This is a 16x20 Acrylic that will be used for Spirited Painting. A wine and painting party in the future. I think I will make the middle building a bit shorter and the transfer will be offset a bit so the left had building will be wider.I had done a small 8x8 sketch that inspired this.

Mystery Mail

I was inspired by a photo of the sun shining  through the trees. This is the block in. I like the warmth in the blockin. 

 This is the final painting. It probably needs photoed better.I feel it has good depth and good values and is a painting that I want and hope to do more like it. I feel it has warmth, mystery and invites the viewer in. I have been studying trees with the Johannes Vloothaus downloads and I believe it has helped. This was from a photo near Malabar Farm in Ohio.

Welcome Sunshine

Completed! After many revisions. It seemed as if it was two different paintings. And why? Because I changed my palette , added some violet, to the puddle and thus it didn't match up. So added violet to the sky and in a number of other places, warmed the sunlit areas up some more, blurred the puddle and finally it is finished. I need to come up with a name. Welcome Sunshine.

Trouble in River City

Whew! This has bee another struggle.  I am not sure it is done. It has cloned tracks and I have definite triangles of bushes. Some feel there is a distraction of the sign. That my be as it does bring the eye to the foreground.Not sure what to do with it at this point.I was very excited to start the painting. I really liked what was happening with the rainy look. Then started painting and my watery foreground was wrong. It took me a while to realize the water would be IN THE TRACKS! So I did look at puddles and a muddy drive on the way to the dog agility class and came home and painted them. But alas they are pretty cloned but how do I make tracks side by side that are not cloned? I should have designed it better in the beginning before I went too far . I like the idea and the mood and the mystery. I will figure it out.I think in trying to un-triangle the dark bushes I kept raising the line but wanted to keep the middle ground. Maybe I should crop it into an 8x8.  That might make it a lot better.

Finished. The Trail

Ah, the finished product. I completely changed the foreground, took out all those grass strands , brightened up the sun spots and blocked some of the sunlit tree in the distance. Now I am happy with it.

Even though it was still wet when I photographed it I am much more pleased. The path is broken up some, not so straight into the woods. I brightened up the color on the path and the foreground. After watching Johannes Vloothous's Essentials of Grass and snow and getting some helpful comments from some peers , I continued to work on it.

Unhappy with this painting

Today I want to show you the progress on this painting that was done previously. I felt it was very dull and not as pleasing to me as I wished. It may have some mystery to it, but I was unhappy with it..

I was really inspired by the Napali Coast on Kauai, Hawaii. I actually hiked that coast but never made it to the beach. It rained, it poured, we had to go across a river that was chest high and walk on narrow wet slippery paths, sleep in a recluse's cabin huddled together as it got cold. It was traumatic to my knees. I could not turn over in my bed without picking my knees up and moving them that way. One of a great adventure I loved.

The second picture is a path in Montana, where I lived for quite a few years. I actually spent a day with Clyde Aspevig learning Plein Air in the 80's when it wasn't called Plein Air. I studied with a number of artists in Montana, Jessica Zemsky who does beautiful children's portraits in pastel and gouache. Her husband, Jack Hines, Don Marvine, Jerry Inman and a couple who I can't remember their names!

I am really working on seascapes after taking Johannes Vloothaus's online class.  The second one I expecially like. It was done with 99 percent palette knife and was a challenge for sure. I really wanted to paint more like this...I need to learn to be more painterly and use more paint.