December 2011 - 100 Paintings by Adam

Trees at Pooles Mill

December 31, 2011

Finally done – another 100 in the books. It seemed like I had to go back to the trees one more time and as it worked out they are closing out the year. I think I learned more from painting those stupid trees than anything else this year and am glad I got to do a big one of them. At 18″ x 24″ this is one of the largest things I painted all year and it was a completely different process.

This was a fun year and I think I made more progress in 2011 vs. 2010 even though the work may not have been as finished or as varied. I’m starting to learn how to paint and that was what this was all supposed to be about.

Barn XI

December 30, 2011

Here’s the next to last one for the year. I had bigger plans for 199 & 200 but ran out of time and had to fall back to a barn I had started back in November. I had the base down and painted the rest of it today. Actually it was kind of fun to circle back around to this guy after so many of the paintings from the beach.

Two Pomegranates II

December 29, 2011

Here is the last (I think and hope) of the pomegranates. It felt like I had too much white in the shadow areas of 196 so I toned that down and gave it move Alizarin and Cobalt Blue in those deep areas. It helps too that this canvas is a little larger.

Two Pomegranates I

December 28, 2011

Same basic set-up but now with two pomegranates. Hard to believe after being SO far behind I am this close to being done for 2011.

Pomegranate III

December 28, 2011

This is the last of this first group and I think I like it best. I used a base of Burnt Umber and it was at about 50% opacity so the base was relatively dark. I just like being able to let the raw/toned canvas show through instead of using a color to lighten it.

Pomegranate II

December 27, 2011

Second of the pomegranates and it’s pretty similar to 194. This one uses less white and has a nicer red but the other one felt more round.

Pomegranate I

December 26, 2011

Here’s the first of the pomegranates. I decided to do three that are the exact same to see how close (or how not close) they look when I am painting the same subject at essentially the same time. I was also experimenting with different base colors. The one started on a light yellow ochre.

Three Bosc Pears II

December 24, 2011

Here is a larger version of the same scene in No 192. It felt really good to work on a stretched canvas again and have a little more room to work with on these guys. This is the last of the pears too – finally time to move onto the pomegranates next.

Three Bosc Pears

December 23, 2011

No. 192 has three of the Bosc pears. I wanted to get into a little bit of a groove before attempting three in a single painting. I think this will be the last of the 6 x 8’s for the year. The rest of the ones I have planned are on nicer (gallery wrap) or different sizes canvas. If my count is right I’ve done 55 of the 6″ x 8″ ones in a row so it’s nice to see the final one of these for the year.

Bosc Pear II

December 22, 2011

For this one I wanted to really work on the tones (vs. 190) and give it a lot more warmth. After looking at the two together No. 190 looks a little peakid. It’s still not 100% accurate color wise but I think it skews in a better direction here.

Bosc Pear I

December 21, 2011

I had intended to start with some pomegranates but while I was at the store I saw these Bosc pears and wanted to give them a shot. I painted tons of pears last year but they’ve been out of the mix for 2011. So it was fun to revisit my friends. This one is alright but the color is off. After I finished it and looked at the real thing it’s more tan/red and less green.

Eschaton

December 21, 2011

Here’s the finished version of Eschaton that will be seen on the bottle and packaging. You can click on the image to see a detail view. I think they’ll be printing it next month and so it will probably be in stores by January/February. Thanks to Chris Rank for the shot of the painting and making it look so nice.

I think I am going to paint some Pomegranates next. They were fun to paint last year and I have four or five of these nice square canvases that they would look great on. Hopefully.

Eschaton (Study)

December 20, 2011

Now that we’re through all the beach paintings I wanted to share a couple of the latest ones for Wild Heaven Craft Beers. Their third, and newest, beer is called Eschaton and so for the artwork I needed to go all “end times” and find something that worked with the name. I decided to base this one on the engraving of the Four Horsemen by Albrecht Dürer. These little studies for the beers are always sort of a mess but this one was REALLY a mess and caused me to slow down and really consider how the larger one needed to come together.

30a Pines IV

December 18, 2011

Last one of the beach/Seaside paintings here. I think I did 21 in total which is hard to believe. We were only really there for five days so that was a lot of source material. The pace and the consistent subject were wearing me down here and it’s pretty weak. Still a good exercise to try and do one that is more loose.

30a Pines III

December 17, 2011

This is exactly the same image as No. 168 when I was first starting this series. I think I am getting really tired of paining these scenes so some of this is running out of gas. It’s still interesting to see the differences. It felt like a mess when I was painting it but if you squat that is what it looked like.

100 Paintings by Adam

Month: December 2011