BACK AGAIN!!!1

Yo my friends,

Well - I'm back so that means I did not hit the lottery!!!!  :>(

I've been busy painting and have gone back to my palette knife for several pieces.  I love palette knife work - it is so liberating as I try to use full arm strokes with the knife and lots of thick juicy paint on the knife.  The one draw back to palette knife painting is the consumption of paint!!!!  I would estimate that a painting with a palette knife uses upwards to 3 times the amount of paint as one would use with brushes.  This becomes very costly as professional grade paint is quite expensive!!!  However - that said - and I just said it - the finished product is exceptional in appearance compared to most brushed paintings - that of course is my opinion.

For 20+ years we lived on the mid coast of Maine.   We never ventured up into Acadia NP - we thought it was too far to drive ----- DUH!!!
During 2012 we lived full time in our 31 foot RV and traveled the USA and Canada for almost a year.  Setting out from Santa Fe NM we went across to TX - SC - up the east coast and into Acadia NP and then on into Canada.
Acadia NP was as it turned out to be one of the top highlights of our year long journey through 23 states and 3 Canadian provinces.

"Acadia Overlook "- semi abstract rendering with palette knife - painted with freedom of knife strokes, spontaneity and lots of emotion representing  the beauty found in Acadia NP


12 x 22 on Heavy Linen Paper - palette knife application:

DUNES IN THE SHADE - FORT PICKENS FLORIDA

9 X 12 ON SINGLE CANVAS SHEET - PALETTE KNIFE AND BRUSH 

The sand on the beaches of Fort Pickens ( Pensacola Fl) is as white as the new fallen snow.  It is a very light sand and has lots of sparkle to it - just like snow.  When the - breezes blow - daily - this pure white sand is blown across the access roads and they actually have to plow the sand with snow plows - load it into trucks and redeposit it back onto the beaches.

A most remarkable site!!!

During our 12 months of living in our RV and touring the USA and Canada - we stayed at Fort Pickens for 2 weeks - a most exciting and memorable stay - you feel like you are at the end of the earth with just beach and sea all around you.

I've been told by other painters not to paint the sand white as a white ground is reserved for SNOW!!!!!  To this I say NAY - NAY- NAY.  The sand on the beaches in Fort Pickens is as white as the new fallen snow and so shall it be in my paintings of Fort Pickens beaches - as without white sand it would  not  be Fort Pickens beaches.

South Carolina was another lovely place that we stopped in for a week - the city of Charleston is very beautiful and the people are charming and quite friendly - the beaches are wonderful.

CRESCENT BEACH

Palette knife

9 x 12 on canvas sheet

Abstract Coastal Grasses - Palette Knife

6 x 18

Palette knife painting is a lot of fun and as I say it can be very liberating giving the artist an opportunity to be a little "wild & crazy" - it is a style within itself with the textures and "marbleized" colors that can be produced are to my eyes MUSIC!!!

I did more jibber-jabber this posting so I shall now shut up and  

I hope you folks enjoyed the palette knife paintings.  

Remember, if you have any question about my painting processes of question about the paintings just click on my email address at the beginning of the blog and I will get an answer to y'all real quick like.

No doubt I'll be back in about a week unless I find something better to do or max out my credit cards and head for La Paz Mexico

Later amigos

JR    :>)

DUNES IN SHADE - FORT PICKENS FLORIDA

Yo my friends,

This is a extra posting for this week - but I painted this after breakfast this morning and decided I wanted to post it - after all this is my blog - having said that - which I just said - I can post whenever I want --RIGHT!!!!  :>)

DUNES IN THE SHADE - FORT PICKENS BEACH FLORIDA

9 X 12 ON SINGLE CANVAS SHEET - PALETTE KNIFE AND BRUSH 

The sand on the beaches of Fort Pickens ( Pensacola Fl) is as white as the new fallen snow.  It is a very light sand and has lots of sparkle to it - just like snow.  When the - breezes blow - daily - this pure white sand is blown across the access roads and they actually have to plow the sand with snow plows - load it into trucks and redeposit it back onto the beaches.

A most remarkable site!!!

During our 12 months of living in our RV and touring the USA and Canada - we stayed at Fort Pickens for 2 weeks - a most exciting and memorable stay - you feel like you are at the end of the earth with just beach and sea all around you.

I've been told (by other artists ) not to paint the sand white as a white ground is reserved for SNOW!!!!!  To this I say NAY - NAY- NAY.  The sand on the beaches of Fort Pickens is as white as the new fallen snow and so shall it be in my paintings of Fort Pickens beaches - as without white sand it would not be Fort Picken beaches.

Hope you enjoyed this additional post this week - my DW Melissa and I just love Fort Pickens beaches - such a beautiful site - if you have never been there --------

GO NOW!!!

JR    :>)

YO My Friends

Well Blog Buddies another week has passed!!!!  Time seems to fly by so fast - Monday rolls around and before I know it the weekend is upon us.  I'm a creature of habit which can be a good thing and it can also lead to boredom - as in you always know what is coming next!  :>)

In the past I was really bad at this and had to try hard to kick the "creature of habit" thang!!!  I always went food shopping on the same day of the week - did the laundry on the same day of the week and cleaned the house on the same day of the week - HOLY CRAP - BORING-BORING-BORING!!!

