Early Morning in Winter, Bayport Road

Besides trying to get away with the least possible work or thinking, the main purpose of this piece was to explore the differences in colors between the sky and the shadows on the snow. I was up when the sun was just coming up the other day and noted (again) how the lightest of blue-green skies contrast with the dull blue grey of the snow in the shadows. This piece is an attempt to capture that effect. I was using a small brush to make the sky less boring, but that didn't work as well as I wanted. And well, this is one of those paintings that doesn't photograph well either, so this photo result is less than accurate. I had to go out into the snow to take the picture and it was snowing, so I didn't feel like trying it again. That's my story anyways. But you get the idea.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

The Old Woman and Her Dog

Oh, why not? Hardboard and acrylic paint are cheap enough. Really this is more iffy than the last post, but it does have a nice simplicity about it.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard.

Moonlight and the River at Wovenlay Park

This is a somewhat more tamed version of last night's painting. It's a little more literal interpertaion of what the title describes than the original version. The place comes from a previous picture somewhere in this blog, and was more or less what I was aiming to paint at some point in this painting, though far from what I started out to paint.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Winter in the Lane

Same old same old, but I still had a fall painting on the wall in this size so I had to do a winter one quick. This is it. It was quick.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

The Factor's House

Last night I painted a much more, well, not realistic, but more crafted version of this scene. It didn't seem to work when I looked at it this morning; too stiff and to easily mistaken for a painting that someone was try to paint realistically and failing.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

The Farm of Covervale Lea

Started out with the idea of doing something like "Farmyard in Early Winter" but that wasn't working so well, so I decided to change the coloring to something more like "Frosty Morning in Sparrows Sq." and this is what I ended up with.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Frosty Morning in Sparrows Square

Old theme, old treatment. Different shape. I've now used up my backlog of 12x24" pieces, which are left over from cutting two 18x24" boards out of a standard 2x4' hardboard sheet.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard.

Farm Yard in Early Winter

Open spaces, now closed spaces. The challenge was to make the buildings as casual as the trees.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Field of Snow

I like my don't care attitude about this painting. It's simple, stark, creates a mood, and I like it.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Brook in Early Winter

It's that time of year again. And it sucks. Might as well paint it.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard.

Quad Blade Boats

A little return to steamimpressionism. Mostly an excuse to paint clouds and sky. Also wanted to find some better sort of air-boat. I don't really want to paint blimps, and I can't really get very detailed either. A problem.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Last Light on the Heather

This piece is all about sky. I spent several days working on the sky and in the end, scraped it down to assorted past layers, touched it up and called it a day. I then had to decide if it was morning or evening. It was morning right up to the end, but when I was finished I decided it looked more eveningish. And it follows my policy of almost always looking north to paint; morning sunlight from the right, evening sunlight from the left. (For no reason except that's what feels right and you never have to paint the sun into the painting.)

18x24"45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Afternoon Along a Forest Road

The interesting thing about this piece is that I used the same pallet of six colors & white that I used on the previous two paintings. I pretty much can get by with these six colors; Ultramarine blue, burnt umber, cadmuim yellow light (hue), burnt sienna, alizarine crimson, and Atelier's red gold (PY74 PR175. I like manganese blue for skies and shadows, plus I use beige and pastel yellow as well as white. Every other color I own I could get by without, and don't use much at all. Most were just picked up on a whim.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard.

Golden Afternoon

Another small brush painting, and probably the last. I find that it doesn't make much difference, I still paint the same way with a small brush as with a larger one, the painting just looks a little grainer. I had to try very hard not to make this look too Kinkadeish, with only limited success.

12x16" 30x40 cm acrylic on hardboard

The Arbor Gate

Another painting using a small brush. Actually I don't really paint any differently with a small brush; same strokes only smaller. It does make everything look more fine grained, however.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Dawn on the Thames

Another painting using only a small brush. Still, don't expect any details as I never learned how to paint with thick paint. When I switched from watercolors to oils, I never really had the training or patience to learn how to manage the thicker, stickier oil paints. Luckily I like impressionist paintings, so I never had to force myself to learn.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard.

A Day on the Downs

This piece's sole claim to fame is that I used a small brush -- which I rarely do -- to suggest that this piece is larger than it really is. The image I'm seeing on my screen is very blotchy, so the sky may be more subtle than what it appears on screen. Anyways, this was mostly about making a sky, the land is just there because I needed it.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Cloudy Day Studies 1 & 2

Our almost summer like weather has gone and I can no longer stay outside, so I've no excuse for not painting. I am, however, in painting these little pieces, avoiding working on a larger piece that I don't quite know what to make of. Hopefully it will show up on this blog sooner rather than later.

8x6" 20x15cm acrylic on hardboard

Rainy Day Studies 1 & 2

Rainy day studies as in it's raining outside and I found some little boards I had around that matched my ambitions, so I improvised these moody little pieces with a four colors and white.

