Raw Winter

"Pink Umbrella," oil on panel, 8x10, private collection

The beginning of this winter has been raw and cold, with occasional sparse rain showers until a few days ago. Grey skies, cold winds, raw ground and bare trees these last days made me think of "Pink Umbrella," a small oil dating to a decade or so ago. Feels like that here.
 

Visitor

I live alongside a spring-fed creek, surrounded by woods, despite being only five minutes from downtown. That means there is always a menagerie outside my home studio--songbirds, squirrels, a groundhog or two, deer in abundance, and the occasional surprise, even in winter.

This is a graphite sketch from a few years ago of a stag heading into the woods across our creek. I drew him quickly with a soft pencil on toned paper, emphasizing a few darks, then added lights with chalk.

Sunshine at Solstice

A couple of years ago I wrote about the winter solstice along with posting a celebratory watercolor. As I mentioned in that post, this time of year with short, darker days and long, cold nights seems to always remind me of George Harrison's famous song, "Here Comes the Sun," an upbeat and optimistic paean celebrating spring. 

Here's another bright watercolor to welcome sunshine's return.

"Schefflera Sunset," wc/ink on paper

 

Centenarian

More than a century old, this Ford Model T truck is still started with a crank instead of a mechanical starter. It's owner kindly brought it out to pose for me one day last summer. I painted it on the spot and took reference shots, then did a larger studio piece afterward. 

"David's T," oil on panel, 11x14

 

Golden Memory

"Woodland Path, Adirondacks," wc/ink on papeer, 5x9

T.his is a sun-dappled path through the Adirondacks, a memory of a summer past. This quick watercolor sketch was done there a few years back.

Antifreeze

When cold weather settles on us--like the past few days--it's useful to think of warmer and sunnier times. It's antifreeze for an Iowa winter. Here's an image to warm up with: Bradenton, Florida in December.

"Florida," wc/ink on paper, ~5x7

Think warming thoughts.

"Savanna" Goes Home

This week I had the honor of delivering "Savanna," one my series of paintings celebrating the Whiterock Conservancy here in central Iowa. This oil is 24x30 on canvas, a view of an area of oak savanna at the Conservancy. Oak savanna, a kind of prairie dotted with burr oaks, is one of the kinds of primeval landscapes being preserved and managed there. 

"Savanna," oil on canvas, 24x30

The idea behind this work was to indicate the vastness of the landscape by drawing the viewer's eye deep into the picture using the trail, standing grasses, and relative sizes of trees. Intended as a celebration and (partly) as a lament for what we've lost. 

With Liz Garst at Whiterock Conservancy

 

Another Favorite

This still life dates from around the time of the last one posted and has a similar subject. This one was an experiment painted on an unusual composite material I was thinking of using. It's a chrome-plated coffee creamer, part of a cream and sugar set.  

The bright reflection and sharp edge of the pouring spout are what make us believe in the dimensionality of the subject.

Something Different

"Breakfast," oil on panel, 8x10

These past few years virtually all of my work has been landscapes. Before the pandemic, the paintings I produced varied across the list of genres--still life, portraits, landscapes, and genres like "vanitas." Once in a while it's fun to post something besides landscapes. 

Here are some different things. "Breakfast," is a limited still life--a coffee cup and spoon on a gessoed panel. I primed the panel with a warm wash then painted the cup and spoon directly, alla prima, in about an hour. This was done some years back when I was trying to do at least one small oil sketch or painting every morning, as a studio warmup.

"Racing," casein on panel, 4x6

The second (above) is not only different is subject, it used a different medium than oil. This is a tiny casein painting on hardboard. The panel was gessoed, then primed thinly with burnt sienna. The scene is a sailboat race on Puget Sound, from a personal snapshot. Casein paint is milk-based and dries almost immediately as it leaves the brush, so I painted small. This tiny painting probably took thirty minutes to finish. It's long since gone to a private collection.

Low Water

Drought conditions have been present in parts of Iowa, in varying levels of severity, for about three years. The river I see most often is the Raccoon, which meanders through a floodplain north of my home studio called Waterworks Park. The river is the source of tap water for Des Moines and though it hasn't run dry so far as I know, the level has been low for months.