I've finally gotten myself to the point that food shopping gets done only when needed - laundry also only gets done when needed.  Cleaning the house is every Friday night only because my wife teaches a yoga class from 5 - 7 so I can get the cleaning done with minimum disruptions to our daily life.

Travelling/living in our RV full time for close to a year got me to the point that I was able to kick these anal habits as the RV of course had a small refrigerator so food shopping got done when there was room in the frig for more food and the laundry had to be done at a laundry-mat and that we put off until really - really necessary as those places are a PITA!!

Sooooo I of course did some more paintings over the past week and enough of my jibber - jabber it's time to present those paintings that I best like for my efforts.  As you know - perhaps - I've been into what my DW calls "SOFT LANDSCAPES" and I call "LAND ESCAPES" - I've seemed to be fixated on prairies and plains and marsh like land - I'm sure its most likely a "passing thang" but if not hang in there - I'll move onto something else sooner of later.  :>)

CANOLA FIELD - ILE D' ORLEANS QUEBEC

9 X 12

This is done in a Quebecois painterly style

THE POPPY FIELDS

6 X 18

PRAIRIE BAD LANDS 

S. DAKOTA NATIONAL PARK

6 X 18

ABANDONED - ILE D' ORLEANS

QUEBEC - QUEBECOIS PAINTERLY STYLE

9 X 12

MINI LANDSCAPES

DONE IN A QUEBECOIS SEMI ABSTRACT STYLE WITH PALETTE KNIFE

4X6

PALETTE KNIFE 

QUEBECOIS SEMI ABSTRACT STYLE

SUMMER SKY

11 X 14

Well my friends that's it for this week.  Blogs are a funny thing - I've play around with my blog for several years, changing the format from a viewer comment format to and non-comment format. The reason being viewers just don't seem to comment on blogs - they just like to look.  I always wrote a lot of jibber-jabber and thought perhaps viewers became bored with my ramblings - I went from posting daily to posting weekly - I went from posting many paintings to just posting one painting.   I got a complaint ( woo-hoo a comment ) that folks wanted to see more paintings - so now I post weekly - several paintings and not so much jibber-jabber.  Although this whole paragraph is clearly jibber-jabber.  

The only advice I can give is ---- if you think I post too many paintings then

Don't look at all of them :>)

Have a great weekend and up coming week and as you go through this period of time try to say hello to a passing stranger on the sidewalk or in the supermarket - also throw a smile at people you pass by - your day will improve as will theirs.

Back again about the same time next week - unless I hit the lottery or find a better way to spend my time.

JR    :>)

Hello my friends

YO!!!

Well ----- time for another blog post - once again I've been painting up a storm so I will display those pieces done this week that I'm liking and consider these to be ones that are for sale if not keepers for our home.

Over the past few weeks I have seemed to lose my desire to do a lot of jibber-jabber which is most likely enjoyed by the majority of the viewers as I sometimes do way too much jibber - jabber so a rest from that I guess is a good thing.

These paintings fall into what my DW (Darling Wife) calls "Soft Paintings"  I also refer to them as "Land Escapes" - some of them are actual places and others are drawn from my mind as places that I would like to be in - just to relax and enjoy the quiet - peaceful beauty.

Cerro Pedernal - Georgia O'Keefe Country

AKA Flint Rock

6 x 18 on heavy linen paper

This area of New Mexico is very beautiful as is most of NM.  If you've ever been there - you can understand why Georgia was attracted to the landscape

"Abandoned "

Ile d' Orleans - Quebec

6 x 18 on heavy linen paper

Access to the Everglades

6 x 18 on heavy linen paper

Seaside Pastures

6 x 18 on heavy linen paper

The Poppy Field

6 x 18 on heavy linen paper

Prairie Reflections

6 x 18 on heavy linen paper

Hope you enjoyed this presentation - remember if you have any questions regarding a specific painting as it relates to the price or the process and techniques used - just click on my email address at the beginning of the  blog and I will send you a reply.

Have a great week end and if the spirit moves me ----- I'll be back next week about the same time with more paintings and perhaps some jibber - jabber.  Being a senior citizen I have a lot of opinions - most of which nobody agrees with - but - I sometimes like to express them if only to piss people off - especially those who have yet to make it to the

"GOLDEN YEARS" - more commonly known as 

"THE RUSTY YEARS"

JR   :>)

Hello Again!!!

Yo my friends,

Well again this week I've been painting up a storm so I will show you what I consider to be the highlights of my week.  Not a lot of jibber jabber this week either ----------

Lecho de un Rio Seco

( Dry Riverbed)

6 x 18 on heavy linen paper 

My mind went back to Arizona for a while this week.  Done with mostly a dry brush technique and of course spontaneity of color

Darla's Ocean Point

9 x 12 

Canvas sheet

A friend of ours posted a picture of the surf on the rocks at Ocean Point Maine so I asked it I could use it for a painting.  Mostly dry brush technique.

Bass Harbor Light (semi abstract)

14 x 11 on heavy linen paper

Bass Harbor Maine

Secret Path To The Sea

9 x 12 

Canvas sheet - dry brush technique

Florida Inland

East of the West Coast

Well -- from Arizona to Maine to Florida this week - hope you enjoyed your journey and remember - if you have any questions about my techniques or about a painting just email me.  My email link is at the beginning of the blog.

Thanks - enjoy your weekend and I should be back in a week or so.

JR     :>)