Novelties

"Novelties," oil on canvas, 20x24, private collection

Once upon a time in Manhattan there was a novelty shop that sold all manner of magic tricks, joke items, holiday tchotchkes and so on. It existed on Broadway for over forty years, just south of 22nd. 

This painting entered a private collection there in New York about a decade ago.
 

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.