Style verses Substance

Style verses Substance... what exactly does that mean? Sometimes it means you put aside the actual reality of what you're viewing and dramatize what is ethereal and poetic (to you) about your subject. It's no secret that I enjoy painting FRUIT AND VEGETABLES. I've done so many different versions of pears and garlic and tomatoes-- you name it, that I feel compelled to change it up now and then. I like to ask myself, "What if?" In this instance I wondered what would happen to the roma tomatoes if I used a trowel of a palette knife to lay the color on. I paint differently when I use the knife. It makes my strokes a bit more intentional and keeps me from becoming too invested in detail--which can quickly lead to the death of a painting.

I found that using my cadmium red light straight form the tube really captured the glowing red of these tomatoes. A simple grouping of similar objects arranged artfully and painted with a heavy hand. But I really like it that way.

Roma Tomatoes

6"x6"

oil on Gessobord™

SOLD

Mixed Greens, or "Why I Don't Put Green on My Palette"

My basic palette consists of cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow deep, cadmium red light, raw umber, rose madder, yellow ocher, ultramarine blue and cobalt blue. Sometimes I will add a color to experiment with here and there. I tried 'hydrangea blue' --made by Shin Han, on this expedition, and I found it a strong mixer (probably some pthalo in there) but also a beautiful color that creates deep mysterious greens as well as subtle golden greens. You can't always get a brilliant green from ultramarine so it's definitely a color I'll keep in the paintbox, if not on the palette.

September on the Miami

14" x 11"

oil on canvas

Exciting Weekend!!

Tomorrow night is the opening reception for my juried show at The Parkwood Gallery in Toledo. The show runs through Sept. 28 and also includes the large abstracted paintings of Mike Huffman and there is a great deal of contrast between our works so it should be interesting. This is a really nice gallery located across the street from the Toledo Art Museum at 1838 Parkwood St.. It is funded through a grant by the Ohio Arts Council and I had to apply to the Toledo Area Arts Commission last year for consideration. I found out last December that my application had been accepted so I have been saving many of my better landscape paintings for this show. Not all-- I'm still listing a few on eBay and Etsy, but when this show is over I will have some inventory of whatever doesn't sell.

I should mention that only landscapes will be included in this show, and 90% of them are plein air landscapes. I'm saving the still life pieces and figurative work for another show. :)

On Saturday, Sept. 22, Charlotte Loetz and I will be selling our artwork in Waterville at The Roche de Boef Festival. Show hours are 10:00 AM-5:00 PM. I will have plenty of sports prints available to purchase.

Another Plein Air Painting --Down by the River

Sometimes these paintings practically paint themselves. A cool sunny day with no breeze and no bugs, unless you count some tiny red beetles that apparently decided to hatch right beneath the sycamore tree where I was standing. They didn't bite so I wasn't terribly worried.

I wish they were all this easy. Looking downriver this painting was easy to compose. Foreground--rocks, Midground--sandbar, Background-- distant trees. A really lovely location and an equally lovely day spent painting.

September Breeze

When the month of September finally arrives I have usually done enough plein air paintings throughout the summer months that I have become 'accustomed' to the haphazard life of an outdoor painter. Not this year! It's been so danged hot that I have languished in the studio painting fruit or people for the most part. Now that the temperatures have finally dropped I am enjoying the late summer breeze.

A visit to the river over the weekend sparked this plein air painting.

16" x 16" oil on canvas