Not long ago the Saturday group went to the park and I took time to draw a bend of the river that comes near one of the park roads. 

"Low Water," wc/ink on paper 5.5x9

Sunny Florida

Thanksgiving week in Florida is sunny and warm--70 degrees at 7am. This is the view behind my son's home--mangroves and palm trees. The two red plants are Hawaiian ti plants--often with brilliant red leaves.. 

"Out Back, Bradenton," wc on paper 5x6

Fruitful November

With the change of seasons, autumn colors come to the forefront. Depending on climate, local conditions, rainfall and probably many other factors, the colors of fall may be bright or dull, transient or long-lasting. Locale has a lot to do with how foliage changes. Areas with lower temperatures or less daily sunshine have much different patterns of color. 

Here in central Iowa the brilliant colors began going dull in late October so that by Thanksgiving the trees were bare or clothed in dark rusty hues. Here and there, especially in protected areas, some undegrowth and smaller trees were still pale yellow. Reds and scarlets were all gone. But the weather during the first three weeks of November was surprisingly mild with high temperatures into the sixties and only a few nights below freezing. That made outdoor sketching easy and enjoyable. Here are a few.

Notice how trees lost their leave and how colors evolved early in the month. 

"Union Park," wc and ink on paper 6x9

"Along Woodland Ave," wc and ink on paper, 8x10

"On Woodland," wc and ink on paper, 8x10

 

Near Dubuque

"Near Dubuque," oil on canvas, 8x16

The foliage along the Mississippi River can be spectacular in autumn. This new panoramic landscape shows the view across the river toward Illinois. Reference photo kindly supplied by Karen Stewart.

Autumn Watercolors

If you read this blog you know that many Saturday afternoons our group of sketchers goes outdoors to work. During November I've been out with them twice so far--the weather has been salubrious--so here are my two Saturday sketches so far. They're both about 6x9 in one of my bound sketchbooks.

"Greenwood Park lagoon, 110423" wc on paper

"Union Park, 111123"

Inktober Wrapup

"Saddled Up," ink on paper (crow quill)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October is gone and with it another month of pen and ink practice. No reason it couldn't/shouldn't continue, so we'll see about that. In the meantime, Inktober turned out to be a productive month of ink work. 

As I noted in the beginning, many of my first efforts were done using technical pens (see the first few posts of this seeries). As a review, technical pens have a fixed-diameter point that releases ink well and makes good, dark, uniform lines. In their infancy technical pens were used for technical drawings (when they were done by hand) to allow for excellent, consistent lines. Today of course they're a primary pen for many draftspeople. 

I also wanted to practice with the ancient standby, dip pens. To that end I also did a number of works using a crow quill nib--a metal nib that looks like a founatain pen tip (more on that below), but must be dipped into an inkwell or bottle every so often to reload the pen. These old-time pens are difficult to master but allow an enormous variety of line widths and allow the artist or calligrapher to make tapering and swooping lines. I posted several of those previously and "Saddled Up" (above) is another, done with a crow quill and liquid ink.

Finally, I also wanted to work with a fixd-nib fountain pen because liquid ink is most interesting and also requires care in use. These last two were done with an inexpensive medium-nib fountain pen. A fountain pen is certainly more convenient that a simple steel nib since there's no dipping, but the pen I used for these two studies had a nib that was less flexible, so line variations were minimal, even with increased pressure. It may require more searching to find a fountain pen with a tip more suitable for the sort of drawing I favor.

"Anchor Chain," fountain pen on papeer

"Scratchy," fountain pen on paper

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Inktober 2023 Links

Welcome to Inktober

More Inktober 

More Inktober Drawings

Even More Inktober

Upstream

"Upstream," watercolor on paper, about 6x9

This is another watercolor of the Middle Raccoon River, looking generally northward or upstream from the River House at Whiterock Conservancy. 

Middle Raccoon

My residency at Whiterock ended last weekend, and properly so if you factor in the weather. The first ten days were simply glorious--warm, sunny, not very windy--and the landscape just raged with color. The yellows, golds, rusts, glowing scarlets and more were astonishing. While trying to capture those colors my mind kept repeating that no one would believe it if paint could capture their intensity (it can't). 

