More Studying...

Study for Bridge and Port
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Small Study for the NE Florida Industrial Series

Study for Red Mill
12 x 12 Oil on Canvas

Rio Grande Gorge Revisited

I have attempted to paint the gorge bridge several times and have never been quite satisfied until now.  I think I am getting closer to what I want with this one.

The Gorge
12 x 24 Oil on Canvas

More New Landscape Work

Following on the experimental works from my last post, I retained some of the concepts and process I used but moved into my preferred medium of Oils on canvas.  I also used oil crayon and oil sticks on the work and kept to the landscape format.

Hiking Near Los Alamos
24 x 20 Oil and Oil Crayon on Canvas Panel

Million Dollar Highway to Ouray
22 x 28  Oil and Oil Crayon on Canvas 

Experiments with Landscape

The Artist group I have been involved with for the past few years has embarked on a new endeavor for this year involving a set of art cards containing "instructions" in 3 distinct categories.  We blind pick a card from each category deck and must use at least two of the cards to produce a piece.   The basics of my 3 cards were:

• Do a painting using only Cadmium Orange and a tube black
• Do a Blind Contour drawing of a photograph you like or a live subject (person, place or thing). Don't look down at the paper while you are drawing.  If you come up with something abstract. GOOD
• Use drafting tape as a design tool.  Start with a wet-into-wet underpainting (this layer will be your lightest light).  After this dries, apply random shapes to your paper using drafting tape.  Draw your subject and paint it. If you wish, add more tape as you go, or move the tape around to add layers.  

I couldn't see myself using only orange and black so chose to incorporate the other two cards and see where it went.  I ended up doing two works for this project.  Million Dollar Highway is from a drawing of the road from Durango to Ouray in Colorado from this past fall just as the leaves were beginning to change color.   Bonavista Visions is from photos and drawings I have of trips to the Cape Bonavista Lighthouse in Newfoundland.  

Million Dollar Highway
18 x 24 Mixed Media on Fabriano Watercolor Paper

Bonavista Visions
24 x 18 Mixed Media on Fabriano Watercolor Paper 

Artist Book finished!

I have been experimenting with drypoint etching on a little press I bought to play with a few months ago.  I have finished a limited edition of six hand printed books of Florida threatened and endangered wildlife.  The covers are also made with hand painted papers and hand stitched.  Four books are available at the Island Art Association Gallery. 

Hand painted paper covers 

Drypoint Etching Prints in the book. (cover page with text is not etching)

Sailing by Jaxport

Sailing by Jaxport
60 x 40 oil on canvas 

Another new small one

● Boat Ride on the Okeefenokee
12 x 16 Oil on canvas 

Small Ones

●Some Colorful Chicks
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas 

●Bird Song
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas 

A Nicho for the Right Whales

●Hope for the 7 Babies
Right Whale Nicho
Wood, paint, clay 

Artist Nichos

I am involved with a wonderful group of women artists who have taken on a series of projects designed to get us out of our comfort zones and to have some fun with our work.  The last project series was based on a card deck of different artists.  We drew a card then had to create a work based on something about the artist or their work styles or the quotes on the cards.  The deck is called Art Oracles and has a very eclectic assortment of artists.  The two last cards I drew were Joseph Beuys and Yves Klein.  For some reason both of those artists just lent themselves to having a nicho made in memory of their works.  Plus it was a lot of fun to get back into a 3d art format.

Nicho for Joseph Beuys
Felt, wood, clay, paper, and paint 

Nicho for Yves Klein
Wood, acrylic, paint tube, paint.

Jaxport

I have included images from the port in some of the mill and bridge paintings but have never really had a good reference photo for Jaxport.  The port references in those paintings are fleeting visual images from memories while driving past.  My neighbor Kenny however works at the port and gave me some photos to use so I could paint something for him and his wife Stacy.  The first painting is a kind of sketch to get familiar with the images and the second was done specifically for a place in their house.

●Loading Up
20 x 16 Oil on Canvas 

●A Confusion of Cranes for Kenny
22 x 22 Oil on Canvas

Spillway

●Spillway
36 x 36 Oil on Canvas 

Sunset at Jaxport

My only views of Jaxport have mostly involved the Dames Point bridge and basically just exist in my memory as they are from moving vehicles in traffic.  This is from a sketch I did after returning one evening in a fiery sunset.  

Sunset at Jaxport
20 x 20 Oil on Canvas 

New Small Works

When I am "warming up" for some larger ideas, I often paint a few small pieces from images I have been thinking of for a while.  The cannas are from photos I took in St. Augustine last year, that I found interesting juxtaposed in the papyrus bed.  The sea myrtle blooms here all along the greenway in the early spring creating a look like snow on the marsh edge each year.  I have taken lots of photos of that bloom over the years but this is the first time I put it down on canvas.

●Cannas in the Papyrus
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas 

• Sea Myrtle Blooms on the Greenway
8 x 8 Oil on Canvas 

Summer

Nasturtiums
16 x 12 Oil on Canvas 

Refraction

●Refraction (Mill 14)
40 X 30 Oil on Canvas 

Another View of Egan's Creek

While I am not necessarily one of our island's painters whose subject is the marsh, I have painted Egan's Creek several times now.  My favorite view is from walking on our main "river to beach" street.  This is from a morning walk where there was still a slight mist burning off the marsh making the colors and edges of the creek just a bit soft.

●Morning Mist on Egan's Creek
20 x 16 Oil on Canvas

I think it's done....

●Mill XIII
60 x 40 Oil on Canvas 

This one has been on the easel for months now and has taken many forms over that period but I think it is finally done.  The mill/ bridge/port series continues to be a slight obsession for me.

Bananas!

I planted a banana in the back garden last year because I liked the way the leaves look.  I was actually surprised when it flowered and put out a big bunch of little bananas.  We didn't get to try them because they came so late in the fall that the cold got them before we did, but I did enjoy the show while they were forming.

●Bananas
24 x 12 Oil on gallery wrap canvas 

Feeling Springy...

Some early flowers are up in the garden here and I had to paint one of my favorite spring flowers.  These iris don't actually grow down here in Florida but are from one of our trips to St. John Newfoundland where they were growing at the MUN botannical gardens.  I have painted them before in watercolor but ran across the photos recently and decided to do them again in oil.  I take a lot of reference photos, then put together a composition from my favorite bits so you may recognize some blooms from the previous work slotted into this new painting. 

• Iris
24 x 12 oil on canvas 

Dawn (Mill XII)

●Dawn (Mill XII)
24 x 14 oil on canvas on birch panel 

Sunflowers

Sunflowers 1
24 x 12 Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas

●Sunflowers 2
20 x 16 Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas 

More from the Garden

The palm trees here put on a wonderful display of color when they flower and fruit.  I have taken photos and studied them throughout the seasons and this is one of my favorite palms.  The fruit is also a favorite with the squirrels and other local wildlife here in the neighborhood.

 • Pindo
24 x 16 Oil on canvas on birch panel 

Rio Grande on the road from Taos

●Rio Grande River in Winter
8 x 8 oil on canvas 

White Sands

White Sands New Mexico
11 x 14 Oil on Canvas Panel