Plein Air Work On Our Florida Trip

About time I updated this thing.

These are paintings I did while we were in Florida at the end of May. I would hop on my bicycle with my backpack and set off to paint. The first day I painted oils in Oscar Scherer State Park. Then I went on another day to Historic Spanish Point and did watercolor.

This first one is an oil from Oscar Scherer State Park. 8"x10" oil on canvas panel.

Here is the view that I painted.

This one I painted along the creek that flows through the park. I must admit, it was tougher than I thought and the bugs were relentless. It's 9"x12" oil on canvas panel.

Here is a shot of the view.

Now were heading to Spanish Point. This is a view of the sharpie sailboat, Lizzie G, on it's mooring, nestled next to the mangroves. Roughly 7"x10" watercolor on Arches 140lb. cold press paper

Here's the view.

Next, I painted the church. I thought the trees were pretty dramatic...whether I captured that or not?
Roughly 7"x10" watercolor on Arches 140lb. cold press paper.

The view.

This next one I painted on Nokomis Beach as a storm was approaching. It stayed away from us, but was close enough to spit just a few drops and pick up the wind. I painted this in about 15-20 minutes, then went to watch the sunset.
Roughly 7"x10" watercolor and ink pen on Arches 140lb. cold press paper.

The view.

This last one I did of this amazing live oak that arches out over the creek behind the place we stay in Nokomis. The sun was setting behind the tree and made it a tough subject...and I was rushing to get to dinner. Ha! Roughly 7"x10" watercolor on Arches 140lb. cold press paper.

The view.

Well, until next time. Thanks for viewing my work.

Todd

Recent Watercolor Sketches

Here are a few watercolor sketches from my sketchbook. All of these were done quickly. The first one took the longest, because with all the humidity in the air it didn't want to dry. So, it makes it difficult to control.

The first one I did standing on the porch of my in-law's cabin as it was raining.

This next one I did today as I rode my bicycle around parts of the Greenbelt Path around Owensboro.
I always like stopping by this bridge and today was a good day to paint it.

The last one was from today also. Came upon a nice little scene of some horses gathered along a fence. They were about 50-75 yards away...but they noticed me. Wasn't long and they lost interest.

Plein Air Painting Group at Reid's Orchard Today

There is a small group of local artist's that try to gather weekly to paint plein air at various locations around the area. This morning we met at the Lowing home at Reid's Orchard on the east side of Owensboro, KY.

Ample subject matter for painting is everywhere around the grounds there. I strolled shortly and came upon this building and the maple tree with it's interesting twisting and curving limbs. It relegated me to have to set up in the direct sunshine. But, I made do and had to occasionally move my easel a little to keep the painting surface shaded from the sun. Spent about two hours on this one.  Toward noon I quit, as the light had changed quit a bit and I had lost the shadows I had initially started with.

We all met back up on Katie's nice, cool back porch, had a light lunch, and then put our work up for a group critique. Everyone did some really nice work....I must note, I was a newbie to the group. Most everyone else had been meeting together for years....I received some good points and made the changes when I got home.

We will meet again next Tuesday. Location hasn't been chosen yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

 The spot I painted.

The completed painting. 9"x12" oil on canvas panel

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.