Slow Day

Yo Blog Buddies,

Well today is a slow day - Melissa is at the yoga studio and I'm waiting to go to the dentist!

:>(

While on the road for 9 months it was impossible to find a place that you could just walk in off the street and get your teeth cleaned - so it has been over a year since my last exam and cleaning!!!

I do not like going to the dentist - but it never seems as bad once you go and get it over with!

So now I will be back on my dental schedule of checkups every 6 months and cleanings every 4 months.

Soooooo after the dentist I'll pickup Melissa at the studio we'll go food shopping and then a relaxing afternoon.

Later dudes,

JR      :>) 

RED SKY AT NIGHT - SAILOR'S DELIGHT --------------

Yo my blog buddies,

Well Melissa is teaching yoga this morning so I'm going to throw some paint around!!!!

"RED SKY AT NIGHT - SAILOR'S DELIGHT

RED SKY AT MORNING - SAILORS TAKE WARNING"

24 X 18 ON Heavy linen paper - done quickly wet into wet - Alla Prima

First I slap in the sky using my big 2" brush and 3 colors of red

Next I slap in the horizon line using the ocean as the separation

Now I throw in the ocean using blues and greens and reds and orange

Next I lay in 3 palm tree trunks and when finished the one on the left will break the horizon this will give distance to the painting

The last step is to lay in the palm fronds with gusto and very quick strokes

My point-pray-shoot camera does not do a great job picking up some colors and red is one of them - so if the red sky looks a tad orange - TRUST ME - it is quite red!!!!

Hope you enjoyed this - have a great week.

JR       :>)

FUNKY CHRISTMAS CACTUS

Yo my friends,

Whenever my  brushes win out in a "MIND OVER MATTER" episode I immediately have to do a "LET THE PAINT HIT THE FAN" painting.  It is very important to have control over your brushes!!!!!!   :>)

I love Christmas cactus plants and when I look at them, it is like mumbo-jumbo to my eyes - flowers and leaves going every which way to make for a beautiful plant.

So i decided I would succeed in a "MIND OVER MATTER" painting episode!!!

This took 7 minutes to paint and borders on SLOPPY!!!!!!  :>)

12 x 9 on heavy linen paper

wet into wet with blinding speed!!!

"FUNKY CHRISTMAS CACTUS"

DETAIL

DETAIL

I EMERGED THE VICTOR OF MIND OVER MATTER!!

For some reason I'm not BORED with this still life  :>)

Later my friends

JR     :>)

EBONY & IVORY

Hello blog buddies,

Well, today, Tuesday 1/29/13 - kind of a lazy day for us - we went for a sunrise brisk walk - then our usual coffee and yogurt for breakfast followed by some yoga to try and help my hurting hips - my yoga guru Melissa my DW puts me through yoga stretching that she teaches as part of her classes and as I mentioned B4, it really helps!!!

She had to go to the yoga studio so I did a very quick still life painting - it needs some adjustment to the shape of the first vase but minor in nature.

9 x 12 on heavy linen paper

"EBONY & IVORY"

This was done very quickly ( which is why the first vase needs a shape adjustment!!!  :>)

As I say - this is once again done very quickly wet into wet with a tad more attention paid to things as compared to a loose landscape.  This I actually consider a "TIGHT PAINTING."

I try not to paint in this style but sometime the brush has a mind of its own.

I may go into this with a palette knife and "JUICE" it up a bit!!

I'm looking at it and DAMN I'M BORED!!!!

Some detail of the bigger vase - again the shape needs adjustment on the right side - easy fix - just too lazy to do it right now

I threw in a FG of mere reflections from the vases and the light source coming from the left

Detail of a portion of the bigger vase along with the ivory vase and the little ebony vase.  

A simple little still life that I basically did for something to do other than another landscape.

:>)

What these sort of meaningless quick paintings do is to teach me how to draw with my brush and how to very quickly apply paint.  My full intent when I started this was to make it loose and close to sloppy - however the hand won out and did it the way it wanted to!!!

Normally it is "mind over matter" but on occasion in my studio it is

HAND OVER MIND!!!!!!

Take care my fiends and enjoy your week.

JR    :>)

24x18 SUNRISE-SUNSET No. I

Yo my blog buddies,

Punta Gorda Florida where we are is on the Gulf of Mexico and has some fantastic sunsets & sunrises.  Viewing these beautiful happenings, led me to want to do a painting of my vision.  We are up early in the morning, so we see most all of the sunrises.  I'll let you decide if this is a sunrise or sunset in your eyes.

