12" x 12" oil on board
This is the flip side to my previous post - the other side of the miller's house at Colvin Run Mill, painted the afternoon of the same day. I polled a number of folks regarding which one I should enter in the Paint Great Falls plein air competition, and this painting won out, almost 2:1, so I went with it. Still, I'm doubting myself because I kind of prefer the other painting and, alas, it did not win a ribbon.
8" x 8" oil on board
This is one I'd like to revisit or turn into a more finished painting. I was just trying to get some practice in before the Paint Great Falls outdoor painting competition. I worked on this for under an hour, which may be obvious. Sometimes, though, I like the ones that take under an hour just as much or more than the paintings that take multiple hours.
8" x 8" oil on Board
Fairfield Porter has a painting called, six o' clock (linked). I haven't researched the meaning of the name, but I'm guessing it was chosen because the viewer can look at the painting and, based on light and shadows and other details, guess the exact time it was painted and maybe a lot more about what was going on in and around the scene. I don't mean to put myself in the same sentence as Fairfield Porter, but it is my goal to pass along a sense of time and place. Can you tell that it was one of the first warm evenings of spring, or that my kids were squirting themselves with the hose behind me? Or maybe that my wife was sitting in a chair to my left, having a drink? My dog was wandering around? I could hear lawnmowers and cardinals and bumblebees buzzing in the redbud behind me. I was stressed out because I had just finished doing the taxes and we had to pay a hell of a lot, while our 401K's and index funds were bleeding out money. But I didn't think about that for a while. Did you get all that?
12" x 12" oil on board
I had a day and night by myself at the cabin in McDowell, VA before my friends met me the next morning. It was glorious - I spent the day hiking around and painting. This is the second painting I completed. I'm still working on the other one but it should be up soon.
I painted the first draft of this as the sun was setting behind me to the left, and I had to quit before it got too dark. It was also the first really cold weather of the year and even though I was painting next to the fire and warming myself with bourbon, it was still damn cold.
The bourbon also tricked me into thinking the painting was finished, which led me to post it, prematurely, on Instagram. I took it down a couple of days later after I realized it needed some touching up. I've also had Jon Redmond's voice in my head, telling me to "finish" my paintings and make them more interesting, so I spent quite a bit of time on this at home. Of course, I forgot to take a reference photo, so I had to build on the colors that were there and do a lot of things by feel. I even pulled up the location on Google Earth to see if the shadows were created by ridges or clouds - I thought they were ridges, and they were. Here's the fire I painted beside and I posted the original just because. Painting by the fire with a cup of Knob Creek might be the ultimate freedom.
6" x 6" oil on board
I have three paintings currently in progress. Despite completing this painting in one sitting on the sun porch yesterday, I'm trying to spend a little more time "finishing" my paintings: adding some washes or glazes, thinking of more interesting ways to say things, etc., which was the advice I received from Jon Redmond. It's a bit of a quandary for me, though, because pleinair is my favorite way to paint. And when I paint outdoors, I feel like it's a snapshot or memento of a particular place and time and to go home and mess with that takes away some of the freshness of the moment and somehow detracts from the freedom I felt in the moment, although I'm sure no one cares about that. Not to mention the fact that the more I fiddle with paintings, the worse I usually make them. So, I'm trying to find a balance, and I'm still getting the hang of some new techniques. One new technique or tool that I feel has added another dimension to my paintings is using a scraper tool or paint squeegee. That's what I used to create the highest value parts of this painting - I just scraped away the paint down to the toned board and voila, sled tracks/footprints. I also used it to create the little highlights at the top of the painting. Almost all of my recent paintings have felt like a step forward, and I have more ideas than I have time for, so that's a good thing.
Back to the junction of the Bullpasture and Cowpasture Rivers for this one. Just upstream from the location of my last Junction painting in Highland County, VA. I had to wade across the river to get to a rock ledge where I stood to do the painting. The rocks are SUPER slippery so it took all my skill to make it across without dumping myself and all of my painting supplies in the river. Sarah and the kids were downstream floating around and hunting for crayfish - my dog Rainey was laying in the shade beside me.
Super tough to capture sufficient detail without over doing it, especially when your kids are calling for you to help them catch crayfish. Regardless, this was one of the best days in recent memory. The more time I spend painting beside a river or sitting neck deep with a beer in my hand while my kids look for creatures, the better. Hey look - there I am!
11" x 14" oil on Belgian Linen
The first evening I spent at the cabin, I looked up the hollow as the sun was lowering toward the ridge and thought, "why paint anything else?" I love this painting. It might be the favorite of all that I've ever done. But it still doesn't come close to capturing the pristine beauty and color of Seldom Seen Hollow.
What I love about my favorite painters and what I've tried to work toward, is the ability to say so much with so little detail. It appears simple, even though I know it's far from it. I think I'm closer with this one than I've ever been.
