Paintings of the past week 6//20/13 - 6/27/13 - or so

Yo my friends,

Following are some of the paintings I've done during the past week.  I normally paint everyday and some days I do 2 paintings - some would say I'm obsessive - and perhaps they would be correct.  However that said - and I just said it - I love to paint and most of my time spent painting is when my DW is off teaching yoga or she is working on the sequel to her children's novel.  It is sort of a "way of life" around our home.  Also it keeps me out of trouble!!!!  :>)

Land Escape No. VI is part of a series of paintings I've done that consist of peaceful and restful places that give the feeling of tranquility - places that I have been or places in my minds eye that I could go to for solitude or for a walk or just sit observe and enjoy my surroundings.

Every once in a while I get the urge to do a semi abstract piece.  There appears to be a sailing school in Port Charlotte Harbor whereby the sailing of "day sailboats" takes place.  Our home is within walking distance of a good visual of the harbor thus I did this painting;

Awaiting a Day Sailor

18 x 4

$90

Rocks & Sea - Acadia NP - Maine

9 x 12

$85

(closeup view)

Land Escape No.  IV

British Columbia Canada - Canola Fields

4 x 18 

$99

Land Escapes are paintings of "real places" or places in my minds eye that present a place of solitude - a place to hike - or walk or just sit and enjoy the surroundings.  The following is a scene from my "minds eye."

Inner Forest Light

12 x 9 

$110

I've started a new series which is done in what I call the QUEBECOIS PAINTERLY STYLE

Qué·be·cois or Que·be·cois  (kb-kwä)

adj.

Of or relating to Quebec and especially to its French-speaking inhabitants or their culture.

n. pl. Québecois or Quebecois

A native or inhabitant of Quebec, especially a French-speaking one.

This style of painting is widely found in Old Quebec City and surrounding towns and villages it is one that I have been studying for many years and one that I plan on getting to a point that I excel in - at least in my eyes.

The very nature of it - loose and certainly far from perfect form is a style that I feel most comfortable with.

This is the most current in the series that I am working on

Quebecois No. IV

4 x 18 

$120

(Note: some paintings will be outside the " size price scale" at the beginning of my blog - this is due to the amount of work involved in certain finished piece(s)

Quebecois No. V

4  x 18

$120

When painting my Quebecois series paintings I play a CD titled

French Cafe'

The words are all in French - the music is great - very bouncy and happy music and I feel it has a positive influence in my work.

I hope you enjoyed this posting and as always if you have any questions or are interested in purchasing a painting - just email me at the link provided at the beginning of my blog.

JR     :>)

PAINTINGS OF THE PAST WEEK - OR SO

Hello Blog Buddies,

Most of these paintings were done during the past week - more of less - some of my Facebook friends may have seen some of these.  As I mentioned a week or so ago, I've stopped putting demos up on my blog for a while at least as without any response or questions I'm not sure they have a value and based on the time consuming process - I'm taking a break!!  :>) 

TEST OF TIME - PRAIRIE FENCES

8 x 24 

$135

CLEARING AT THE END OF THE TRAIL

9 X 12 

$125

LAND ESCAPE No. V

4 X 18

$90

LAND ESCAPE No. VI

CANOLA FIELD

BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA

4 X 18

$100

OUTER BANKS - NORTH CAROLINA

8 X 18

$120

QUEBECOIS STYLE No. III

BAIE ST. PAUL  HILLSIDE

9 X 12

$110

I hope you enjoy these paintings and if you have any questions or are interested in buying a painting please contact me at my email address listed at the top of the blog. 

JR  :>)

Hi Blog Buddies,

For a while I'm going to change up the content of my blog.  Until now, I've been posting demo - after demo - after demo which is a very time consuming process as I have to stop many - many times during the painting process to capture pictures of the progress of the painting.  The purpose of the demo is to pass along to the viewers the manner and processes I use to develop my paintings.  There of course is nothing magical about the processes I use - most of which are self taught or an expansion of my studies of various painting processes of other artists.  The actual presentation of the demo in and of itself is also quite time consuming.

I always encourage questions from viewers and I provide my email address so I can be contacted with inquiries.  I have to say that this rarely happens so I can only assume if there are people following my blog for the purpose of my demos - they have no questions which to me may mean that I've done a good job with the presentation of my processes. -  or at least I hope I have.  Therefore, for a while at least I'm just going to show you the completed paintings that I do during the week or so between postings.  The last thing I want is for my demos to become Deja Vu all over again :>)

Again If you have a question of how I do something - click on my email address and ask - I'm more then happy to share.

 Quebecois Style No. I  ( in the style of Quebec Canada painters )

     16 x 20 - $170 

Quebecois Style No. II

9 x 12 - $90

British Columbia - Fields of Canola & Lavender

8 x 24 - $135

The Landscape of Truro - Cape Cod

9 x 24 - $145

Trouble In The Plains

4 x 18 - $110

I hope you enjoy these paintings and again if you have any questions or would like to inquiry about purchasing a painting just click on my email at the beginning of the blog and I will respond to you. 

Have a great week.

JR      :>)

CATCH THE BREEZE AND WINTER CHILL

Hello my friends,

This is another painting based on the lyrics of Stormy Stormy Night written by Don McLean after he studied the life and paintings of Vincent van Gogh.

"Catch the breeze and winter chills"
9 x 12 on heavy linen paper - painted wet into wet - alla prima with gusto - emotion and spontaneity both in color and form.

