On the River

One of my favorite places is in southwest Virginia. Friends of ours have a place that is literally riverside--the water is probably less than thirty feet away. It's a small and short stream that flows cool and clear through the Alleghenies. It's banks are relatively unpopulated and therefore unspoiled. Most days are peaceful. Life on its banks is quiet and full of grace, it's literally a paradise.

"River Time," oil on panel, 11x14

This new landscape, "River Time" shows us an idealized stretch of that river. Its title is taken from our friends' term for the days--river time--when they settle in, and the "livin' is easy." The cares of daily life become more remote there. Time slows, and the busy, hustling, anxious world disappears. 

 

One of the deep joys of river time is the chance to float downstream on a raft or in a canoe. In this scene, the floater has pulled his kayak onto the rocky shore and disappeared--resting perhaps?

 

"River Time" is now available on my website. 

Waterworks Bridge

As has become my habit, last Saturday afternoon was spent with the sketchers. As we always do, a locale for sketching was only agreed on when we were all present at our rendezvous. Because it's close and provides a wealth of opportunities we often go to Waterworks Park, which is only a couple of miles. This week has been busy there--big events coming this week--but all of us found a spot to study. 

This is a disused railroad bridge in Waterworks Park that is now a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that spans the Raccoon River. It's connects the Waterworks trail to Greenwood Park, farther north on the bluff above. The steel trusses are rusty and the supports too, but its complex geometry is always a challenge. 

I drew the scene with a Derwent black watercolor pencil then painted over it with watercolors. The beauty of doing a lay-in with water soluble pencil is edge control. You can completely lose edges with ease.Once I had the colors and values laid in I went back with waterproof ink and emphasized edges here and there.

In the Garden Again

"Shady Garden," wc/ink on paper ~3.5x6

One of the pleasures of Des Moines is the Better Homes demonstration garden downtown. It's a favorite spot for a cool, shady lunch surrounded by beauty. And it's a great place to sketch. With a pocket-sized sketchbook tucked away I can carry the rest of my watercolor gear in a small paint box. The key with quick sketching is to edit out as much detail as you can.

 

Parched

One of the great things about painting outdoors is the results can serve as a kind of visual journal. Sometimes I do go back and review how the world looked in the past. 

"Fort Des Moines Park, Near Sunset," oil on panel, 9x12

Last summer was dry and hot, and this oil from last September shows how the grasses had gone gold-brown and dormant. This painting was done as a demo at a plein air paint out held in a south Des Moines park. 

A group of around a dozen spent a couple of hours painting around a small lake in a former military reserve. I did this as a kick-off to the event. A storm was approaching and the late slanting sun caught the cloud tops and turned them bright. Alas, the promised rainfall was pretty sparse.

Portrait Sketching

A few years ago a portion of my practice was portraits, commissioned (sometimes) or casual (often). As time went by I painted life portraits of perhaps twenty or thirty sitters. In addition some of my easel time went to sketching human faces as a way to study physiognomy and understand facial relationships. Some of those portrait sketches were from photos, some from life. 

"Andy," oil on panel, 8x6

Most portrait sketches are discarded, painted over, or thrown out. But a few seemed worth saving. Here are a couple. The first is from a well-known photo of the individual. "Andy" is done on a very small gessoed board which had something else painted on it in the beginning. Warhol's pale angularity, false fright wig, and acerbic personality interested me. The palette was simply whatever oil paint I had on the palette that seemed to work together. The slashing brushwork and thicker paint application were done as a study.

"Hockney," oil on panel, 8x6

 

 

 

 

 This second painting, a portrait sketch of the enormously famous British painter David Hockney, was also done very quickly simply to study the shape of his face and features. This was also a gessoed panel, but blank white until I spread a warm red-ochre intonaco with a big brush. Using a large filbert I sketched features, cap, and tie, contrasting warms with cools.

"John," oil on panel, 14x11

This sketch of John Lennon, also from a photo that I saw online, was pretty spontaneous. The photo was from his post-Beatles time, complete with circular granny glasses. This was painted with a severely limited palette of white, black and raw umber, ochre and red. The panel had been used for another work and you can see it vaguely behind the head. The orange-red color in the glasses is underlying paint peeping through.

Cutting loose and trying new things is an important way of moving forward.

Practice

One of the constants of art-making is practice. Practicing allows me to sharpen skills, train my eyes, and even try out new mediums of expression or methods of work. These drawings are practice examples from a few years ago. These were done to study the structures of various kinds of trees in various settings. And they were also done to study a kind of drawing known as metalpoint. Metalpoint drawings are made with a metal rod--in this case silver, but gold and others are used. The surface is slightly abrasive so that the metal is rubbed off and adheres to the support. 

When we begin drawing most of what we draw looks odd because we tend to draw things as we think they look rather than how they're actually put together. Trees are a perfect example. Tree structure, colors, foliage, and so on are quite different among the various kinds. Compare the structure of an oak versus a pine tree. So these were done to fix tree structures and appearances in my mind and to practice using silverpoint. Each of these is 6x4 on gessoed hardboard.

"Blue Spruce, Snow"

"Winter Companions"

"Bristlecone Pine"

"Silver Spring"

Spruce

"Blue Spruce," wc & ink

A watercolor and ink painting of a big blue spruce. The oddly blue, oddly grey color of this species of spruce tree is difficult to capture. This one conforms to my usual practice of a graphite lay-in, then full watercolor, followed by accentuation of certain parts with waterproof ink.

This particular sketch is about 3.5 x 6.5, done in one of my sketchbooks. 

Sam

Today is Independence Day in the United States, commemorating the signing of our Declaration of Independence from England nearly 250 years ago. 

"Sam," after JCL, oil on canvas, 20x16

Here's a painting of Uncle Sam, our unofficial symbol. This particular painting is a copy of a work by J.C. Leyendecker, whose work is in its own way symbolic of America a century ago. Leyendecker was an exceptional illustrator and painter whose work continues to resonate for many. I did this as a way to learn Leyendecker's techniques and ideas. Uncle Sam's expression seems an apt comment. 

Happy Fourth of July.

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