Grey Days

"January Snow," watercolor on paper, about 3x5

If this January is like others these past few years, there will be dim, grey days with snowy haze and not much to see, unless you look closely. Once you do, muted colors are everywhere, from shadowy snowbanks to distant trees. Details merge and the world goes cold and soft.

 

West End Salvage

"West End," wc/ink on paper

Although the sketch group mainly goes outdoors to work, sometimes the weather chases us inside. Last weekend was dreary and cold so we elected to go to a local architectural salvage place that sells all of the stuff that's reclaimed from house and building demolitions--doors, fixtures, windows, etc. It has a coffee bar and tables and is usually uncrowded.

Floating the River

"Floating the River," oil on panel, 11x14

This oil is the newest of a body of work involving images of a river we visit annually. This particular painting was done from photos and plein air studies.
 

Multicolored Orange

Long ago one of my pursuits in studying painting was still life studies, usually quite small, many 6x8 on gesso board. Still life gives the artist the luxury of an unchanging subject, especially if the lighting is controlled too. These tiny studies were ways to explore all sorts of things: color, composition, light, and more. 

"Orange Study," oil on panel, 4x6

This particular painting was the result of perhaps an hour's study and painting. I was interested in how to produce a believable orange in oil paint. It's not as easy as it might seem. If you look at the painting you'll see many colors in the surface of the fruit, most of them more yellow than red but many more red than orange. There are many colors, from very dull reds to brighter reds and a range of in between colors. At the brightest spot on the orange we see bright yellows. In the shadowed areas on the left some very dull greens appear. While it's possible to remember and imagine an orange and perhaps even paint one believably, painting one from life is considerably more useful. 

Freezing Rain

Last Saturday was one of the few days when the sketch group didn't go out. Most of the group--a varying majority--manage to go even in snow or cold. But the weather was the worst you can imagine, with freezing rain making everything slippery. So far as I know no one ventured out. 

Instead of going outside I stood in my studio window and sketched Druid Hill Creek, what you could see of it. I keep a pocket sketchbook on the windowsill and sketch the view north/downstream a time or two monthly. This little book is about 3.5x5 inches or so, a truly small book, intended for pockets. But I leave it on the windowsill and simply do a watercolor of the view from there every few days. So the book becomes a visual journal of the year and an artwork as a whole, too. 

"Druid Hill Creek, Freezing Rain," wc/ink on paper

This view is about 6 inches wide. The grey skies and freezing rain, superimposed on a recent inch or two of snow, made this one a bit bleak.

Warm Memory

"Fort Des Moines Park, August," oil on panel, 9x12

With low temperatures less than 10 degrees F and highs not much higher, with snow on the ground and Druid Hill Creek frozen solid, I needed a warm memory. This was painted outdoors as a demo at a plein air paint-out in a local park. The day was hot and sunny with weather moving into the area.
 

Saturday at the Lake

"Gray's Lake Beach," wc/ink on paper,

The weather was unseasonably warm during the last weekend. Temperatures were in the low 60s a couple of days. The sketch group went out last Saturday and I was able to sit outside to draw. This is a view of the public beach at Gray's Lake Park. The skies were brilliant with light, unlike the usual December skies and there was a soft southerly breeze.
 

Winter Study

"Tree Study, December," oil on panel

December has most often gloomy, cold and snowy. Warming weather may push that experience into January, but here's a December painting from a few years ago, a study of the woods outside on a dim snowy day.

River House

"River House," oil on panel, 12x9

As we commonly do, we visited friends in southwest Virginia last year. Their summer home is literally on the bank of a river, maybe thirty feet from the water. You can go out into the crystalline stream and cool yourself. The bottom is rocky, the surfaces worn smooth by eons of flowing water. 

This view of the house if from about the middle of the stream, so you see the house and trees and distant hills beyond as well as the boulders and stones of the bottom. This painting is literally wet and still on the easel.