Frozen Hearts

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Days Unremembered

Days Unremembered

9X12, Oil on Panel

SOLD

Gunner Pool

The Timid Wild One

The Timid Wild One

18X24, Oil on Panel

SOLD

From a small little plein air done at Richland Creek in the early spring.

I'll Whisper My Secrets to the Stones

I'll Whisper My Secrets to the Stones

18X24, Oil on Panel

This was the first real bushwhack waterfall that we ever went and found.  It is called School House Falls and it's in Van Buren County.  It began to rain on us as we were heading back to the car and we took shelter for a while in an old abandoned barn.  

Crack the Sky

Crack the Sky

8X10, Oil on Panel

SOLD

Yet another one started on site and finished in the studio.  That seems to be a very common theme.  Maybe one day I will start to be contented with my plein air work in a single session.

This is the underneath of a natural bridge at Alum Cove in Newton County, Arkansas.

Linger Long

Linger Long

8X10, Oil on Panel

SOLD

This was my first foray back into plein air painting after breaking my wrist at the beginning of January.  This is Falling Water Falls again.  I think this is the 3rd or 4th painting of it I have done.  It was a very cold day and I remember being worried I might fall and re-injure my wrist as I made my way back and forth from the van with my supplies down steep slope to where I was setting up.  Many photographers came and went, snapping hundreds of pictures, as I stood there in the cold making one single one.

Fall...and Fade

Fall...and Fade

9X12, Oil on Panel

SOLD

I started this one on site in the Richland Creek Wilderness on a cold and windy evening months ago.  I actually finished it quite a while ago too but as usual, I am slow in posting work.

The Water Whispers

The Water Whispers

6X8, Oil and Golden Opens on Panel

SOLD

This was my first nocturne produced with Golden Opens.  Obviously, I was able to overcome the issue with making nice deep darks using Ultramarine blue and Dioxazine purple.  I did make some touch ups to this in the studio with oils but they were not major.

As Fleeting As Morning Light

As Fleeting As Morning Light

6X8, Oil and Golden Opens on Panel

SOLD

This is one of my paintings from the backpacking trip I took a few months ago.  It got a lot of rework in the studio with oils using the same palette as the Golden Open plein air painting did on location.  We camped alongside Gee Creek in a beautiful wooded flat beside the Ozark Highlands Trail.  It was my first true backpacking experience.  Carrying paints and plein air setup really limited the amount of supplies I could carry and that will need to be resolved for future trips longer than one night.

The Depth of My Dark - More Golden Opens Talk

I first began experimenting with Golden Open acrylics sometime in January of this year.  My primary objective was to use them for plein air work.  My main motivation in trying this specific variety of acrylic was that it walked in the boundary between regular acrylic and oil in terms of workability.  I tend to have a habit of not being super happy with my plein air work and doing a range of tweaks to it in the studio ranging from just some very simple touch ups to full repaintings.  I wanted to be able to make those tweaks while still on location by giving the painting some time to dry which is not remotely possible when using oils.

As you may remember, I started with just a small handful of colors to begin with.  I chose colors that were frequent players on my palette and with which I was comfortable.  However, I quickly noted some glaring differences in the way in which these colors played together.  Firstly, I realized that these acrylics apply much more translucently than oils typically apply, very glazy.  I think this is primarily due to the fact that these paints are pretty soft in body and go on pretty thinly.  But my main issue dealt with the relative lack of depth I could achieve in the darks.  I think a big part of this was that the red oxide I bought was inherently fairly opaque and so, when mixed with cobalt blue, it made an interesting earthy purple and not the deep dark typical of cobalt and transparent oxide red.  I also noted that the Golden Open cobalt blue was lighter in value and more opaque than most standard cobalt blues in oil.  It was a fascinating color, just not what I needed.  Still, I made do the best I could and produced some passable paintings with that palette (some getting touched up in the studio with oil.)

