work in progress

Obviously I'm looking for a sunset on the horizen. That's easy enough but how to put in the correct shadows and foreground for that time of day is always a challenge.

8-28-08 "After the Snow Storm"

There are times when the sky seems heavy and loaded with snow, ready to touch the ground. I've seen that effect during many snow storms. You'll se it when there is a lull in the storm but more is on the way.

Original water color, 5x7

$50.00, free shipping

work in progress

I'm still working on a winter theme and the weather here in Iowa is reminding me old man winter is on his way. The lower painting is the first washes of the sky and the top painting has a cut out of a couple of barns. Sometimes I use a cut out to get the placement right.

10-18-08 "Comin' up from deer hunting"

SOLD

Some days we wonder what we are doing outside in the bad weather but that's where a lot of hunters find themselves and a lot of farmers are also deer hunters. November is the perfect time for hunting. Many evenings like this one presented this view of my neighbors farm as I walked home after hunting. I like the cold, stark atmosphere this painting conveys.

Watercolor, 5x7

Back at it!

I just started to paint with no real idea or real location in mind. I haven't done something like that in several years. Usually work from a real scene somewhere but not this time. The finished painting will probably be a snowfall scene. I've been working on house projects so much lately that the blog has had to suffer.

9-21-08 Trial and Error

Does this painting look a little different than what Ive been doing lately? It's all acrylic. Fall is on the way or maybe here by the looks of the fields here in Iowa and I wanted this painting to look like the fields are just starting to turn colors.

I left my camera at my son's home for a week and a half so that put me out of commission for posting.

work in progress

Here is a project in acrylics. As you can see the acrylic paint goes down heavier and more opaque than water colors. The sky is done but the foreground and landscape around the barns needs some imagination. We'll see!

8-26-08 "Allerton's Round Barn"

This is the completed painting of Allerton, IA's round barn. That small community is trying to preserve this barn, a one room school house, and a large victorian house on a museum property. I usually don't show the painting in the frame but I thought some of you might want to see how it is matted and framed.

It's probably obvious I've had a major slow-down in producing paintings. Making paintings feeds on itself. In otherwords the more you paint the more you want to paint and the more you find time to paint. But once you brake that cycle it's hard to get that bike back on the road and head down the trail again. I had three artshow weekends in a row where I only completed one painting and now there are home repairs that must be made or I'll be fixing the porch and such while the snow flakes are falling around me. That's not appealing at all! I'll sit down at my art table this week and start another painting. I'm real tempted to branch out into something new, what I don't know. We'll see what the fall brings.

work in progress

Here is a painting of the round barn in Allerton, IA that I painted last year but in the 5x7 size. This painting will fit a 16x20 frame and hopefully be an improvement of the first one. The sky started out with a lot of big, puffy, billowing clouds. Yet, I couldn't make them look right so I smoothed them over and you see what I come up with. Maybe this is better in that they don't over power the white of the barn.

7-31-08 "A Nice Summer Afternoon"

Well here is the finished painting with its corrections! The fence row making its way over the rolling landscape leads the eye to the barn just as it should. This painting has much more appeal than the previoius rendition.

water color, 16x20

$200, shipping included

work in progress - adjustments

The lower photo shows a painting I had completed in November of 07 but was never really satisfied with it so this week I took it out of the frame and gave it a stronger foreground and some fall foilage to the bare tree limbs. I'm not finished yet but will add a fence somewhere and a 'v' of ducks in the sky heading south for the winter.
The blogging has been neglected for several days as I was getting ready for the art show last weekend and this weekend there is another show in Indianola. There should be a large crowd because the National Balloon Classic is going on at the same time.

Brown's Chapel Road

Several weeks ago we went yard-saling around the country side and drove past this farm. Everything seemed to be in place perfectly and the composition needed little improvement.

I'm scheduled to be in two art shows this month, one in August, and have been asked to be the guest artist at another show in August. I like to keep busy but this just might get me worn out.

Watercolor $225

work in progress

It may look like these barns are floating on a brown pond but once I'm done the small barn to the right will be set back with a windmill at its side. The two close up barns and grasses will lead the eye to the focal point .