Outside at Last

"Outside at Last," oil on panel, 12x16. Private collection.

A group of house plants, moved to a shady deck after all threat of frost was gone. They were probably relieved.

McRae Park

"McRae Park," wc/ink on paper

This watercolor and ink sketch is from a Saturday excursion a couple of months ago on a sunny afternoon not far from my home studio.

Retirees

"Three Retirees," wc/ink on paper, ~5x9

Here's a watercolor of three antique trucks on a dealer's lot, from a few years back. Each of these likely has more than 100,000 miles and years of work behind it.
 

Casein Experiment

"A Walk in the Woods," casein on panel

This painting is an experiment in casein. Casein is a kind of paint made using milk protein (casein) in an oil emulsion. It's an older medium that's made a bit of a comeback in recent decades. In some ways casein is like acrylic paint--rapid drying in particular, durable when dry--and it photographs very well. Back in the early to mid-twentieth century casein was the medium of choice for many. 

This painting is an imaginary landscape done a few years back to practice with the medium. I don't think I've posted this one before.

Favorite Still Life

"Winter Onion," oil on panel, 6x8

This is a favorite old still life from more than a decade past. Sold long ago.
 

Postcards Home

When travelling I carry along a pad of postcard-size watercolor cards. The surface is a standard, moderately rough cold press. While travelling I make small watercolor paintings, stamp them with the postage of whatever place we're visiting, and mail them to friends. It keeps me working and family and friends love to get something of that sort. 

"Kasbah, Tangier," watercolor postcard

 

"A View of Avignon," watercolor postcard

"Street in Eze, France" watercolor postcard

Saturday Sketch

The weather continues to warm and moderate. Last Saturday the sketch group went to a small local lake, where flowering trees were beginning to show color. The day was warm enough to sketch outside, the first time of the season. Flowering trees have fat buds and the grass is greening more every day. I sketched this in pencil, added watercolor and then ink.

Last Year

"Raccoon River," wc/ink on paper

The winter just fading was unseasonably warm--possibly the warmest in history. Even so, the look of the countryside hasn't changed much. My sketchbooks are a kind of visual journal, and most of the sketches are watercolor. This particular work was done just over a year ago. Like now, the grasses are a series ochres, the trees loom grey against the grey-blue and distant clouds.

Abstract Selfie

"Self Portrait," oil on panel 14x11

This self portrait was an attempt to make an abstract image. It owes a certain amount to Cubism, but unlike the works by Picasso, Gris and others this one is considerably more colorful.
 

Domes

Last Saturday the sketch group decided to take a look at the Iowa state capitol grounds for subject matter. Owing to unusual circumstances--gridlock near the capitol--my time sketching was limited. It was a beautifully sunny day but the wind was brisk and cold. Even so, the best vantage point for sketching this view of the Iowa Capitol was on foot and out of my car. So I spent about 45 minutes drawing and painting this limited view. 

This was one of those times when nature works against you. The wind was so strong it kept blowing my watercolor box closed. My sketchbook would only be still if I held it in one hand, which was fairly limiting, too. Nonetheless, there was enough time to draw and paint the golden dome and one of the smaller subsidiaries.

"Capitol Domes," wc/ink ~3x5

Silver Study

Here's a digital painting I recently retouched. The original work was done four or five years ago intended as a study of digital art programs. I used Sketchbook (a digital art program) and tried out a number of different tools it contains. The program can emulate actual paint pretty well, in my opinion, but will never take the place of real world paint. 

The Yellow Umbrella

"The Yellow Umbrella," oil on panel, 11x14, private collection

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"The Yellow Umbrella" is a studio work exploring very limited use of color in a near-monotone painting. The street view is toward the New York Stock Exchange building. A vending cart stands in shadow but a ray of light from somewhere illuminates the yellow of one of its umbrellas. This was sold many years ago.

Winter Watercolor

"January, Druid Hill Creek," wc/ink postcard

As anyone who reads these postings knows, most of my watercolors are small, relatively loose, and washy. A lot are enhanced with ink. And sometimes work that I'd forgotten surfaces after being misplaced. 

This little watercolor was done from my studio window using a very limited palette--ochre and umber with touches here and there of cobalt blue. This painting is more realistic than many of my creek studies because more of the trees are included, even the very near huge cottonwood that I usually edit out of the picture.
 

Along the Bluff

Spring is coming very soon now, especially with the warming temperatures of climate change. Bigger studio works, based on references and experiences last fall, have come into being. This one is the largest of all at 18x36. It's the completion of a study started last October of changing foliage, land formations and the Middle Raccoon River. 

A few months back I posted the study of the same area, although that work is considerably smaller. This one shows the trees and undergrowth just as the autumn season was starting to produce bright, saturated color. The painting posted previously is about the left half of the scene you see below. This one will be available via my website in the next few days.

