Saturday, January 31, 2009

Pushing the limits

Went to Old Airport beach today, and wanted to try a larger panel..........12"x 16" today. Blazing sun, and acrylic paint......not a good combination, but today, I got it to work a bit. I'm getting better at blocking in and abstracting the color shapes.......I still have to make color corrections because the acrylics dry a bit darker, but that seems to give me a nice color variation like in the sky and the ocean. The part that pleased me the most were the rocks at the waters edge. No painting rocks today......just brush strokes of color, an viola!! Rocks!
I wish I could build up a thicker layer of paint, but with the acrylics I can't squeeze enough out at a time without a lot of it drying up. Now where did I leave my set of oils??

Friday, January 30, 2009

#28


This is painting #28 in my learning to paint in plein aire series. Its a painting of a pink geranium in my rock garden, painted in the dusk of evening. I'm making note of its number because its taken this many starts before I really "got it" as far as abstracting and painting shapes instead of flowers. I like the looseness...and I have plenty of color still using my limited palette. On ward to # 29

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Waiting on the Sun.....again


Its early evening, and I'm in a scenic area..........a pull-off area along the highway where people can "look at the scenery". I have my eye on some bouganvillas across the street, and I'm waiting for the sun to come out from under the clouds to light them up. And waiting, and waiting.......... OK, its not going to happen. But there is a sliver of orange sun on the horizon, so I'll give that a try. And you know what...its not bad. Hurray for me!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Old Airport Beach


I tried an 11"x14" panel today at one of the local beaches. It was a sunny clear sky, mid-day, but the good part was that I could view my subject from under the shelter of a picnic pavillion roof. I'm getting better at abstracting shapes of color, instead of trying to "paint things". The colors of this say Hawaii to me. I think I may make a few minor alterations to this back in the studio, such as creating a gap in the rocks to invite the viewer all the way into the scene, and adjusting the shadow shapes a bit, to differentiate them from being part of the trees. After I complete these revisions, I will repost the piece to compare the differences.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Flower Time


I have seen many nice simple paintings of a single flower in a glass, so I thought I would give that a try. I got a nice protea, and set it up, and added some purple to my pallette. Some of this I like, and some I don't. I start of with the idea of real colors, but they always seem a bit dull and lifeless.......so I kind of take off and punch them up a bit. Its a good thing I use a limited pallette...............I like the flower and the glass, but the fabric and the background are not happening. Not simple enough, with too much going on. I'm learning.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Can I do it?


I wanted to try one more piece at the harbor before I left. I had a limited time to work, as I had to pick up my wife in approximatley 1 hour. I knew this was a complicated subject to try in such a short period of time, but I wanted to push myself into harder things to see what I can do and to help me advance as a painter. Here is the results..............I liked it better the next day after my frustration wore off. :)

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Sunshine. Palm Trees and Boats




I was at the harbor again....there is so much there to see. I tried a larger 11"x14" panel today with mixed results. The paint kept getting really sticky making it hard to cover the whole canvas, before it dried up. After I finished the palm trees, the sun was low enough to where the water was silver and the boats were coming in for the day. I did the little sailboat in this sparkle of light just to "try" to capture the effect. I think I did OK.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Waiting for the sun


This afternoon/early evening I was waiting for the sun to set low enough to "light up" the house across the street. One of the things I have to contend with is the narrow window of early evening light, before the sun drops below the cloud layer at the horizon and its gone for good. So I wait as long as I think I can then I paint The House Across the Street.........and wouldn't you know it, half way through the sun beams right on it. Too late now...........

maybe next time

Friday, January 23, 2009

A day of Adventure and the vanishing cows




On this day my wife and I packed the car and drove north looking for a "change of scenery" for subject matter. As you head up in elevation here in Hawaii, it cools down and there are grassy hills with mountains and pine trees. After exploring a bit we drove down a little side road and came upon a grassy field filled with cows. What a cool subject! Since the road was very narrow, we had to drive to the end of it and turn around to park the truck...........and wouldn't you know it, by the time we got back there wasn't a cow in sight! They all had walked down into a narrow ravine out of any line of sight...........guess they we shy cows.