8x6" 20x15cm acrylic on hardboard

Fall in the Lane

Just playing with light and paint.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Alley Abstract

One of the benefits of painting on hardboard is it's affordability. I paid less than $4 for a 2x4 foot sheet of hardboard the last time I bought some, and since I can get six boards this size out of it, I have less than $1 invested in this piece of artwork, paint included, which I will gladly sell to you for $100K; a nice Apple-like margin. The real value, however, is that I can paint a piece like this; basically just playing around with paint without worrying about wasting a much more expensive canvas on it. I suppose it could be argued that without having to think about the cost of materials I'm given license to put out slapdash rather than thoughtful paintings, but then slapdash is my style.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Shaded Alley

This time around I'm giving shade pride of place. At least in the title. I can't paint light without shade nor shade without light. But I think shade is where it's at in this piece.

12x16" 30x40cm acrylic on hardboard

Misty Morning in the Lane

A rather simple painting, but I decided I'd just keep it that way. What the heck.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Sunset in the Lane

All about light again, this time a bit more warmer light.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Glow of the Day

An old familiar scene painted with a slightly different technique.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Late Summer Along the Bayport Road

A little cooler pallet this time: more greens less yellows. I've also raised the horizon line, closer to the classical 1/3 line than I usually do. Like the previous painting, I've done most of the work with a larger bush using a small one for the house and distant details.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Mars in the Abstract

I worked off and on all summer on this piece, spending more time on it than any 20 other paintings. And it doesn't show, of course. Hell, I might not even be done yet. But now that I took the photo I'll put a few coats of varnish on it and see what I think. My 5 year old granddaughter spent several weeks visiting and we worked on this together; she giving me her opinion and I teaching her the concept of "it", as in all those other previous versions were certainly not "it" even if she liked them. I'm far from certain this is "it" yet, but I've about given up hoping to finding "it" in this piece, if I haven't already.

24x36" 60x90cm acrylic on hardboard

Late Summer Along the Trumet Road

This weekend I start my eleventh year as an painter. It's been a decade now since I quite my day job to paint "full time". Haven't a regret. Lot's of changes along the way. Started in watercolors and then had to learn how to paint in oils on canvas when it quickly became apparent that watercolors are too much like prints to command much interest in the "over the sofa" market. Later on I switched to acrylics on hardboard because I realized I could do everything I wanted in acrylics with a lot less annoyance. I sold paintings for the first five years or so and enjoyed the process, but I came to realize I was unprepared to do what it takes to make painting a business, so I just put a minimum $100K price on 'em and have never had to ask myself, "But will it sell?" again. (I know the answer.) In return I have the freedom to paint pictures like the one above without caring that no one but myself is likely to like it. Well worth it.

I did make my quota of two paintings a week this year, but I only did so by cheating: painting a lot of little paintings last fall. Oh, well. And I am not exactly painting at my best these days; maybe I'll get better and maybe not. We'll just have to see what year eleven brings.

18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Late Summer on the Upper Orham Road

Back from a week's holiday on the Lake Michigan shore with the extended family; lot's of walks along the beach and lots of time re-reading Joseph Lincoln books about Cape Cod a hundred or more years ago, which is the basis for this and these types of painting. Nothing new here, but at least I'm motivated to paint a bit. Can't complain.

12x24" 30x60cm acrylic on hardboard

Late Summer Along Lost Spring Road

I see it's been more than a month since I last painted a picture. I've always relied on intuition and inspiration to paint without any formal training. When inspiration and intuition fails I've nothing to fall back on and am pretty much out of luck. And the spring of inspiration and intuition seems to have run dry. I could, I suppose re-hash old scenes, like this piece, but that really doesn't interest me. Instead, I don't think I'll be painting for a while and see if anything changes. I'm not holding my breath, it's been hard to come up with things to paint for a year or more, so I'm far from sure this is a temporary thing.

But it's not like I'm not continuing to create. I'm just into words these days. I've finished the almost final draft of the first four episodes of my open ended science fiction serial "Captain of the Lost Star".  If it passes muster (a big 'if') with various reviewers, I'd like to self-publish as an ebook this fall sometime. It's a 60,000 word introduction to the characters of a tramp space ship plying the Nine Star Nebula. My plan is to add 10,000-15,000 word connected short stories on to it to keep the story going to where ever in the Nebula it's going. I'm planing to draw some illustrations and will post them here if I do. In addition I'm working on another science fiction novel with the working title of "The Rhymer's Gate" which I hope to have done by the new year. I write, as I paint, for fun, so that if I do finish them to my satisfaction, I'd publish them myself as ebooks if I don't think I'd embarrass myself too much. We'll see.


18x24" 45x60cm acrylic on hardboard