Take Great Joy

Take Great Joy

9X12, Oil on Panel

Available

Another Arkansas painting completed prior to the move but not signed.  From the Arlie Moore Camping Area at DeGray Lake in Clarke County.

18-019

The Balance of Power

The Balance of Power

9X12, Oil on Aluminum Panel

Available

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything here.  There is a somewhat good reason for that.  At this point, I'm not sure what to do with this blog because, well, I have relocated to Colorado!  I don't think I'm going to take on painting something from each county in Colorado so changing the name of this to "Painting Colorado" doesn't make much sense.  Maybe I'll just leave it as it is??

Well anyway, my first painting posted since April is another one from Arkansas which was actually finished before moving, just not signed.

This is from a place near Russellville, AR which locals used to all The Sweet Spot but is now called the Oita Coal Company mountain bike trail.

Wrathful Gods

Wrathful Gods

9X12, Oil on Panel

From The Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  This was from a photo taken about 6 years ago I think.

#16 of 50

One Small Step At A Time Study 2

One Small Step At A Time, Study 2

6X8, Oil on Panel

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything!  I basically took the entire month of March off. 

This was from a painting trip taken I think 5 year ago of my son wading in a creek.  My hope is to make a large panting of this scene.  Study #1 was of the entire scene.  I will upload that one at a later time.  For this one, I really wanted to focus on the figure and fix many issues from study #1.  This still isn't perfect but it is a huge stride over the first attempt.

Counting Study #1 as 14 of 15, this one would be #15 of 50.  I still think I can make the 50 this year even with the March hiatus.

Out Of The Cradle

Out Of The Cradle

6X12, Oil on Panel

Here is yet another repaint.  The original of this was done back in February of 2006 and wasted a fine piece of linen.  This is of the Mars Opportunity rover looking back upon it's landing site.

#13 of 50

Killing Time with Ghosts

"Killing Time with Ghosts"

9X12, Oil on Panel

From the ghost town of Rush, AR.

#12 of 50

Insanity-Genius

"Insanity-Genius"

25.5X19.5, Oil on Paper

This one was started and largely finished a long time ago but I had some resolved areas.  I finally decided to just let fix it and let it fly.

#11 of 50

The Twain Shall Meet

The Twain Shall Meet

9X12, Oil on Panel

#10 of 50

Beyond

"Beyond"

4X6, Oil on Aluminum Panel

My first outing painting on aluminum!  The photo reference for this was provided by a fellow artist from Finland.  This specific stretch of road, which looks to have been very treacherous on this foggy day is a bit north of Helsinki.

#9 of 50

The Back Forty

"The Back Forty"

18X24, Oil on Panel

This one is another repaint of an older painting.  The original version of this was completed in 2009 and was shown at a gallery in North Little Rock called Ketz during it's brief life.  The original version is still in my possession and will now either be destroyed or put into deep freeze.  The image was a complete fabrication from my imagination, cobbling together a variety of motifs from the Ozark Mountains.

#8 of 50

A Study of Aluminum Panels for Painting, Part 2

In Part 1 of this study, I discussed the rationale for wanting to try aluminum panels and discussed preparations for use.  Here in Part 2, I will discuss the priming and first experience with usage of the aluminum panels.

If you will recall, after cleaning the 3 little panels, I did a test of trying to apply a wash right on the unprimed aluminum.  Not surprisingly, there was little to no adherence so I wiped that panel clean and applied straight lead white paint as a primer of sorts.  The other two panels got my normal acrylic gesso.

Normally, on my wood panels, I use 3 coats of acrylic gesso to get a satisfactorily white surface.  The aluminum panels required 4 minimum.  For some background, I do not sand between coats.  I like the natural brushmarks and do not feel a flat surface is necessary for how I work.

3 panels ready for paint.  Note the upper left one, this is the one which was primed with lead white paint.  It only got one coat and will painted on just like this.

A fellow artist I know from the great white north of Finland had some wonderful photos of some snow and fog which I wanted to paint so I chose one of these small panels just for that purpose.  I gave it a nice wash of pink and then proceeded to paint.  I really did not note any differences in working on this surface versus a wooden panel.  The paint seemed to move similarly, which is what one would expect, both surfaces being relatively smooth compared to canvas or linen even.  All in all, I am quite happy with the result.