8" x 10" oil on board
This is the seventh of seven Highland County paintings - I'm saving my favorite for last. I painted this quickly because the sun was going down, and I like the looseness. This is the view looking southeast so I got to stand in the shade on the side of the house as the sun was setting diagonally behind me. I had been standing in the sun all day, so the shade felt as good as jumping in the river had earlier in the day. When the sun sets at the cabin, the cows seem to take up a conversation, each mooing its own distinct moo. Sometimes the conversation dies, only to be revived a minute later by a braying that sounds more like a donkey than a cow. Once started, they all have to get a word in.
8" x 10" oil on Belgian Linen
I had scoped out this spot on my first day in Highland County - I wanted to paint it because I loved the shadows on the dirt road and the way the Cowpasture River (yep, that's the Cowpasture - see previous post) reflected the sky above. To get to the spot you cross a swinging bridge and head upstream from the junction of the Bullpasture and Cowpasture. The Cowpasture River looks more like a hog wallow here than a river.
I know no one wants to hear me complain about standing by a river, painting, but this painting was torture to make. I was nervous because, while painting my first painting of The Junction, I had seen some sort of fertilizer or manure spreader with wheels taller than I am, pass through the very spot I would be painting. While I hadn't seen any no trespassing signs, I worried that if the farmer saw me standing on his land, he might not like it. Whether he minded me painting there or not, he would have to pass back through on his way home. Hopefully, he would finish and head back before I finished my first painting. He didn't, and I decided to risk it.
While painting this painting, I could hear the spreader doing its thing, so it was looming in the back of my mind that I might have to face an angry farmer or at least have to move my easel mid-painting to get out of his way. This sounds bad, but I also didn't want to have to take a break to talk to the farmer because it only takes a few minutes for the light to change completely. Now, I was hoping I would finish the painting before he finished the spreading
While the impending interaction with the farmer was unnerving, that was not the torturous part. If you've ever seen a cow covered in biting black flies, that's what I'm guessing I looked like. There were no cows around, only my dog Rainey, who drew in even more flies, so they all came to me. At least cows have tails to swat with- I had a brush in one hand and paint on the other, so swatting was not an option.
Then, as I was contemplating giving up out of pure misery, here came the manure spreader. An alien rover with tinted windows - I had no idea who or what was going to hop out of that thing. Rainey was cowering and refused to move and the thing didn't seem to be slowing down. I had to jerk Rainey by the collar with one hand while holding my tripod and easel in the other and trying to keep all of my brushes from sliding off the tray. I got Rainey into the bushes beside the road, however, I had to search for my brushes.
Finally, the thing stopped. What hopped out was a sixteen-ish year old boy who was nice as could be. He apologized profusely for making me move and said he wouldn't have to come back through again that day. So that was a lot of worry about nothing. Regardless, I was done with this painting. Despite the mental and physical torture, it turned out ok.
8" x 8" oil on board
The merging of the Mississippi and Ohio it is not. The Cowpasture River is little more than a trickle before it meets with the Bullpasture River. Sometimes it dries up completely in summer, but the Bullpasture always seems to run strong and cold. It's odd to me that after they meet, they take the Cowpasture's name.
This was a tough paint. The values of water follow different rules from the values of solid objects or land. I don't have a ton of experience painting water, so it was tough to judge those relationships and I'm not sure I got it exactly right. The Cowpasture sure felt great after two hours of standing in the sun, while getting devoured by black flies.
9" x 12" oil on board
Sold
The VRBO cabin that I rent for my annual painting retreat, near the town of McDowell in Highland County, VA, faces south. To get to the cabin from the vantage point of this painting, you walk up and over the rise in front of you. The cabin sits on a large terrace, halfway down a massive hill at the entrance to the hollow. The view south from the cabin's front porch is miles and miles of the same - hills, hollows and mountains. There's a reason why Highland County is known as Virginia's little Switzerland.
8" x 10" oil on board
The storm clouds spilling over the ridge looked incredible so of course I had to paint them. Storm clouds change quickly, however, and by the time I got my easel in position, the clouds over the peak were not the clouds that had drawn me in. I actually had to copy these clouds from a different part of the sky and superimpose them on top of the ridge. And what follows storm clouds? That's right - so if it looks a little rushed, that's because it was. Luckily, it was a quick shot of rain, unlike last year's retreat, which was a three day downpour. And the evening following the storm was one of the more crisp and spectacular evenings I have experienced.
Country Crab Apple
8" x 8" oil on boardThe first of SEVEN paintings that I completed in three days during my annual painting retreat to Highland County, VA.
I told myself this was going to be kind of a warmup. I asked for and received a new travel easel that if you've read this blog before, you've heard me talk about getting for years. So this was a test run, but I started to like what I was seeing, so I finished it out.
The new easel and tripod worked great and they definitely had a positive impact on the paintings I completed during this trip. Setup with my old easel was ten minutes of fury with parts breaking and balancing things so my panels didn't fall out on the ground. Now, I snap the pochade box onto the tripod and I'm ready to paint. There's no way I could have completed seven paintings in three days with my previous setup. So thanks!
