Awaiting The Grasp Of Winter

Yo my friends,

Another "Painterly Style" that is getting me closer to my goal of developing my own painterly style with the study of others who paint in a similar style.

"Awaiting The Grasp Of Winter
18 x 24

Until next time - enjoy life my friends

JR      :>)

Clearing Sky At The Ridge Line

Another "Painterly Style" that is getting me closer to my goal of developing my own painterly style with the study of others who paint in a similar style.

"Clearing Sky At The Ridge Line"
18 x 24

 

I'm enjoying this journey of developing a style that I really enjoy working in and at the same time learning a lot from others.

JR   :>)

"Painterly Style"

As mentioned in my last post, I would post one of my "Painterly Style" pieces at a point that I felt I had completed one that is coming reasonably close to the "painterly style" that I am looking for.
Everyone has their definition of a painterly style - this is the one that I am basing my studies on:

Painterliness is a concept based on the German term malerisch (painterly), a word popularized by Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945) in order to help focus, enrich and standardize the terms being used by art historians of his time to characterize works of art. It is the opposite of linear, plastic or formal linear design.^[1]

An oil painting is painterly when there are visible brushstrokes, the result of applying paint in a less than completely controlled manner, generally without closely following carefully drawn lines. Works characterized as either painterly or linear can be produced with any painting media, oils, acrylics, watercolors, gouache, etc.

Expressionistic style and Painterly style are very close to being the same - I like to add what I call staccato brush strokes ( a series of very quick dabs of paint placed in what I see to be strategic places. )  At times it can add sort of a patchwork quilt look to the land but I feel it augments the painterly style. 

I've painted outside the lines most of my life, never being one for structure!

Spring Is Coming

18 x 24

First I do a free hand sketch with a brush just to get an idea (road map) for where I hope to take the scene.

Nothing set in concrete and nothing that can't be changed as the painting progresses.

The finished painting

This is the 4th piece I've done as well as hours of studying painters who work in the painterly style and I think I am progressing to a point that I will be able to develop MY painterly style.  Still a ways to go but I'm enjoying the journey.

JR   :>)

Cross over the bridge - or not?

Sometimes we do something for a long time and throughout that time we occasionally consider not doing that "something" for a while or in some cases never again.  I've been painting for close to 20 years now and over that period of time I've come to enjoy painting and actually am addicted to it as I cannot imagine not painting.  I at one time owned my own gallery in East Boothbay Maine along with my wife Melissa and we had a very successful run for close to 7 years - me selling my paintings and she selling her photographs.  Over time my work has won prizes and I've been fortunate to sell many of my pieces.  I've participated in many, many exhibits and we have done the outdoor weekend shows.  I have pretty much sold my art in all the traditional ways.
Along this path I have thought of stopping for a while and also of stopping forever.  I once stopped painting for over 6 months and when I started up again I made the switch from watercolor to acrylics - I even tried oils and could not adjust to the foul smells and the horrible cleanup process.  I decided that acrylics would be my choice of paints and after a 6 month stoppage I started painting once again.  This was almost 10 years ago.
Well, I guess things run in cycles as I now am fighting with the thoughts of stopping once again.  I don't really try to sell my pieces anymore with any real drive - if someone sees one and wants to buy it great - but I no longer exhibit - I no longer do art shows so at best I guess it is now a hobby.  On average I do 5 - 7 paintings a week and sad to say I have boxes of them, the economy being as it is.  Every 6 months or so I go through these boxes and throw away close to half of them to make room for more.  Sounds kind of stupid doesn't it!!!  Painting has indeed become an obsession with me and overall that probably is not a good thing.
So once again I come to a bridge ------ cross over and continue or stay put and stop.
My choice is to cross over and stop painting as I now am.  What I am going to try and do is complete at most 2 paintings a week over 2 or 3 painting sessions and at the same time develop a new style which will be a mix of the many styles I've done over the past twenty years.  I am not a detail painter and never will be - I don't like it!  My love is for a loose, semi abstract painterly style where "Less is More."   To begin with these will be larger paintings - either 24 x 18 or 18 x 24.
So,  I will not be posting to my blog on a weekly basis but will suspend the blog postings until the time comes that I want to return to the activity of posting my paintings.  This return may happen quickly as I have said I can't imagine not painting or it may never happen - only time will tell.  While I develop this new style I may post a progress painting now and then - we'll see how it goes and in what direction the spirit moves me.
Thank you for following me and my blog for all these years and things happen for a reason and if I'm meant to return to visible activity it will happen.

---- as I say "I can't imagine not painting!"

Most likely I will keep posting some paintings to my ETSY STORE so feel free to check in there once in a while and as my "new style" develops I will put these up onto my blog and ETSY.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ACRYLICPAINT

JR     :>)

Hello my friends

We drove out to Gasparilla Island which is about 1 hour north of where we live - although a cloudy day the scenery was nice and we found a real nice place to have a great lunch

A couple of the shore line scenes follow:

Gasparilla Island No. I

9 x 18

Gasparilla Island No. II 

9 x 18

Loose Semi-abstract Palm Trees

10 x 8 - painterly style

Captiva Island No. I

9 x 12

Ile d' Orleans - Quebec

Down to the Ste. Lawrence

9 x 18

Don't forget to check out my ETSY STORE - I'm having a 25% discount on all paintings - 

CHECK IT OUT.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ACRYLICPAINT

I hope you enjoyed these paintings and I wish you all a very nice weekend and I should return in a week or so.