About a half hour later we arrived at Kawaihae Harbor, The sun was getting low enough where it made the water all silver and sparkly..........this is it. Todays "challenge"...make the painting sparkle like the ocean is. This 8"x10" is the result which I was really happy with.......and so was one of the onlookers who watched me paint it, as he literally bought it right off my easel before it was dry. :) I painted a smaller canoe that was sitting in the inlet with mixed results........but not every swing is a home run. All in all it was a good learning day.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Inside Edition


Today the day was so busy, it was dark before I could paint outside, so I set up a small still life in my studio. The control of painting inside was nice, but I still pushed a little for speed as I wanted to paint wet into wet with my acrylics. I kinda like this little 8"x10"

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Is bigger, better?




I have been starting to think about trying a bit larger painting the next time I out. My largest to this point have been 8"x10" and I'm quite comfortable with that size. However......my aspiration is to become good enough to sell this work, and a larger format, perhaps 16"x20" is what I'm shooting for. So I'm going to try a 11"x14" or 12"x16" today, and work my way up in size. I just don't want to loose the look of spontanaety the smaller pieces have.


The 2 little pieces shown here, were painted in my driveway ....late afternoon, early evening.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Another fun Day!







Painted at the marina again today.......I've seen some sailboats there that I always like, so I thought I would give them a try. There was a lot of stuff going on, and trying to simplify and abstract it was very hard. I will paint these boats again at a later date to see the difference. After I finished the boats I turned my easel to the right and tried the bouganvillas that grow all around the marina. Lastly I painted one of the extinct volcanos here on the Big Island. I finally freed up a bit, and using a lot of paint is helping...all in all a productive day.

Monday, January 19, 2009

These look interesting




Sometimes for me its easier to paint simple when doing less complicated subjects. With these little still lifes, painted outdoors, I can control the elements present in my painting. I spend more time painting and less time "trying to figure it out". Plus they still give you the outdoor feel.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

My most favorite place







Honokohau marina is one of my most favorite places here in Hawaii. There are boats, beaches and lots of stuff going on all the time. These 2 pieces were painted there on 8"x10" panels, mid morning. They are both done in acrylic, with an effort being made to use more paint, and not be so stingy. I'm liking the way it feels to use more paint, and my results are better. I'm also making an effort to be looser and less detailed. Well here they are.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The need for speed




Tried a sunset off my back lani, with mixed results. The sun goes down a lot faster than one thinks, and my ability to mix colors and keep up with it are not up to par yet. I also decided to add Cad. red light to my pallette after not getting the warmer reds and oranges I wanted. Here are paintings #8, 9 in my plein air learning process. I'm also switching to a bigger brush next time.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Its hard to be simple


I'm finding that its a little difficult simplifying my subject matter. I'm looking for a loose, colorful painting, but I'm having a hard time simplifying my subjects. Case in point with this painting.........I kept trying to paint all the rocks in my rock garden. This is something I need to work on.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Still not getting the color I want




I am still struggling a bit with my limited pallette. While my paintings have more harmony with this 4 color pallette, they lack the excitement I want. I like this little 8"x10" panel called "The Derelict". Its a solid representation of what I saw at the marina. To me it seems as though it needs a bit more energy. What do you think?

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Learning Curve




I'm still hanging with the acrylics a bit longer as I read a bit on the American Artist website on acrylic painting that made me think. It was about painting looser, and using more paint......a problem I have as I worry about wasting it. Today I used more paint....and still worried about it, but when the pieces were done there was no leftover paint on my glass! Plus it was a LOT MORE FUN! The pieces I did today were numbers 9 and 10. Todays post will show 3 and 4. If you follow the progression of the blog you'll really see the difference.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Where do they get those colors?


So I'm trying to take a bit more realistic approach to my color in my plein aire venture. I'm starting very basically with just white, aliz. crimson, ultramarine blue, cad. yellow light, and viridian green. I'm finding it very hard to get the brightness of the reds, pinks and purples I want. I think I will be adding more to my pallette soon, but I want to explore this limited pallette a bit more 1st. Here is plein aire painting #2

Monday, January 12, 2009

Todays the day


This week I've decided to become a plein aire painter. My training is all with acrylics, but long ago I bought myself a small set of oils, So after spending the 1st week of painting outdoors, frustrated with my paint drying before I could finish mixing my color, I pulled out my old oils. I plan to paint at least 1 plein aire painting per day, and save them to chart my progress. Pictured with here is painting #1 done in acrylic. Lets see how we do! :)