Painting at the cabin

We are at the cabin for New Years to celebrate with friends and family. It's about a two hour drive north from Minneapolis in a small town named Alexandria, when you arrive it's pure beauty from every direction. Growing up in Florida I never knew about having a cabin, since moving to Minnesota I've learned what it is and appreciate it. Every time we come to the cabin I never paint as much as I want to, this time I feel l I'm finally producing the amount I should be doing. These paintings I am doing are on the spot and completed within the hour, more or less. I am able to treat these paintings as drawings in my sketchbook. The first painting is of Greg playing the guitar, he was practicing the whole time and I don't think he even realized I was painting him. It was fun listening to him play great music and see the passion he has for it. The second painting I did is the view from the cabin looking out to the lake. When I was painting I was fortunate to see our friends playing on the ice and digging some ice fishing holes. I tried capturing those moments in the painting. I hope to produce more of these little guys while I'm up here, they're great visual memories to look back at. Happy New Years!

"Ivan Kramskoy Copy"

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"Copy after Ivan Kramskoy"

10 x 8 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I hope everyone had a great holiday season, I cannot believe the year is almost over.  This Christmas I had a great time with family and friends.  I was happy to also paint and enjoy the time with everyone, I would sneak in a couple sessions when the ladies were in the kitchen cooking.  I always seem to go back to Kramskoy whenever I need to practice, his portraits are captivating and his technique is breathtaking.  I never regret doing these little studies I learn from them with each session.  I will post other studies I did from Kramskoy in later post.  

I did not take any process pictures other than this one.  This a good description how I develop a portrait.

Happy Holidays everyone and a Happy New Year!

"Pumpkins"

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"Pumpkins"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to discuss tonights blog about painting what you feel and not exactly what you see.  I was going through an old sketchbook I had in college and just loved the gestures I was producing at that time.  I would always draw everywhere I went (I still do the same today), just concentrating on line quality and capturing the story to the figure along with its gesture.  When I went to Italy I started just concentrating on the technical aspect of drawing and painting, not exaggerating the pose anymore or giving it life.  One can easily get distracted by painting exactly what he or she sees instead of breathing life into the subject, there's a big difference between the two.  I think it is good to learn how to observe and practice your skills in capturing the correct measurement and so on, but giving the drawing or painting a life feel is completely different.  Once you go through training and venture on your own you have to understand what makes a drawing or a painting sing, what makes it moving, what makes it speak to you, of course depending on the particular style your into.  As for me my favorite artist always have the ability to make you feel your in the scene and moves you emotionally, and it's not because they painted or drew something photo realistic.  When you pick up the pencil or paint brush always remember what you put down is what you feel, if you'r not feeling what you'r drawing or painting then how is the viewer suppose to.

I plan to start a separate blog with just sketches that I have produced through out the years and what I am still producing.  Sketching is everything to me and I believe it deserves its own arena.

I start out with a thin application of raw umber for the drawing stage.  I went further this time wanting to have a more concrete drawing before starting to paint.  After the drawing is complete I filled in the background, the reason I did this is to create an overall tone of which the palette will be effected with chroma and value.

This process is a bit different than my previous paintings, its more painting within the lines and conforming to the drawing.  I started painting the pumpkin by just adding the overall value of the shadows and not worried about the details.Then I added the lighter values to compliment the shadows and see how much I have to push the tones.  

I then went back to the darker values and added its details and did the same with the lights.  I push things here and there until it felt right.  I repeated the process with the second pumpkin, this time adding the big cast shadow. 

Once I was done with the main part of the pumpkin I moved onto the stem and just repeated the process.

With the base I painted a general color, this is to give the overall impression of its value.  Then I painted in the darks and proceeded to do the same with the lights.

Finito!

The same applies to this painting as what I mentioned in the opening paragraph.  I am only taking the painting to the stage of what I feel is right, where it starts singing to me.  I don't care about every grain or indentation in the pumpkin, I do care about getting its correct proportions to a point.  I want to put down just enough information where I feel the particular texture or mood I am going for.

