Working on more little Studies
The spring house in potato creek next to some neon scum. I changed the color of the building and wanted to do a lot more but 6x8 is just too restricting for me. This paper really grips the pastel nicely though. So I am considering moving to it and moving away from the mi teinte. I like mi teinte for it’s affordability, but I am adding gesso to it to make it grippier and I think it may be time to just use it for studies and plein air only.
Handell Inspired Waterfall
These are just some rocks and water inspired by a Handell painting.
12x16 on gessoed mi teintes paper.
Wicked Scum at Potato Creek
This is a small version of painting that I am working on for my daughters.
Fallen and Sawed Tree
On the short walk with my daughters this morning we passed a tree that had fallen and been sawed up. A colleague of my wife’s has asked a few times to help me deal with some old trees near my house and I’ve still not taken him up on it. He is retiring soon, so I am going to finish this painting and give it to him.
UART 400 Paper Tree
I did this tree overtop of a swan painting that I didn’t care for. I liked this paper quite a bit. 400 might be too fine to work this small, but I don’t plan to do many 6x8 paintings anyway. I feel like I can get enough movement to make a single subject interesting enough at this size, but even still, it’s tough to stay excited when I have to zoom in so far.
Are You Hurt or Are You Injured: The Tree That Won't Give up
Here’s a painting I did of a tree I saw when I hiked Baugo Creek on Fathers’ Day.
Sunset Pier Glen Lake 2025
This was done from a photo taken while we were on our yearly vacation to Traverse City< Michigan. I did it on a 5x8 piece of Rives BFK. I like the way it takes the pastels, but it wasn’t miles better than Mi Teinte or just canon watercolor paper that I added gesso to.
Flamingos at the Zoo
My daughter turned five, and she loves flamingos; therefore, this painting was created for her.
Nolan Avoids A Stick
This is a painting to commemorate my most recent time in Glen Arbor, Michigan.
More Paper Test
This was done on clay paper of some kind. I’ll look it up if anyone actually cares. It’s a 5x8, and I let things get out of hand at one point and scraped the big rock on the left down and redid it. One issue I was having was trying to stay too true to the actual colors of the photo reference. But the main thing here is that I really liked this paper and will maybe use it again in the future at a larger size so I don’t feel like my work is so cramped. I do not like working this small and won’t do it again after I test out all these papers.
Some Fathers’ Day Plein Air
Man. This was one of the best fathers’ days I can remember. I woke at 5:30 and drove out to a park that I hoped to paint at and it was closed until 10:00. So I drove to a park that does not close in Mishawaka and got to paint a bridge instead.
Then I took a walk in the Shiojiri gardens nearby and thought about my time in Okinawa (22 years ago…). I then went to the Veterans Memorial Park and painted a tree.
After that the park was finally open, so I went to Baugo Creek and walked the trail. I had hoped to paint one more study but there wasn’t really enough time to do that since I wanted to get home and spend some time with my family.
I did see some cool things in Baugo Creek and look forward to returning to paint there in the future.
These swans were not happy that I found them, but it was cool to be so close and to not scare them away.
Summer is here, and I’m going to write like a madman to finish this novel. Then when fall arrives, it’ll be time to find an agent.
I know what I have to do. No one can do it for me. Time to get it done.
Painting Accepted for SBMA Aloft Series
I’m happy to say my new painting “The Rock that Got Away” will be on display at the Aloft Hotel this summer until the fall. Thank you to Cathy McCormick for all her guidance this past year with pastel painting, and thank you to the juror who selected my painting to be included in the show.
Landscape test on colorfix
I liked this paper quite a bit. I had some fun with colors and messed around in the foreground near the end. Likely I’ll just move on to the next paper though. This composition is not my favorite. I did want to include the bridge that was in the reference but this was way too small for me to capture it.
West Yellowstone Landscape at Sunset
Here is a landscape from a photo taken at the West Yellowstone entrance last year. It’s on a 5x7 piece of pastelmat. I do like the way this paper bites the pastel but I actually prefer the canson mi-teinte to this surface. I feel that I can tone the canson and then gesso it if I want to and it will still be quite a bit cheaper and for some reason I just feel more in control on the canson paper. I have done way more paintings on mi-teinte, though. So that could be the main reason for feeling that way.
Another Handell Inspired Rock Formation
I bought the Dakota paper sample pack to give some more surfaces a try. I’ll work on this when I get some time to focus, but I like the way the canson velour bites the pastels and I also like how resistant it is to blending with my finger. I have a tendency to want to soften everything that way and I want to stop doing it so much.
Submissions for Aloft Show Done
I finished up my submissions for the Aloft show. Here is “The Rock that got away” (This is part if my and my wife’s personal collection).
The second one is an Albert Handell inspired painting. It’s called Grumpy Rock, and it is for sale. 12x16 pastel on paper. $385 nit including shipping or framing.
Waterfall in Montana
I did this one with a watercolor underpainting on the mi-teientes paper. I like the way it’s shaping up. Hopefully it’ll be ready in time for the Aloft juried show by June 6th.
Backyard Path Afternoon Sun
This is a view of our path in the backyard that I’m working on. I thought I might do some kind of memorial day painting but the more I thought about it the more I thought that painting these trees and the path that I get to enjoy as a result of all those sacrifices was a better use of my time than painting something forced.