8" x 10" oil on wood panel
SOLD
This is the first of my Trout Pond Recreation Area paintings from my day off on Monday, May 13th. Before I painted, I hid my easel behind a tree (not that I really needed to) and hiked a few miles into the mountains with my dog, Rainey. The whole area is spectacular - Trout Pond is a limestone sinkhole, the only natural lake in WV, and there are tons of cliffs and rock features to explore. I also love seeing native plants that are supposed to grow wild in Fairfax County, where I live, but are choked out by unending construction and invasive plants. I have native geranium maculatum that I bought and planted in my garden at home, but I had never seen it in the wild until my hike around Trout Pond.
This was a highly enjoyable painting to paint, which is not always the case. Afterward, I stretched out on a bed of pine needles on the hillside to the right of this image and I felt like the silence was massaging my brain. The sound of a breeze through the pines is more beautiful than anything I'll ever paint. Here's another action shot:
8" x 10" oil on panel
This is part of Chimney Rock, located in Rock Cliff Lake, one of two lakes/ponds in the Trout Pond Recreation Area in Wardensville, WV. The other body of water is Trout Pond, which is the only natural lake in West Virginia, formed out of a limestone sink hole. During a family hiking trip to the recreation area in December, I noted several potential sites and couldn't wait to come back for some painting.
I'm out of practice, though, and had a tough time keeping up with the changing light and simplifying the infinite details, so it might have gotten a little muddy. The camera also had a tough time getting the highlights right, so I think it looks better in person. Here's an action shot:
6" x 6" oil on board
November light fades
Above, crow flecked clouds scurry
On winter's approach
Even More Blue Chairs
I painted the first version of this painting in the backyard with my daughter, Camlin. I didn't like it so I scraped it off with a palette knife. But then I liked the way it looked after I had scraped it. Did I like it enough to post it? That, I also tossed around in my head. Ultimately, I decided that it's part of the progression, so here it is. Plus, my aunt Enice, who may be the only person who reads this blog, said she liked it :) Thanks, Enice! This is also the first painting I've done of the chairs since we had to cut down the ninety year old Japanese Maple that used to sit directly behind them - I put the chairs in their current spot to hide the massive stump. The tree was killed by an infestation of ambrosia beetles that target trees that are already in a weakened state. The arborist who examined the tree said he thought it was weakened by the cicada outbreak in 2021 and then the beetles moved in, bored into the bark, and turned it to sawdust. Heartbreaking. I didn't achieve the colorful, happy tone that I set out to achieve on this perfect summer day in the backyard with my daughter. Maybe the ghost of this beautiful tree had something to do that that.
8" x 8" oil on board
This is one of the barn's at Vance's Country Guest House in McDowell, VA, where we've spent the week after the 4th of July for the past five years. It's called Yoda's barn because there's a grey cat named Yoda that lives in the barn that my kids are obsessed with. It's a wonder the cat comes around given how much my kids like to pick it up and mess with it. However, putting food out in the barn is one of the many chores the kids are responsible for while staying at the farm, so I guess that's why. I'm not a huge fan of cats - they make my nostrils close up - so of course it rubs itself all over me and jumps on my lap anytime I'm sitting in the yard. Even so, I wish I was sitting in that yard right now. You can see Yoda creeping toward me in the photo below.
8" x 8" oil on board
Sure, I said painting a scene a second time lets you see things you didn't see the first time, color mixtures are realized, values, etc. But...the rain...the old man in his blue chevy truck with the camper top, who could have parked on the other side of the road instead of directly in your line of sight...excuses. It was really enjoyable, actually. And there are things I like more about this painting than the last. But painting ripples in a river is hard and clearly I need more practice at it.
Low Water Bridge - State Route 612
8" x 8" oil on board
These next three posts may not do well to prove my point about the benefits of painting a scene multiple times...this might be the best of three and it was the first. But, I blame that on the increasingly heavy rain that once again held off until the very moment I broke out the easel. I guess you would call this river crossing a low-water bridge, although you actually have to drive through the river to get from one side to the other. But there is concrete underneath, so I guess that counts as a bridge? Route 612 cuts across Summers Mountain and connects Bullpasture River Road to Cowpasture Road; a "shortcut" if you're heading back to route 250, headed toward Staunton, VA. It's long and winding and there's really no reason to take the road unless you have property up there or you're adventure riding like we did back when my brother first got his driver's license. One time we popped a tire when we were halfway over the mountain and we didn't have a tire iron to change the tire. We waited a looooong time before finally walking miles back to Cowpasture Road and waiting some more for someone to come by. In addition to the rain making things difficult, a guy pulled up and parked DIRECTLY in front of me on the other side of the river. He had to have seen me...So I had to crop him out of the painting. Imagine his blue chevy truck with a camper top in the middle right, in front of that tuft of grass. Excuses.
Updated photo with frame:
