2 cows grazing more

Another update to the cow painting. Trying to add further darks into the painting. Adding more warms into the foreground again.

Hoping that this is the finish. I increased the lights on the cows and played around with the shadows on them. Darkened the grass with greens, blues and oranges.

2 Cows Grazing in Field

12X16" on mat board coated with colorfix primer

A new painting this week. I needed to do some more landscapes and wanted to give the cross-hatching a break. I started off with nupastel for the under painting and began to ruff in the mountains and sky first. I hated the mountain color and decided that the house and barn were much too large for its placement. I like the cows though :)


I decided to wash it off thanks to the colorfix primer. You have to really look, but I changed the house barn to an intirely new one with the side facing into the sun...and smaller. Not much else besides ruffing in the irrigation stream.


I then changed the mountain to a purple pink and got bored with the regular type of strokes with the side of the pastel. So I started cross-hatching again. The house looks much better and shows more atmosphere now.


Added more green to the front trying to get warms in front and cools in the back. I added more greens to the tree line toning it down somewhat.



This last one had more darks added to it to increase the value range in the painting. Larger strokes in the forefront, smaller as it goes back. I lightly suggested a path going opposite direction of the water/weeds hoping to create a zigzag effect.

I'm going to sit on this for a bit and decide if I need to add something else.

Lil Egg Washer

I worked more on the egg girl today. I think I'm at the stopping point, but will put it aside to see if anything needs adjusting later on.
I put more greens here and there. Finished up all the overlay on the background door. Put some greenery outside the window and tightened up the area between here face and hand/egg. I overlayed the cabinet with green so that she becomes more the focus.

Here is a crop that I like, showing the details of the focus area.

Egg Washer 2nd stage

I have finally had time and energy to update my recent progress on this painting. I really don't like the cold...

I have been working on the background mostly, trying to push it back to allow the girl to come forward in space. I really need to work on pulling the front corner of the sink towards us. I have been fiddling with her dress trying to get it to appear translucent around the hem line leg/thigh area. I think I will add some red around the same value in a diagonal opposite of the blue in those areas to bring it back to... Red Dress.

lil egg washer

Things have calmed down so I had time to start another painting from the old photos I have. This one is in the National Archives under the depression era. A simple blocking of shapes and values at the moment. I'm trying to keep the back of the neck and legs so they appear to glow, the main light source being behind her and a small light above. So she will aslo have a halo around the hair. Hopefully the dress will appear a bit translucent around the thigh area.

Bathtime

I decided it was time to try and paint a portrait using the cross-hatching stroke technique. I was searching in the National Archives and found a beautiful black and white photo with this woman and her baby and couldn't resist. This is the first blocking in stage of the painting, using pan pastel burgundy and light blue in the negative space around the subject.

24x16" on Canson paper smooth side

Pastels

Next stage I worked on the mom's face and clothes more and started on the baby. I decided that he needed a fatter face to go with the chubby body, so I brushed that off and started again.

Here I worked on the far wall with the curtains and faint light coming threw. Pulled the chair and table with vase to sit in front of the curtain. Worked on her white apron and the towels on her lap and behind the baby.

I decided it was too dark overall especially with the extra light coming from outside as well as the left side indoor lighting, and lightened up a few areas.

Here is a closeup of the baby and moms apron. I had a good time with this trying create different colors by stroking mix combination's over each other without blending the traditional ways. On too another portrait as I usually need to go through a series of at least 3 before moving on to a different subject.

Thanks for looking as always!

Mamma and her baby

12x9" pastel on canson smooth side

I have been sick this season like alot of people I know, so I haven't done alot of painting. So here is another study done a few weeks ago. I am still enjoying playing around with the cross hatching type strokes.

Baby Calf

11x14 on canson the bumpy side nupastels and rembrandts
On a roll, I needed to have a go at another. Babies are so cute.

lil piggies

11x14 on canson nupastels
I thought I would try a different subject using the cross hatching strokes, and this is what I came up with. It was about an hour and I had a great time doing it.

