January 5th 2012

This drawing today is a detailed sketch that is for a conceptual piece to be completed later. I have lots of thoughts about life, and how I fit into it, and I picture these thoughts as analogies that involve real objects. This mason jar is a part of that picture in my brain. One of the components is to draw swirling smoke in the jar with the smoke just about to curl out of the top. I tried lighting several things on fire in my kitchen today, mostly paper towels and trapping the smoke but it seemed to dissipate too quickly. More research into smoke is necessary...

January 4th 2012

Todays painting is from a photograph taken in Luna Pier Michigan. It is of the sunrise over Lake Erie. I really love this photograph from the sky shapes to the concrete forms in the water. Day 4 complete!

January 3rd 2012

Todays painting is from a photograph I took on the North forty. It was dark outside, twilight actually and the sky turned this amazing blue purple. The dark puffs of clouds were perfect. Day 3 complete!

January 2nd 2012

ugh, oranges. I wanted to do a landscape but they looked so pretty (but I know I will hate painting them, but they look so pretty, but it wont look good, etc etc etc). So I did oranges. I got my revenge and ate one. ha!

January 1st 2012

90 days, or some version of it, begins again. Last year I successfully painted everyday for 90 days. The rewards were amazing throughout the process. My skills grew exponentially and my approach to art is now rock solid. Getting started in painting is one of the most challenging things for most artists. The idea is there but you fear the result and the possibility of failure. With 90 days, you push past that and force yourself to get over it. Because tomorrow you will paint again and its "just a daily" painting. So here is the first painting of 90...

some recent art

 I made this painting Plein Air in Boston, Ohio for the OPAS competition. It was fun and quite liberating to work large again with oils. I would like to polish this one up a bit and revisit the site again, but overall I like it!

This painting is made plein air in Putman county, another OPAS site. I really was thinking hard about painting weather lately and wanted to paint something other than sunshine. Alas, this is what I found. Gloomy day, windy as all get out, but fun. One minor detail, I forgot to pick out all of the debris from the field wind so its all trapped in the paint, which makes it quite authentic!

11/26/11

Today it was back to portraiture. This is a painting of my niece and I feel good about my portraiture shoes... they still fit.