Summer Reflections

Oil
9"x12"

Class got rained out yesterday, so I went back to the studio and did this small color study.

Sky over Rising Sun

Oil
24"x36"

In May, I was attending a workshop in Rising Sun and late in the day the sky to the North started to form the most fantastic cloud formations and colors. The trees at the horizon formed a great silhouette against the lighter sky. I took several photographs as it changed every 15 seconds. And, finally, this June I started the studio painting. Although the trees in the photograph were one dark green hue, I introduced some lighter highlites and some violet at the base.

FallScape

Oil
16"x20"

This painting was the result of an unusual painting gig. I was invited to do a demo painting at Clay Terrace shopping center. The complex has a new concept of businesses, restuarants, retail that allows people to walk around and enter from the street. A break from the mall concept. Anyway, people gathered to watch 2 painters and listen to live music while enjoying a glass of wine from the Estridge store, HOMEexperience. A big thanks to Paul Estridge, president, for sponsoring this Friday night activity. And, the purchase of 2 small paintings

The Flooded Wabash 2

OIL
18"X24"

This is a second version of the Flooded Wabash. The first was completed 2 years ago after being in New Harmony and painting the flooded river. I usually don't try to come that close to an earlier work, but that painting was chosen for inclusion in the newly rennovated Eli Lilly and Company corporate offices. The first version was sold, so this was the 18"x24" selection. The work is a part of a collection of 8 Indiana painters in the new space.

Paintout in Zionsville

Margaret Hanke, one of the other painters in the Kim English workshop painted me from across the street where I was set up and sent me this photo.

Students Painting the Canal

Three of my students painting at the canal in Broad Ripple. Sandy, Connie and Karen. Just a reminder that I will be teaching a plein air workshop at the Indianapolis Art Center in August and again at the Stutz during the Fall. Classes will be posted in August on the Stutz Artists website.

LOVE Sculpture at the IMA

Oil
9"x12"

Set up in front of the sculpture at the IMA at 8:30 and completed the painting in 2 hours. Wanted to tighten the process after the Saturday morning painting. Basically: find the subject through the viewer, sketch it on the canvas, block in the big shapes, choose the color notes, lay in the color shapes, look for value and color contrast. add a few details with heavier paint, and clean up because the riding mower guy is headed my way.

Zionsville Farmer's Market

Oil
11"x14"

This was a painting I did last Saturday at the Zionsville Paint-out. I wanted to challenge myself after taking the Kim English workshop there, so the inclusion of people. Maybe missed creating a focus and too much color to please the judge, but I enjoyed the painting process and the activity of the colorful market.

Color Quartet

Oil
18"x24

Some of my newer works have been on linen with a clear coat, so the result is the linen color. No orange underpainting on these and I've found that the paint looks darker, so adjustments are made in the final color notes.

Noblesville Paint-Out

This was the start of the Noblesville Paint-Out. I took a little longer on the drawing. Correct perspective is a must in urban paintings.

Noblesville Courthouse

Oil
11"x14"

This was done on the 2nd day. I liked the courthouse view from a block away and looking over the buildings to see the vertical tower of the courthouse. The paintings were juried Saturday and I was awarded an honarable mention.

Noblesville Barn

Oil
11"x14"

This was the Thursday painting I did for the Noblesville Paint-Out. The 3 day event was well organized combined with good weather. This was the barn just North of town.

Warm October

Oil
12"x18"

I experimented with a variation on my color choices and used the cool greens to contrast the warm chroma of the trees and sky.

Pennsylvania Farm

Oil
11"x14"

This is the painting for the DSFDF blog. Karin gave the challenge of working from a B&W photograph. So, with no color reference to hold to, I cut loose with a play of contrasting colors. I really enjoy pushing the color and placing warm and cool color combinations together.

Reflections

Graphite
18"x14"

(Click on image for larger pic) This is a drawing I did after a 2 day workshop with Armin Mersmann in Rising Sun, Indiana. His work is fantastic, going well beyond what a photograph would provide. The drawing was completed in 20 hours, using mechanical pencils. Armin spends 20 hours on about 4 square inches, so this proves that I am not as compulsive as he is. Check his work out...you will be amazed.

IMA Gardens

Oil
11"x14"

A beautiful day in Indy...took my plein-air class to Indiana Museum of Art. The gardens there are looking great. This view was near the entrance and the road curves down to behind the museum.