Vermont Stream

14x11"
This is the 2nd real attempt at using cross-hatching through the whole painting. Alot, Alot of strokes were used. To tone an area down I used complimentary colors in the same values. Such as the big spruce on the right has reds under the blue and greens. And to liven up an area the colors stayed to those next to each other on the colorwheel.
Some areas needed to lay down flat so I used horizontal strokes such as those in the water, and vertical strokes in the grass around the area of interest. Doing this allows the my eye to focus on the areas I choose to be the center of interest.

This is a closeup of the strokes I used.

I have been mulling over how to do a portrait using these stroking techniques...I may or may not succeed but will have fun trying.

vermont farm

An update for today. I added some darks, finished up the leaves on the right hand tree. And pulled some of the highlights back in. I also added in the gate, I think it helps to direct your eye to the left and down the path. Now I'm just looking to decide if its done.

vermont farm

Here is a close up crop of Clara. I think as a whole the painting needs so more intense colors.

Vermont Farm

An update to my farm painting. I decided give another try at cross-hatching and thought that the farm I had started would be a good base. Since I already had the basic value and hues I found it easier to work in the hatching. So the next one I will take the good advice from my pals on WetCanvas.com and use an under painting. Although the photo I took did not have the hens in it, I think it needed something to anchor it into a life situation. So the hens are mine, good thing a had some photos because none of them would stay put yesterday. I am thinking about putting in a rooster and chicks, I think it still needs a story.
I will put a crop in the next post so you can see the strokes.

Pond At Macks Apples Plein Air

pastel 11x14
Plein Aire
Painted with the Plein Aire Society Of New Hampshire today. They were actually in Londonderry where I live and had several different spots around town. This one is across from Macks Apple stand, a small pond with apple trees in the background. I painted this with a different approach than I usually do, its a broken color tech., where you keep applying color crossing each other to allow it to mix visually with your eyes. I am finding it hard to get my colors as bright as I would in the studio, another lesson to be learned.

Vermont Farm

Pastel 11"x14"
This is from SugarBush Farms in Vermont, they make really great cheese from a collective of farmers in the area. This is looking down into the side yard. I decided to paint this without an underpainting on watercolor paper primed with colorfix primer. Next stage is to include some of red metal gates and a small post fence off the barn to the left. Fill in leaves and work on the trunk of the right hand tree.

Rickers Pond VT plein aire

11X14"
This weekend we went camping during Labor day Vacation in Vermont. Beautiful little state campground on Rickers Pond. It had nice sandy beach edges, except for the ground nesting bees's it would have been perfect. The rangers came and sprayed the nest and the next day we were in business to swim and get on our canoe and kayak. This is looking down into the next camping site which had a pop up camper behind the clump of trees to the right, which I left out naturally. The birch trees were all leaning in towards the water, very pretty. I took a photo with my camera to compare what I painted. What a difference, between the two. If I had painted this from the photo I think it would be completely different and lost alot of the distance feeling to it. I wouldn't have even seen the Birches in the back.

Sunflowers Abstract Plein Aire

Another Plein Aire from last week. 11x14" on matboard with colorfix primer.
The sunflowers are in a fenched in areia in our backyard, behind them is our chicken coop to which i orginally had in this but it had too many line horizontally so i mushed it out. Needed something to let the flowers come forward so i just blocked them in....so an abstract quality to it. 1 hour.

Back Yard Plein Aire

My last attempt was while sitting on my pool deck. I was so slow that the sun had changed position sooner than i had hoped. My kitty wandered in while i was fiddling at the left tree and I managed to get him sketched in enough to look like a cat. My first moving object. :) Oh these are 11x14's.

Shaker Village in New Hampsire

My 3rd attempt at Plein aire. This was at the Shaker Village in NH. I painted along side a guy from the NH Plein Aire society that I joined this summer. This was my outing and only Dan showed up...so it was a gentle introduction into painting outside with others. He painted on very small pieces of black canson and made very nice little pastel paintings that reminded my of wood block printings. I was happy with this but I think the bushes in the back could have been toned down more.

