Month: October 2015

No. 323 is a painting of the little house we stayed at during our St. Simons trip. The afternoon light created a distinct shadow across the front which was fun to paint due to the color of the house.

We rode our bikes around Jekyll and I was able to capture a nice shadow and light cutting across the marsh by the bridge to the island. This is a smaller study for a slightly larger (10″x 8″) version.

This was painted on St. Simons Island near the East Beach. I’m learning to embrace weird weather and almost prefer it to clear, blue skies now. We had a weird sky all morning and instead of waiting it out I decided to chase it.

We took a trip down to St. Simons for Fall Break and I was able to do a little panting while we were there. This was my first attempt and it really stinks. I tried to prepare, have a plan, and work through the process but this was as far as I got. Who knows, some days you just don’t have it. I’m going to try it again though because I know a good painting is there.

No. 319 is one more interpretation of the marsh view from Amelia Island. One huge thing I learned at the workshop with John MacDonald is that I do not have to blindly follow the photograph. It was amazing to watch him move things around on the fly to improve the composition or feel of a painting. So with this one I kept the paint very fluid at the start and moved it around until I was happy. I had toned the canvas with a warm color, and it gave the painting a sunrise vibe that felt great, so I followed it.

This painting is a throw-back to No. 53 from way back in 2010. It’s always fun to go back and revisit these because it’s like another person painted it. I still like 53 a lot but it’s amazing to see how different the approach is. The handling of the contrast, composition and color are all very different. Art is so subjective that you can’t say one is “better” but it’s interesting to see the painting mature.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a one-day workshop with Jim Richards that was organized by Art Station in Stone Mountain. They scheduled the event as a part of their Stone Mountain Plein Air Paint Out event.

The weather did not cooperate, and we ended up getting rained on all day, but in a strange way it worked out great. I’ve avoided painting in any kind of weather up to this point, and it was so great to watch Jim set up and handle it without being bothered at all. After experiencing the day, I can understand how you might even seek it out and how weather adds a new level of interest. The process was sort of a mess, but I learned a tremendous amount.

The only downside was that after the full day of painting I was so gassed that I could not drag back over there in the rain and participate in the actual paint-out event. Which was a bummer.

A note about the actual painting: As stated above, this was done as part of a workshop with James Richards. He directly helped me with the site selection, composition and even painted on this. So, yes, I painted it but anything that is working is a direct result of his input and work.

I love painting at the river. Last Sunday I found a spot near a bend in Bowman’s Island and started to set-up. A cloud was right over the sun and so the light was muted but I had a feeling it would pass. As soon as I had everything in place it moved off and the most beautiful light poured over the trees in the distance. It felt like God was saying “watch this.”

Here’s another one from Egans Creek on Amelia Island. This was a super complicated scene and I was doing by best to simply it into some basic shapes.

Programming Note: I’m no mathematician, but in order to hit 100 paintings this year I’ll need to post three times a week instead of two from here on out. So we’ll now be on a M,W, F schedule. Hopefully I can keep up…