Category: Water
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Flooded Park: #1-3
I was driving home from the garage a few months ago after getting new tires, and saw that the park on Middlebranch was flooded. So, I pulled into the parking lot and snapped some photos. I particularly liked this one: The first time I painted it, I was far too heavy handed on every inch…
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Sometimes, you suck.
Wow. Its hard to describe the extent of the feelings of defeat Im having right now. I drove an hour and a half down to Blackhand Gorge State Park today to try some Plein air painting. Dear God, it didnt go well. I hiked the trails and found an incredibly serene spot just off one…
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Plein Air at Salt Fork: #1
I took this photo of my easel set up for Plein Air painting when I was at Salt Fork a month or so ago. Tonight, I decided to try to paint it, and I guess I?ll try to toss myself into the picture. I don?t want to lean very heavily on the photo, which may…
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Feeling Stuck
I started doing this because I saw a video of a master penman who was working on a piece, and he said something like: People always say how talented I am. They see me write something with one stroke in a few seconds. But what they dont see are the years of practice, the mountains…
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Cliffs of Dover: #1
As Ive been working on drawing, Ive also been watching videos of tutorials. In one an artist recommended some drills to practice drawing, and followed it up with but dont spend more than 50% of your time on drills. With the other 50%, spend time drawing just for fun. I almost immediately smacked my forehead.…
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Salt Fork: #1
I drove out to Do some Plein Air Painting today. A while back I drove home from camping along Route 21, north of Salt Fork State Park. On the drive, I passed a Mutti Dairy Farm, and I took note of it as something to paint some day. So, when I decided to go painting…
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Beaver Creek: #1
This past weekend, Rachel took the girls to Pennsylvania to see their cousins, and I got a weekend to myself. Alone time is medicine to me. I decided to take advantage of the alone time, and tossed my easel, my inflateable kayak, a tent, a fishing pole, a blanket, a pillow, some left overs, and…
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The Ravine: #9
Oh boy… I went for it and painted a full sheet. I have never painted something this big before, so I was a little curious to see how it would go. It turned out that I really, really enjoyed painting this large size. Its Fathers day today, so I wanted to paint my family. I…
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The Ravine: #8
I really tried on this one. This is painted on the back of another painting, so I knew starting out that it was just going to be an exercise, but I really wanted to treat it like a keeper. I think I have a good recipe now for the final painting, which Ill try on…
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The Ravine: #7
Im trying again to capture the memory of visiting the Ravine as a kid. There is something playful here which feels right. And I like that the tree back there is a defined focal point. One of the things I have struggled with is defining a focal point. As far as composition goes, this is…
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Nimisilla Sunset: #4
I will do a write up on this later. I painted this last night, and I like it. Im proud of myself for not going longer than I should have and creating mud on the left.
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Nimisilla Plein Air: #1
I went out to the reservoir to paint tonight. I planned on walking a bit out to the peninsula, but this little window into the kayak launch struck my fancy. So I painted it. As I painted, I met a nice woman who has been an art teacher for a long time, she seemed happy…
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Nimisilla Sunset Recipe
I think a good idea is to think of a painting in terms of a recipe. You need to add the right ingredients at the right time with the right motions in order to get the right end result. With that in mind, I took the lessons I learned from my practice sessions, and tried…
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Nimisilla Sunset Practice
I played with the Nimisilla painting a lot today. I took a bunch of failed paintings, and quartered them on the back with masking tape. In each quadrant I tried a study of the painting to solve the problems as Rick Surowicz puts it. But you cant solve problems until you identify them. Here are…
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Nimisilla Sunset: #2
This is a pre-test for a painting I want to do of a scene in my memory from last week when I went fishing with my friend Babs. Babs and I have been good friends for over 20 years now. Thats a weird thing for me to say because in my mind, Im not much…
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Mohican Covered Bridge: #1
Its absolutely gorgeous out today, so I went to Mohican State Park near Loudenville, and painted the covered bridge. On my way out, as I walked across the bridge, I passed a park ranger, so I gave this to her. It took a lot for me to paint this outside because there were a ton…
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The Ravine: #6
I like this sooooo much more than #5. It still has a way to go, but Im happy with this for now. I was watching videos of Joseph Zbukvic painting, and I came across one of a painting that captured a lot of what Im after in this exercise, so I tried to follow along.…
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The Ravine: #5
Im still trying to get the feel of my memories of the Ravine communicated in a painting. It turns out, nostalgia is tough to paint. Especially when you arent feeling particularly nostalgic. I really dislike this image, and hesitated to post about it, but Im trying to be good about posting the progress. My hope…
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The Ravine: #5
I wanted to try the Ravine again while the lessons from my last attempt were fresh in my mind. And – you just cant leave the driving range on a worm burner. I didnt bother with a value study because I wanted to paint this one from my last attempt. One of the things I…
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The Ravine: #4
I spent countless hours as a kid walking through a ravine near my house, sometimes with my brothers and sister, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends. It was always a place where my imagination seemed to yawn open and suddenly thousands of worlds were possible. We spent days cooking salami on coffee cans, or trying to…