The Lake plein aire

This is my 2nd attempt at painting plein aire....(in real life). It was a really hot hot day and I was sitting in the back of my pickup truck looking across the lake. Water dripping down my back...YUK! A nice gentleman sat next to me and was very nice....people watching me paint, make me very nervous....plein aire even more so as I'm figuring it out. Wow its pretty hard to cut out soo much information when your painting right out in it. I did manage to get the far side of the lake move back into space so that was a beginning. Had to leave before i could really get going.

stella dora daylillies plein aire

I'm back! I have been busy this summer with camping and the kids. I got a plein aire setup a versa easy-L. I have been worried about starting out with plein aire...so my first step was this little 5x7 from my garden. My kids saw me all set up in the sun and had to laugh as i had a beach umbrella and a floppy sunhat on...trying to look all artisty in front of my new setup. :)

Beautiful Bloosom

Ahhh Im finally back and painting again. This is Bloosom one of our egg layers, she has a twin Daisy they always seem to get into trouble. Thier eggs are a pale peachy/tan and are Xlarge. Fat, they are fat chickens! Guess they need to be to lay such big eggs.
This is 13.5x10.5" on watercolor paper covered with clear colorfix primer. The underpainting was an old watercolor of a rooster I did many years ago that was pretty messed up in proportion sizes. I think next I will address the ground a bit more and add to the background some sky blues. She needs some highlights on feathers here and there and on her eye.

Buttrick Road Pasture finished

Last update on this one. I made the road into a small walking path and changed the diagonal to make it not the center of attention. Making up grass for the new side was interesting..... I changed a few minor things with the far trees and added some pinks and blues into the bark and throughout to make it all appear in harmony. Oh I also cropped a bit off the left side to push the main center of interest, the large trunk over to allow for a nicer flow. Thanks for the help from WetCanvas on composition...much better.

Buttrick Road Pasture 3

Here is the 3rd phase, highlights were added the sky was lightend at the horizon line and more skylights were added into the trees. The left side was cropped a bit to further move the focal tree from being to close to the center. Now I'm considering changing or removing the diagonal road in the front, I will have to think on that. Plant a new field or maybe change the road into a path in a different direction.

Buttrick Road Pasture 2

I'm coming along with the painting, trying to get the darks layed down, before the lighter overlays. The road is still at the very basic one layer of pastel stage at this point. I'm thinking the lower sky needs to be a bit lighter.

Buttrick Road Pasture WIP

I haven't painted in the last week or so with my kids all coming down with different maladies. So here I am back to the dust!
This week is a photo I took in my home town, its a small pasture for cows close to the center of town in the early morning.
10.5x13.5"
On watercolor paper with clear colorfix primer on it. This is a quick underpainting with watercolors to lay down the basics.

Webster-Cliff Trail

A painting that I did from a hike we had a few summers ago in Crawford Notch Park in New Hamphire. A great trail with lots of difficulties the views are breathtaking!
10.5x14.5" Pastel on colorfixed watercolor paper.

Nosy Gala WIP finish

Finished finally! Here is my crazy big headed (on purpose) painting of Gala. In real life its much better than the photo, correcting digital camera photos is not an extact science. I was hoping to achieve just a fun piece, cartoonish, to bring some personality to a simple dog painting.

Nosy Gala

Another installment of Nosy Gala. Things have been busy at home this week. I shrunk the ball down to increase the feeling of a really big head. Added more lights and darks into the trees. Worked more on her nose that was off. Generally added more medium and darks thoughout her face. Now I need to bring in highlights to show the where the sun is shinning on her more. Then decided on whether grass will come in with strokes.

Nosy Gala WIP

Here I am at todays stopping point.....really crazy looking! Gotta fix things but this is generally the color scheme.

Rolling MountainsWIP

I'm finished with this landscape. I added a field of flowers and worked on the trees. Some touches up here and there on the mountains and deleted one mountain in the far back almost center for a more interest.

Nosy Gala WIP

Another doggie painting from a photo supplied by a friend. This is Kim's dog Gala a beauty, and a halarious photo of her that I just couldn't pass up.
Watercolor paper primed with clear colorfix primer with a watercolor underpainting. It got alittle crazy as I dropped red paint by mistake onto my yellow background, and being an artist started playing around forgetting that it was an underpainting.
13.5x10.5"

Rolling Mountains WIP

This is where I'm at this morning. I work on it more after puppy trainging classes.