Next time...weight concerns.

The Things Between Darkness and Light

The Things Between Darkness and Light

30X40, Oil on Canvas

Here is the large version of the study I posted a while back.  This piece again made me question ever working on canvas again.  I just do not like the brush feel of the surface.

#7 of 50

A Virginia Snowfall

A Virginia Snowfall

12X16, Oil on Panel

From outside the small town of New Market just off of I-81 in Virginia.

#6 of 50

Mistaken Creek

"Mistaken Creek"

6X8, Oil on Panel

This was a little plein air I started near Waco, Texas around New Year's Day.  It was the only "warm" day around that time frame.  This little creek turned out to be the result of a burst water pipe that had been spewing water for who knows how long!  And thus how this piece earned the name, "Mistaken Creek."  The white limestone that formed the creek bed turned out to be tricky. 

#5 of 50

Spires of the North

"Spires of the North"

12X16, Oil on Panel

This is Fredriksborg Slot (or Frederiksborg Castle) in Hillerød, Denmark.  This was one of the highlights of the trip to Denmark.  Not just this castle but the drive up there and town of Hillerød and the general area.  Such a beautiful place.

#4 of 50

Yggdrasil, The Tree of Life

Yggdrasil

9X12, Oil on Panel

The tree of life.  From Cleburne County, north of Quitman, Arkansas.

#3 of 50

Richeson75 Small Works 2018 Show

I am super excited to announce that "Like Simple Prayers Fulfilled" was juried as a Finalist in the 2018 Richeson75 Small Works Competition.  This piece will be on display at the Richeson Art School and Gallery in Kimberly, Wisconsin from February 22 until April 7.

A Study of Aluminum Panels for Painting, Part 1

Recently, I was reading some postings on an artist forum.  One posting in particular caught my fancy.  It regarded an artist who was very gravely concerned about making sure their works were preserved and so was agonizing over substrates and archival-ness of various materials.  This painter had become convinced that aluminum or copper panels were the absolute best thing ever.  Given my background as an engineer, I know that these materials, especially copper, can be rather expensive.  So I initially conceived of this posting as a lesson in seeking the best cross-section of competing parameters of cost/price/archival concerns/etc.  However, upon doing further research, I myself became much more intrigued by the use of aluminum panels.

It should be no secret that I have a very profound love of working on wood panels.  Very rarely do I use canvas, linen, or any other fabric substrate.  The reason is very simple.  I love the resistance of wood panels.  I like to be able to push, grind, and prod the paint as well as put down gentle, single strokes.  There is something magical to me about the glassine quality of paint moving fluidly across a hard and smooth surface.  I usually only resort to canvas when I want to paint large and worries such as weight and warpage of wooden panels become significant.  So my interest in aluminum panels mainly concerns using them as a means to paint larger with a similar handling as a wooden panel but with lessened weight and warping concerns.  I have no interest at all in copper because of it's malleability and higher density than aluminum.

My initial line of research was to price out artist ready aluminum panels, still with the mind that they would be rather exorbitant.  I was very much mistaken!  In fact, large panels of 4mm thick aluminum were about the SAME price as an equivalently sized canvas of medium to low quality level!!  If I was to use linen, it would be almost twice the price of a same-sized aluminum panel.  This jaw-dropping find fueled me to undertake a little study.

I found 3 small scrap pieces of aluminum panel.  These were all raw material with no surface treatment.  I believe that many of the commercially available panels are anodized which provides for a level of bondability for primer and paint.  These do not have that.

3 Little Panels, Ready for Cleaning

Step 1 was to make sure the panels were nice and clean.  Nothing will destroy the ability of materials to bond together quite like oils like the ones typically exuded from us humans.  To do this, I used Isopropyl Alcohol and cotton balls.  Alcohol is very nice and volatile and will cut well into most all organic oils such as those left from fingerprints.  I scrubbed with amply dampened cotton balls until the cotton came away relatively clean looking.

Panel 1, clean

Panel 2!

And Panel 3..

Look at some of the grime (and Sharpie ink!) on those cotton balls.