 If I don't blog before then, I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  

"Roses"

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"Roses"

9 x 12 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

The weather is definitely getting cooler as October draws to an end.  Halloween is right around the corner and day light seems to be leaving quicker.  With this painting I wanted to capture the feel of colors that seem to be transitioning from fall to winter.  White roses are beautiful in any color setting, it can get tricky due to its nature of absorbing it's surrounding colors.  With any subject you paint it radiates its surrounding colors, its even more with white roses in comparison to a regular object.  Learning to control its hues and temperature is key in order to make white roses believable.  You can argue that is true with any object your paint, with right roses one has to be even more careful with these observations.  

I hope you enjoyed this painting, thank you for stopping by.     

Apple Cider

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"Apple Cider"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I have a confession, I really do miss creating these daily paintings!  I know I have stated that I will not paint them anymore due to the new direction I want to go with my body of work, but they are great practice.  I wanted to miss them which will hopefully force me to do more, but for now I feel I got my fix.  

I wanted to create a small painting to rein in the change of season.  Here in Minneapolis the leaves are changing and the weather is becoming cooler.  Other than hot chocolate I really enjoy drinking apple cider when the weather starts to become cooler.  Being raised in Florida we are only used to one season, summer, but here in Minneapolis I have come to enjoy and appreciate the change of seasons.  All the people here really take advantage of each season, it can be below zero and they'll find something to do.  I have never had apple cider until moving here and I am addicted.  I can easily have a gallon in one night and not think twice about it.  We went to an apple orchard the weekend before and got the idea to create this painting.  My fiancee puts an orange in the pot when the cider is cooking, doing this gives a nice taste to the cider when its done.  I hope with this small painting it can give you the warmth and excitement that I feel for fall.

I also miss doing a step by step demo, glad to finally get back and show how I create these little guys.  I start with a light drawing of raw umber of the compositional setup that I am going for.  I like to keep this stage fairly light with the lines, it'll be easier to paint over once I get thicker paint onto the canvas.  Keeping the lines light also makes it easier to erase.  As you can see in the first picture with the drawing I shifted the composition to the left, if the lines were darker it would of been difficult to make that easy change.  Once the composition is complete I start with one section of the painting to give it my full attention.  I know some people like to work through the whole painting all at once, for me I find it easier to work with one section at a time and move on to the next.  It's really depends on your own work ethic.  I like to work this way but I also keep in mind when the painting is almost complete I look at the overall picture and make subtle changes.  When working in one section at a time the colors do change when you add a different element to a different section or a different value.  That's why in the end of the painting I like to go around the painting and just push thing's here and there to make the painting look like it was painted all at once.  I start with the orange by just adding the middle values and not adding the high and low keys.  At this stage I am thinking of making the form turn, not so much about the details but more about the form.  

Once the form is turning I start with the middle to darker forms, I start dabbing them where they need to be placed at.  While dabbing them in there areas I am conscious of the big form modeling I painted in the beginning stage, alway's keeping in mind that the little shapes I am painting has to work with the overall form.  In this stage I am also keeping the paints fairly thin not going to thick.  Once that middle to darker forms are complete I move onto the middle to lighter shapes.  When working in the lighter shapes I go thicker with the paints, this gives the texture I am going for and allows me to sculpt the paint.  Remember as well once you put more information down some areas will change in value and chroma, expect that and just go into that section and adjust it accordingly so.  Once the lighter forms and highlights are complete I move on to the apple.  With the apple it gets a little trickier when working with big form modeling due tot he colors all in one area.  You have to simplify the beginning stage and not get carried away with their details.  I then start to add the middle to darker values.

Then I start to add the lighter values and tie in the whole apple together.  Once the apple is close to completion I move onto the cinnamon sticks.  With the cinnamon sticks I approached it a bit different by just putting in all the information all at once rather than doing big form modeling and moving in from there.  I do like painting this way as well, I would recommend doing this once you understand how light wraps around the form and how light effects the form as well.  Painting in this manner can get really muddy quicker than you would expect it to, that's why its tricky painting this way.  In this stage I laid down all the colors and values, then I started to sculpt them where they needed to be.  It gives it a nice sculptural look that I do enjoy, I'll keep playing around with this approach.  I didn't take the cinnamon sticks to a complete finish because I needed the wooden base to be filled in since the overall value of the base effects the chroma and value of the cinnamon sticks.

