Happy Thanksgiving

I had fun growing these pumpkins. While the rest of the garden respected their boundaries, these guys were a menace to the neighborhood. I had to go out and hack the vine out of the lilac bushes and off of the garden fence. I gloried in the new orange blossoms everyday. And now, instead of being pumpkin pie, they will continue to entertain me all winter with a layer of ice and a topping of snow.

The darkness of night adds a unity to a painting...and a new degree of difficulty. Is the cast light the correct value? I can't see any orange, but will they "read" as pumpkins without it? What color of light am I casting from the headlamp over my hat?

I completed this painting about 11PM and turned to see my next door neighbor drinking wine and watching this unusual outdoor sport from the warmth of her kitchen window. I was under an umbrella pitched at an angle in the snow while sleet was watering my driveway. She is used to these observations.

Three Moods of Lake Pepin

I felt good about the fact that I balanced kayaking and painting. Here are the three paintings that I completed during a beautiful fall weekend in October with Inland Sea Kayakers at Hok-Se-La campground in Red Wing.

The one on the top is early morning. The above was done in 20 minutes after dinner in rapidly fading light. I like the raw authenticity of it. Plan to do some winter night scenes with this method.

The one above was more successful before I took it home and decided to push the color. I find that my best sketches are on location without "studio work." Who needs a studio when you have the whole outdoors to play in!

Autumn

Autumn is blasting in with fabulous weather and color. Here is a scene from Fort Snelling Golf Course. There was a bit of adventure with this painting that included a historic building, seeking some outdoor privacy and a police car. Yikes!

Green to Go

Green is quickly being replaced by the lovely colors of Fall (I know it is out of style to Capitalize, but I think seasons warrant Capitalization), so thought it was time to post a couple of August paintings before they were totally irrelevant. This painting is special to me. It has the hand of Joe Paquet on it. View his website to see what plein aire paintings with correct values and character of line look like.

STOP

I am seeing a lot to paint in my neighborhood--all the undiscovered relationships between trees, houses, and sidewalks, and even trees with stop signs. It occurred to me that the tree was not complete without its connection to the stop sign. The angle doesn't matter, these two elements are connected.

The only reason that this is important is that a couple of years ago I painted several Home Portraits and was asked to remove the big tree in the painting so the front of the house could be viewed with the glory of the front garden displayed. No one had ever witnessed this perspective of the particular house, so the painting looked wrong, despite winter reference photos and cast shadows from the aborted tree. So I guess relationship matters even to stop signs and their tree buddies. I confess that I tried to leave the stop sign out, but, well, something stopped me.

The Lightness of Being 1

Oblivious

How easily
We divide and conquer the hours,
Relegating and naming them:
This, as important...that, as unimportant,
This, for the body...that, for the soul,
Believing
We have somehow become
Wise,
Self-disciplined,
Masters of our lives.

But surprisingly, at the far end
Of a long life's march,
We begin to long once more
For the days when
Time was a river, and we
But a small and insignificant leaf
Afloat on its surface,
Oblivious to all
But the flow and touch
Of the water.

Copyright  Sharon K Sheppard

I thought Sharon's poem and my painting would make a good pairing. Relax, let your head roll back, close your eyes and think of floating on water....(not of multi-tasking)....Um-m-m-m-m...

Freedom

I have the freedom to paint anything I want. I am not restricted by the government to certain subjects, however, I wouldn't mind if the Republic paid me to paint my comrades according to the fabulous documentation that was produced by Russian artists of the working class in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I admire their work greatly.

OK, let's say I get a letter tomorrow and I am assigned to the service sector for documenting and exalting their fine work. The paintings would be pale interiors with fluorescent lighting, my comrades would all be wearing dockers or crop pants. No lovely headscarves. No students studying by candle light. No beautiful working hands and muscular arms to show in paint. Even if I got the logging assignment in the NW, the work would largely be done by a roaring tractor with a giant claw. We have computers, and conveniences, and really nice stuff, but somewhere along the way we lost our connections (and I am not referring to social networking). My paintings of the service sector wouldn't have the same joy or passion that I see in the old Russian paintings. So now you think I am going to write a suggestion or give advice for improving sociey? I guess it's a personal choice. Spend more time in nature, find your own joy and wear a head scarf just to try it out. And paint more...

Ladies Kayak Weekend & Jay Cooke State Park

What a glorious weekend combination--paddling and painting! Since experiencing Alaska's wilderness, I truly do feel "bankrupt" (see 'Comment' with Chekov writings--ThankYou Night Writer) for putting down the essence of nature--The Color! The Complexity! The Grandeur!  This is the closest I can muster for now. If I showed you a photograph of this scene you would see a mass of gray rocks and water. There is so much more to see, hear, and experience.

Humility

Alaska steals your very soul...and I only experienced a slice of it.

