Misty Light 24x36

A recent studio piece. Moody evening light painting in oils 24x36 inches.

Plein air by day, studio by work by night. In the evening I can take my time with my favorite microbrew ale or a glass of Merlot.

Click on image for a larger view.

Plein air for Thursday

Now I have the main color shapes of the barn and the truck so I am ready take this one home to finish. I have a pretty good base study to work from now.

Next I have added the sky and ground areas. From here, I add the mid tone shadow areas on the roof and the truck.

My block in start is about getting the tree shapes and barn down for my composition.

Also starting to indicate the darkest shadow areas.

Here is today's scene. I am going to work on a 12x12 square board for this one.

Found a great old barn with an old truck in the front so this was today's stop.

Please click on the images for a larger view.

Plein Air May 27 Wednesday

The final quick field study. From here I can finish this piece in the studio.

In the next step, I am adding in the base colors for the shapes in the composition.

This is my rough block in. Only about 10 to 15 minutes into this study. I am using basic lines for the house to divide the shapes and large areas of color for the trees. This gives me a fast layout of the composition which I can refine and add more color to in the next step.
This is today's farm scene. I just love this setup; there are many paintings I could pull from this one scene. I am thinking today will focus on the house with the nice shadows.

 
Today is a 12x12 square format oil painting. I am starting to work on some country farm house paintings for something different. The square format is nice for these paintings, I think it helps give the piece a nice contemporary feel. I am also trying to paint this series with a little more high key color.

This scene had some great shadows happening so I thought a quick study would be fun to work on. These shadows wouldn't hold for long so I had to move quickly and I only wanted a quick rough base painting anyways. I will do the finish in the studio.

As always, you can click on the photos for a larger view.

Plein Air May 15 Friday

Out and about again, a 9x12 on a beautiful afternoon.

New Large Oil painting

Some people have been wondering what my larger works look like so I am posting a new one I finished a couple days ago. This painting is titled "Coastal Evening" and is 30x48 inches. The piece is done in oils on canvas and you can click on the image for a larger view.

Country scene

And here he is, a really beautiful woodpecker.

A beautiful country scene I came across the other day. I didn't have time for painting but thought this could make for a nice studio piece. While I was sitting here taking in the view I noticed something flying down to that tree stump on the left at the base of the trees. I quietly moved over to that tree stump, it was about as tall as I am and there was a small hole in the side where a bird was working on a nest. So I just stood still for about three minutes hoping it would come out and I would get a decent shot. I was about to give up when he popped out. Check him out on the next photo and you can click on these photos for a better view.

Plein Air From Thursday May 7

This is the location for today's painting.

And here is the plein air painting from today's trip.

A small 9x12 plein air piece, Hillside. A nice afternoon so I headed out for a quick plein air trip.

Plein Air Demo From May 1st Friday part 2

STEP6 Studio Finish:A couple days later I was able to work on this piece in the studio. Working from a photo I took of the scene I added the smaller details to finish the piece. I often use a flat screen computer monitor to view my photos. This shows the light and color much better than a print out would. In my field study I knew I was going to adjust the road and foreground grass colors later; so I just laid in a rough base of those areas. Here's the finished piece, Country Road 9x12 oils on board.

Step 5 Field Study Finish: So here we are with my finished field study for the Country Road piece. I have completed this in about 30-40 minutes by just trying to get the large basic shapes and colors down. I will have plenty of time to work on the details once I get back to the studio.

STEP5 Adding Basic Colors: Now I am adding the basic colors and adjusting the lights and darks to the trees and foreground. I have also painted the sky to get a sense of the atmosphere in the piece.

Plein Air demo Part Two. You can click on the images to see a large view.

Plein Air Demo From May 1st Friday

STEP3 Block In: Now I have added the base colors into the piece. At this point we can really see where the painting is going. I will show the last steps in my next post, part 2.

STEP2 Composition Block In: In step two, I have filled in the composition with a single base color. In this case it was Burnt Sienna. Now I have a good base for laying the lights and darks. At this point I am only a few minutes into the piece.

STEP 1 Composition: The first thing I wanted to get down on the board was the basic feel of the composition. Here I have used just a few lines to show my road map for this painting. With just these quick steps taking a couple minutes, I can already get a feel for the the piece. 

This is the first part of the demo steps for the Country Road painting. Once again I have worked quickly to create a basic field study block in which I can later bring back into the studio for the finishing work. This is part one. You can click on the photos for a larger view.

Plein Air From May 1st Friday

This is the finished painting from my Friday post, Road View 9x12 oils on board. The composition block in was created outside and the painting was finished in the studio.

I will show the demos steps for this piece in my next posting.

The reason I paint fast up here in Oregon

Plein air Oregon style. Gnarly weather coming in fast.

A little guy.

From today's trip. I was up near a local winery in the hills. On that road is a large Llama farm, or is that a Llama ranch. Anyways, the new little guys were out and about watching me paint. I managed to get a quick base painting roughed in as our new storm approached. Had to work fast today and finished just as the first drops started hitting.

Plein air May 1 Friday

This is the view I painted for today's plein air study. I liked the strong composition of the horizontal road against the large vertical trees.

A photo of today's plein location. Very nice light today, I combined three photos for a wide view of this location. You can see a larger version by clicking on the photo. As beautiful as this view was, I actually painted the road looking left towards those evergreens. I will try and post another demo of this painting soon.

I am also working on finishing some of these plein air studies and will be posting the paintings when they are finished.