"Along the Bluff," oil on canvas

Winter Casein

"Winter on the Creek," casein on panel, 6x8

Although I'm primarily an oil painter, I've done work in quite a few different media--digital, watercolor, pen an ink, and casein. Casein is actually a casein-oil emulsion paint that's available in tubes, like oils. It has a nice creamy consistency, dries like lightning and becomes waterproof afterward. For some illustrators it was an important tool before the advent of acrylic paint in the 1960s. 

This particular painting is yet another of my views of Druid Hill Creek, looking north. I changed the point of view slightly, but this was finished in late winter when the skies had cleared after a light snow.
 

The Seasons Change

 

These two watercolor sketches, done this time of year a while back, show how the advancing season used to look. There was snow but despite the cold weather the colors of the trees and undergrowth along the lake seemed to absorb sunlight, their colors becoming warmer, more golden. This year the snow fled weeks ago and the temperature today, March 1, is in the middle 50s F.   (Click to enlarge each image.)

February Warmth

Early spring-like weather feels good in an ominous sort of way. The warmth of the past few days and actually, the whole winter, is disquieting--it is still February after all, but the weather is more like the end of March.

"Last Scraps of Snow," wc/ink on paper

A few years ago   March was still relatively cold, and snow persisted in the shadows, and the grasses and spring bulbs still slept below the frozen ground. A 2019 watercolor shows it above. But this year winter seems to have petered out, so that high temperatures have ranged in the 50s (F) and lows have been barely below freezing for the most part. My gardens have responded with bulbs reaching 3-3 inches in height and the grasses are going green already. 

Global climate change has arrived.

Relief for the Eyes

"Outside the River House," oil on panel, 11x14

The thing about the winter months is how colors fade from dull to muted to nearly grey in some places. Trees become grey clouds against pewter skies. Water turns dark and coffee-like. Grasses become sallow yellow-greys. 

So this oil, begun last fall and put aside for a few months might relieve some of the monotony of winter. It began as a study of a tree at Whiterock but eventually became somewhat different.

A Winter Watercolor

"Sherman Hill Roof," wc/ink 5x9

This sketchbook watercolor was done from my car last month. The complicated roof was interesting to sketch. I laid in the drawing lightly with graphite, added colors and then accented various passages with ink.
 

Last Saturday

This view of the Des Moines skyline is from the parking lot of the baseball team. This time of year of course it's deserted so the Saturday group spent a couple of hours sketching the skyline. 

"From Principal Park," wc/ink on paper, 8x10

February Scene

"Grays Lake," wc with ink ~8x10

Once in a while it's interesting to see what the world looked like a year or two ago. This watercolor of Grays Lake is about a year old--there was no snow but the distant trees south of the lake (toward my studio) still kept their dull drays and pale colors. Rocks and grasses in the sandy near shore were the most colorful parts of the landscape.

Winter

"Winter on the Raccoon River," wc/ink, 5.5x11

A view of the Raccoon River flowing lazily through Waterworks Park one wintry day. 

Homebound

Beginning last Thursday we've been homebound with light cases of covid. Neither of us has been very ill, but we've isolated from the world to avoid spreading the virus. No Saturday sketching, no lunches, no trips outside except to walk the dogs. The weather continues unseasonably warm, so that almost all of our record snow has melted. 

I stood in the studio window and did a minature (about 4x6) watercolor in a pocket sketchbook. One is a view directly north along the creek. The other is a view farther to the right of the first with a distant grassy slope barely indicated. 

With luck I'll be back outdoors with my paint boxes some time this week.

Winter Woods

"The Other Bank," oil on panel, 8x6

As the days lengthen and all of our blizzard has finally melted, we can let ourselves think of the earliest days of springtime. Sometimes it's worth looking back at past seasons of warming and early flower. 

This small plein air oil shows the woods on the opposite bank of Druid Hill Creek in late winter, when the grasses have turned faintly green and the first yellow spots of flower glow in the tangled undergrowth. 

Snowy Saturday

The Saturday sketchers went to Waterworks Park last weekend. The day was grey and the light was very flat. And of course this time of year the colors of nature are muted. Besides that, several inches of snow persist except in high traffic spots or where it's been removed. Waterworks Park is less busy now, but warmer temperatures have brought out pedestrians and cyclist. The ponds are still frozen and surrounded by snow but the river is open, running dark as chocolate. 

"Waterworks Pump House, Snow," wc/ink on paper,

I parked along the park road and sketched a brick building--a pump house I think--that sits on a curve by the river. It's red bricks and ochre doorway are always interesting, and it faces southeast so it gets good light, even on overcast days. As in nearly all of these sorts of sketches I began with a light graphite sketch, trying to understand the big shapes and masses. Then I painted the scene, trying to capture the muted trees in the distance, a tree or two in the middle ground and the pump house as the foreground main subject. Matching color and value until I was satisfied, I gave it a bit of time to dry then added accents and some fine branches on the middle ground trees. 

That small work above (about 5x10) took a bit over an hour, so I dug out a bigger sketchbook and gave the subject another look. The new sketchbook is about 8x11. This time the pump house is in the middle ground but is still the main subject. In this case I washed in masses of colors to suggest distant trees, just as in the smaller sketch. But here the building and tree are middle ground and the road curves left in front of a big snowbank. Transparent washes of warms and cools help establish the snow.