Durng the residency much of my time was observation and sketching, my attempts to fix things in my visual library. Watercolor sketching is quite useful for that. 

The Middle Raccoon River runs through it, shallow but strong despite our current drought conditions. The foliage colors below the white rock bluff were incredibly varied, and for that matter, so were the water's reflections.

Even More Inktober

A few more Inktober works to finish off the month. The first is a crab fishing boat being tossed by swells. The second is a view of dense, old-growth forest.

These two inks, unlike earlier Inktober works, were done with a crow quill (dip) pen and dark, blue-black ink on toned paper. The fun of a flexible nib like a crow quill is the variety of lines you can make. They can be thin, thick tapering, wide and dark, and a lot more. But dip pen drawing takes a lot of practice and a steady hand.

Vista

A vista of Whiterock Conservancy, where I am currently Artist in Residence.

More Inktober Drawings

The discipline of drawing with pen and ink every day is good--any activity that builds a habit of "making" promotes advancing skill and allows testing of pens, ink and methods. These two are both done with technical pen, but I still plan on doing some old fashioned dip pen drawings.

Painting Small

Years ago a teacher told me that many of his works, which were primarily for illustrating book covers and advertising, were done in quite small sizes--as small as 6x8 inches--before being photographed and used in larger formats. For a long time that approach didn't make sense to me, painting small and showing large, but it began to make sense as I did a quantity of small oil sketches. 

"Mountain Sketch," oil on panel, 6x8

Looking at the sketch above you might think it's a fairly large work, but it's only 6x8. There appear to me myriad details in the trees, particularly the two large spruces, but those marks are actually quite tiny. The distant mountain were painted very thinly and then mostly wiped off. The whole thing looks as it it could be at least medium-sized, say 12x16 or larger.

Return to Whiterock

This week I return to Whiterock Conservancy, where I spent a few weeks last year. This time the weather will be more crisp and there ought to be fall colors in the grasses and trees. During my stay these next couple of weeks my main goal will be to work outdoors as much as possible. Winter is over the horizon, after all. 

"Whiterock Bluff," oil on panel, 9x12

This is a view of the bluff that is the namesake of the conservancy, along the Middle Raccoon River.

More Inktober

So far this month of Inktober I've manage to keep up with the daily regimen of pen and ink drawings. Given an established habit of drawing most every day it's been reasonably simple to keep up by just substituting digital drawing time for time with a pen and paper.

The first is a nod to the fall season and the coming holiday of Halloween when images of spiders will be literally nearly everywhere. The interesting thing about spiders (and other animals with exoskeletons) is how other-worldly they seem and how logically their bodies and legs seem to fit together.

This second drawing was an interesting exercise in shading with random scribbles to establish values and render shapes. Although this one isn't entirely successful it was fun.

Welcome to Inktober

Several years ago after hearing about Inktober, a worldwide October event to promote pen and ink drawing, I decided to give it a whirl. The idea, which originated nearly 15 years ago, was to provide a daily structure to hone skills with a pen. The originator, a fellow named Jake Parker, told others who told others, and so on. The first plan was to make and post an ink drawing online every day. On the website linked above, you can find a list of prompts for a daily drawing, but participants often use their own subject material. And some now participate by doing a drawing a week for an entire year. Regardless of schedule, the idea is to form a regular habit of drawing with ink. 

My own art practice has included pen and ink drawing since I began, but not as a primary medium. Instead ink drawing for me is a way to train the eye and hand. Drawing with liquid ink is demanding because ink stays wet, for one thing. And inked work can't be erased, of course. The limitations of drawing with an old-fashioned metal nib are also forbidding. Metal nibs can leak, release ink in blobs, bend out of shape, and more and so are often avoided these days. Technical pens are more favored, but unlike dip pens, tech pens don't permit much variation in line weight. Most I use technical pens in various sizes but occasionally I'll fall back on an old crow quill, a kind of metal nib that's been in use for at least two centuries. 