Some of the literature I read discussed being able to paint directly onto the anodized surface.  Since these panels have no surface treatment of any form, I wondered how they would take paint with no primer.  One of my common techniques is a nice wash using mineral spirits so I decided to check that out on the long aspect ratio Panel 1.

Wash on raw panel

After a day of curing, I checked the integrity of the paint film. It is not uncommon for a wash to be a weak paint film.  However, this wash totally failed to bond to the panel at all.  I was able to totally wipe it away with a finger.  The gesso I typically use is rather absorbent so the weak paint film is able to bond with it without significant pigment loss or dredge-up when applying the real paint.  So, at least for these non-anodized panels, washes directly onto the unprimed surface will not work. 

Oops! This part didn't work right!

Coming soon, part 2 - Priming!

Skanderborg, Denmark

Skanderborg, Denmark

6X8, Oil on Panel

Here is another one from Denmark!  This one was also started in plein air in the town of Skanderborg and finished in the studio.  The mosquitoes here were ravenous little devils, way more aggressive than any mosquitoes we have here in Arkansas.

#2 of 50

A Study of Mountains and Sunset

A Study of Mountains and Sunset

6X8, Oil on Panel

Available

Here is my first of 2018!  This is a little sunset study of the vista above Marshall, Arkansas.  I took the photo for this over Thanksgiving.  A 30X40 version of this scene is in works right now.

#1 of 50

The Names In The Rock

"The Names In The Rock"

6X6, Oil on Panel

SOLD

This is Frederiks Kirke in Copenhagen.  I had done this piece with the intention of submitting it for the Randy Higbee 6X6 competition but never got around to doing any more in this size.

This piece was actually completed in 2017.

More Not-Goals for 2018

So as I discussed in my 2017 year-in-review post, I thought last year was pretty successful.  It marked a solid turn-around from the slump that occurred in my life after the death of my wife in the summer of 2014.  She was my cheer leader and did a whole lot for me, both in terms of spreading my art with shameless promotion and also with encouragement.  She knew and understood what I was working towards, style-wise.  She followed the work of artists I admired to understand what made me like them.  Even though, she herself never pursued art in any way, she learned a lot about it in order to better understand what drove me and help me to better myself.  That is a rare thing to have.

So while I have not fully recovered, I have had some help in dealing and learning how to keep moving forward.  And I hope to continue this trend into 2018.

One huge goal I managed to accomplish in 2017 was getting my work into a third gallery.  It is a beautiful space in a quaint downtown in a small town in southern Arkansas.  The owner seems to be a wonderful person and I look forward to working with him to provide work of interest to this area.  However, I remain realistic about the prospects here.  Art is not a priority in the town in which this gallery is located.  Because of this, I will set my primary "not-goal" of 2018 to pursue a fourth gallery.  I will put some focus into a gallery in a larger city outside of Arkansas.  However, I will also be willing to find another gallery in-state if it is in a decent sized town or a town with a good art community, Hot Springs would be ideal.

1.   Get into a 4th gallery!  As discussed above, I will be looking for some very specific criteria here.  Either in a city modest sized or larger city out of state or an Arkansas city that should experience some relatively high traffic volume.  There are not many cities in Arkansas which fit this criteria so I should be able eliminate possibilities rather quickly.

2.  Start making my own frames! My online frame supplier of choice has discontinued more and more of my favorite styles of frames.  I really cannot afford to have a local company make my frames.  I bought a very nice used miter saw about 10 years ago and have yet to put it to use.  All I need is a corner pinner and I'm ready to start trying this.  I will target having this going before April.

3.  Make 60 blog posts...yes, I'm going to try for this again. It's totally achievable, especially if I blog more about works in progress or process related things.  No problem, lol.

4.  Complete 50 paintings...yes, I'm going to try to do this again too!

5.  Hang in 3 national shows.  I bested my goal of 2 last year so let's go for an improvement.  I would like for 2 of these to be outside of Arkansas.

6.  Line up a solo show for either end of 2018 or 2019.  Most likely this will be in 2019 because most galleries and arts centers will have already booked 2018.

I think you can see a theme beginning to develop here.  I am aiming for 2018 to be a year to establish footholds as a more regional artist with goals tied to out of state venues.