SUNRISE - SUNSET No. I

24 x 18 on Heavy Linen paper

First off, let me digress------------------------------------------------------------------

I most always say that my paintings are done using a big brush and palette knife.  Well a viewer asked what I considered a big brush.

This is my BIG BRUSH!!!!!

It is 2 inches wide and holds a lot of paint.  I use this brush for my skies, my oceans and on occasion I use the corners for foliage etc. Using this brush is almost like painting a house - you can slap on the paint in no time at all!!!!

OK - digression over!

Soooooo I start out by SLAPPING  in the sky

I then SLAP in the ocean from the horizon forward

I bring some of the orange reflection from the sky into the foreground - just lightly indicated

Detail of some of the ocean

Now using a smaller brush I throw in some palm trees using quick loose strokes

Detail of palm trees

I now sort of balance out the scene by throwing a larger palm tree that will break the horizon line and give more credibility to the separation of the sky from the ocean from the land

I throw in some foliage to separate the ocean from the land - using my big brush  

Detail of larger palm

This was fun to do and I feel I'm starting to get a good sense of the level of looseness I want in my work.

Take care my friends - enjoy life.

JR      :>)

GULF REFLECTIONS No. VI

Yo my blog buddies,

Well, it's a nice quiet Sunday morning!  We went for a nice brisk walk this morning and then came home and did a yoga workout.  My right side - especially my hip and shoulder are quite stiff and sore, so Melissa ran me through a hip stretching routine.  MAN!!!!!  Did it ever stretch me out and the hip especially feels much looser!!!!  Yoga works my friends - give it a try!!!!

When we go to Juan Ponce de Leon park quite often an older couple comes and get into a position I call

"EAST MEETS WEST"  

They setup their chairs the exact same way each time -they don't talk much & sit for an hour or so and then leave!

Why you would go to the ocean and face your chair away from the ocean I have not an answer!!!!

OK my friends we have the beginning of Gulf Reflections No. VI

I did not stop and take work in process photos because I'm busy and to be truthful I forgot!!!

GULF REFLECTIONS NO. VI

18 x 24 on heavy linen paper

BAM - with the scene set, I start putting in the palm trees

BAM -BAM - BAM

WE HAVE THE PALM TREES

SOME DETAIL FOR MY "ANAL BUDDIES"

The photos are a bit darker then the actual painting however the last photo above is pretty close to the actual colors.

I'm really enjoying these palm tree paintings so if you are getting tired of them please bear with me as I'm working on loosening up my style and besides it's my blog and I can whatever I want!!!!

:>)

I hope you enjoy this larger piece and I also hope you guys have a wonderful rest of the weekend.

Later my Buds

JR     :>)

Ahhhhh Punta Gordahhhhh

Yo my friends,

Just kinda sitting around being lazy this morning!  Melissa is writing and I'm just enjoying life here in Punta Gorda - after yogurt and coffee on the lanai.  Melissa is working a the yoga studio later this afternoon - they are having an open house with free yoga sessions (donations accepted) for a local charity.  I may paint a bit later but for now just relaxing and walked about and took some photos in our condo complex that speak to

AHHHHHHH PUNTA GORDAHHHHHH

The landscaping is so lush and well taken care of within our complex, it is a pleasure to just walk all around it.  They have a walking trail that goes all along the waters edge and benches along the way - so so nice.

Tomorrow our friends Nancy & Wayne are coming over for some pool time and then some of my "world famous" chili as well as Frito pie.

Life is good.

JR     :>) 

GULF REFLECTIONS No. V

Good morning blog buddies,

Yesterday ( Friday ) I did another palm tree painting - YA I KNOW ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!

WELL MY FRIENDS "PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT - OR AT LEAST CLOSE TO IT!!!!!"

"GULF REFLECTIONS"

12 X 9 ON HEAVY LINEN PAPER

This was done quickly but not quite as quickly as the previous ones.  LESS caution was thrown to the wind!!!

The reason being - the palm fronds were done with a fan brush using a "dry brush" method.  That is to say that the brush was hardly wet and needed to be wiped off frequently.  This provides very dry and individual paint marks as compared to a wet brush that has no breaks in the appearance of the paint on the surface.

