studio

El Capitan Part II

I am continuing to work on the El Capitan large painting. The sky and distant hills are about 75% complete. I generally work an area until it is about 2/3 to 3/4 complete until the entire painting is covered. Many times I don’t have to go back or add to a particular area, but once I judge the work as a whole, can add detail, adjust values, adjust color, etc. to make the entire painting work. Below is the painting at the current stage, plus a closer look at the top half…

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The quick snapshots above seemed to wash out a lot of the color, but hopefully you get the idea.

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El Capitan

It has been quite awhile since I have done a large work. During this economic downturn, I have concentrated more on smaller pieces which tend to sell better (I am not an artist mercenary, though!). In August, I finished a painting of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley from 4 Mile Trail. The gallery owners were so taken with it, they said I should do a similar large painting. I actually had a larger piece started some years ago, but wanted to paint on a gallery wrap canvas, so I started a new one from scratch. This is the painting I did then–

El Capitan, Yosemite

With the larger piece, I wanted to zoom in on El Capitan just a little more as I wanted the size of the canvas and the massive granite edifice to ‘overwhelm’ the viewer. Of course any painting of El Capitan pales in insignificance to the real experience!

I will chronicle the stages as I progress through the painting on this weblog, as many always express interest in how a painting develops. I started with a small, quick color sketch on a 8×10 panel just to get the colors I wanted. I then sketched and blocked in the painting on a 48×36 canvas, which is below. I did not do a very detailed sketch/block in as I can work off the small color sketch, plus know El Capitan with all its cracks and crevasses fairly well.

aboveelcapitana.jpg

You can see the small color sketch in the lower left of the picture above. Since I already have a color sketch, and know the subject matter, in this case, I generally paint from top down, distant to near.

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Touch MyHeART

The local charity event, Touch My HeART, is in its seventh year of fundraising for The Museums of Los Gatos, supporting the activities of Art Museum of Los Gatos. I will be participating in the show this year.  Although they have changed the format over the years, it basically goes like this…patrons may purchase a ticket for $120 for the “Gala Event” on Valentines Day, February 14.  They then get to choose one of the miniature paintings contributed for the show.

I will have 3 paintings in the show, all 5×7 gallery wrap.  Gallery wrap means the painting is not framed, but the painting wraps around the end to a depth of about an inch. I have one painting each of Lake Tahoe, Yosemite Valley, and Big Sur in the show.  Below is the Yosmite Valley Painting.

yosemite valley

If anybody is interesting in obtaining one of my miniatures, then be sure to check this venue out, as they will be going for about 1/3 my normal gallery prices…plus you get food and wine! More information and tickets may be found on their web site.

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Creative Spotlite Features Demo

Creative Spotlite, a great online source for free art lessons, discount art supplies and other resources just featured my new Commission/Demo to their art instruction blog.  If you haven’t checked out their website and blog, it is a great resource for any artist.  You can also subscribe to their art instruction blog just like any weblog, and/or receive emails with updates to their Artist Spotlite and Painting Lessions.  Be sure to check them out!

You can check out my demo on their site here, or on my own website here.

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Anatomy of a Commission

Earlier this year I did a large commissioned painting of Yosemite Valley at the height of the fall colors. The development of this commission is now documented as an Oil Painting demo on my primary web site. Included in the demo are portions of emails between me and the collector as the painting progressed which gives gives insight into the thought processes we all went through.

Yosemite Valley

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James Harold Gallery Show

We just set the date for a solo show at James Harold Galleries this summer. I expect to have over 20 new paintings, including a series on Yosemite I have been working on the last 6 months. Both studio and plein air paintings will be on display.

More details to follow, but the show will run July 3 -October 5, 2008, with an Artists Reception, Saturday,August 2, 1-4 pm , (James Harold Galleries,760 N. Lake Blvd (at the Boatworks), Tahoe City, CA.)

Below is both a studio and plein air painting which will be in the show–

yosemite cathedral rocks
yosmite glacier point

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Digital Art

An article came across the news wires the other day about the growth of digital art, it’s acceptance, and growing prices. Thomas Kostigen writes:

But the agent of change may be the product of change itself: Virtual art is becoming big business, with artworks created online fetching thousands of dollars, and pixel space selling for millions.