"Waterworks, Snow," wc/ink on paper, 7x11

Frozen

"Frozen (Grays Lake)," oil on panel, 9x12

Although I painted this plein air oil a year or two ago, it could easily have been just a few days back when the deep freeze had Des Moines in its clutches. It was a very cold, painfully clear day in late winter but I stood in a sunny spot sheltered from the northeast wind.

Pei

"Pei Wing," oil on panel, 9x12

This plein air work depicts the south side of the Des Moines Art Center, which has three wings by three renowned architects, including Eleil Saarinen, Richard Meyer, and I.M. Pei. The windows and framing of this wing seem to spell out the designer's name.
 

A Summer Sketch

It looks like the winter blast we've had here is going to moderate--temperatures will be in the 30s--but we're all weary of the snow, grey skies and below zeros temperatures here. 

Here's a summer plein air oil sketch to warm us all a little. 

"North Shore, Grays Lake," oil on panel, 9x12

 

Longing for Outdoors

During the brutal cold, deep snow, and entirely necessary stay indoors, I found myself long for the chance to go outside and paint. Although I painted a couple of small watercolors from the window of the studio, they were no substitute for the chance to spend significant time outside. 

"Druid Hill Creek," wc on paper, 3.5x5.5

This little watercolor, done at the height of the recent blizzard, is an example of coping with severe winter weather. The creek that runs past my home was frozen and blue-grey, surrounded by big drifts. 

Nevertheless, I long for the lushness of spring, the heat of summer, and even the cold winds of autumn when the weather closes in. 

"Pastureland, Virginia," oil on panel, 9x12

This oil was one outdoors in Virginia, a view of pastureland along a serene river. The initials to the right of the tree were scratched into the wet paint when I finished the sketch--a tradition that indicates it was a plein air work.
 

Master Copies

Through the ages, probably since people have been making images, new artists have learned the craft in  part by making copies of works by their masters. Studios in the Renaissance (and probably earlier) kept drawings and paintings for their apprentices to study and reproduce. Although my own learning experiences are not based in the ancient atelier system, I've spent time with many old paintings and drawings, doing my best to emulate what I saw.

These are all my copies of originals by artists of the past. 

"Patton (after JCL)," oil on panel, 11x14

This painting is a copy of a work by the peerless J.C. Leyendecker, a gifted illustrator whose works a century or so ago were the envy of many, even Norman Rockwell. In this work my interest was in discovering how Leyendecker managed to render the general's leather jacket. I think this was a work supporting World War II war bonds.

"After Fragpmard." oil on panel, 11x14

This one, an 18th century work by the French rococo paint Jean-Honoré Fragonard, "A Young Girl Reading," is one of a famous series of tronies he made--that is, studies of expression, body types, situations, and so on that are not portraits in the traditional sense. In this particular work, Fragonard's genius with color is clear. My interest was in the beauty of the dress.   

"Achilles and Chrion," (after Herculaneum mural), oil on panel

This one was painted after a mural discovered in the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum, The image shows Chiron, the "wisest of the centaurs" teaching Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War, how to play a lyre. Although damaged, the image was clear enough to copy.

"Rockwell," after NR, charcoal on paper 20x16

Finally, here's a copy of a Norman Rockwell self portrait, done in charcoal on newsprint. It's a portion of a Saturday Evening Post cover the artist made of a visit to a newspaper office, published in 1946, My main interest was in Rockwell's self portrait, though he placed it to the very far right edge of the painting to give space to the staff of a country newspaper.

Making copies of other artists' work is an exceptionally useful way to study on one's own, In my case not only do I make copies of the images in question but I often also experiment with media that are different from that used for the originals.

 

Snow Days

We haven't had much snow this year, probably less than four inches, and almost none for several weeks. But there is a slow-moving cold front bringing snow for at least twelve hours or more. As I write it's coming down hard. Tomorrow I may have a chance to capture the results. Meantime, here are a few snow scenes from my files.

"Sunup, Light Snow," oil on panel, 6x8

"Winter Shadows," oil on panel, 4x6

The first two are oil paintings, done as exercises while looking out the west window of my studio. The third is a silverpoint, also done looking in approximately the same direction. None of these were done at the same sitting.

The final painting is a watercolor done in a 5x9 sketchbook. The view is north from another studio window, looking ice and snow along Druid Hill Creek. 

"Spruce in Snow," silverpoint on gesso panel, 6x8

"March Snow, Druid Hill Creek," wc on paper, 5x9

October Color

"Along the Middle Raccoon," oil on panel, 9x12

This small studio landscape is a view of a bend in the Middle Raccoon River last October. Some of the trees and small scrubby growth along the water had begun to turn but full autumn colors were only a few days away.
 

Dark Days

This painting always reminds me of the dark days of winter, when you turn on the living room lights at 4 p.m. and the wind mumbles through the trees. It's long since entered a private collection.