So I'm giving this Inktober another go. Here are the first two. Each is on the same tan paper, though the colors are different in these photos. The first is an ink drawing after a marble Roman portrait bust dating to about 100 CE. The second is a landscape of a mountain path, from an online reference. In each case I made an initial pencil drawing using relatively hard graphite, then completed an ink drawing using technical pen. I like Pigma Micron pens for their opacity and archival qualities.). Later this month I'm going to try some dip pen works.

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Previous Inktober posts:

Inktober Plan

Another Shot of Ink(tober)

More Inktober

Halfway Through Inktober

An Inktober Update

In the Garden

This new oil painting is a view of one of the corners in the Better Homes test garden that I've written about before not long ago  This particular spot is a place in the garden that gets many hours of sun. There is a small lawn surrounded by plantings, mature trees in the far (southeast) corner, and a small rock-walled water feature in the foreground. A number of the watercolor sketches posted earlier here were studies for later studio works like this one.

"In the Garden,"oil on panel. private collection

This work was a private gift commission this summer.

Traditional Drawing

For the last five years or so most of my drawings have been digital, using a Wacom display tablet. Until then (like most) my drawings were graphite, charcoal, and sometimes metalpoint. Further, my daily drawing (see my companion blog Daily Digitalia) wasn't really habitual; more sporadic. But the ease and simplicity of drawing digitally is seductive, hence the hundreds of digital drawings over on the other blog. 

But lately technical issues have kept me from doing digital drawings at my main studio, so I've reverted to graphite when I need a quick sketch or impression.

By the Window, graphite on toned paper

Drawing is basic. For me, a painting begins with a drawing, usually a very sketchy one indicating major masses and color shapes. Sometimes a more detailed rendering is needful, but usually I only do a very rough one. 

My evolving experience with traditional drawing is intriguing. Next month is the worldwide Inktober drawing challenge. Perhaps I'll try pen and ink again.

Whiterock Memory

About a year ago I spent three weeks at Whiterock Conservancy, a land conservancy here in central Iowa that encompasses a fascinating range of landscapes. There are wetlands, river, rolling prairie, and oak savanna. Some of the land there has not been farmed, or disturbed. During my time there I painted a number of works in the small studio and a number outdoors. From those studies and photographs, I did a number of studio works over the winter. This one, "Savanna," is featured on my website. 

"Savanna," oil on canvas, 24x30

Better Homes and Gardens

Some know that Des Moines has been a publishing hub for more than a century. The Meredith Publishing company (now DotDash Meredith) began in the early 20th century with Successful Farming magazine, eventually expanding to include the venerable Better Homes and Gardens, among many more. The company has had test kitchens and a demonstration garden for a long while. I wrote about it in June. The BHG demonstration garden is open to the public from noon to 2pm every Friday, May to October. 

I've gotten into a habit of visiting the garden at least once or twice a month this year. The horticulturists do a fine job of keeping everything thriving. It's a real favorite for lunch and sketching.

"In the Garden," ink and wc

"A Shady Corner," wc with ink touches

"Looking South," wc and ink

Valley

The leaves have faint touches of yellow, here and there, but the fall change hasn't happened yet. This painting is from an outing last weekend in Madison County, famous for its bridges that inspired a book and movie. The Chamber of Commerce sponsored a paint out at several locations in and around Winterset, the county seat. 

"Madison County Valley," oil on panel, 9x12

The valley I painted is home to a local winery, the vineyard just visible in the extreme foreground. The sheds and garage across the road are actually another farm.

A Saturday Sketch

Last weekend the Saturday sketchers went to a private garden in one of the old neighborhoods. The owner has landscaped his garden in a number of interesting and sometimes quirky ways. For example, he used a top of a salvaged column as a centerpiece in one flower bed, making it look like an old ruin. The terraced garden features a large patio dominated by a gurgling fountain. We sketched there for a couple of hours in various locations. 

In this particular sketch my interest was in the shapes and colors, so I omitted part of the fountain in favor of the more rectilinear shapes of the house and the grounds. The circular shape of the fountain helps draw the eye to the sketching figure on the right-hand side.

Sycamore

Sycamores are one of the quintessential American trees. There are similar trees in Europe (plane trees), but ours seem more majestic as they soar over other species with their grey-green bark and broad palmate leaves. For me, sycamores are among the most reward trees to paint. 