I laid down a thin application of the base colors, then I was able to complete the cinnamon sticks.  Once the cinnamon sticks where complete I was able to go in the darker sections of the wooden base.  Adding the smaller darker shapes to the base brought it closer to a finish.  

After adding the lighter shapes to the base doing this changes the surround chroma and values.  I shift things here and there to make it look like a whole.  Then I move onto the background and this really brings the painting together, I am able to add any finishing details that pull everything together.  That's one of the reason's I like to take each section to a close finish, this allows me to tie everything together in the end.

My partner in crime when I paint, well he tries to be, it's hard to hold him when I'm standing and painting.    

I hope you enjoyed this demo and appreciate you stopping by.  Cheers!

Art Preview Party

This past weekend their was a huge art opening that I had the honor to be a part of.  A couple years ago Minneapolis artist Peter Geyen reached out to me to be a part of this huge art show that he orchestrates with his ideas and execution.  He combines many artist to come together to make his vision come to life, he of course has the main touch of all the pieces.  Peter's art is completely opposite than my own, that's what drew me to work with Peter and see how we can push the envelope.  I definitely went out of my own comfort zone when collaborating with these art pieces, at the same time I grew so much and gained a deeper respect with this type of art.  One of the way's this pushed me out of my comfort zone is painting on fiber glass.  

The surface is extremely slippery to paint on, using medium does nothing to help you paint on this surface.  You have to paint extremely thin to gain control of the oils, if you start to thick it can get uncontrollable really quick.  I learned a lot about painting when painting this piece, it's true what they say you have to go out of your comfort zone in order to gain and push yourself.  

This is the beginning of the night, there was a band playing and food and drinks were outside.

Artists who contributed.

Peter and Jed's great pieces.

There were a lot more pieces that I unfortunately did not take photos of.  Most of these shots were the works of my fiancee, I was away talking with people and completely forgot to take photos.  This is the second year participating in this event, I truly look forward to this event every year and hope to keep participating for many years to come.  To see the complete collection you can go to the IDS building in downtown Minneapolis on October 26 to November 10.  

Peter Paul Rubens

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 "Self Portrait of Ruben"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I have been away for such a long time doing other works and have not really worked on any daily paintings.  I have been also doing copies to try to keep my eye sharp, copies are always beneficial when trying to learn the particular artist technique your copying from.  At the Angel Atelier that's what we did for the first half of the program is copy master drawings and try to duplicate it to an exact match.  The hardest part though is not just settling for it to look almost like it, you have to push pass that barrier and make it look exactly like it (If that's what you want).  

Rubens has always been one of my heroes and it seemed fitting to try to duplicate his self portrait.  Seeing his paintings in person can be overwhelming, I remember thinking to myself one guy made all this happen, what the hell am I doing with my life.  In this modern day and age I still have not seen art taken to the magnitude that the masters took it, I am guilty from not taking it to that level either.  I do think we are getting closer but to say we have surpassed them and carrying the torch, we are far from it.  It's inspiring to see where we can go and how far we can take it, to see the masters especially Rubens take this medium to a realm where we believe whats happening on a piece of cloth is incredible. 

 I can go on and on about how much they inspire me and what I have to do with my art, the important part is recognizing and doing it.  I know I have much to say with my art, the exciting part is deciphering this language of painting like the masters did and presenting it.  I have moved away from the daily paintings for this sole purpose, to know more of my personal voice in art, to know what I am trying to convey to you guys and not just paint a simple alla prima but to have meaning of what I am painting far beyond what the surface holds.  It's a journey and not a simple one but one that satisfies me the most for when I look back at my career I would be satisfied with the choices I have made.  Alla prima paintings I still believe are beneficial in training and learning your craft, but it cannot end there.  One has to go beyond that craft of training and imply it to your personal work, learn of what you practiced and transform it to your language.  I know I will never let go of the alla prima paintings, but I do know that my own body of work for the long run needs more attention.  I hope to find a happy medium for both of them, as for now my personal work has and always will be my passion.

