It's Wednesday morning and time to give another peek at offerings for my annual open house. On our recent trip to Florida, we took our bicycles to get around. The bicycles that are seen in the area are reminiscent of bicycles from our early days. In this piece I have used a mixture of painting and collage. I used our AAA Trip tik for the background and of course watercolor for my subject. We loved riding our bikes to and from all of our destinations. My lovely wife,Mary Anne, wanted a bell on the bike. Next time! The actual textures of the torn paper add an interesting quality to my final piece. I find that I must always keep that "what if" attitude when I work. It is this curiosity that keeps me painting and gives my work a diverse appearance. I often receive comments at art shows about this diversity. Many people think that my display was created by more than one person. No, its just me and my curious mind. Here's wishing you a happy journey.

Now that I am home, it is time to get back to work. I have decided to show you a few of the paintings that I am creating for my annual open house. I have had an open house for 30 years. It has grown with me. I am grateful to all of my patrons. I hope that you will enjoy thiese "sneak peeks" of some of the paintings that will be available in May.Here is a painting that I owe to friends of ours that took us to lunch on their boat while we were in Florida. We passed through a harbor that had many "shrimping" boats. They have such character. I liked the textures, the colors and the lines that the image of these docked ships created for me. I also liked the name. I recently lost a friend whose name was Shirley. She would be pleased. Thanks Jim and Lois for the lunch and the painting. I hope that today's painting will stir a few memories for all of you. Have a great day.

I am back! After a restful trip to Florida, I am ready to begin painting again. I often paint water because of its calming affect on me. I like the sound of the water. It is time to continue to get ready for our thirtieth open house. I prepare for this all winter. After we have this show it will be time to hit the road for the outdoor art festivals. I hope I will see quite a few of you out there. Summer is just around the corner. But I still paint those winter scenes. The contrast of the empty shapes next to the trees gives my work more visual impact. I hope that you will find this painting restful.

Yellow Barns

This painting was done as a demonstration painting for a local art group. It is going to be auctioned for a college scholarship fund. This is the first demonstration painting that I have done in front of a large group of people. I was nervous about my outcome given such a limited time to create the piece. I think when you have to talk about your work it makes you think more about what you are doing and why you are doiing it. The composition has a stream to lead your eye back into the picture plane. ( We have discussed this in previous blogs.) It leads you to the yellow barn. The color helps emphasize my focal point- the barns. The use of color also balances the right side against the left side where I painted a tree in the foreground. I hope that as you paint you might look at your treatment of the foreground, the middle ground and the background. Think about how light (aerial perspective) might effect the hues and values of the things in each area.

Stay focused. Have a great weekend.

Sunday Bouquet

I seldom paint flowers. I think because one of my good friends is very adept at creating florals.While I feel the need to tell you evrything, she has a way of telling us just enough. She uses delicate lines and paints in a negative style. (Negative is good to a watercolorist) Being able to paint around your object instead of painting the object, letting the background flow into the foreground, using nice calligraphy(lines) give her paintings a nice look. I think everyone has to admire someone. She manages to make her florals look as if they took very little effort- of course I know better. You can check out her watercolors in the link below. She 's an experimenter- so all of the work is not watercolor. The Daylilies seem to have an energy about them. Donna is one special lady.

Now, to my painting! I masked out the large flowers. I do not like masking out areas. I find it monotonous and boring, but some of the time it is a necessity. This technique permits me to be loose in the background. I don't have to paint negatively , thanks to the liquid friskit I can paint right over my foreground without loosing my images. After I am happy with the background then I remove the frisket and paint the foreground details. I often have to come back and redraw the insides of the shapes because the removal of the mask has also removed my graphite drawing.

It's the start of the weekend. It has been cold but beautiful. I hope the floral warms up your weekend. Enjoy.

"While We Sleep"

In this painting I have attempted to create the fantasy of what occurs while we sleep. Creating a sense of visual balance was one of the issues that concerned me. The two large rabbits constitute a major focal area due to their size and their position. To encourage "my audience" to move to other areas of the painting, I incorporated a jumping rabbit and a stream. I encouraged the viewer to gaze upward with the addition of the rabbit jumping from left to right over the stream(this helps move the viewers eye across the surface). I also highlighted the rabbit with a circular motif. While the stream serves as a tool to lead the viewers eye from the back of the composition forward, it also leads us to the jumping rabbit and movement to the back of the composition. In many of my paintings I use a road or a stream as a tool to carry the viewers eye through the piece. It is like an invitation to the viewer to step into our painting. As I use to tell my students- once you have invited them in you probably should entertain them.