Last month while visiting friends I had the opportunity to paint outdoors for several days along the bank of a small river. From where I stood, there were mature trees in all directions, many of the sycamores. This one was started outdoors and detailed in the studio. The subject was massive, leaning over the water with many trailing branches. Afternoon light gave an ochre glow to the water, a reflection of the rocky bottom.

"Sycamore," oil on panel, 9x12

Plein Air at the Farm

Last Wednesday a half dozen of the Saturday group made the drive to a farm near Prairie City, maybe 30 miles from Des Moines. Our hosts, Lisa and David Burns, have been farming there for decades though they live in town. David has cattle and grows what Iowans call "row crops,' meaning mostly corn and soybeans. The farm is nearly a half-section of rolling Iowa countryside. They have huge grain bins, four tractors and other farm implements, and a century-old Model T farm truck.

"Cententarian," oil on panel, 0x12

Although the day was a little chilly, and grey with clouds and Canadian smoke, meaning flat and uninteresting light, I set up my Open Box M in the back of my car and sketched that antique truck parked near an old grain bin. There was considerably more clutter to the right--a cattle enclosure--that I edited out of the image in favor of distant fields. There was only a couple of hours before we had to leave, but I took a number of reference photos as well, and plan to turn this into a larger studio work. 

The Ford

Located less than a mile downstream from my studio, along Druid Hill Creek, this image is from many personal observations and photos. Druid Hill Creek rises on a golf course south of us, running mostly north and into Grays Lake. The creek is probably only a couple of miles long and must be fed by artesian springs. Its flow never stops, even during significant drought. 

"The Ford," oil on panel, 14x11, private collection

The creek passes through a culvert thence into a glade of trees about an acre in size, long and narrow along the banks. The stream is a carpet of stones and at one point several big boulders provide a dry-shod crossing. Hence, "The Ford."

Eternal City

"Eternal City," oil on panel, private collection

Rome is perhaps one of the most important destinations for artists of all kinds. The treasures in public and private museums there are simply staggering. If you want to see works by the masters, Italy is obviously one of the places to visit. And the Eternal City is on the short list of cities where one should spend time lavishly. 
 

This particular painting is an imaginary view inside an osteria, or tavern, somewhere in Rome. Much of this scene is imagined, including the colors and the fountain across the narrow street. Sold long ago.

Just for Fun

Once in a while, just for fun and a challenge I draw things I don't normally tackle. Last week a news photo of the Iowa governor's residence, Terrace Hill, struck me as interesting. Terrace Hill is more than 150 years old, built by an early Iowa land baron and eventually sold to a prominent family who in turn donated it to the state. It's a big Victorian house with all of the requisite gingerbread that came with this style.

This particular drawing was made on a Wacom display tablet using a program called Sketchbook. Like most digital drawing and painting programs Sketchbook allows the artist to pick tools using varioius parameters like size, darkness, soft/hard emulations and so on. For this one I used no perspective tools or other digital crutches and instead just drew it "free hand."

"Terrace Hill," digital

Portraits

For some years one of my primary genres in painting was portraits. Most of the works from those days were head and shoulders views though I did a few half-length works too. In the supposed hierarchy of painting genres, portraits are one rung from the top, after history painting, although the latter has fallen far out of favor. For that matter, so have personal portraits. The reasons are complicated but in part photography has clearly supplanted much. And for that matter, we're a less formal people than our ancestors seem to have been. 

Regardless, portraits remain a challenging and engaging task. Achieving a serviceable likeness is sometimes the best an artist can hope for, but the very best manage to convey expressions, moods, and even subtle cues of character. It's said, for example, that when Velazquez' portrait of him was shown to Pope Innocent X he cried, "Take it away! It's too real!" Presumably he felt the painter had seen something of his true and rather vicious character. 

Diego Velazquez, "Pope Innocent X," 1640

I don't claim equality with any of the masters, but you can judge these few portraits of mine for yourself.

"Linda," oil on canvas, 2007, private collection

"Brad," oil on canvas, 2009

"David," oil on canvas, 2007, private collection

"Bill," oil on canvas, 2010, collection of the painter