"An artist must breathe life into those ancient works he depicts in his art, and if necessary 'adjust' the source to achieve the desired image."  Peter Paul Rubens.

"Wild Peonies"

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"Wild Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I did not think I would paint another batch of peonies so soon but I had so much fun painting the last one why not paint another.  I did have a cooler palette with this one on the right side of the batch, I wanted to play more with the color palette but in a subtle way.  I was not going to paint this one due to needing to get packed and ready for my trip this week to Miami, but I love painting to much to not do it for such a long time.  Once I start painting its hard to stop on a consistent basis.  

We are heading off to Miami tomorrow to visit my family and enjoy my birthday as well, I'm turning 30 and still do not  know how I feel about it.  Really excited though about the future and where its going personally and professionally.  I love going to Miami and visiting family, this time it's going to be extra special with my new fiancee.  I also wanted to thank everyone for the beautiful and gracious comments in regards to my engagement, could not have been so touched by all your generous comments.  Thank you!  I hope to post something while I'm there if not I hope everyone has a great Independence Day and a wonderful weekend.

"Peonies"

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"Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel.

I've been away from painting these small gems for a while now as you may have noticed.  I have been swamped with work that needed all of my attention, I finally was able to finish half of the commissions I needed to.  I miss doing these daily's for many reasons but I know I have to get more of my personal work going rather than concentrating all of my efforts in these studies.  It is passed the season of peonies but I was able to get some off the farmers market, they were not as fresh and lively looking as I wanted them to be but they still possessed beauty.  The process of creating this painting is similar to the other alla prima's.  Each peony I handled as a sphere only concentrating how the light wraps around the form, not worrying about details yet just how light skims across the form.  At the beginning stage when modeling the lights I do not put in the highest keys in values and the darkest values.  Once this stage is complete i'm able to complete the painting by just adding the smaller forms or details to each "sphere". 

I also wanted to give you guys some news in my personal life, I just got engaged about a month ago and have been on cloud nine since.  I met my beautiful fiancee in Florence, Italy when I was studying at the Angel Academy of Art.  She was studying for a semester through the University of Minnesota.  By chance we met and I fell in love at first sight.  I moved to Minneapolis to be with her and haven't looked back since.  You can read a snippet about it on her blog.  To say I am the luckiest guy in this world is a major understatement, I am beyond blessed to have found my beautiful fiancee.

Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoyed this one!  

"Bacchante & Satyr"

"Bacchante & Satyr"

9 x 6 in

Ball Point Pen

This is a ball point pen drawing I've been working for a while now, its from the collection of the M.I.A.  I usually don't draw multi-figures with ball point pen but loved the challenge of it, especially since I wanted to capture the texture from the marble with ink.  The draw back is that I did not have enough space on my paper to get the right side of the satyr's thigh, but that is the price I pay for drawing directly on with ink without any preparation.  With all my ball point pen drawings that's how I start with light short lines indicating where shapes will be placed.  I'm working on another piece right now and taking process photos, I've been getting a lot of questions on my process with these ball point pen drawings and hope with the process photos you can get a better idea of how I execute them.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing! 

If you notice the yellow tint on the right side of the drawing, that's oils from my hand another lesson to put something between your hand and the drawing.

"Yellow Ranunculus"

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"Yellow Ranunculus"

10 x 8 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

"Beach Memories"

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"Beach Memories"

6 x 6 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Have been out of the loop for a bit but have been really busy with other projects which I hope to share with you guys soon.  Hope you enjoy my new alla prima!

"Green Vase"

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"Green Vase"

6 x 6 in 

Oil on Canvas Panel

Today I saw this vase around the house and saw how much I liked the way it looks on these wooden panels.  There's no particular explanation why I chose to paint this just the sole purpose of getting inspired by what I saw at that moment.  It's great being able to pick up the brush and just paint what you see, I was not planning to paint today but I did see this vase and how the light was hitting it and just had to.  There's beauty in everything we see I know it sounds cheesy but its very true, it can be the most mundane thing and it still has some beauty to it.  It just matters how one perceives what he or she is looking at.  

