. I'll probably paint over this one, or at least redo it extensively. (The apparent shadow is actually painted in the painting, so that would have to be fixed for sure.)

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Woman in Bed

Obviously, I'm not a painter of people. Not only do I lack the skill set, but I'm not interested in the subject nor do I feel that I can bring anything new to the genre. As a consequence I rarely have naked women hanging about the studio. When I do, I might as well make hay while the sun shines.

By the way, this the first painting of my 9th year of being a painter. Eight years ago I quit my day job to paint and haven't had to work since. The rich have continued to get richer without my help.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Larking Lizards and Carpboat in Drifts of Rain

I've got a couple of end pieces about, and it's Friday so it's time for another Archipelago of the Three Lovers painting. (Essentially these are abstracts, at least in my approach to painting them.)
Here's the premise of this series:
It's a science fiction scene. Imagine three planets (the three lovers) in close orbit around a point in space. They're close enough together to share an atmosphere and occasionally scrap by each other knocking bits and pieces, plants, animals and people off into this shared atmosphere and these rocks then hang suspended like motes of dust within the shifting gravitational pull of the three planets. This is the archipelago, drifting 'islands' in free fall in the space between the worlds. I seem to remember an Edger Rice Burroughs book with twin worlds and a shared atmosphere, but I think three worlds would work better.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Last Light on the Beach

Another 'light and open space' paintings. This morning, on my bike ride, I developed a theory as to  why I like this proportion of sky to land: for the last 30 years I've been living in the middle of a rolling prairie and unless you're looking at your feet, this is pretty much the split between land and sky you're going to see. I've just grown so used to it. As a matter of fact, last night when I looked at this painting I realized that my original version had too much land and I had to cut down the dunes by a good inch or two before I got to this, more satisfactory proportion.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

A Hint of Autumn

Just putting paint on board today while listening to the new Bombay Bicycle Club album. I really shouldn't be doing this: I should be making every painting important. Oh well.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Last Light Along the Falmont Bay Road

This is the first and maybe the last fruit of my week on the shore of Lake Michigan. There is nothing in it that directly reflects that week on the beach. Go figure.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Rainy Avenue

A rainy morning painting.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Summer in Lansworth 6

After spending a week's family holiday on the shore I should be painting pictures with the sea in it. I'd like to. But today, when I took out the bigger board, I decided I wasn't that ambitious today... maybe tomorrow.  I added today's smaller piece to my Summer in Lansworth series hoping to fool the gullible into thinking that I'm exploring in great detail the light and shape of street corners because it is important, not because I can't think of anything else to paint.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Misty Morn too

Well, it didn't look any better in the morning, so repainted it, keeping the same old scene just for comparison. I like this better, but is nothing to write home about. We'll see what I think of this version tomorrow.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Misty Morn

I'll likely paint over this one. It is just too much the same as too many others. As much as I hate to work, I'm going to have to really put some effort into coming up with some new ideas...

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

The Strand Before Sunrise

Okay, here's my story: I'm painting series paintings just like Monet... and I'm sticking with it.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Dragonfly Boats

As long as all I feel like doing is putting paint on board, I decided to do another of the Archipelago of the Three Lovers painting.  The 12x24" 30x60cm size board is what is left over when I cut two 18x24" 45x60cm boards out of a standard sized sheet of hardboard. And since I rather like a lot of sky in my large scale landscapes, this is somewhat of an orphaned size.

Summer in Lansworth 5

I spent yesterday painting another picture by lightly dabbing the paint on. It didn't work. I'm neither into drama or bright colors and the dabbing makes for a very diffuse painting that I found it impossible to create any contrast and interest in it at all. I'd like to think my devil may care approach to brush strokes add interest to my otherwise understated paintings would lack.

Today's painting brings nothing new with it. Mostly I'm just painting and exploring colors. In the past I used a yellows for my greens but now, for some reason, I want to use mostly blues for my greens. Go figure. Anyways, I'm not concerned about what I paint these days: its how I paint that interests me, so I end up re-doing familiar scenes. Hopefully I'll be able to move on in time.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Summer in Lansworth 4

A foggy summer morning in Lansworth.  Did this just to explore the use of a different type of brush stroke. Needs to be refined a bit. Somehow.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard