New Art

Here are five steps of the work I'm currently working on. I'm not done, but I'm getting close. Color Pencil really is the medium I'm most comfortable with.I do the work on Black mat board, I really hope they never stop making this stuff!  Fields are still kind of new to me, so I hope I do a better job on this one than my last couple. Skies are hard to do in Color Pencil, but I feel I left out just enough to not make it so hard. In my reference picture there is a lot more sky. The fences and buildings are really fun to do. It's a little change from the usual rocks and tress. Maybe it's a good piece for Spring/Summer time. Everyone take care and have fun!

New Drawing

The drawing for my next painting. It's Britney at Shaker town. I'm going to tackle this one in Color Pencil. The fields are still new to me and I've painted them a few times, but didn't do as well as I had hoped. Maybe this time I'll get it done right. I think this is one of my favorite drawings of Britney too. I've been working on the barrel for a while and look forward to using my Color Pencils again.

Pleasant Hill

I don't know if this is the best picture, but it's done. Me and Malissa went walking out in the woods at Shaker town on Thanksgiving day and I Color Penciled this pic of her. Funny how warm it was that day.

Shaker Pathway

Working on this one piece of my wife when we were hiking at Shaker Town on Thanksgiving day. I'm more used to rocks leaves and trees to help me define the landscape. Struggling a little with this one, but it will work out eventually. I found the strong light fun to explore. Oh, and this is another Color Pencil piece. I also want to mention more people has been reading this blog lately. Thanks everyone for your support. It's good to know you guys are there!

New Painting

Working on the Color Pencils again. This is another scene that I'm working on from Shaker Town. If you go down where the bird blinds are there is a neat place, where it's like a field in front of some woods. A small Field, it's really neat. Still working on this one, this is just where I'm at right now. Think this one will be really good. I hope so anyway. I'll show it again soon. Everyone take care and have fun!

At Days End

Finally, I got a decent picture of this one. This is At Days End. This Color Pencil piece is based on a hill top in the Pleasant Hill Shaker Town near Harrodsburg KY. This is one of the better Field scenes I've done. It's a great place if you haven't been. Me and Malissa got a room here at Shaker town a few weeks back and we came to this spot to play music in the moon light. I was really glad to have this model here. She's a great person and with the way we get along, the photo shoot was really fun. I'm also supposed to have some TV time Thursday morning on 18 LEX with Lee Cruz. Not sure the exact time. I have to be there at 4:00 in the morning so we shall see how that goes. The TV thing will be about the barrel auction for the barrel I painted a while back. It's at the Hopewell museum in Paris KY, so hopefully (no pun intended...really) they will talk about the Creative Harvest Festival show that's on Friday. Our art is on the walls, so it seems like it would have to be talked aboot. We'll see. Hopefully this will get me more fans, more publicity and more sales! I like that idea. Well, everybody take care and have fun!

A Memory and Queen Ann's Lace

Here is the drawing and the first approach with Color Pencil. I will call this piece A Memory and Queen Ann's Lace. The scene for this was at Shaker Town near Harrodburg Kentucky. Pleasant Hill to be more correct. It's a great place and the model was a trooper. We had to walk around quite a bit while I tried to judge good places to model for the scene. In the last couple of pieces she was wearing a scarf on her head, but I wanted to do one without it so you could see more of her hair and face. She has a good hair and face! I also wanted to visit my old friend Color Pencil again on this one. It feels so natural for me, but when it's framed behind glass the reflection knocks down the image and the color. Even in reflection proof glass, which I've bought, you still see some reflection. I'm going to try it without the glass and see what happens next time I frame one of these. I might even explore some protective varishes. I seen those used once on watercolors in a gallery in Santa Fe. If anyone knows anything about this kind of stuff, please let me know. When this piece is done I'll post it. I have a pic of it done in a later stage, but I'll post it later with the new one. I wanted to show this in stages. Everyone take care and have fun!

Fields of Mercer County

Finally, I'm back. I've been working on this painting for a while now, but I didn't have a camera to take a pic of it with. But now I have one and a new painting to show! I'm calling this one Fields of Mercer County. I decided to get out of the woods a bit and try adding buildings to my work. Buildings have always been very hard for me, so I wanted to start doing them, but in the right setting. I still have to have the Nature element and also I like keeping the Female element too. When I took Art History in College, I remember seeing women in the farm fields in the Northern European paintings and I liked them. Here is my stab of doing something similar, but with a Kentucky spin. Behind the young woman is Shaker Town at Pleasant Hill. Me and my wife visit there often and used to live fairly close to there. I like it! So I got a friend of mine to model for me there and here is one of the results. She was a real sport. Very pretty and joy to work with. It's a big painting, 2 x 4 feet in size. Oh, and I have to say for anyone who wants to bring up the topic, I was not trying to make her a Shaker. I was thinking of a Late 1700-early1900's farm girl theme. An Idealized version. I doubt many girls went farming with bracelets and ear rings on. But hey, it's a painting and I get to create what's going on. I hope everyone enjoys it! Take care and have fun!

New drawing for Shaker Painting

Hey! I've been gone to the Great Rocky Mountains for the past two weeks and haven't blogged but now I'm back, and I plan to do some different and new kind of paintings! Well, slightly different. I've avoided buildings and tried to stick to the deep woods, but I've been getting an urge to paint the Shaker Town area here close to Lexington. It's a great and beautiful place. I also worked with a new model, who is a great friend, and I plan to do her all the justice I can in these paintings. She was nervous about posing, but she did great and I hope to show it in these paintings. I worked on the drawing while on vacation. It was hard to do at first, drawing muscles in the brain are not the same as painting muscles in the brain, so after working on a few paintings it takes a few drawings before I get back into the swing of it. I also used my wife as an adviser (as always) to help me along. But anyway, here is the first drawing of this new series and I actually have the painting half way done. I accidentally dropped our poor camera in Boulder Colorado, so I don't know how long it will be before I post the painting. I was taking a pic of a mountain from my bike and then just dropped the poor camera. I was still able to get the pics I already made onto the computer, but picture taking is over for a while. Everyone take care and have fun and I'll put on more pics as soon as I get a new camera. Until then, hug your camera today and show it everyday that you care, for these accidents happen. Have fun!