Wensleydale Sheep

Wensleydale Grazer

5 x 7 - oil on panel

SOLD

One of the things I do besides paint is spin wool. England has an amazing amount of sheep of all sorts. I met the owners of this on at the county fair and visited the farm to take reference photos. I ended up buying 2 fleeces - one blue/grey and one white. The cool thing about these guys is the quality of the wool is remarkable. Very luminous. Very long. This is the only time I have bought the fiber here, generally people just give it to me. This was worth it.

I did this painting also in the limited pallet of white, ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. I am very pleased with this one. I do love losing edges as the dark values of one object become indistinguishable from the dark value of another object next to it.

I am painting my butt off!

Muddy Path on a Grey Day

8 x 10, oil on panel

What a mess this day was. Wet, mucky, stick-to-your-boots mud. And it was darkish too. What a day to paint outside! The challenge was to bring some life into all the dark. There is some but I strive for more.

Shack at the Silo

9 x 12, oil on panel

Another muddy day in England (and very windy too) but with a bit of fleeting sunshine. This shack was so overgrown and had such character it drew me in. The door actually kept on flapping open and closed in the wind.  This one was fun to paint. I don't do many structures for fear of getting too caught up in the details. One day buildings will be something I will conquer but they just aren't pulling me at the moment. Here I had found a somewhat sheltered area to set up in but my painting buddy decided to plop himself in the middle of the unplanted field of puddles and... more mud. His painting blew over into the mud several times.

Untitled

8 x 10, oil on panel

This is part of my commitment to learn how to paint the moving clouds. There is such drama and energy in this kind of cloud cover as the sunshines peaks through in varying degrees so quickly. I do not consider this to be a success (among other things I think the composition is trite and uninteresting) but I did get a bit of insight. I did 2 other small studies of the clouds and learned even more but the photos of those paintings are pending the battery recharge on my camera. 

A better photo of the post from the other day. This was not a plein air painting but I think I am starting to take some of the things that I am learning en plein air and applying them to my studio work.

Sheep Study

5 x 7

These little guys are right outside my window so I don't even have to pack up to do them from life. I am after getting their shape and values in as few of strokes as I can. I am pleased with what took place here. The bottom one is headless because the neighbor came out and tossed them some bread and they moved. I will be doing more of them as I take advantage of my opportunity of having them so close since I won't be here forever.

ps - I am still  not pleased with my photos. These are not scanned cause they are all still wet. 

Aug, 6, 2012

"The Seductive Stairway", 9 x 12ish, oil on panel

I see this stairway every time I go to Manor Park to see the Highland cattle grazing. It is down near the small lake where the swans and the other water fowl are. I won't tell you what is at the top of the stairs -  that's your choice.

"Longwool Couple", 8 x 10, oil on panel
SOLD

These are Wesleydale Longwool sheep. I found them at the Kent County show and got to meet their owners and eventually ended up at their farm to take lots of reference photos. Their wool is absolutely beautiful and of course I got 2 fleeces to process and spin. The bonus for me was the visit with the lady  afterwards. She is a really good artist so we had lots in common.

"Lost in the Field". 10 x 8, oil on panel, done solely with 3 sticks.

This painting is the result of a painting challenge that I came upon through Facebook. It was fun. Not quite like a palette knife painting but close. I had to make friends with the sticks because they were not uniform or flat. One stick did get a little bit of a sanding though.

Sheep and Mountains. Trees and Shadows

A Walk in the Mountains of Peru

9 x 12, oil on panel

My daughter's friend Anna does beautiful things in the world for other people.  Along the way she traveled to Peru and allowed me to use a photo of this scene as reference for this painting. I very seldom use other peoples photos but I am happy to have used this one. Once again, there is something about butts that is fascinating to me. This is actually a painting that I sanded down and started again. I don't recall if I had posted the first version but if I did, and you want to bother finding it in the old posts, you will see that there is quite an improvement.

Late Afternoon Shadows

100cm x 100 cm,  oil on canvas

I started painting a non-objective abstract here. I haven't done an abstract in maybe a year or so and I wanted to dive back into that pool. But the call of the oils and the call of the representational subject matter was too strong so it came down to this. I must say, it did feel really good to be working big again. Too bad my storage limitations does not allow for lots of the bigger ones. I suppose I could sell more of them and then I would not have to worry about storage.

There are some wonderful things about England that I love, and the paths is one of them. Plugging in my love for the dramatic and there you have it.