A Mysterious Path

 

I made this image for October 31st.  I started with a photo that I took last fall on the path around Kelleher Pond.  It was afternoon and the leaves were bright orange and yellow that day.  But today I edited the original photo, creating a black and white version. I changed the exposure to make everything darker, and then emphasized the shadows. 

Near Colorado Springs (Painting as of October 29, 2021)

This is my painting-in-progress as it looked last night when I finished working on it.  I am working from a photo that I took during a trip to Colorado in 2018. (My painting reference is posted here, October 19.)  I am experimenting with adding collage elements (torn tissue paper) and then painting into them (so maybe I should call this "mixed media"). In any case, there is a lot of learning going on, figuring out how to blend the collage with the paint, how the paint interacts with the pasted paper, etc. But last night I finally started to see the path ahead as the mountains began to look the way I want them to look.

Vinnie (Digitally Modified Photo, Reference for Portrait)

A few days ago, I posted a photo of Vinnie, the subject of my next pet portrait.  The photo was sent to me by the person who is commissioning the portrait. Today I used Painter to digitally modify the photo for use as a photo reference.  First, I changed the composition by adding "blank space" at the top and matching the background color with digital pastel.  Then I cropped the image at the bottom so that the cat's paw fit nicely into the corner.  I checked to make sure I had a ration that would work for an 8 x 10 format.  Then I simplified the background with digital pastel, and in the process, created an additional diagonal line. 

Near Colorado Springs (Painting as of October 28, 2021)

Here is the latest view of my current painting.  I added some more pink areas to indicate rock outcropping.  I am trying out using some collage elements, hoping to get the hang of it.  This is inspired by a photo that I took in Colorado in 2018.

Near Colorado Springs (Painting as of October 27, 2021)

I worked on this painting this afternoon.  I am experimenting with adding some collage.  I used dark blue tissue paper and cobalt blue paint to build the shapes of the mountains. I am beginning to think this might work. . .

Near Colorado Springs (Painting as of October 26, 2021)

I worked on this painting today. This is based on a photo that I took during a trip to Colorado in 2018.  This is acrylic used with water on Aquabord, 16 x 20 inches.  My photo reference is posted here on October 19th.   At this point I am concentrating on establishing major shapes and colors.  If you look closely, you can also see that I am adding a bit of collage (colored tissue paper). That's a bit of an experiment so stay tuned. . .

Send Off for "Apples on the Tree" (Oil Bar Painting)

This is a small oil bar painting, 8 x 10 inches. I painting it several years ago and it has been hanging in my studio at Porter Mill. Today I shipped it off to its new owners in Colorado. 

Vinnie: Photo for Pet Portrait

Meet Vinnie, the subject of my next pet portrait.  The person who commissioned the portrait sent me this photo and told me a bit about this charming cat. I will use this photo as the basis for my painting, though I am going to make a few little adjustments to the composition and background. 

Near Colorado Springs (Painting as of October 23, 2021)

Today I got started on this new painting.  I roughed in the composition with blue (and a red sun, of course.) This is based on a photo that I took in Colorado in June of 2018. (Painting reference posted here October 19, 2021.)

"Please Enjoy this Public Way" and We Did

I took this picture on October 12th, during a late afternoon walk here in Beverly, MA.  We walked along Lothrop Street, between Independence Park and Dane Street Beach.  Lothrop is a residential street with amazing ocean-front homes.  But the city of Beverly had the wisdom to create several "public ways" along between the houses, one every block or so.  Each "public way" is like a little garden, with benches, flowers, a path, and stairs down to the beach. And each is marked with a sign saying, "Please Enjoy this Public Way." And we did. The weather was great, the sea was shining, and the sky was beautiful, so I took this picture. Tonight I cropped the original photo to get this composition.

Near Colorado Springs (Digitally Modified Photo for Painting Reference)

This is a digitally altered version of a photo I published here on October 18, a photo that I took during a 2018 trip to Colorado.  This will be the basis for my next mountain painting. To get my photo ready to be a photo reference, I opened the image in Painter and  added some posterizing effect to get more color contrast, especially some purple tones.  In the original photo, you can see a big airplane apparently suspended just above the ground. In fact, it is the Air Force Academy's B-52 display.  But for a more natural and timeless scene, I obscured it using Painter's editing tools. 

Near Colorado Springs (Photo for Painting)

I am getting ready to paint so have been looking through my photos and found this, a photo that I took in 2018. We were traveling with old friends from Brazil that we met in 1968 in Boulder, on a kind of "reunion tour" to celebrate 50 years of friendship. It was also our fiftieth wedding anniversary that day and we were going to Colorado Springs to visit friends from Pueblo that we have known even longer! The ride from Denver into the Springs is beautiful. The location of this photo is north of the city, near the Air Force Academy.  If you look closely, you can see an airplane in the foothills, and that is the Academy's B-52. Today I cropped this photo to get a height/width ratio close enough to 16 x 20 (the size the painting will be).  But to get this ready to be my photo reference, I had to do a little more work on it in Painter. I plan to post the results here tomorrow.  

Reposting: Pink Apples on Branch (Posterized Photo)

This is a posterized photo that I created in September of 2018.  I am reposting it here because I have decided to use it as a painting reference for an oil bar painting.

Windowbox in Gloucester (with Prisma filter)

Here's another image from last Sunday's trip to Gloucester. 

I saw this lovely windowbox outside a restaurant downtown, so I took a picture. Later I added the "Watercolor" filter with my Prisma app.

Pink Dahlia in Gloucester (with Prisma filter)

Yesterday I posted a photo of pink dahlia that I saw in Gloucester over the weekend. Today I used my Prisma app to add the "Disco" filter.  

Pink Dahlia (in Gloucester)

On Sunday, I had an expected invitation to go to Gloucester, just up the road. There are always so many interesting things to see there: the ocean, the boardwalk, the working waterfront, the charming downtown, so of course I said yes! The outing itself was unexpected, but the biggest surprise was an amazing garden blooming with dahlias, all along Gloucester Harbor Stacy Boulevard. These gardens are a relatively new addition,  the Stacy Boulevard Gardens begun in 2016-2017 as part of the seawall reconstruction.  But I have been to Gloucester several times since 2016, and I have never seen flowers like this! I guess the gardens have just taken off.  We saw lots of flowers, predominantly dahlias of all types and colors, so bright and beautiful that I almost forgot to look at the ocean.  This blossom was huge, and I love bright pink, so I took a picture.  

August Flowers (Framed)

Since mid-September, my house and my home studio have been turned upside-down because we installed mini-split system (heating and cooling). Now I will finally have reliable heat in my home studio! But it has taken me a while to get the studio put back together and usable.  Today I used my newly reorganized space to frame this little drawing. I plan to send it off tomorrow, a belated birthday gift for a friend.  The drawing is called "August Flowers," and it is 6 x 6 inches, Sharpie fine-line markers on paper.

Blue Sky Red Leaves at Lynch Park

Here's another image from last Wednesday's walk at Lynch Park.  The red leaves made the sky look bluer and the blue sky made the leaves look even redder.  I cropped the original photo to get this composition.

Red Leaves at Lynch Park

Here north of Boston, we have been having warm days with temperatures in the high sixties and low seventies. But the nights are cooler, and this creates interesting combinations. Some summer flowers are still in bloom, but we are also seeing a few red leaves.   I took this picture on Wednesday, during a walk at Lynch Park, where just a few trees have turned bright red.

Best of Summer Flowers: Vanderbilt Campus (with Prisma filter)

For the best of the summer flowers, I have to include this lovely garden on the Vanderbilt campus, in Nashville. I took this photo during our visit in July. This week I cropped the original and used the Prisma app to add the "Watercolor" filter.  

Best of Summer Flowers: Rose-of-Sharon (with Prisma filter)

This image began with photo that I took during a walk in the neighborhood, back on August 8th.  The Rose-of-Sharon was growing right over the fence.  Today I cropped the original to get this composition and also used the Prisma app to add a filter ("Watercolor"). 

Best of Summer Flowers: New Hydrangea (with Prisma filter)

New addition this summer:  hydrangeas in the front yard.  They turn from blue to purple to pink.  Here is a closeup of one of the blossoms.  I used the Prisma app to add a filter (called "Rainbow")

Edited in Prisma app with Rainbow

Best of Summer Flowers: Wild Roses on the Fence

These wild roses are volunteers and they come back every year, gracing our chain-link fence. They are a treat for all the senses.

Best of Summer Flowers: Hydrangeas and Fence

Here's another photo of the best of summer flowers. I took this photo on August 6th during a walk in the neighborhood.  When I was a kid, we called this a "snowball bush," but actually these are hydrangeas.  I wonder if they have turned pink by now.  I should take another walk and check.

Best of Summer Flowers: Windowbox

I know, I know, it is the first of October, and time to think about fall. And yes, autumn has its own kind of beauty.  But first I want to celebrate the best of summer flowers.  I took this photo on July 16th.  We planted window boxes on the deck, something we haven't done for several years, and I really enjoyed them.  The lovely striped petunias are already gone, but the pink impatients and the marigolds are still hanging in there. . .

Heron and Ducks at Lynch Park (with Prisma filter)

Yesterday's post was a photo that I took at Lynch Park, of a heron and some ducks.  Tonight I am posting another version of the same photo, this time with a Prima filter called "Pattern".

Edited in Prisma app with  Pattern

Heron and Ducks at Lynch Park

We took a walk at Lynch Park today, which is where I saw the ducks and the heron.  The ducks are not unusual, but the heron is so I took a picture. Tonight I cropped the original photo to get this composition.  I also created a version with a Prisma filter, which I plan to post here tomorrow.

Beach in September

Here's another photo of our unexpected walk to the beach yesterday. Tonight I edited the original photo go get this composition.

Late September at the Beach

Late this afternoon, a walk around the block turned into a long walk to the beach and back.  It was overcast, threatening rain, but great walking weather.  This view was one of the rewards of our long walk. 

High Tide at Lynch Park (Video)

Yesterday I posted a photo of the entrance to the beach at Lynch Park, with waves covering rocks and sand.  I also took a little video of the same scene.

High Tide at Lynch Park

We went back to Lynch Park for a walk yesterday. It was overcast, and the closer we got to the water, the windier it was.  And where we expected to walk out onto the sand, we saw these waves, covering the rocks.  Of course I took some pictures. Tonight I edited the original to get this composition.

View of Salem and Marblehead from Lynch Park Beach

We went for a late afternoon walk at Lynch Park and the light was beautiful. The clouds were casting shadows on the beach, with strips of sunlight breaking through.  In the distance, you can see Marblehead and Salem. Tonight I cropped the original photo to get this composition.

Pleasant Street Beach

Tonight I edited this photo, taken yesterday during a late afternoon walk to a local beach.  It was overcast, almost foggy, and threatening to rain.  But it was a lovely walk.

Through the Trees (Bass River from Pleasant Street Beach)

We weren't planning on a long walk this afternoon. It was already drizzling, and it looked like rain might be on the way. But the dog wanted to go for a walk, and she made it clear that she wanted to walk to the beach. (How does she know where the beach is? I don't know, but she does.) So we walked to Pleasant Street Beach here in Beverly, MA.  I took some pictures along the way. I took this one on the tree-lined path down to the beach. If you look through the trees, you can see the river.

Staircase, Trees, and Ocean: Independence Park

Tonight I edited this photo that I took a couple of days ago during a walk at Independence Park, Beverly, MA.  This was our first post-Labor Day walk (meaning "dogs allowed in park") and it was beautiful!

Reposting: Snow in June (Above Treeline) has new home

I painted this in April of 2020, based on a photos from a trip to Colorado.  I am reposting this because I recently shipped it off to its new home in Philadelphia, and I am glad to know it arrived safely.

Four Still Life Drawings (Porter Mill Challenge Comes Home)

I drew these four still life drawings as part of the "Porter Mill Challenge" a few years ago (2016 I think).  The challenge was for Porter Mill artists to do a drawing or painting each week in April, and then we had a show of all the work that we created.  This challenge was great for me because I like to draw from  observation and I had fun with it the checkerboard patterns, as you can see.  I created the drawings to hang as a set, just like this. I recently noticed these in the my studio at Porter Mill (while I was looking for something else, of course.)  Last week, I brought them  home from the studio so I could hang them in my house. 

"Toward the Mountains" Acrylic Watermedia Painting

This is my recent painting as it looked on August 29, 2021, which is the day I finished it.  That was also the day I needed to deliver it to the gallery in Boston, for display in September.  Yes, I know,  that was cutting it close.  On the morning of August 29th, I kept making small changes, even though my painting was wired, labeled, and ready to go.  At one point, I considered putting it in the car so I would just stop already!!!  These were all small changes, but I think they were worth making. I added a subtle dark blue lines suggesting shadow at the base of each of the dark green hillsides. I reworked the shapes on the mountains, including snow and shadow. I made a few changes to that sky, making sure that red sun would show up. These were all small changes, but they add up to an attempt to present viewers with a sense of peace. But  eventually it was time to drive to Boston and drop it off at Galatea Fine Art, where it will be on display this month.