Rolling Mountains WIP

Started a challange painting from Wetcanvas Pastel Challanges. This is done on watercolor paper primed with colorfix Rose Grey. No watercolor underpainting this time as the Rose Grey gave an all over underlining dirt feeling to it. It is 10.5x13.5" and this is the intial layer of hard pastels.

Jackson WIP

Here I am at the fine tuning stage...trying to get a true color digital to load up this is from under studio lights at night, so the colors pop a bit more.

Jackson NH WIP

Here I am all the areas have had something dealt with them. The original photo has alot of trees in but I'm paring them down. Fussy branches need to be dealt with a bit more and things tweaked.

Jackson NH WIP

Here is the intial layers of pastel to bring it to local colors. I started off with the sky and mountains to set the tone of the painting and will work down from there.

Jackson WIP

Hi Thanks for looking in! I'm going for a landscape this time. My underpainting mostly in warms to create a pop when i put greens ontop as that area will be the focal area.
watercolor underpainting on colorfixed primed watercolor paper
10.5x13.5

Coneflowers WIP

Worked on the coneflowers again this morning I'm happier today with it. I softened up the background leaves to show some distance in the background. I also livened up the closest flower to have a focal point. I will put it aside for a bit and see if anything else is needed.

Coneflower WIP

This is where I'm at for today, my heads hurting!

Coneflowers WIP

here is the new painting for today...this is part watercolor underpainting with outlines blocking in shapes with pastel.
13x10

Corgi WIP

Here I am at about 3 hours after start. Had to move the eyes back and make them smaller, elongate the snout and tongue. Now i will let it sit for the night and go in and fix anything I need to tomorrow.

corgi WIP

1st layer of pastel, laying down oranges for the under tones in his fur.

Corgi WIP

Another underpainting done with watercolors on watercolor paper primed with colorfix primer. It is 10x8. I painting almost everything with cool colors on the colorwheel as this painting when done will be mostly warm.

Sunflowers finished

11x15" assort. pastel rembrandt, ludwig, unison

Here it is I think finished, I will put it on the wall for a few days to look at it. I added some more shadow to the right sunflower and added some darks into the spikie things can't remember the names....and pulled some color to the edges to give it alittle bit more of a finished look. I think my flowers are getting better, this came together quite quickly once I sat down to do it. About 2 hours with another 1/2 to touch up today.
As with most of the recent paintings in this blog, this will be available on my website for purchase if your interested.

Sunflower WIP

Here is about 3/4 the way through...got on a roll and forgot to take pictures. Little details need to be fixed edges lined up, but looking much better than the underpainting thank god!

Sunflowers WIP

This is the underpainting of a new painting for today. It is watercolor on colorfix primed watercolor paper. Its 11x15" and looks crazy!

Collie in the leaves

I fiddled around abit more with the collie...I'm done now! I think he stands out from the background a little bit more.

Pugnacous Pug

New name thought it fit better. This is my final unless something screams at me later. I still give alittle giggle every time I see his face! If he were my dog he would probably be the size of an elephant because he pouts pretty well...ok one more treat! Thanks for looking.

Pug Pout 3 WIP

Still working on my pug this is as far as I will get today. I inlarged his face from the eyes down and added lots more layers.

Pug Pout WIP

Here is the next stage with colors that are closer to the subjects real life coloring. This is the point where I go in and make sure that my orignal drawing is correct. The next stage will to try and make it pop out 3-D....atleast hoping I do!

Pug Pout WIP

its is 7.5x9.5"
Here is my next doggie....I really liking the pet portrait thing.... he has such a stubborn look to his face I had to try my hand at him next! This is the underpainting on watercolor paper with colorfix primer ontop for "tooth". Watercolors for the blocking. Looks really strange at this stage, what I'm doing is laying down colors that with pop through the top pastel layers giving it another layer of opticle mixing.

Collie in the leaves WIP

Here is my third pass at getting the collie to sit pretty in the leaves. I changed the placement of both eyes our right alot higher. The mouth/tongue needed to get larger and move to the left. His back went higher to get him to be more solid in body. I'm still struggling along with him.

collie in the leaves

10x14"
Here is a Collie sitting in the fall leaves, depicting leaves is alot harder than I thought it would be. I really struggled with this trying to get the background to recede. I may go back in a fiddle with a few things, but I will let it sit a few days.

