Another Year

Ending the year finishing up paintings. Some that I've just started, some lingering projects. Some new (for me) techniques I'm trying, and some new themes.
A good part of the new year will be devoted to photographing work to list for sale online. It's grunt work but has to be done.

Bird Talk

Cape Elizabeth
Watercolor on paper.

Sitting with my watercolors on the rocks by the Ocean at Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The rocks are generally a tan slate color as I showed them. There was this one huge black rock that seemed to cut through the others like a whale.

While I painted, a curious seagull landed in front of that big black rock. He studied me for a while.

Seagull: "Well.........Aren't you gonna put ME in your painting?"
Me: "OK."

I had this small watercolor matted by a gallery. The image size is 5 x 8 inches, with a three inch mat and foam core backing. I'm throwing the mat and backing in for free, because it really makes the painting look nice. The outside demensions of the mat are 10.75 x 13.75 inches. Acid free.

Initialed by me, lower right (on the rock)

Always happy to receive your comments or questions, just click the link.

Cheers,
rick

The painting.

Available at artfinder.com/rick-paller

(my online shop)

Today's a bit unusual. All the paintings I have currently working are at the point where they need to dry and cure before I can move on with them. I guess I get the rest of the day off. See ya. 

On The Easel

This is on the easel at present. An unfinished oil painting of a favorite view of Lake Allatoona, near Red Top Mountain in north Georgia. A fair amount left to do before this one is finished. I want to bring the sky colors down into the water and then see where to go with it. I'll post the finished piece when it's ready.

Photographing some art from the racks.

 

Photographing some art from "the racks," to put them online for sale.

When I get these photos shot, edited, and written up I will load them to my ArtFinder page and they can be purchased online from anywhere in the world. Cool.

My ArtFinder home page can be accessed by the link on the right. I know, shameless promotion. Just trying to make a living.

There's 30 pieces online now, and I hope to have 100 more by this time next year. Honestly, selling art is more work than making art.

I was going to title this blog entry  "Shooting A Cow," because it's about photos I'm shooting, but I thought better of it.

So click the link already :-)

Found it, sort of.

Tree On Arthur's Creek

I've been looking for this drawing for a while. I have it in storage, somewhere in the files in my studio. It is, I guess, under something or between something else. But I stumbled upon this image the other day, so I thought I'd post that. It's a bit grainy as it is an old camera shot but it is what I have.

I always liked the drawing. Tangled roots fascinate me, and I remember drawing this some years ago. Put on my plumbers boots and stood in the middle of the creek with my easel, paper and charcoal. Cold day in February and the water was REALLY cold. When I stepped in a hole in the creek, and water came in over the top of my boots, I declared that the drawing was finished.

On the easel today.

Experimenting.  Using oil paint on canvas with a beeswax medium.  I really like the way it paints, and the matte surface when it dries.  My only concerns are how "tough" it will be to scratches, etc.  Also are there any compatibility issues, like cross contamination into non-wax paintings if I use the same brushes or solvents. Or can it be varnished like a traditional oil painting.

Like I said, I love the look and the way it handles on the brush. Just frustrated that there is so little product information available. I have looked.

Note to manufacturers:  Make some of this info available. You might SELL MORE of the medium.

Mrs. Blackwell's Field - Then and Now

 

Then

 

Now

O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your Ornament Tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where shall we shelter or where shall we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

***********************

Irish Traditional

Painting from the mid '90s. Photo last week.

Ballerina

Here's a painting from a while ago. It's still one of my favorites. A pastel on Fabriano Roma paper, painted from life. A beautiful young lady posed in costume for a group of artists and this was my result. I had the stained glass window effect on the paper already, as I had started it for another painting. That one was abandoned, but I thought the stained glass was perfect for this painting.

You can get note cards with this image here:

Ballerina Note Cards on etsy

Cheers

rick

Skull & Bones in the Studio

 

I like to draw skulls, bones, muscles etc.  It's some of the best practice I can think of.  I have a variety of skulls and bones around in the studio. Some that I bought, some that I found in my wanderings. Coyotes, deer, wild dogs, cattle. Even squirrels and lizards. Bones and skulls are some of the best teachers for an artist. I have a human skull REPLICA that I bought. Had to paint it with oil paint to make it look like bone.

 

Back in art school we had real skeletons to work from. Maybe I'll post some of my old drawings from school one day.

Last Show for Circus Elephants

Above is one of my illustrations from the 80s or maybe the early 90s.

Here's a link to an article about Ringling Circus ending the Elephant Shows after 100 plus years.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LAST_CIRCUS_ELEPHANTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-05-01-09-42-43

DON'T FORGET TO VIEW THE GALLERIES!!!

Look at the banner above, just below the masthead on this page.  Lots of paintings and drawings, organized by subject. Thanks for looking!

On Capturing A Moment

I paint a lot of landscapes.  So I go to a lot of spots and try to capture what I see in paint.  Over the years I have seen many of the scenes that I've painted become something else entirely.  Sometimes a developer will build over what was there; sometimes lightning, fire, a flood.

The scene above was much more sublty changed.  You could see it from the beach, just as it is above; but after I painted, a hurricane blew through.  These islands and beaches are tough, and everything you see above is still there.  You just can't see it anymore from where I stood to paint.  The wind and storm surge carried about ten verticle feet of sand up onto the beach, and so now there is a wall of sand that hides the scene.   The sea took a beach from somewhere else and put it here, so this beach actually is in better shape after the storm.
I have been back to this spot a few times since making this painting.  Had to climb up a big sand dune to see, but the whole scene survived.  The big, ancient Live Oak in the background and the sea oats in the foreground.  They're all still there, but this painting could not be made the same today because the place where you would have to stand to paint it is under ten feet of sand.

UPDATE

TODAY'S STUDIO ACCOMPLISHMENTS are as follows:

    1.  Painted 3 paintings

    2.  Wiped 3 paintings off of the canvas.

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.

Thinking too much about the beach, I guess.

BAD CAT - Mixed media on illustration board

I thought this old sketch fit my day.
Our cat, Anabel, is undergoing some mild "treatment" that involves sitting in my lap and me holding a warm compress to her.  It also involves me chasing her all over the house because she doesn't much care for it and she knows when it is coming up.  So after going from room to room and floor to floor, finally cornered her in the kitchen by the cat food & water.  As I picked her up, she reached out and grabbed the little rug on which the food & water bowls sit, and the rug came right up with her.  Food & water all over the kitchen floor, angry cat in my hands.  The bowl rolled all the way across the room.  So I had to put her down, clean up the mess, and start over.  Anabel is in the doghouse.  Her brother, Tug, seems strangely satisfied by all this.
Now if I can only find her, we can start all over.

NEW GALLERIES!!!!!

 

After a prolonged absence, I have finally sat down to update the galleries.  So even if you visited yesterday, click on the galleries (on the banner near the top of the page) because I have updated them.  I've also added a couple of brand new ones.

I do appreciate you visiting the studio-blog.  Please enjoy my paintings and drawings.  They are my personal expressions and reactions to life and living.

SANTA & TOYS FOR TOTS

Here's a little poster that I illustrated a few years back.

The idea was that the toys were doing their part by marching themselves into Santa's bag.  My client was a fairly large corporation helping to support the Toys For Tots program,

which is still a good idea.

THINKING ABOUT SPRING

 With the early onset of Winter, I find myself thinking about Spring.

PIEDMONT PARK MAGNOLIA is an oil painting on canvas that I painted for the Coca Cola Company back in the late 1990s, I think.  They commissioned the painting as a gift to the Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI), and presented at their yearly convention.