9" x 12" oil on board
Strickler Knob is a great but difficult hike that involves a lot of rock-hopping - not great for little kids or dogs, but the views are spectacular. The gap in the mountains is Route 211 near Luray, VA.
Would my paintings be better if I didn't do them on Friday night after a grueling week of teaching and little sleep? Maybe...
6" x 6" oil on board
I like this painting and it was fun to paint. I painted over an old painting, which is always satisfying, especially when it's a terrible painting as was the case here - a muddy old painting of sardines in a bowl.
It's tough not to fall into the trap of painting "things." Things, meaning trees, mountains, individual leaves, etc. When you're painting "things" a painting is much more likely to become muddy and dead.
What I like about this painting is that instead of painting "things" I suggested them with shapes, color temperature, and values. I'm always afraid that my judgement is completely wrong but to me, this reads mountains and trees with light on snow just as much or more than a photo-realistic painting does. The longer I paint and the more I study painting, the more I prefer paintings that are abstract and a little mysterious - paintings that force the viewer to make his or her own conclusions.
11" x 14" oil on board
These flowers were a Valentine's gift for my wife, Sarah, but I'll admit that I had this painting in mind when I bought them. I bought a nice bottle of wine and made a lobster dinner, too, so it wasn't totally selfish. I may still make some changes to this because the background colors distract a bit from the flowers.
One more thing: It seems I did not know how to spell bouquet before this post. In addition to making a dumb grammatical mistake on Instagram when I posted this involving duel vs. dual, I just realized that I spelled bouquet incorrectly.
12" x 12" oil on board
I like the way this turned out, considering how it started. This is another one from the Seldom Seen property that I visit out in Highland County, VA. To get to the hidden hollow, you have to hike up and over a small mountain. I did this with all my painting gear on my back - no big deal...this was during Virginia's first real cold snap back in early January and deep in the mountains with no urban radiational heating, it was cold! My poor dog Rainey, faithful as she is, sat by my side the entire time. I could tell she was getting cold and on top of that, she had munched down on some cow pies and wasn't feeling her best. I was getting cold too, so I reached a point where I thought I could head back to the cabin and touch it up there (although I forgot to take a reference photo). But, once I had everything packed up, I realized the painting wouldn't fit in my panel carrier. That meant I had to carry the painting back down the small mountain in my hands without dropping it, which I did...Until I got to the cabin door and a gust of wind blew it out of my hands and onto Rainey's back. Rainey was covered in paint and my painting was scratched up and covered with dog hair. I picked out the hair, but it took a few weeks to get around to fixing it up. I tried to build on the colors that were there and since I didn't have a reference photo, it was mostly by feel. I did leave a small patch of scratchiness in the lower left just because.
8" x 8" oil on board
The plan was to practice and explore with this one, but I wound up liking it, so here it is. One idea that I'm trying to keep in mind moving forward is that shadows are not opaque. When I look at some of my older paintings, the shadows are black, opaque (ugly), curtains and in real life, that's not the case - shadows are transparent. So I'm trying to build shadows through layers of transparent paint, allowing the lower layers and even the toned board to peek through. If I did anything right with this one, it's that. I particularly like the shadow in the lower right, which is my house.
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.
8" x 10" oil on board
I attended a two day workshop over the weekend with a painter named Jon Redmond. (click name for link to his work) Jon is a famous painter, not in the Basquiat, Gerhard Richter sense that most people think of when they picture a famous artist - Jon is famous among painters. Painters who have dedicated their lives to seeing the beauty of simple, everyday scenes that many haven't learned to see.
I got to observe Jon's process and learned some things about how to use paint that I think will push my paintings to a new place. This painting was my first attempt with those techniques and even though it's a nice looking painting, it was NOT a good use of what Jon tried to teach. I need to practice a lot more. I felt so lame doing this, but I asked him to look at some of my paintings. He had some good things to say but also some things that were hard to take. I appreciate the hard to take feedback most of all, and I think it will push me even more than the techniques and the knowledge of paint. I really want to be good at this, and I respect the fact that people dedicate their lives to painting and never come close to Jon's level. I'm so lucky to have received that feedback, and I hope to be able go back and prove myself one of these days.
9" x 12" oil on board
SOLD
I cut these from my yard right before the first hard frost, which wasn't until MID NOVEMBER! I tried to do them in only two colors, cadmium orange and phthalo blue, but I wound up have to add a yellow to get a touch more variation.
