Johnny and His Bike

Not sure if this one is finished or not. I'll look at it a day or so and see if I can figure it out. Pardon the poor photograph, it's large and difficult to shoot well.

Johnny and His Bike
40" x 30", oil on stretched canvas

The Road Back Home

Finished

Here's one I started tonight. A big one for me, 30" x 40" on a linen canvas I stretched today. I've been stretching on 1 1/2" stretcher bars and like the sturdiness it gives.

I like how this painting is progressing, although I'm not painting in my usual way. For one, I usually paint alla prima, in one sitting/session. But not tonight for a couple of reasons... a) I'm tired and my elbow hurts. b) I want this first night's effort to dry a bit before I start adding color tomorrow. The ground is thin, and the darks are thinned Burnt Umber, so both should be good by the time get back to it.

The other difference is the use of a small brush at the beginning stage. Normally I'll use a big 1 1/2" or 2" bristle brush to throw down some big shapes quickly. Well, with this one I felt the need to slow down and get my center of interest correctly drawn and in the right place on the canvas before doing anything else. After I got the COI drawn I continued with the small brush, a #1 bristle, and sketched with it only, to the point you see here.

If someone could please play taps for my little brush I'd appreciate it. Or, you could call the cops on me, 'cause I killed it. It's a nub. But it did the job it was meant to do.

Now, it will be interesting to see if little nubbie died in vain. ;)

To be continued...

Morning Tracks

A few months ago I did a series of paintings from Google Street View that I called the State Series. One small 5" x 7" in oils from each state. I ended up with quite a few that I thought would make good BIG paintings. Here's the first. It was originally Suffolk, Virginia.

Including a pic of both together so you can see the size difference. The little one sitting on top of the big one.

30" x 40", oil on canvas

Low Tide Update...

I thought I would let this sit for a day or two, and think about what I wanted to accomplish with it, but I just couldn't. As you can see from the detail shots I got the palette knife out and think it helped (maybe). I'm getting happier with it at this point, but I'm not sure about the area below the stranded little dock. I have part of the dry land jutting out under the dock, but also have a slight shadow cast from the dock onto the water. To me this is confusing, as it could be seen as two shadows.

Any thoughts?

Low Tide

This is one of the largest paintings I've attempted. Quite a change from all those tiny 5" x 7" knife paintings I've been doing for the last month and a half.

This one measures 30" x 40", and is Classic Artist Oil on birch panel, and was painted with brushes for a change. I started it last night, worked on it a bit before going to work this morning, then at lunch, and finally this afternoon/evening.

Not sure if it's finished to tell you the truth. Think I'll look at it for a couple of days. Any thoughts, comments or suggestions are more than welcome.