That Smiling Face (Digitally Rescued Image)

I was looking for a picture of my dad to post today because August 28 was his birthday.  I tried a face recognition search on my computer in iPhoto, which is how I came across this image of my dad as a young man, probably a teenager.  But what iPhoto had turned up was a very tiny image, blurry, and in black and white.  It seemed unusable.  But that smile!  So I opened the image in Painter and got to work.  I enlarged the image, worked on the focus, added contrast, posterizing, woodcut effect, color overlay, you name it.  I drew into the image with digital pastel because part of the hair and one of the ears wasn't completely visible in the original.  Then I imported the image into iPhoto and did some more basic edited. It was worth it because I don't have very many pictures of my father when he was young.  And it was a nice way to celebrate my dad's birthday.

Toward the Mountains (Painting as of August 28, 2021)

Here is my latest painting as it looked on Saturday, August 28, 2021.  This was very nearly finished, and it had to be! I needed to drop it off at the gallery by the next day.  In fact, I had already attached wire and labeled it. I was pretty happy with the composition and the colors. But I was still working on some details, the shapes in the mountains and the sky.  I thought it was done when I went to bed. . . .

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 27, 2021)

Here is how my latest painting looked on August 27, 2021.  Just a few days to go until I had to drop off the painting at the gallery.  I focussed mainly on color. l added some white washes to the sky, for contrast. I added more of that Colorado red to the mountain tops, and evened out the teal blue on the slopes.  I modified the shapes of those two green hillsides, and added some sage green to the foreground. Almost there, a few small things to fix. . . .

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 26, 2021)

Here is my latest painting as it looked on August 26, 2021.  At this point,  I was working on the sky and the tops of the mountain. I was pretty happy with the shapes, but was working on color contrast between mountain and sky.  I had tried adding pale green (as in my photo reference), but I wanted the mountains to "pop".  When I paint, I often reach a point where I need to let go of what is happening in the photo and focus on what needs to happen on the canvas.

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 25, 2021)

This is my latest painting as it looked on August 25th.  The previous day, using my photo reference, I had finally corrected the silhouette and shapes of the mountain in the distance. But I realized that in the processes, those lines and shapes had moved upward a bit.  So the next task was to adjust the shapes of those two dark green slopes on the right and left.  Still do come: repainting the sky, and readjusting some colors.  I was starting to worry about time, because I had a deadline.

Toward the Mountains (Painting as of August 24, 2021)

Here is my latest painting as it looked on August 24th.  On both the 23rd (which I am not posting) and on the 24th, I worked on getting the lines of the mountains to look the way I wanted them to.  This meant turning my painting and my reference photo upside-down, which sounds funny, but I am serious and it really does help.

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 22, 2021)

Here is my current work-in-progress as it looked on August 22, 2021.  I worked on the lines of those mountains. At one point, I painted with  both my painting and my photo reference turned upside-down, and as always, that helped.

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 21, 2021)

Here is my current painting as it looked on August 21st.  At this point, I had just been working on the sky, and also beginning a struggle to capture the lines of those mountains.  My reference is a (digitally modified) photo that I took during a trip to Colorado in 2018 (posted here August 13th ).  I am using acrylic paint with water on Aquabord, 16 x 20 inches.

" Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 20, 2021)

Here is the painting I am working, on as it looked on August 20th.   I continued to work on the sky, and also worked on the shapes of those mountains.  This is acrylic used with water on Aquabord, 16 x 20 inches.

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 19, 2021)

Here is my current work-in-progress as it looked on August 19th. That's the day I began really working on the sky, establishing basic shapes and colors.  My painting reference is a photo that I took during my last trip to Colorado, in June of 2018.

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 18, 2021)

This is my current work-in-progress as it looked on August 18th. This painting is based on a photo (digitally modified) that I took during a trip to Colorado in 2018.  In this version, you can see that I am still working out the composition and color scheme. I am working with acrylics used with water on Aquabord, 16 x 20 inches.

 

"Toward the Mountains" (Painting as of August 17, 2021)

Here is my current painting as of August 17.  Using my painting reference photo, I added some areas of color to the sketch from the day before.  

Toward the Mountains (Painting as of August 16, 2021)

Here is my painting as it looked on August 16, 2021, the day I got it started.  Using my reference photo as a guide, I used blue paint to sketch in the basic shapes and to establish the composition.  (I also used just a bit of red paint for the sun.)  To be continued. . .