9" x 12" oil on board
I had scraped this one and was ready to wipe it, but I decided to daub in some of the values with my fingers. I liked the effect, so I kept going. You can see evidence of the scraping over the left shoulder of the watering can - evidence of the daubing in the circular shadow marks and highlights - those are from my fingertips.
Scraping caused the background to be really greyed down and loose which made the color of the watering can pop. Mental note to remember that for future paintings. I also used a modified Anders Zorn Palette with only four colors" alzirian crimson, Venetian red, yellow ochre, and ivory black, plus white.
12" x 16" oil on board
What better activity than painting when you're home with a sick daughter? She was too sick to paint with me but hey, I was close by and I heated her up some lentil soup to eat on the couch while I painted. Don't judge.
I bought the pitchers for the sole purpose of painting them and both were purchased during anniversary mini vacations with my wife. The yellow one is a French ball pitcher, purchased from an antique shop in Matthews, VA. The blue pitcher is from an antique mall in Charlestown, WV - I wish I knew the style and provenance, but I forgot.
8" x 10" oil on board
SOLD
I almost called this one, "Soccer Practice," because it's based off a photo that I took during my son's soccer practice. In the photo, there are kids playing soccer and parents, sitting in chairs staring at phones, which is what parents do during soccer practice. I didn't think that would make a great painting, so I left them out.
I used three colors; viridian green, cadmium orange and manganese violet plus white. Working out the values and warm vs. cool was tough - it would probably be better if I gave it another try but as usual, it's all about time.
8" x 10" oil on board
My wife, Sarah, and I just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. This painting is based on a photo from our 5th wedding anniversary down in Nelson County, VA. I think I snapped the photo as we were leaving the bed and breakfast on our way home from a weekend of hiking and wine drinking. We're celebrating our 15th at the Inn On Tabbs Creek, on the East River in Mathews, Va., near the Chesapeake Bay. We're going to an oyster roast and then spending a day out on the boat, hopefully catching some speckled trout and rockfish.
I haven't been painting from photos a lot, lately, but I wanted to try a new technique, which was turning the reference photo upside down while painting. The idea is to think more about shapes and warm vs. cool instead of painting things like mountains and trees. I think it worked! I can feel the morning when I look at it and that was my main goal.
Speaking of new things; I'm on Instagram! I hate it and I'm already totally addicted and can't stop staring at my phone, but at least it's a good way to get visibility. Here's a link:
https://www.instagram.com/erik_bohn_painting/
Give me a follow!
8" x 8" oil on board
I often tell myself I'm going to revisit paintings, do another sitting, touch things up. But I never do and this is no exception. It's probably for the best because my rare attempts to improve paintings usually have the opposite effect.
I wish the native garden still looked like it does in the painting - that would mean it was late July, but we've moved on to purple and white asters and golden rod - still going strong, just another phase. I'm happy with it, considering I had two little monkeys painting alongside.
River Copse
8" x 10" oil on boardToday was not exactly a pretty day, as you can see from the sky in the photo below - and maybe from the painting...But, an overcast sky actually makes for less challenging painting conditions, even if it's not as colorful as a sunny day. It's less challenging because the light and shadows don't seem to change as quickly when the sun is blocked by clouds. The last three days have also been 100 degrees +, so upper 80's and overcast felt like a spring day. Still, painting on a rock in the middle of the Potomac River is not without its challenges.
One challenge faced was that my normal put-in at Violet's Lock, which lets me launch below the broken down dam, just upstream from the copse pictured in this painting, was blocked by a massive deadfall. This meant that the first thing I did this morning was navigate some fairly challenging rapids with all of my painting and fishing supplies, food, etc., strapped to my kayak. The uncertainty of the route and not knowing extent of the rapids, however, was scarier than reality, and I made it through just fine. Later in the day, I was sucked into a much larger drop while bouncing around, casting for smallmouth and not paying attention to my route through the boulders. 1.5 feet doesn't sound like much, but when you're caught off guard in an overloaded kayak, it's disconcerting. I got a little sideways, for sure.
Fishing may have been more successful than painting today! I caught one decent smallmouth after another with some big boys mixed in - one of the best days of fishing I can remember and an all-around great day.
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.