However, before a backpacking trip that I was looking very forward to, I went to the LASS (Local Art Supply Shop) to see what all I could get to help out with this conundrum.  I already had some colors in mind and hoped I would find them there.  But during my perusal of the Golden Opens I noticed the Transparent Red Oxide (as opposed to merely "Red Oxide" which I had purchased) and I knew I had found one of the main reasons I was having trouble making nice deep darks.   I was much happier with my results the next day as far as making nice darks.

So here is the list of colors I added:

Dioxazine Purple
Hansa Yellow
Ultramarine Blue
Transparent Red Oxide
Yellow Ochre

Prelude to an End

Prelude to an End

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

 

 

This is a little plein air I did a few months ago as the fall color started to come on.  This was on the Illinois Bayou in the Ozark National Forest north of Hector.

Fuzzybutt Falls, Searcy County

Fuzzybutt Falls

11X14, Oil on Panel

Available

 

 

 

Fuzzybutt Falls is a fairly easily accessible fall in the Ozark National Forest.  It's tucked back into a box canyon near Six Finger Falls.  The stream here feeds Falling Water Creek.  I can only speculate as to why it is called Fuzzybutt Falls and perhaps I would rather not know.  Still, beautiful little water fall.



Six Finger Falls Cascade, Searcy County

Six Finger Falls Cascade

8X10, Oil on Panel

Available

 

 

After I got a really good solid start on my painting of Falling Water Falls a few weeks ago, we drove on up the road to another nice multi-cascade fall called Six Finger Falls.  Here, thin layers of shale have been shaped into multiple "fingers" (six I guess, I have never bothered to count them) in between which roar cascades of water.  This fall is more impressive in higher water but if it gets too high then the water covers over the finger effect.  I was not very pleased with the result I got on-site so at the end of my session I wiped away basically all of the rock area to a mid tone gray and took it home and worked it into this a few weeks later.

 

We had been planning a camping trip to the Buffalo this weekend but with the government shutdown, all national park and forest service campgrounds are closed.  Looks like we may be venturing to a new place instead.

Falling Water Falls, Summer 2013

Falling Water Falls, A Wet Summer

8X10, Oil on Panel

It's rare that any waterfalls run in August in Arkansas but due to a fairly yet summer I was able to take a trip to a few a couple of weeks ago.  This one and another are more apt to run year around but another that I was able to visit is typically very dry.  Did all but a few minor touch ups on this one on site.

First Light at Gunner Pool, Stone County

First Light at Gunner Pool

8X10, Oil on Panel

My first new county of 2013!  1 down, 19 to go.

Gunner Pool is in the Ozark National Forest near Blanchard Springs Caverns.  It was a crisp fall morning when we got there that turned into a warm day.  

 

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Long Pool Rocks, Pope County

Long Pool Rocks

11X14, Oil on Panel

SOLD

I've built up a bit of an inventory of paintings during the short period while my camera was broken.  I have a new one that is a touch more sophisticated than my old but photographing paintings is never easy.  This new one goes into "landscape" mode when I do closely cropped shots of my pieces.  Guess that means I'm doing a good job!

These huge rocks at the end of Long Pool on Big Piney Creek in Pope County make excellent diving platforms.  They really are this big.  It is rather unusual in the Ozarks when no glaciers were ever active to move huge stones of this size.

Falling Water Falls, Pope County

Falling Water Falls

11X14, Oil on Birch Panel

SOLD

A few weeks ago, I took my son waterfall hunting in the Ozarks.  We've had a phenomenally long waterfall season in this year.  Usually by this time of year, they are starting to trickle.  the downside to the long waterfall season is flooding and severe weather.  I started this one en plein air with a value sketch and then colored it in the studio.  Falling Water Falls is one of the easiest falls in the state to get to and as a result is a favorite target of photographers.  I've never seen a painting of it before though.  It lies at the extreme northern end of Pope County just a bit before crossing into Searcy County on Falling Water Creek in the Ozark National Forest.  On this same day, we saw Six Finger Falls and Keefe Falls.  I packed my 13 lb pochade the .5 mile bushwhack into Keefe Falls and did a value sketch there as well as the rain fell.