I started with the usual dry brush approach of using just a bit of raw umber on the brush for the drawing stage.  After the drawing stage I stated the local color in the vase by using viridian, cadmium yellow and raw umber.  When stating the general colors I am also stating the big form modeling, i'm not stating the extreme values of the darkest and lightest values just a close approximation to get a base down.  The extreme shifts of values I leave towards the end of smaller form modeling.

Then I start stating the middle to darker value within the vase, this is where I start stating the darkest values to get the point across that the form is turning.  Then I state the lighter values with their specific forms, this stage I also state the highest value or highlight to tie it together. 

After the vase is done I moved on to the background and stated the base and background together.  I used ultramarine blue, raw umber, naples yellow and titanium white for both.  I hope you enjoyed this simple and quick painting, thanks for stopping by and viewing.

"Ranunculus"

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"Ranunculus"

8 x 10 in 

Oil on Canvas Panel

I haven't painted flowers in a while and wanted to paint these, I gave these ranunculus to my girlfriend and decided after a couple days that I needed to paint their beauty.  I've been busy painting larger paintings and producing ball point pen drawings so it was nice to change the pace to these alla prima's.  After not painting alla prima's for a while it was tough to get started and find a rhythm, after half way through it started to click and come back to me.  I really do miss painting these guys on a daily basis but at the same time I like devoting most of my time to my larger more personal work.  The sole purpose of these alla prima paintings is for practice and try to understand the oils as best as I can.  Painting flowers are a bit different than painting a regular object in a still life, first flowers move by the hour and second their form is far more intricate and complicated.  I found painting flowers you have to simplify their shape as much as you can and towards the end of the painting stages thats where you can get complicated with the rendering.  Overall it's a joy and pleasure to paint a beautiful subject matter as this.

I started with the usual dry brush approach by just applying a bit of raw umber on the brush and using no mediums.  When the drawing is completed I then stated the background and after the general statement of the flowers and vase.  At this stage I just lay in a thin layer of paint which creates a nice surface for the oils in the later stages.  I am also concerned of the movement of light at this stage, big form modeling if you will.  I used ultramarine blue, naples yellow and titanium white for the background.  For the roses I mainly used quinacridone magenta for the initial stages, and for the leaves and vase I used viridian and naples yellow.  I usually don't lay out my colors all at once because I like the keep the paints fresh in every section I work in, I do know with certain colors you are able to get away with that instead of having a dry look towards the end of the painting.

Once the big form modeling was complete I then started to just concentrate on individual sections, I choose the first left roses to paint.  First I stated the darker values with their specific shapes, the colors I used were quinacridone magenta and ultramarine blue for the darker values.  Once the darker shapes were complete I moved on to the lighter shapes and stated their specific forms.  I used titanium white mixed with quinacridone magenta for the highlights and lighter values.  I repeated the same process with the middle set of flowers

As you can see its the same process when stating the lighter values after the darks are complete.  It usually flows nicely when you complete each stage well,  there are at times were you do have to go back and adjust certain things to get the overall value or paint quality right, just depends on how the look of the object your painting.  I repeated the same process with the third set of flowers on the right side of the painting.

Once the flowers are complete I moved onto the vase and stating the middle to darker values, the colors I used for this stage were viridian, and ultramarine blue.  This area is a good lesson in not painting every hair on a dog to get the point across that theirs a lot going on, as long as you paint a representation of the form and whats going then your find getting away with it.  If I was to paint every single strand of stem and leaf then it would start to come out bland.  You have to choose your battle and see what information is important to leave in their when you paint, what will help you'r painting out if you were to leave that out or push it more in order to get the message across.  Remember your the director of this frame you can choose what the viewer see's and feels.

I finished the painting by stating the small stems poking out of the flowers.  I hope you guys enjoyed this one, I know I did and hope to do more in the near future.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing!

