Still Life Studies

It has been awhile since my last post.  I have been keeping busy doing still life studies.  That is mainly because it is either to cold to go outside or the mountain cedar pollen season here in Central Texas is rearing its ugly head.  I think still life is a great way to study color harmony, light, and just observation skills.  Of course some are more successful than others.  I love color and still life painting is a great way to get away with using luscious color.  The other aspect of doing these little paintings (8x8) is getting to try out different formats.  I have used the square format quite a bit in landscape painting and I'm also liking it in still life painting.  The hardest part about still life painting for me is deciding what to include in the painting to create an interesting arrangement of shapes that fill the canvas and are pleasing to the eye.  Another aspect about these setups was the subtle reflections in the surface.  Well maybe not so subtle in the apple set up.  I'm not sure it really qualifies as pleasing to the eye either, but I love red so it allows me the opportunity to play with it.

Asian Tranquility

Asian Box and Lily

Apple Trio

Asian Harmony

Fall Color

Cypress Parade - I think this is one of the prettiest fall seasons that I've experienced in Texas and I was able to get some plein air painting days in before the weather turned cold.  The Guadalupe River is ablaze with these cypress trees.  However, after the winter winds have had their way with them the leaves will be gone. 

The second painting is Autumn Cypress, which was also painted along the Guadalupe River in Center Point, TX.  Maybe the drought has stressed the trees to the point where they are answering back with the loveliest colors. 

Die Kunstler Art Show and Sale 2013

Well, it has been a long time since I last posted and thought the Die Kunstler Art Show was a perfect occasion for getting back in to it.  All of these paintings have been entered into the 2013 annual show and sale in Fredericksburg, TX.

I went to an art class in September in Taos, NM and was able to do many paintings (some good some bad), but it was a wonderful time and the weather was gorgeous.  The grasses were unbelievably beautiful, which I tried to capture in this painting, "Glorious Morning."  That is one of the best things about being an artist, you get to really look at the landscape.

The second painting is also from Taos.  The morning light was shining on the adobe wall creating the most interesting shadows.  I call this painting "Light and Shadow."

 The third painting was done on location last winter in Comfort, TX.  Please note that the mercury vapor light is lighter than the sky, which happened to be very overcast that day.  I call this painting "Old Barns and Truck."  The ranch has now been sold, so my art buddies and I are hoping the new owner will let us paint there occasionally.

 The fourth painting, "The Old Depot,"  was painted on location in Waring, TX.  It is about a mile from our house and the town looks just as it did in the 1930's.

This is my cat, "Jack."  I decided to use him as a study in a limited palette and to utilize the concept that less is more.  The eye is the center of interest and I utilized lots of paint, then as you move away from the eye, it is mostly thin washes of paint.

Capitan Morning View

The Capitan Mountains in New Mexico are beautiful in morning light.  During the monsoon season the light has a warm glow where the sun coming up catches the wispy clouds.  By afternoon the clouds are huge thunderheads.

River Rocks

I love to study water flowing over river rocks.  When the water is clear you see so much color reflecting back the light of the sun.  And when there is more of a slope you see the water rushing down these miniature waterfalls and creating the white foam.  This is the Rio Ruidoso, just a mountain stream these days, but I've seen it when it was a raging torrent!

Clouds Building Up

In honor of Cloud Appreciation Day I decided to paint the clouds over the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico.  We are in the midst of monsoon season and the clouds build up every day to real thunder heads.  The burn scars from last years fire are very visible against the green from all the rain.

Super Moon

I decided to do the supermoon again last night from a different location.  This is near a golf course overlooking the elementary school.  It is hard to predict where the moon is going to pop up so I picked a vantage point that had a wide view.  Also the moon came up later than the night before so could barely see my palette in the dark.