I am back from vacation. I am painting, but not ready to post anything yet. The Last Frontier experience brought with it a great sense of humility and awe for the grandeur of nature that photos and brush strokes cannot capture. Since I returned the stakes for representational painting are higher and must be more respectful of the subject--nature bathed in light. For a little insight into my process, please see the poem shared in the "comments" section in the previous post. There will be another posting soon, but on Artist Time not on calendar time.

ALASKA !!

I'm going to Alaska! I signed up last July never believing that I would actually go! I have a couple of paddling excursions planned including one to Mendenhall Glacier with just 2 of us going! I am excited that I will get the views from the top of a ship and still get the wilderness experience of paddling. Hope that I will be able to paint a couple of large paintings from my sketches. This was painted from a lo-res image off a web travel site, but gives me a flavor of what I will see soon! This is Tracy Arm fjord near Juneau.

This Tree

I paint this fruit tree every spring. It continues to serve as one of the most challenging scenes I paint all year based on the complexity of it--split boulevard, traffic signs, park and townhouses in the background. This year I didn't get to it until the pink blooms were gone. I have a collection of them all painted from the same vantage point.

The most interesting part of this tree and this series was when I stood up and served as the lone advocate for saving this tree (its partner got wacked) from road construction. Most of the 65 people attending were scratching their heads and quite mystified that anyone had an attachment to this particular tree. Hopefully, my testimony for saving a "tree with character" is now buried deep in public record...

Red Shoes

Mom always wears these red shoes. And frankly they are beyond comfortable. I have been offering to take her shopping for new ones, while pulling various black styles out of the closet, but nothing else will do for her. I visited her unexpectedly and found her wearing sensible black sandals. I felt betrayed. I felt sad. Is this yet another stage of her life? The black shoe phase?

She advised me that painting a picture of shoes "shows desperation for subject matter" with that wry smile that curves slightly just at the corners of her mouth. It took me years to understand her irony and mischievous nature. Happy Mother's Day, dear one.

Thank You

A full week has passed since my Art Show/Party and I believe I am once again tethered to the Earth. A huge thank you to all the friends and relatives who helped me get ready for this event. I wasn't able to reconstruct the house, yard, have a little lunch and frame 27 paintings single handedly. Extreme gratitude for the help and good wishes of my friends. My weekend was a huge success and now many of my paintings are brightening the walls of other homes. I also can't forget to acknowledge Instructors Joe Paquet and Richard Abraham for making this possible.

As an aside to the show, the door was flung open to my art studio upstairs and a few forgotten paintings were unearthed, such as the one posted today. It certainly represents the season now--bright green with bits of lavender, pink and white flowers. I love the fragrant air and the color mixed into the greens.

Since the show, the bird series has started and another show booked at a local cafe. I guess I now have the wings--literally and figuratively--for the next level of painting. Thanks again...

Tonalism

Our world is such a wonderful spring green right now. Here is a reminder of what it looked like on Easter weekend just three weeks ago! I was excited to paint the brown tonal quality of the landscape, but wasn't ready for the shapeless bales that have been munched on all winter by my brother's horses. After 4 hours of working the bales, I finally painted from memory and achieved a believable rendition of their shape and  perspective in a gently rolling landscape.

Next week, May 1 & 2, I am having an Art Show Open House, that was suggested by friends who follow this blog. They wanted to see paint on canvas, instead of digital bits. I am grateful to all who are interested in seeing the results of my years of practice and what I think about. This painting thing is involuntary. I must paint to live, like all painters, whether or not anyone else pays attention.

Awestruck

While discussing this painting with Reverand Mother over lunch one day, the conversation turned to the fact that I like to show my paintings because I am awestruck and amazed that paint comes off the end of my brush like this in a relatively short time frame. This painting took about 3 hours. When I paint there is this element of self discovery and growing confidence. (But that came after years of darkness). Thanks and gratitude to Instructors Joe Paquet and Richard Abraham for making this possible.

The photography for this one was done in the excellent studio lighting of my car and the lines from a former painting add some interesting texture. NOTE TO SELF: No more car photography.

Trumpeter Swans

My nephew Brett and his wife Kathy live 1/2 mile from the Mississippi River near Monticello, MN. Based on its proximity to a nuclear energy plant, which pumps gallons of warm water into the river all year, hundreds of trumpeter swans gather to winter and feed in the warm water. There is signage, designated vantage points, and photo contests to honor these magnificent birds. This was painted from one of the photos that was submitted for the photo contest in 2009.

I selected this based on the degree of difficulty and novelty. I love the rhythm of the wings and connectedness of the birds. I thought Brett & Kathy would really appreciate this as a keepsake. Hope they like their present...

Wonder Where the Flowers Is?

Spring has sprung,
Grass has riss,
Wonder where the flowers is?

Always wanted a place to use that little ditty. This was a great exercise in painting the entire background carefully and then integrating the trees over the top. I am too tired now to go into the drama of the day. I will  only say that the mystery people in hard hats returned (from a previous post) and turned out to be great allies when my car was vandalized in the parking lot. They guarded my car and belongings while I continued painting and were very compassionate about the incident. Way to go Conservation Corp members!