Carol's Garden

Oil on Linen
12"x12"

In 2007 I was in New Harmony for the IPAPA paint-out and selected Carol's Garden to paint. My wife and I had been married in the beautiful garden near the Roofless Church. I gave the painting to my wife when I returned to Indianapolis and later posted it on my blog as Carol's Garden. This past weekend my wife and I visited New Harmony again, checked into the Inn and took a walk down to the garden. Five minutes after we left the garden I received a long distance call from a man in Virginia wanting to buy the original painting. He and his wife had were married there in 2008. He had Googled Carols Garden, New Harmony...and the painting came up.I explained that it was not for sale, but I happened to be in New Harmony...with my painting supplies. I painted the 12''x12" version, sent a jpeg and he purchased the work for an anniversary gift.

Strange, very strange. And the magic of the internet finding the work. The original painting is located in: January, 2008, last listing.

NY Cabs

Oil
8"x11.5

Another painting from the Karin Jurick, DSFDF . When I saw the photo I knew I wanted to finish it before getting away for a few days. Street scenes are a challenge, but fun to look at a busy activity like this, frozen in time. New York is a 24 hour city and nothing ever stops or slows down. I tried to capture that energy with hard contrasts in the foreground, diminishing into soft hues in the distance.

Landscape Mosaic

Oil on Linen
24"x36"

Again, with this work, more emphasis on color relationships and breaking down forms into geometric shapes. The painting is a little more painterly, but lacking a lot of blending. I feel better about letting the eye mix areas of a shape in the spirit of impressionism.

Fall Mosaic

Oil on Linen
24"x30"


This painting was completed right before the Stutz Open House and was a return to some of my earlier works that were more about design and color. I want to explore this a little more before I get back into plein-air painting.

1931 Stutz Bearcat

Oil on Linen
24"x30"

This is the painting I just completed for the theme show, "Brickyard 500" for the Stutz Open House. It will be on display in the Car Room on the 2nd Floor. As you can see from the 2 figures in the car, the mechanic was actually on board with the driver.

Group Exhibit at Steeple Gallery

I will be exhibiting several new works at the Steeple Gallery. For those of you in the Northwestern Corner of Indiana as well as Eastern Illinois and Chicago, please stop in this summer and take a look.

Diana Sculpture

Graphite on Brown Paper
14"x22"

This work was completed for DSFDF blog set up by Karin Jurick. Instead of painting from a photographic reference that Karin furnishes, she ask the artist participants to draw the entire figure. Her general feeling, and I totally agree, is that too many painters do not know how to draw. Many jump into a painting without having a good drawing on the canvas. And, as I tell my students, there is nothing worse than having a good painting and the buildings are not drawn with the understanding of perspective. The nice thing about drawing is that it takes color out of the equation and the artist has to rely on value contrast to make the subject appear dimensional.

Afternoon Feeding

Oil on Linen
8"x8"

Continuing with the cow series and wanted to give the attendees of the upcoming Open House some options.

Cows Feeding

Oil on Linen
12"x12"

Still on the cow kick. Love working with the shapes and color variations.

Stutz Open House

16th Annual Open House

If you live in or near Indianapolis and you love art, The Stutz Open House is the place to be April 24 or 25. It is like attending 70 gallery openings. At last count we have art being exhibited by 86 artists. Tickets are available early at any Old National Banking Center for $10 or $12 at the door. Proceeds finance our two resident artist's studios for a year. More info at Stutz Artists.com

Feeding Time in Germany

Oil on Linen
12"x12"

This is a small study I did for some upcoming works. The cows are feeding in Germany, in the small village of Waging Am See. I have photographed them for the past 2 years visiting my daughter and family. The area in Southern Germany is a painter's dream with great views every direction one looks.

Coming Home

Oil on Linen
24"x36"

This is a painting I have been working on for the past two weeks. It is a little more conservative in color than most of my works, but I wanted to have a larger work ready for some of the upcoming juried exhibits. The one I was thinking about states in their mission statement that they are upholding the traditions of the Brown County artists that painted in the area in the late 19th Century...the most famous being T.C. Steele.

I always enjoy new challenges and finished the work with some glazes to pull some of the objects and areas of the painting together. The mood I tried to create was the late evening after a thunderstorm with the sky starting to open up and the cows returning home after their day in the fields.

Seated Model

Red Conte
18"x24"

This drawing was done in the March open figure class at the Stutz classroom. Marla is a real pro and hardly ever moves. We thought it would be a little different to add a few props.

Reclining Figure

Red Conte
14"x20"

This was another drawing completed at Dean/Johnson Gallery. I moved to sketch and got quite a fore shortening challenge.