Spring Winds

Spring Winds
9″ x 12″
Oil

It was a beautiful morning to be out painting with friends. Soft winds, a chorus of birds and the subtle colors of early spring.

Wednesday Morning sketch

A little 7″ x 7″ study I did with some painting friends of mine the other day. Tom gave us some of his old tools and some wood shavings for a set up. It was such a beautiful day, we probably should have heading outside, but there will be plenty of warm weather for that. Painting can be a pretty solitary sport, so I look forward to these mornings.

Two Sketches

Two little sketches done on location. The first one is just down the road from our place. It was pretty cold both days ( just below zero degrees) with a steady breeze so I had to paint fast. Cold as it is, the sun is getting higher and the birds are starting to sound more like spring. I’m sure it’s just around the corner…

January Garden

January Garden
11″ x 14″
OilI usually get the bulbs I force in the winter into the ground in the spring, but this last spring was a busy one with Dan’s graduation and with being on the road for painting events. So the pot was forgotten in a corner by the back door. After nine months of neglect and no water, the bulbs started to sprout again on their own! I gave them some water and put then in a dark cool spot in the basement and here they are. The fragrance and color warms up a January day.

Out For Lunch

Out For Lunch
11″ x 14″
Oil

Grandma’s Creamer

Grandma’s Creamer
9″ x 12″
Oil

Dreams of Summer

I think I must be getting tired of winter already. I’ve been drawn to painting images of summer. I’ve sat at ball games before and painted the scene at home plate. There are those few seconds during the pitch when the ump and the catcher fall into their pose and they return to it exactly throughout the game. It’s a fun challenge to study them when they are down and then pop in a few strokes in between each pitch. This is the beginning of a larger studio piece, but I can still feel the energy and anticipation of each as the ball comes in. The small town ball game is something that everybody turns out for. The younger kids hang out at the backstop ready to chase the foul balls so they can turn them in at the concession stand for a freezy-pop, the smell of popcorn and the cool evening air, the crack of the ball on the bat, the sounds of the radio announcers in the booth and the parents calling out encouragement to their boys in the game, and the girls walking around hoping to be noticed…

This is another start of a studio painting from summer memories. It’s a scene on a back road heading home to our farm. A storm lit by the sunset is passing to the south. Our kids avoid this road since their school bus went off the side of the hill and dropped almost 20 feet to land on its roof some years back. Not fond memories for any of us, but I find myself heading home that way just for the view.

I think I’d better get myself outside to paint this week. We’ve had some beautiful flops of snow and the best way to beat off the winter blues is to get out in it and take in some of the fresh muffled stillness that comes with the snow.

Still Lifes

I’ve been spending quite a bit more time in the studio lately. Not sure if it’s because I’m loving my new space so much, or that it’s been so cold that I’m not really wanting to head outside with my paints. Probably a little bit of both. These are a few still lifes that I’ve recently done. It’s great to have the space to set one up again. I’ve always shied away from using the same elements in different paintings, but when visiting the Caravaggio exhibit at the Art Institute in Chicago, I saw certain props used over and over again in his paintings. Rather than be turned off by that, I was struck that it is a little window into his studio.

This first painting is the most recent one that I have done. The teacup, oranges and place mat is actually a set up of my friend Deb Conlon, a fellow painter who joined me for a morning in my studio. Her work is filled with light and color, and this still life was much more keyed up than I usually work, with light from the window and from the overhead lights bouncing around the bright colors of the objects. It was a great exercise to push myself outside of my comfort zone- or almost push myself outside of it. In the end I added the hydrangea sprig and the spoon. I really felt it needed a mass of another color and value to set off the teacup.

Farm House at Chester Hills

Farm House at Chester Hills
22″ x 28″
Oil on canvasThis house portrait was a commission that I received at the end of the summer. It’s a beautifully renovated farm house with an addition built of brick from an old school house down the road. It sits on a ridge with incredible views in every direction. I went out twice to do some studies and to understand what it was that they wanted in their painting. While commissions can be a great source of angst for many artists, I really love being a part of something that really means something to someone else.

Trip West

Just back from a great week of camping and sketching in the mountains of Colorado. Visited with some wonderful artists, saw some nice art shows, and went to sleep listening to the elk bugling in the mountains.