Demo (kinda')

I meant to take more photos but when you are painting it's hard to remember to do it. I started well but as my concentration level goes up, the number of photos goes down.
I painted at Cheatham Wildlife Management Area in the Dyson Ditch area which is managed for duck hunting. During the fall the gates are left open for the duck hunters to come in and work on their blinds but are then closed before the season begins. Today was the day they locked the gates. I noticed some of the areas across the river had already been closed so I guess I was lucky getting this one more painting done. It's some absolutely gorgeous country that will now have to wait until late winter for me.
I painted this painting in a slow on and off drizzle. If it is slow enough I enjoy painting like that. The colors are a bit more saturated and the light a little bit slower.

"Don't Quit Your Day Job"

Someone asked me over the weekend what kind of work I did before my fine art career and I tried to explain that I was and still am an illustrator and they asked what kind and I said it would be better for me to show you than to try to explain a style that when I do explain it, most people have a very confused look trying to somehow tie it to what I do now. You can't. It is a totally different frame of mind. It has very little in common with what I have been doing with my fine art but I will say I developed an ability to draw that I think transfers well. When I started I may have been a bit ahead because of all the drawing I had done over the years but like I said,"everyone starts at zero in plein air painting."
Anyway, here are a few sketches I have done for a couple of my clients over the past week. If I remember to scan them I'll post finishes when I am done. I still try to squeeze a few in here and there.

Eye Candy

If you would like to take your eyeballs out for a little treat for all they have done for you, Anne Blair Brown has a show hanging in the gallery space at Harpeth Hall school in Nashville. The school is surrounded by Hobbs Rd, Estes Rd.and Esteswood. The gallery is located off the Esteswood Drive entrance. It's always nice to find a show like this in the Nashville area and within driving distance.
Anne's work is beautiful, full of color, nice and loose and has this wonderful buttery quality to the paint application. It's an impressive show in a very nice gallery space.
Go take a look. Your rods and cones will love you for it.

Aaahhhhh......

.....green turp.

Red Turp

If you ever walk by me and see that I have red turp or any shade there of in my turp container, know that I am in over my head. I am a landscape painter so typically the turpentine in my container will be this wonderful earthy green or brown. When it is red or pink or peach I have crossed into uncharted territory for me. Such was the case this Wednesday.
I am part of a group of painters called the "Yonder Painters" and we meet once a month to paint figures in the landscape. I haven't painted figures since art school 30 yrs ago and this is my second attempt in that 30 yrs.
My turp was red.
I found everything about it difficult. There was so much there to paint I just can't get everything in the 3 hrs. we paint. They had tables, flowers, umbrellas, draperies, chairs, and, oh yeah, the model. I wanted to get into painting the figure again so that is what I concentrated on. And you can tell it is very unfinished. To have done it all at the speed I paint something I have little experience with would have required a week. And the worst part is as soon as you get that groove going or you get "in the zone" the alarm goes off to let the model know it's "break!" Mother nature doesn't need a break. She models as long as I need her. But she will throw ticks or lightning at you from time to time. Everything's a trade off.
When I peruse some of my art mags I tend to glimpse at some of the figure work and move on to the landscapes. I have said it before but if you want to develop an appreciation for something, try it. The figure work in these magazines now gets my undivided attention.

Process Alterations

Recently I did a painting with what is referred to as the "Zorn palette". By doing it I added black to my cache of paint colors. This morning before painting I squeezed a little on my palette and used it to make some of my greens. Maannn it makes beautiful greens. I loved it. It was a bit overcast so the greens out there were real warm and rich, full of color. With the black I could get those rich, warm greens. I had to be careful though with the blue greens. They would seem to get too blue at times and I would have to warm them a bit.
I have found painting to be one of the most fluid, organic things I have attempted. As soon as I get settled on something, I find something I like better. I think I referred to myself as fickle in one of the previous posts. I have changed brushes, panels, paint colors. And now I have black in my arsenal. I am also trying some different paint brands. I tried the Sennelier brand paints recently and I haven't come to a definitive opinion on them yet but you will be the first to know when I do.
I don't know if I will ever find just one way to do this. There are some I enjoy more than others but there are just so many ways to get from point A to point B in this that it's always experimentation and changing. It also dosen't help that my head is like Play-Doh.
The paintings posted are from the past two days. The beanfield is from Cheatham Wildlife Managemant Area at Hudgin's Slough and the other is a private farm in Totty's Bend. It's the one I added the black to.