I see Blue springer spanial

10x9" pastel
Here is the finish! Im pleased with the outcome of this doggie portrait. The things adjusted this last time were.....his right ear alittle more out of focus to push that side of his face forward, his right pupil moved facing forward abit more...no crazy eyes for him.

I see blue springer spanial WIP

Here is the 3rd stage a few things were correct....eyes/top of head and then details put in. Alittle more refining to go without loosing the stroke details.

I see blue springer spanial WIP

The first ruffed in stage of pastel

I see blue springer spanial WIP

this is the underpainting done on watercolor paper that is primed with colorfix primer. Then I painted it with watercolor paint but it must have been too thick as it ate up some of the tooth of the paper. So I put another layer of of clear primer over the top...but alittle too soon it wasn't quite dried yet. but still manageable.

I see Blue springer spanial

this is a dbl WIP on my easil. On the left springer spanial on the right sheltie. I show this because this is how I usually have paintings that Im working on at the moment. If I get tired of one, I will move over and work on the other.

Poppies in the field

This is my answer to the flowers in the wind painting from last week. I was hoping to incooperate some background to a closeup of flowers. 8x10 pastel

Daisys in the field

Another flower in grass painting, I'm on a roll! 10.5x13.5 pastel

Cherries in Sunlight

Here is the finish I think unless I notice something else later. Im happy with this one, its bright and cheery.

flowers in the wind

After getting inspiration from Adriana Meiss' flowers, I thought I would get wild with a field of them. Flowers are coming along easier as I practice painting them. This is the 3rd one I have done if you don't count the little bitty ones on "the field of green" I did last. I used my light blue tint panpastel on the sky after I did my intial wet underpainting. I'm still unsure of them.

This is a great photo from the ref lib on wetcanvas. It's a 10.5x13.5, but not sure if I should crop it.

field

This is a painting from a photo my mom took on her trip to Europe...driving by on a bus. It had a wooden fence in the forground but it fought with the composition so i wipped it out. Mom took alot of photos, so I'll probably be painting some more of her trip.

pastel 8x10

man of the cloth

this is a challange portrait from Wetcanvas.com, so i had a go at it. Its 13.5x10.5 pastel on colorfix primed watercolor paper.
I'm reasonably happy with it, it appears to look like the subject.

Zinnias in a Vase

Finished i think, i like the blue/green background with hints of purple showing through.
8x10" Pastel

Zinnias in a Vase WIP

Here is my 2nd stage pulling colors that are local. I see that I need to fix up the base of the vase. I'm liking it at this stage.

Zinnias in a vase WIP

Went for Flowers this time...I have never felt comfortable with them before. But it is a beautiful setup. This is my underpainting.
8x10" wet pastel underpainting on colorfix primer.

Cherries in sunlight WIP

Alittle more cleaned up, bringing greens into the background window. I like the glowing light on it, hope to keep that going!

cherries in sunlight WIP

Cherries in sunlight reminds of the summer......
I am on a roll with still life subjects...namely fruit :) and in bowls :)
This is an underpainting of Rembrandts and painting with water to allow for more layer of dry pastel later on. Messy looking isn't it?
8x10"

Apples in a Blue Bowl

This is a follow up to "pears in a bowl" painting. This is painted from a still life on my desk. 8x10

Rockport Harbor

Here is the finish to this piece. I generally straightened up some lines and darkened up a few areas.

Rockport Harbor WIP

Here is an update to my WIP Rockport Harbor. I have deepended shadows and started to create some depth into it. The left side of the barn got fixed up as soon as i saw the photo ...leaning a bit too much! I added the masts to the boats and will sit on it a little more tonight

10.5x13.5"

3 pears in a Bowl

10.5x9 Pastel
This is part of a Pastel Challange....do you think the 3 pears are shocked the 4th is just standing there?