I hope you are entertained. Be happy.

Skating in the Park

As a painter, I paint that which is familiar to me. In my previous postings, I have used pieces that demonstrate my desire to work with the basics- the elements. I thnk that is the teacher in me. In today's image, I paint that which I have an emotional attachment. This more traditional piece is a park in Lancaster, Ohio-Risng Park. We have many beautiful parks within our community. This one is a place in which family reunions, weddings, birthdays are celebrated. Growing up nearby, this park was like my backyard. Keeping warm by the bonfires and ice skating were some of the activities I enjoyed in Rising Park. If you have never been here you should climb the "mountain" to see an aerial view of our community. As I go along, I hope to illustrate Lancaster as a special community This particular painting is one of many that I have created as limited edition reproductions. I think of these pieces as "shared-memory" paintings.

Through the use of shadows, I have tried to create a sense of time in this piece. The use of the shadows also helps create a mood. The ryhthm of these shadows helps lead the eye upperward. Cast shadows also work to anchor your objects to the surface. It can contain some of the complimentary color of the object casting it. Shadows in your work can add a great deal.

Stay warm.

It's still snowing here. Brrrrrr......

As you can see, at times I use my lines to define form. Yesterday they created textures and outlined contours. In this still life I have used my lines in a repetitive manner to create a flat pattern and to help give the illusion of volume. Just as a song would be very boring if the same notes were played throughout, my painting, too, would be boring if my lines were all the same. Even cereal companies get the concept of variety by selling small packages in their variety pack. I have added interest to this piece through the use of variety. This variety is achieved by changing the values(lights and darks) of the lines. I have also used gradations to add interest to my background shapes.

With the use of so many lines, I needed a way to separate my subject matter from the background. I, therefore, elected to use a rectilinear background to contrast against my curvilinear fruit. I selected cool hues to make the cherries stand out.

Shoveling is beckoning- it's beautiful to be out in the crisp air and white snow. It's as "Pretty as a picture". Maybe I'll paint snow this afternoon. And you....add a little variety to your life.
Enjoy your day!

On this cold January day, I give you a warm painting to help you through the day- stay warm!

It is Monday and I still have many questions about how this all works. I have talked to my friends and we can not figure out how comments are made on my site. Oh, well! Today's painting is "A Sunset Serenade"( I am sure that this title will please my dear friend Mary-the English teacher :) ) I tend to like working with landscapes. They give me the opportunity to create space. Hopefully, deep space is what the viewer sees. I always tell my lovely wife,Mary Anne, that I should paint only backgrounds.I know as I walk and I drive I am constantly scanning the area to see the values and sizes of objects. I have even been known to request that Mary Anne remember what we are seeing. It is nice to have another set of eyes- epsecially on someone who has a good memory. When I paint I realize that as long as I give the viewer a good shape of the object the color can be very subjective. Here I emphasize the warmth of the sunset by limiting my hues to the red end of the scale.

The elements are always on my mind. I think that is because I taught a beginning drawing and painting class for forty years. I stood while I painted this painting- not a typical procedure for me. There are tiimes that I put my right arm behind my back. This keeps me from getting too tight with my paiinting. I have an unsteady hand and keeping my forearm on the table helps stablize my hand movements. I loved using the line element throughout my composition.

First, I apologize for yesterday's post. I am still trying to figure out how this all works. Below is a watercolor titled "A Tennessee Walk" . As a classroom teacher, I found that many of my student's problems occurred because of color. They tried to use every color that I had in my classroom. I encourage everyone to limit their hues. By doing this you tend to become more value(light and dark) conscious. In this painting, I also use the unexpected to create interest- not only the lack of color, but also the push pins holding the neutral image in its place. Try limiting your hues.

As a proud parent, I encourage you to look at my children's web site. Our girls, Sarah and Lauren, have started a business using their artistic talents. So search under Milkmoon Kids. I have their work hanging in my home- the graphic designs are good for all ages. Check it out!
It's Sunday afternoon and I am off to my studio to paint. Enjoy your day.