As you can see, the palm fronds have more "DETAIL" to them as compared to the 4 previous paintings.

DETAIL

Looser painting style was used for the BG, the trunks and the FG.  This mix of loose & detail is intended to stimulate viewer visual interest. 

The dry brush method also gives the sense of movement to the fronds. 

I just got some larger heavy linen paper 18 x 24 so of course I'm biting at the bit to use it for----------

YOU GUESSED IT ----- A PALM PAINTING!!!!

Enjoy the day my friends and enjoy the weekend.

JR     :>) 

GULF REFLECTIONS No. IV

Yo my friends,

It warmed up so I decided to do 1 more quickie.  This is done on heavy linen paper 12 x 9 very, very quickly with big brush.  This one is even closer to sloppy and pretty much as close to sloppy as I will get - but yet one never knows what sloppiness lurks in the caverns within my mind!

GULF REFLECTIONS No. IV

12 X 9 - HEAVY LINEN PAPER

I gave the foreground more emphasis and detail this time - just to shake things up a tad.  I may go back into the painting and tweak the palm fronds a tad with darkness and lightness to make them sing a bit more and pop out a bit more.

You will I'm sure also notice that the brightness level is turned up a tad (not so dark in color as the others)  This also was intentional - just to mix things up a bit and give a sense of bright sunshine to the viewer.

DETAILS

HAVE A GREAT DAY MY FRIENDS!

JR      :>)

GULF REFLECTIONS No. III

Good morning blog buddies,

Well - Melissa is at the yoga studio so I decided to do another quick palm painting.  We have several palms outside our condo so this is one of them as seen through my eyes and my hand.

I forgot to take "in process" photos as I was totally engulfed in the process and of course was working very quickly wet into wet.  Plus it was a tad chilly this morning - 59 degrees!!!!  So this in and of itself forced me to work very, very quickly!  This is a smaller one then the prior two - those being 14 x 11 and this 10 x 8

Done of course with Chroma Interactive acrylics - big brush and palette knife in the style I love which is one step removed from sloppy.  Again the theory being "less is more" thereby allowing the viewer to become part of the process of completing portions less defined with detail.

I did define the BG with a bit more detail than the 2 prior ones - just to let this one be a bit different from the other two.

"GULF REFLECTIONS No. III"

10 x 8 on canvas panel

DETAIL FOR MY ANAL BUDDIES

Hope you enjoyed this presentation as much as I enjoyed the creation process.

JR        :>)

GULF REFLECTIONS No. II

Yo blog buddies,

Well I decided to do another real quick "Throw the paint around" painting of another palm tree.  This one contains more palette knife work than the first one and is perhaps a tad more towards the LOOSE side which is where I'm most comfortable.  Again I'm trying to get my style to be just on the good side of sloppy!!!!!  As always, this was done using Chroma Interactive acrylics with a big brush and palette knife.

GULF REFLECTIONS No. II

14 x 11 CANVAS PANEL

OK!!!!!!  Once again caution is thrown to the wind and with big brush and palette knife I toss in a back ground - when I say toss in, that is exactly what I mean - using random non-thought out strokes with the brush and palette knife - nothing is pre conceived and color is not pre determined - I just grab what ever color is close.  I use the palette knife to give indications of palm like fronds in the background and ground cover in the foreground.

With big brush and palette knife I throw in the trunk

OK - I'm working very, very quickly wet into wet so I don't have a lot of time to chew the fat and explain what I'm doing and how I'm doing it - besides which it's my secret and if I tell you how I do things you'll start painting and never return to my blog because you would become an artist using my methods and WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!!!!!!

SO -- QUICK IS QUICK 

BAM!!!!!!!!!!!

WE HAVE A PAINTING!!!!!

While i won't give away my secrets as to how I do things, I'll show youse guys some close up photos and if you can figure out my methodology then more power to you.

Hope you enjoyed this presentation and remember 

BRING AN OPENED MIND TO THE TABLE AND REALIZE THAT USING A CONCEPT OF "LESS IS MORE"  LOOSE PAINTING IS HERE TO STAY AND AS I SAY

IF YOU WANT A PERFECT PALM TREE WITH ALL THE CORRECT COLORS

GO BUY A CAMERA!!!!!

I plan on doing a series of these perhaps 6 of them or maybe 99 :>)  

Enjoy the day my friends and live HAPPY!

JR    :>)