You can find the article here. I am not going to comment on the merits of this form of art, but rather answer a question many of my friends have often asked me.

First a little background. For years I worked in the computer industry, starting around 1969 when the only computers were huge mainframes tucked away in large corporate vaults processing vast amounts of data. In the early 90’s, I started my own company and we made Macintosh and PC/Windows software. All those years I painted on the side. So the question leads to:

“Why don’t you do digital or computer art? It would be so natural since you are a computer guy”

Yes, it might be natural, but I need balance! Everyone needs or should have balance in their life! I worked so many years in the “virtual world”, aka typing on a keyboard, that working with something tactile was always an outlet. Producing old and traditional paintings was a counterpoint to producing new and cutting edge software. The local newspaper wrote an article about me several years ago and entitled it “From High Tech to High Touch”. They nailed it just right! You can read the entire article here.

Another case in point is my Harley-Davidson motorcycle which I purchased after retiring from the computer business some years ago. It has been lots of fun just getting my hands greasy changing the oil, doing maintenance, etc.

Well, I always like to include some form of graphic in my blog entries, so here is another miniature of Yosemite in the series I am currently working on.

yosemite, merced river

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Yosemite Miniatures

Due to one of my gallery’s urging, I have been painting a series of Yosemite Valley…mainly small and miniatures. They are fun to do as I have not painted the valley recently. I think the last time was a plein air trip about a year ago you can read about here. I still am planning on enlarging some of those plein air paintings into bigger studio paintings. Below are a couple of the recent paintings:

yosemite, merced

“Walls of Granite” * 9×12 * Oil on Board

yosemite, merced

“Sentinel over the Merced” * 7×5 * Oil on board

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Back to Work & Trying New Technology

I didn’t paint much over the holidays, in fact not much the last month. I have had a lot of lower back pain the past few months, and although could still paint, just haven’t been overly enthused about sitting in front of an easel. I did make use of the time, however, watching some newly obtained demonstration videos by Scott Christensen. I met Scott at the 1991 Arts for the Parks event and have followed his exploding career ever since.

James Harold Galleries at Lake Tahoe called just before New Years, told me the market is picking up and they recently sold 4 of my works. Nothing like a little snow to bring in the skiers and subsequently the art customers! And nothing like selling some paintings to encourage me back to the studio! My back pain is also getting better, which helps.

I have done three small paintings the last couple days, and am trying some new technology. My wife gave me an iPod Touch, which allows you to download and view pictures on its 3.5 inch screen. I have gone all digital in my picture taking for some time, and usually print out studies I want to paint. Since my printer is having some problems, I decided to try painting from the iPod Touch. It works fairly well, as the screen is very clear, but I have to set it down and not touch it while painting. Why? Because I usually get paint all over my hands and don’t want to mess up my new iPod!

Below is a snapshot of one of my paintings with the iPod Touch. The painting is only 4×6 inches, barely larger than the iPod!!

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In the past I tried painting from a laptop, but it takes up a lot of space in my cramped studio. I think I could do a large painting from the iPod as it gives plenty of detail of a scene…at least enough to paint from. Plus, I don’t have to waste paper to print out my studies. Nothing like new technology.

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Off to Seasons of Martis

I am off tomorrow to participate in the Seasons of Martis plein air event. Information about the event is in the previous blog and on my website. Looks like we will get a little snow Thursday and Friday, so it should make the painting interesting. I have never painted a snowstorm before, but it might be fun trying. It is supposed to be sunny Saturday, so may have to do most of my serious painting then. I might try to post to the weblog as we go along as my motel has high speed internet support.

I am also dropping the new Cave Rock painting mentioned in prior blogs at the Village Art Gallery in South Lake Tahoe, plus a number of new miniatures at James Harold Galleries in Tahoe City. It turned out quite well–

The Red Boat, Cave Rock, Lake Tahoe

“The Red Boat” * 48×36 * Oil on Canvas

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