Rainy Night 42nd Street

This was done as part of a lesson with a young art friend. To teach her how to use underpaintings of wet pastel and then dry pastel as the finish.
8.5x10.5 on colorfix primed watercolor paper

Rockport WIP

This is a quick 1 hour sketch of a Rockport harbor. I will be continuing on to a finished painting

15x11" on burgandy colorfix

milk and kisses

Here is a fun one my glass of milk and chocolate kisses. Its ontop of an area newspaper that was primed with clear colorfix primer. The only bits on it that dont have pastel is the tiny writing under the article. Not sure I would do another it takes alot of patience.....
10x8.5 pastel

Cape Cod boats

Here it is finished...i think

Cape Cod boats WIP

I thought I would try my hand at a water scene and found a photo of Cape Cod that brought me back to summers when I was a child.

This is a quick ruff in for placement.

14x10.5 pastel on colorfix/burgandy

Thomas the Cat

Here is Thomas the Cat finished yeah! Im happy with the purple/blues in his coat. Thomas the real live version has beautiful white fur coat, but i wanted this to be a moodier version of him. He was a friends cat that passed away last year.
it is 10x8.5"

thomas the cat WIP

this is Thomas sitting on a lawn mower seat. Its a work in progress. It was suggested to me to change the color to the mower part behind his head/back to seperate him alittle bit so that will the next change. I also have to work on his eyes, putting pupils and reflections in them. im thinking about pulling alittle more purple/blue into the shadowed area of his arms and legs. I had to put my name on it as its already getting pretty thick with the Unison/Ludwig pastels im using on this one.

Girl with a daisy

This is the final for this painting. I changed a few things and corrected to color.

8.5x10"

Girl with a daisy

yep another little girl painting but i did find an older girl. I struggled with getting her braids to appear right but im happy in the end.

8.5 x10" on colorfix primed watercolor paper

Daisys in a bucket

This is the 3rd in a series of little girls i guess....i have become addicted to painting them recently. This is my stage 1 look at to see what else to do. It had a huge potted plant orignally in the the left upper right, but i can seem to get plants to look good, so off it came. Then i put a big blue garden vase and hated that also. So its empty.
its 8.5x10" on colorfix primed watercolor paper.

little girl at the beach

This companion to the baby doll from last week. She is playing with sand i hope you can see it. I will be looking at it for fixes that always show up.
8x10.5

Baby doll

Here she is I think finished with little tweeks lightening the background and pushing it back with some neutral grey/blue. Add little highlight on cheek and eyebrow and softened the window frame at the wall.

baby doll

this is a quick portrait, because i needed a break from landscapes. I am happy with the rich colors i got from this.

8x10 colorfix paper 2 hours

shadow tree stage 3

Well im at the stage where final tweeking takes place things that just throw off the eye, so i will be looking at it to make sure where i should go next with it or just stop :)

This is the 2nd stage. I have depended shadows added a turquoise line of trees in the far back. adding more reddish purples to the front. Started to deal with the front shadows on this side of a small lane.

tree in shadows

This is from a photo reference after a snow storm. I am trying to keep this as a limited palette purple/blue/pinks.
this is stage one.

Arianna by firelight finished

Here is the finished painting of Arianna by the fire. It took me alittle bit with kids and pets coming and going this week.
I fiddled with her far eye and added more reds and purple shadows. It was a challange to get it to look like nighttime and I am happy with the outcome. I will try another night painting soon.

Arianna by firelight

This is the 2nd stage of "Arianna by the firelight" I am fiddling with things still, wondering if it needs more.

This is a work in Progress
Arianna by the fire about 1 hour in. Finding it interesting to do skin tones on dark paper!

Road

this is from a photo in Austria....looks alot like New Hampshire though!
i am leaving it at this point for a little bit and will re-post with an update in the future...hopefully :)

ari by campfire

quick 20 study of Arianna by a campfire from this summer...i'm thinking about making this a painting on a dark paper

sad little one

This is a quick 1 hour sketch of a costumed little girl. Its done on canson 10x12

colorfull blue ram

Haircut

Johannah just got 8" cut from her hair to donate to "Locks for Love". They make wigs from donated hair for those who have lost hair to cancer treatments.
2007

Silk Dress 2007

Bridge over snow stream

This is a WIP (work in Progress) I am trying to paint snow this is my 2nd attempt...

WIP Bridge over snow stream