Plein Air Sketches From This Evening

So, I took my Po' Boy Plein Air Pochade out for a spin this evening.

What is a Po' Boy Plein Air Pochade? It's a wooden cigar box, turned into a plein air painting tool/easel.
It's not ideal, but will suffice until I actually build myself what I need or purchase one.

The main thing is just to get out there and paint...a box/easel isn't what's going to make me a better painter.


I did these as the sun was setting at Fischer Park here in Owensboro.

These aren't intended to be finished paintings. They are exercise...for artist's.

When I got here and started setting up I realized I had went off and left my palette I made to fit in the box. So I improvised with the back of an 8"x10" panel I had in my backpack.

I spent about 20 minutes on each one. They are 7"x5" canvas panels.

I also only used three primary's: Cad. Yellow, Cad. Red, and Cobalt Blue...and Titanium/Zinc white.

My view

After twenty minutes.

Sun's almost down. Gotta work fast.

What I ended up with.

Popo Agie Wilderness

I thought I'd show another progression series.

This is on 30"x14" stretched canvas.

The Popo Agie (Po Po Zha) Wilderness is located in the southern end of the Wind River mountain range in Wyoming.

Here, we are looking kinda south/southwest up the drainage of the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River. I'm not exactly sure, but I believe the peak on the far left is Wind River Peak. At 13,192 ft. it's the highest peak at the southern end of the Winds. Gannett Peak at the northern end (not visible here) is the highest peak in Wyoming, 13,804 ft. 34 ft. taller than the Grand Teton.

OK, enough about the topography of Wyoming.

I started with a quick vine charcoal sketch. Then an underpainting of burnt umber.
You can see I have the image I shot pulled up on the computer monitor. I worked directly from that.

Here is the sky that I put in.
I'm using a limited palette of Titanium White, Cad. Yellow Pale Hue, Cad. Red Lt. Hue, and Cobalt Blue Hue. My Blue Ridge Oil Colors had not arrived yet. These were Grumbacher Academy colors

Next up was the distant mountain tops.

Then the far side of the canyon and the green blob mass of trees in the foreground.

And finally, where it is as of now. I may need to adjust a few things yet.

North Shore Dreams

Here's an oil I just did this week.

16"x12" stretched canvas

My wife and I were married on Oahu in Dec. 2007. I shot this photo of her walking down the beach near our rental home on the north shore. It was our first morning there and she was the first person to make footprints in the sand that day. I've looked at this and always wanted to paint it, but just kept putting it off.

 Now, I think I have a fairly decent handle on the oils, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I actually used a couple different photos to get what I wanted.

That's my little brother, who technically made the first tracks in the sand.

That far off land mass is the west end of the island, Kaena Point.

About time to update this thing

Wow, does time get away from you! I haven't had a whole bunch of artistic output this past week, but I have been doing a lot of other things to hopefully make me a better artist. Started attending a weekly figure drawing class at a local college, for one. Also, continuing to sketch as often as possible.

So, here's what I've actually painted of late.

No particular order.

I was in the studio reading and my son was on the computer messing around. So I decided to do a quick figure study in oil of him. I knew he wouldn't be going anywhere.

It's on an 8"x10" canvas panel. I did a quick charcoal sketch to locate everything then went right in with paint. Spent about 1 hour on it, then came back the next day and cleaned up some edges and strengthened some area.

There is an online forum I frequent called Wet Canvas and there are monthly painting challenges put up by other artists. There was a nice sunrise image that was posted, so I took a shot at it.

It's on 10"x8" canvas panel. Fairly happy with how it turned out.

The last image here is from yesterday in my sketchbook. I took the kids down to a local park on the riverfront and while they played, I did this sketch.

Even though it was fairly sunny, it was still pretty cold and a northwest wind coming across the river. So, I really made this one short. Probably 1/2 hour, maybe less because of being interrupted by an onlooker that wouldn't leave me alone. But, he needed to talk. So I stopped and listened. One of the many hats I wear, apparently.

Today's Plein Air Sketches

What a nice dreary day to go out and paint. Seriously, I love weather like this. But, it does make me have to paint from the seat in my truck.

First stop was English Park and this view overlooking the bend in the river. Did a quick pencil sketch, then got out my paints and went for my brushes....where were my brushes? Dang, I had to go back and get my brushes. So, after I got back. I spent about a half hour completing this sketch.

Above is my phone picture of it from my truck.

Above is a camera photo with better lighting in my studio.


So, after that one; I drove down to the boat ramp and got a view upriver to the bridge and the new hotel and convention center construction

Above is a picture from my camera at the scene.

Above is a photo from my studio

 It tried to do another sketch there. It had stopped raining, so I got out and walked over to do a sketch of the stairs leading up to the overlook and shelter house. But, it soon began raining again. Decided I needed a new subject, so I headed downtown to the Creme Coffeehouse. Took my backpack with me, ordered up and found a table with a view and set to painting. I was a little shaky for some reason. I've painted around people before...maybe it was the coffee? It's interesting doing these sketches...I love it.

Above is my photo photo while sitting at the coffee shop.

Above is the studio photo.

Plein Air at Joe Ford Nature Center

So, what do you do when you don't have Yellowstone or Yosemite down the road? I headed out today and did a couple of plein air sketches at Joe Ford Nature Center here in Owensboro. It's not too for from my house, so it makes a good place to go real quick.

Today was decent weather, but very windy. I wasn't prepared for that. Made the pages of my sketchbook keep flappin' around or closing up as I was painting...frustrating, but I dealt with it. It also provided a texture to the painting by blowing dirt and leaf particles into the wet areas. Which take longer to dry in this cool air, even with the wind.

I hiked a trail that circles the park and came to this little pond, called Willow Pond. Decided to try and find a composition here. Turns out to be a more complicated subject that I thought, once I started painting. I struggle at trying to find what I want to describe in the painting, especially a quick sketch. I kind of got lost in the reflections. It was protected from the wind, so the water was nearly flat and had perfect reflections, but it was also shallow and I could make out the stuff under the water too. My eyes were constantly focusing back and forth...was I seeing the sky and tree reflections...or the darks underwater.? So, I stopped on it and moved on.

Here is the effort in my sketchbook and the point of view of the painting.

After I packed up and moved on I hiked around a bit more and found this big white ash tree, with the sun giving it a nice shadow. So I set up real quick and got to work. Decided to do the vertical panorama to try and get as much of the tree in as possible. I was sitting on the edge of the walking trail and it must have been lunchtime, as there were several people walk by. Nobody bothered me. Odd, I usually get a curiosity seeker. :)

Here is the sketch and a shot of it at the scene. I couldn't get everything into that shot, unfortunately, with my phone camera.

Had A Successful Night At The Art Show

Last night was the opening of the Owensboro Art Guild 51st Annual Art Show, hosted by the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.

I had two works that were judged for entry into the show and they were accepted.

There are 43 artist's and 59 pieces in the show.

While I did not win an award from the competition aspect, both of my works were chosen for purchase awards by a local couple. There were 5 purchase awards for the whole show. I got two. So, I'm pretty happy with that.

Below are the two paintings that now have a new home.

 "At The Rendezvous"
10"x7" watercolor
private collection

"Water Street Under The Bridge"
10"x7" watercolor
private collection