Join me April 16 and 17 from 10-4 and step OUTSIDE with your oil paints and easel while I share with you mytechniques and tips for creating beautiful "plein air" paintings. For complete information and to sign up, visit http://www.aikencenterforthearts.org/. 803/641-9094
You can follow a painting as it is being created. I have been taking photos as I progress with this painting. The painting is an oil on canvas, 24 x 30. A bit larger than the 4 x 6 paintings you will find at the 1hundredpaintings blog.
So follow along and we will both see how this turns out.
The subject of the painting is a brother and sister at the beach. You can see that the canvas was toned, however instead of a red ground, it received a dull yellow color. The layout was roughed in with pencil and the painting begins.
First, painting some of the darks, then the white of the boy's shirt. This begins to show the range of values (the lights and darks) in the painting.
Some more shapes are roughed in...
The sky and the ocean are painted. More darks in the dune grass behind the boy and some shadows in the sand.
Of course, the photos are taken at irregular intervals, keep getting into the painting and forget about the camera. Maybe a timer....
Painting a pastoral scene on location often means a drive out in the country, but at the western end of Hillsborough St. in Raleigh is the NC State Vet school. Between the modern classrooms and laboratories and the I-440 Beltline is this bit of country life, barns and cows, green fields and trees.
So on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in October I drive into Raleigh to stand on the side of a six lane road and paint a rural landscape.
What can you do with a fox painting? Of course, you could get prints made. Even lampshades, But here is something different, You can now find one of my most popular fox paintings on neckties.
Red Fox Necktie $49.95 as usual, shipping included.
In the last post, I told you about the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show. In the last two months I have also been busy doing something else that I love to do. Gold leaf and hand lettering names of boats.
The first two boats are Lightning Bugs, electric boats from Budsin Woodcraft. The ideal boat for a sunset cruise around the lake, quiet enough to hold a conversation whilst sipping some champagne.
Next are two videos of lettering on two Chris Craft boats. The first is a 1947 model. Since it is a post-war boat, it is considered a Classic. This is the same type of boat as seen in the film "On Golden Pond"
This next boat is a 1931 Runabout. Since it is a pre-war boat, it is an antique. Both of these boats will be at the Antique and Classic Boat Show at Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, NC on Sept. 25th. I will have photos of them in the water afterwards. For information on the boat show go to VintageBoat.org
Here is Indiscretion, a 1964 35' Fino Runabout a classic Italian boat built along the lines of the Riva Aquarama. She was lettered after a new paint job. The work was done while she was getting her bottom paint and final fitting out. In the photo below she has not yet gotten her teak rails and chrome lights. The lettering and transom will be getting a coat of clear awlcraft. The reflection on the swim platform was accomplished by wetting it down to simulate the final look. The final paint was incredible. The entire boat and everything in it was painted, then sanded with 1500 grit sandpaper and finally buffed out to a mirror finish. The second photo is a look at the bow inside the paint booth and shows off her lines. Just the boat to be scooting about on the Riveria in the early sixties.
December 2011-CORRECTION-I received an email from a Fino owner who has actual facts:
I happened upon your blog entry from last year regarding this boat. I am a Fino owner myself, and have been assembling information about these boats, including the current whereabouts and condition of the various individual examples. Contrary to your post, these boats were actually built in Florida between 1970-1973, and approximately 28 were constructed (mine was #9). The design is certainly influenced by the Italian "Riva", but the designer was Walt Walters, who designed many well known offshore race boats in the '60s and '70s.
In the next post you get a look at one of my painting workshops that was held a Jerry's Artarama Raleigh Store
Let me tell you a bit about what has been going on through July and August. First, the Blowing Rock Charity Horse Show took place the last week in July and the first week in August. I was honored by the BRCHS Foundation when they asked me create the painting for the poster, t shirts, cards etc.
The painting is 24 x 36 and was auctioned off at the Horse Shows Gala party to benefit the foundation. While the horse show was underway, you could have found me throughout the grounds painting scenes of the show, including a "Foggy Day at Blowing Rock"
In addition the paintings of the show, I had many requests for specific commissions. I am still working on them.
But more that the Blowing Rock Horse Show has been going on, but I am going to leave that for the next post.
Today's painting, a horse head, was referenced from a black and white photo. But I can't paint in just black and white, I need color. Starting with a red ground ( artspeak for background ) on my canvas, I laid in the basic dark dark shapes. A few of the not so dark darks and then I jumped to the lights. Not straight white, a bit of orange and ochre to warm it up.
When painting in public, you get to talk to fellow artists of varying skill levels. I talk to quite a few who work in pencil or charcoal but are reluctant to paint or who have tried painting and were unhappy with the results. Let me use this painting to illustrate a couple of helpful ideas.
First, if you draw exclusively in black and white, be it pencil or charcoal or whatever. Make it easy for yourself and try working with only black and white paint. You already know how to discern tthe values ( darks and lights ) and to see the shapes, so just work with learning how the paint works. How it feels going on the canvas. How to thin. How it covers and how it blends. Play with that.
A second step is to work on a colored ground. You can use charcoal and white chalk or pastel on a blue or tan paper. Here is where it gets interesting. The white black and the ground color can be used to create cool and warm colors. Using a warm colored, say a tan paper or background you can use the black and white chalks with the tan showing through to create a range of warm tones. Now if you take your black and white and mix a range of grays without allowing the background color to show, they will have a cool, bluish cast compared to the color of your background.
Try creating two value scales (a row of ten squares going from black to white) side by side, one with the black and white mixed opaquely, the other with the colored ground showing through (work from your ground color adding white as you get lighter and using the ground color and black to create your darks. Do not mix black and white together in this scale)
In the painting below, white mixed with orange, ochre and red are used in the lights. The darks range from a deep mixture of blue and brown, to greenish midtones to bluish halftones and both warm and cool reflected light. A lot of fun, playing with a black and white image. If you find this interesting, I will be teaching a workshop in August. See below for more..
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas $240. Shipping included
The workshop will be in Raleigh NC at Jerrys Artarama on August 14, from 10 - 4. For more go to Jerrys Raleigh store.
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