Bruce Vento Morning

You may look at this and think "I've seen this before," and yes, you have. This is the studio painting from the sketch in a previous post. It was fun to improvise and make up the prairie grasses effect.

I am sad that winter melted in the course of a couple of weeks. Thin strips of residual snowbank are a nice constrasting touch to the quiet landscape grayness before spring pops into citrusy yellow fringes around the treetops. The next few months will be challenging for me with the mixing of hundreds of green hues (and usually none of them are correct), but this year is my year to conquer greens!

Portrait #2

After finishing Ron the Portrait in Instructor Richard's Studio Class, I brought it home looked at it for a couple of days and then spent eleven more hour working on it. Another artist asked how many of those were "good" hours...well, there was a lot of destruction in the first five (and no "undo" keys) and then some very good decisions were made in the last 3 hours. Those decisions were about simplifying the form and paying attention to plane changes as if his face was another element in the landscape. It is far more painterly than this digital rendition indicates, but then that's why we go to see original works. Original works have a quality that can't be duplicated in pixels or printed pages for that matter.

Will there be other portraits? Yes, I found painting a portrait intriguing and now have rediscovered 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer and The Girl with Red Hat, in particular, as an inspiration for another. It is not the composition or subject matter that is compelling, it is the simplicity found in all of his work. It looks complex, but is elemental in execution. Simplification sounds easy to do, but in reality it is harder than making a photographic likeness. It is the illusive bird of paradise from a painter's perspective.

Portrait #1

The blog appears to have been abandoned in February. I have been feverishly working on a portrait as a portrait for paddle barter. It has consumed my painting time and even cut into my planned time as I carry the panel looking for various light sources and angles to see what changes need to be made each week.I am becoming obsessive about it. It was completed on Wednesday and then on Saturday morning I started repainting again...

As a break from Ron the Painting, I turned the easel on another elusive image--my Amazon parrot. As many times as I have tried to get "his character" in paint, I have failed pretty much every time. This is a 15 minute sketch in grey tone that shows his fluffy-slouchy-on-the-perch mode.

Make no mistake about my painting productivity. I may not have much to show for it. but there is some paint being flung around. Some version of Ron the Painting will appear in the next post...

Extreme Safety Precautions

What do safety glasses and hard hats have to do with this painting? They are loosely connected if you hear me out on this thing. One November Saturday I came down the Bruce Vento Nature Sancutary path to find 4 mini-vans parked in a circle and about 20 ardent people dressed in fluorescent orange vests, safety glasses, hard hats and rubber gloves. They were moving through this grassy area in the painting and stroking the grasses with their gloved hands. My curiosity was piqued and I found the only friendly person in the group to ask what they were doing. "Collecting seed," was her curt answer. Then I asked about the gear and she retorted, "For safety purposes [idiot]." With that I backed away and left for a quiet corner of the sanctuary. So when you look at the painting above, you see a mono-culture of little blue stem (Minnesota Native Plant) in a flat perspective, and when I look at it, I am amused by the Seed Gatherer sighting (a paid position, I might add). It appeared to be a covert government operation and native seed gathering is one covert operation I could get behind.

Light and Shadow

 I have painted many times at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, but this particular January morning I saw a beautiful play of sparkling light and contrasting shadow effects that would only last for 30 minutes or so. This panel is small, but in under an hour, I captured the sparkling effect of the morning and the character of the bluff.

Painting is a lot like golf. A good passage here, a good composition there--keeps you coming back. If I knew now how much time, effort and tears it would take to get to this painting, would I do it again? Oh, probably...YES!

Pines

Here is a lovely poem by friend and Isanti-ite, Sharon K. Sheppard. You will see my paintings and her poems paired again soon. She has inspired my interest in poets Mary Oliver and James Wright. And without further ado, here is why I paint pine trees in winter.

Pines

Have you noticed
How the tall pines
Cast their long blue veils
Over the pale snow, lying like
Streamers of shadow as
Still, deep, and unbroken
As a mountain lake,
But non-reflective?

It is as though
Reclining,
Bare and bereft
In the chill morning air,
they cannot afford the loss
Of even one tiny
Candle's worth
Of light.

Copyright   Sharon K. Sheppard

Yellow Boat

First of all, I loved paddling in the yellow boat on Lake Superior and was caught in the act of admiring the brilliant pure Cad Orange colored lichen colonies living on this outcropping. And secondly, I found equal pleasure in painting the same subject. Simplifying the rock structure and recreating the undulating blue waters of the large inland sea with color variations and little hook shapes in perspective all the while remembering the sun on my face and the movement of the boat as I looked up in amazement at this colorful cliff called Gold Point which is located a 1/2 mile north of Split Rock Lighthouse. This is my largest epic painting to date at 24"X30". Making marks to represent moving water is intoxicating...