"The Butcher"

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"The Butcher"

7 x 5 in

Ball Point Pen

This portrait is of our local butcher that I have been wanting to draw for quit some time now.  I stopped him one day and finally had the courage to ask him to pose for me, to my delight he agreed.  I enjoyed drawing this portrait for many reasons, one of which is that I know this person but at the same time I really don't know him that well.  To try to capture him through the drawing was a challenge in that aspect, but since seeing him so much at the store I feel like I got a good idea of his personality.  I wanted to keep the background blank to frame the portrait and have all the contrast in the center.  To say I enjoyed this drawing is an understatement I hope to do more of these in the near future.  Thanks for stopping by hope you enjoyed! 

"Mixed Tomatoes II"

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"Mixed Tomatoes II"

8 x 10 in 

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to continue the play on colors with these delicious tomatoes, I especially wanted to have an array of colors with an interesting composition.  The textures in their skin is extremely subtle along with their color shifts.  I felt for the most part I was painting mini balloons, never painted balloons before and now have an idea on how to do so.  With this painting I wanted to revisit big form modeling and implore that idea further.  I've stressed in previous posts about the importance of big form modeling and with this posting I'll do the same.  Playing with so many elements at once is challenging but delightful after seeing its completion from start to finish.

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber on the brush.  Once the drawing is complete I state the general colors of the tomatoes all at once, I do this to get unity out of the group of, this also lets me create a base to move my paint around and have that unity from beginning to end.  In this stage I am not concerned with big form modeling or details just the general flat color of the area.  The colors I use for this section are cad.red, cad.orange, cad.yellow medium hue.

After the general stage is complete I then start on big form modeling, this stage I start adding different colors that help turn the form with its light.  Still not worried about "details" or small form modeling just on how the form is turning away and into the light.  It's important to state that this stage is crucial in order to have a successful completion to your later stages.  I also stated the background in this stage to tackle the edges further.  Big form modeling is essentially laying down all the ground work for you, the smaller forms later or the "details" will lay in perfectly if the big form is done right.  With big form modeling I don't lay in the highest highlight or darkest value just a middle of the two to get the form turning.  Then on the next frame you can see that I laid in the smaller forms with the darker values and lighter values.  I like to break them up into two sections starting with darker then lighter values.  These sections work just right with the big form modeling, of course there is some areas that need fine tuning in order for the smaller form model to work right, but for the most part big form modeling lay's out the blueprint for each section you'r painting.

Once the tomatoes are complete I then start on the wooden base by approaching it the same way as I did with the wooden base.  First laying in the general colors and then doing the big form modeling or a fall light across the board.  Again not worried about the grainy textures in the wood just on the general light moving across the form.  This stage I am not applying the lightest or darkest values, I get close but stop since I add those details with the finishing touches.  Then on the next frame I state the smaller forms by first applying the darker values with their specific forms.  For this stage I used primarily burnt umber, raw umber titanium white, naples yellow and cerulean blue.

Once the darker forms are complete I state the lighter forms and take the wooden board to a finish.  I can see after adding the overall value of the base that the tomatoes started to look lighter in the darker areas, which is normal if you add a darker element next to it.  I went back into the tomatoes and darkened certain sections in order for them to work with the whole painting.  I hope you enjoyed this one and really had an understanding of my concept when I paint.  I appreciate you guys stopping by and viewing, till next time au revoir! 

"Mixed Tomatoes"

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"Mixed Tomatoes"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I'm finally back after such a long hiatus, I've been working on larger paintings and also ball point pen drawings.  I've decided to slow down a bit with these alla prima's and concentrate a bit more on my personal art work.  I felt as if these alla prima's started to become my identity as an artist and their sole purpose from the beginning is to just be practice paintings, in which they are.  I'm diving into larger more allegorical paintings, which means they do take longer to produce and I will not be devoting as much time to these alla prima's.  It's hard to not paint these little guys every day but I have to force myself in order to really produce a body of work that truly speaks as to who I am as an artist.  I plan to still produce one or two a week of these alla prima paintings after all I do love painting them and learn so much every time I finish one.  

On a side note I'll be teaching again this week coming up on the 22nd of March figure drawing at the Bloomington Art Center.  You can check out their site here and sign up for my class!

You can still sign up for my "Pink Roses" lesson!