Rivulet

This new oil painting has been on the easel for a few weeks. The subject of water comes back into my work again and again, most commonly in oils. This work is a distillation of a reference image and personal observations on many creeks and rivers. The idea is to show the many features of moving water--transparency, refraction, reflection, shine, splash, and so on. The rocky bank was an interesting subject, as well. I actually close-cropped a considerably larger photo, then enlarged the result. 

"Rivulet," oil on panel, 8x16

To transfer the photo reference image to my support I simply drew in the boulders, fallen tree, and foliage. For the rocky bottom of the stream I roughed in a series of circles, ovals, and other geometric figures, using raw umber..I began with a white support, and in retrospect might have benefited from toning it. On the other hand, working somewhat transparently gave sections of the painting a nice glow.

Once I had the basic plan on the support I immediately began to vary my palette, adding earth reds, ochres, umbers and occasional brighter passages. Once the white of the support was completely covered I began working in dark passages beginning at upper left, then working across and down in a relatively orderly way. That is, left to right and up to down. Although sometimes I try to work to a complete finish in each region before moving on, many times I work to a certain level of finish, stop for a time (to allow undercoats to dry, for example), then go through the entire piece again, refining, then refining again, as I did here. 

The most difficult aspect of moving water (for me anyway) is splashes and reflection. It's awfully easy to overwork moving water, tempting to add just one more wave, one more sparkle, one more tiny ripple. But in the end I have to exercise a lot of care not to overwork. Another crucial issue is maintaining soft edges for objects below the surface. In fact it's partly the play of soft and had edges that make this kind of painting work. 

This is probably the final iteration of this work, but you'll notice I haven't signed it yet. 

4th Street

This small watercolor is actually a decoration of the front flap of my current sketchbook. I like to make a title page in my books and this one accompanies the iris I posted here a few days ago. The interesting this is the density of the colors these watercolors have. That is, they have a high pigment load that can produce wonderful opacity, when needed. 

"4th Street, Downtown," wc/ink

This sketch is about the same size as the iris I posted a few days ago, maybe 6x8, and shows a short street in the downtown entertainment district. I drew it from a snapshot of mine, drawn by the colors and shapes, mostly. The process of drawing, painting, inking and so on was fairly routine but I tried to simplify the facades and windows, particularly of the tallest building. The drybrush technique on the side of that same structure was fun, too. 

Here is the spead front page with both sketches.
 

Iris

Watercolor has become more and more important to me these past few months. Besides sketching at least once a week with my outdoor group I've also been doing smaller watercolors in sketchbooks.  

"Iris," ink and wc on paper, ~5x8

This particular watercolor is actually a decoration of the front flyleaf of my newest sketchbook. When I've worked in watercolor outside it's usually been in a 5x9 watercolor sketchbook. That size allows good attention to detail and a relatively quick finish. Most of my sketches that size are sixty to ninety minutes. Unlike those, this watercolor has much more detail and so took more time. The bicolor iris is from a personal reference photo and includes a peony in bud and about to open. The date in the upper left is the date on the flyleaf. Although I drew this in graphite, I inked it before painting, whereas I usually ink the finished painting. I reversed the steps because I wanted to study the intricate anatomy of the open flower and wasn't sure when I'd be able to add color. 

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Pairings

My New York art club--the Salmagundi Club--has a new exhibition opening Sept 1 and lasting through Sept 25 titled "Pairings." This members-only show follows an interesting premise. Entrants have submitted two works of art (any media) from their practices, separated by 20 years or more. It's a chance to contrast early works with later ones. 

I submitted these two oil paintings. The winter scene dates from 2003 while the second, summer landscape is from last year. Although my oils have evolved over the two decades separating them, realism is still my main interest.  

"Winter Walk," oil on canvas, 24x20

The street scene is a look at a Boston street after an overnight snowfall. The summer scene is a view of the back of the Des Moines Art Center. The building partly seen in the painting was designed by I.M. Pei, the well-known architect of the Louvre pyramid. 

"Behind the Museum," oil on panel, 12x16

 

Another Saturday

Last weekend the sketch group decided to spend a couple of hours at the local baseball park. There are quite a few views from the parking lot that merit sketching, including the river and bridges, the downtown skyline, the ballpark itself, and so on. 

"From the Ball Park," wc/ink on paper, 8x13

I chose downtown, which is challenging because of the jumble of building shapes and sizes. This was the beginning of a new sketchbook, too, so I wanted a relatively panoramic picture. This particular book has fairly heavy watercolor paper, bound to lie flat. I drew the skyline, then inked it and corrected drawing errors as I went. The painting step involved several layers to add depth and separate values. The new book is larger and sketches cover more, so a wider variety of compositions and sizes will be possible.

Striper Time on the Hudson

"Striper Time," oil on panel

Back in 2019 I attended a plein air painting workshop in upstate New York, the Hudson Valley to be exact. One of our painting sites was the shore of Newburgh Bay, a remarkably wide place in the river a few miles north of West Point. I used the sketches for that experience (plus photo references I snapped) to develop this oil. It remains in the studio as a reminder of a lovely few days.

Besides painting at this locale I was fortunate to spend a day there with my host and his fishing buddies, angling for striped bass as they ascended the river from the sea, to spawn. Every year a group of fishers gathers daily during the season, vying to land the largest fish. . 
 

Saturday

The weather was wonderful last weekend--dry, temperate and partly cloudy. Most of the sketch group decided on something besides the confines of city streets. Eventually we decided that either Waterworks Park or Grays Lake would be good venues, and off we went. 

"Grays Lake Underpass," wc/ink on paper, about 5x17

A few years back the city built a wide underpass below Fleur Drive, the boulevard that divides the two areas of parkland, and it's usually busy with walkers and cycles. I opted to sketch the lake side of it. On a day like Saturday the bike/pedestrian trail that passes through it is even busier than usual, crowded with people enjoying the sun. I sat on a rock beside the trail and did a panoramic view, putting in a couple of strolling people, to define scale.. 

As ever, this is the result of a sequence of a graphite sketch, watercolor painting, and ink accents and lines.