I start out with just the horizon line drawn in

With lots of juicy paint loaded onto a 2 inch sky flow brush I put in the sky using Titanium white, Cobalt blue and Payne's grey 

I keep working the sky with the 2 inch brush using both circular and not so circular full arm motions - this is winter so I want the sky to be somewhat active

I also carry down the sky colors onto the ground with the addition of a bit more white paint

I put in the horizon line using a very dark Prussian blue to give the indication of a distant body of water

I add the indication of some trees in the distance as well as some ground clutter sticking up above the snow

The remainder of the painting will be the addition of more ground clutter as well as shadowing on the snow.  All of this work as well as the work in the above photo is done using the "dry brush" technique with upward strokes as well as "dabs & jabs."

We have a finished painting!!!!

DETAIL

Hope you enjoyed this demo and were able to get some helpful hints regarding my techniques for various processes.

I will return in about a week with another demo.

JR    :>)

Land Escape No. I

I'm starting a new series which I call LAND ESCAPES.

These are areas of land that I can envision myself going for a long walk - silent meditation - places to perhaps lay down and watch the sky - places that are colorful in my mind's eye as well peaceful in their very being.  For the most part they will be forests or fields - such as "where the buffalo use to roam."  The forests will be places like the Sangre d' Christo mountains in Santa Fe NM where we lived for 5 years at the base of these mountains which provided many - many hours of peaceful hiking and plein air painting along with solitude.

This is "LAND ESCAPE No. I

9 x 24 on heavy linen paper - Chroma Interactive acrylics - quickly done with gusto - emotion - spontaneity and a 2 inch brush for the sky and a smaller brush was used for the rest of the painting which is all "dry brush" technique.

I put in the sky with loads of paint on a 2 inch brush

I very quickly put in hills and a land mass using the same 2 inch brush as used for the sky.  This will go very quickly- with lots of emotion and spontaneity of color and form in an abstract style.  

This painting is generated wet into wet very, very quickly with sweeping full arm strokes in order to give sort of an "open plains" feeling- like "Where the buffalo use to roam."

BAM - WE HAVE A PAINTING

DETAIL

 

Hope you enjoyed this quick demo there will be more pieces in this series.

JR      :>)

Flamming flowers that brightly blaze - demo

Good day blog buddies,

Recently I've done a series of 6 paintings based on the lyrics written by Don McLean in his award winning song Starry Starry Nights. The lyrics were based on the paintings and the life of Vincent van Gogh which McLean studied.

My paintings are based on those lyrics.

"Flaming flowers that brightly blaze"

9 x 12 on heavy linen paper - done with gusto - emotion - and spontaneity of stroke and form.

Using a 2 inch brush I put in the sky applying lots of paint

Next I start putting in the visual representation of the ocean in the BG at the horizon line 

I now start putting in foliage at the horizon using a "dry brush" technique which produces a very realistic appearing distant evergreens.  I also am using "dry brush" to start putting in the distant grasses

I continue to build on the grasses adding shadow areas as well as brightness 

Dry brush work takes a long time but it allows the artist to have great control over the appearance 

of the area being developed.  It is a series of upward strokes as well as jabs and stabs of staccato type motions.  So I just continue putting in the the grasses both in shadow and light.

The lyrics "Flaming flowers that brightly blaze" refer to the sunflower paintings that Van Gogh is well know for.  Van Gogh painting mostly landscapes but the few still life pieces he did are those of   

Sunflowers

I need to go back into the painting a do some tweaking in the shadows and the light areas as well as develop some brightness to the colors in the field of sunflowers.

We now have a finished painting.

DETAIL

I hope you enjoyed this  - as I can say that it is one of the most enjoyable painting sessions I've had in a while - for some reason this one was special.

Creating a painting from the lyrics written by someone who studied the life of a  Master artist as well as the paintings of that Master ( who lived a very troubled life - ending in  the artist's suicide ) was a new venture for me and one that proved very creatively rewarding for me

JR    :>)

Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain"

Hello blog buddies,


In doing research for a painting, I discovered that Don McLean songwriter extraordinaire- read some books on the life of Vincent Van Gogh and then wrote many songs with Van Gogh's life and paintings in mind. One very famous one was released in 1971 on his famous album AMERICAN PIE. "Starry-Starry Night."

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.
Now I understand what you tried to say to me


This morning I did a painting which represents to me the above words:

"Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain"

6 x 24

6 x 24 piece of heavy linen paper with the horizon line drawn in

The first thing I do is apply a generous amount of white paint to the sky area using a 2 inch brush

I've darkened the photo so you can see the application of the white paint

Next using the 2 inch brush again, I throw in some blue for the sky - letting the undercoat of white dilute the blue as I move down to the horizon line

We now have a sky with some fair weather clouds

The next series of photos will be showing how I build up the layers of "grain" starting from the horizon line forward

The important part of this of course is to vary the height and color as I move forward into the FG.  The process I use for building the "grain" is that of "dry brush" - no moisture on the brush what so ever and I use quick upward strokes 

I now start to build in a darkness to the grasses that are in the foreground - this will give contrast to the lighter grasses in the BG as well as "push" these lighter grasses back further to the eye of the viewer

We now have a finished painting

I hope you enjoyed this DEMO as much as I enjoyed painting this.  I am very moved by the song writing of Don McLean and believe I have tried to bring the emotion of his words into my painting.

JR   :>)