My hope for this blog is that it will document my progression as an oil painter. While I have not studied art in a formal setting, I do study art on my own time. Each new painting is a study in color and technique, trial and error. Every second is a study in perspective.
Sarah and I try to get out to Graves Mountain every year for some apple picking/wine tasting; usually around the time of our wedding anniversary. The B&B is booked for the weekend of October 17th - our five year anniversary!
I took the reference photo for this painting from the Daily Paintworks website: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenges. Carol Marine, one of my favorite artists, runs the site and posts monthly painting challenges to site members. This was the German landscape challenge. I wanted to finish this painting quickly while ignoring details ad focusing on getting the values right, which is pretty much always my goal. I like how it turned out - interesting, and not muddy. Here's the reference photo:
I was anxious to use my new travel easel over the Memorial Day weekend at the river-house, but also anxious to fish, kayak, windsurf, catch crabs, ride bikes, and...relax. So, I designated two hours of my Sunday afternoon at the river for painting...Painting counts as relaxing so I killed two birds and downed a few Coronas in the process. Quite enjoyable I must say.
As for the painting...Conditions were tough, but such is outdoor painting. I mixed my paints beforehand because I wanted to get the scene down quickly before the light changed, but as soon as I had mixed my colors, the sun went behind the clouds. I tried to compensate, but may have overcompensated. Either way, I enjoyed it and I left the painting at the river-house for others to enjoy as well.
8" x 10" Oil on Canvas Panel
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Must have been in an interesting mood when I painted this one. It's a little dreary, but I like it. I've had this image in my head for a while now and it fell right into place. The scene reminds me of the rock quarry where my dad worked when I was a kid. There were hundreds of acres of land in addition to the rock quarry, most of which were undeveloped, or overgrown farmland with old barns and machinery like you see in the painting. None of the barns had electricity though - the light was added for interest.
Unfortunately, the camera was up to its old tricks so some of the colors in the image are not as subtle as they appear in person.
I had a hard time photographing this painting - it's looks much cooler in person. Either way, I really like this one. And, it's 100% original. I did a painting a few months back called, 'In the Valley,' which was a landscape that I created. 'Nighttime in the Valley' is the same landscape, just....at night. It's a simple landscape, but to me it is reminiscent of the landscapes that I grew up with in the Shenandoah Valley. Hope you like.
This is Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, VA, just east of Shenandoah National Park and about 40 miles NW of Charlottesville, VA. My wife and I went apple picking here last weekend on our one year wedding anniversary. I haven't done a lot of world traveling, but I've been all over the United States and the area just east of Shenandoah National Park at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains is as beautiful as any land I've seen. I recommend checking it out.
This painting took some work, but I think it turned out well. I tried to create a contrast between the dry, late summer look of the foreground and the cool blues and greens of the mountains. The middle of the painting and particularly the left, middle has the greatest contrast and sharpest lines so hopefully that's the main focus. Here is a closeup of the middle of the painting in case it's tough to make out the detail:
Searching for cell tower properties is dangerous business. Just look at this old girl - she's not resting, she's waiting...I'm just glad there was a fence (not pictured) between she and I, or I might have been her next victim.
Welcome to The Plains in Fauquier County, VA. Great place to photograph cows, terrible place to build cell towers. It's not likely that you'll find a landowner in Fauquier County who needs the revenue that a cell tower can provide. And even if you do, County zoning regulations will almost certainly guarantee that you're not able to build it. So, when I'm in Fauquier County on business, my eyes are open for good photo ops as much as they are for willing landlords. Wouldn't a cell tower be a great addition to this painting?
This is a farm scene from Bumpass, VA. The only reason anyone would go to Bumpass, VA is because of the town's proximity to Lake Anna, an increasingly popular vacation destination that is about 85 miles southwest of Washington, DC, 50 miles north of Richmond, VA and 50 miles west of Charlottesville, VA. In other words, the middle of nowhere. Lake Anna's popularity and growing permanent population has attracted the attention of wireless telecommunications providers looking to fill the coverage gap in this remote area. Hence the reason I found myself in Bumpass, VA about a week ago.
I've been on the lookout for barns to paint for months now and I almost drove past these two without taking a picture. As I mentioned, I was in Bumpass on telecommunications business and I was on the verge of being late to a meeting. I drove half a mile beyond the barns before I determined that I could not live with myself if I didn't snap a photo. So, I turned around, snapped some photos out of the car window and made it to my meeting with a minute to spare.
As you can see, I rearranged things a bit. I switched the rooftop colors and added a dominant mass of cedars behind the barn on the left. There were some cows on the farm, but I added the imaginary pasture in the top right and the dairy cows eating hay. "The Golden Road" refers to the path of hay that the cows are munching on. All of this I did to create two points of focus: The red barn on the left and the cows out to pasture in the top right. The posts in the foreground are in the original photo, but I angled them a little to point your eye in the right directions. Sneaky, huh?
There are still plenty of farms like this one near Lake Anna and much of the area around the lake remains undeveloped. Still, I have visited this area only a few times in my life and each time I visit, the fingerprints of the cities that triangulate the region seem to grow more distinct. I guess one could view my purpose in visiting the area this week as part of the problem, or, depending on your mindset, part of the future. I'm just afraid that our country is becoming one giant Wal-Mart Supercenter.
