Evening in the Hills

"In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing." 

- Vincent van Gogh

Direct Study From Nature

I recently read a article about Hudson River School Painter Asher B. Durand on the blog of acclaimed illustrator James Gurney.  Gurney writes:

Durand wrote that direct study from nature was the ideal way for the artist to transcend the limitations of tired compositional formulas, providing “the only safeguard against the inroads of heretical conventionalism.”

He defined conventionalism as “the substitution of an easily expressed falsehood for a difficult truth.”

Though I've never been particularly moved by the work of the Hudson River School painters, Durand's devotion to painting from nature really resonates with me and I feel a certain connection to his artistic convictions.  

Above are a couple of recent paintings done in the field as part of my continued attempt to grapple with those oh-so-difficult to express truths.  Though I'm not necessarily posting them because I think they are successful, but because they document the struggle and the journey.

Here's a link to the article:  Asher B. Durand

Seeing

"Anything under the sun is beautiful if you have the vision- it is the seeing of the thing that makes it so."

-Charles Hawthorne

Reflecting

What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and which reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered?

...You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.

-Annie Dillard

Finding Time

My wife and I welcomed our second child, Caroline, into the world on Thanksgiving.  So needless to say my time has been in much greater demand lately.  Still I've been trying to get some painting and sketching in when I can, which has meant utilizing my lunch breaks and time when the little ones are napping.  Here are some recent attempts.

From My Drawing Table

Here are a couple more paintings done around my home.  One is the view out the window next to my drawing table and the other is some of the cluttered mess on my drawing table itself.  The view is 20x24 done in acrylic and the mess is 12x16 done in oil.  

Still Life

Here's a little painting I did at home last night.  I had planned on going out to paint by the river, but I had to work later and was loosing daylight (the time change has made things a little tougher on my outdoor painting lately).  So, my plans thwarted, I came home and painted this still life instead.  I haven't done too many still lifes, I suppose I tend to over think them, but with this one I just painted what I saw on our kitchen table.  It's 11x14 acrylic on canvas.

A Couple More Paintings

Here are a couple of paintings that I did this week.  The top one is another painting from Stough Canyon (same as my last post) and the bottom one was done looking out the window of my house.  They were both done in acrylic and are 16 x 20 and 20 x 24.

I've been preparing canvases and panels lately by adding a couple of coats of gesso; brushing one coat perpendicular to the other.  The brush strokes mimic the texture of the canvas but sort of obscure it a bit more, which I'm kind of liking. The absorbency of the gesso also gives the acrylics more of a matte appearance and less of that plastic-y look which I'm not too big a fan of.  Anyway, it's been fun sort of customizing the supports a little bit.  I think I might even start stretching my own canvases soon.

Places

Here are a couple of paintings I did this week of some places that are important to me.  The top one is 16x20 done in acrylic, I painted it on site near the start of one of my favorite hikes.  The bottom one is 20x24 done in alkyd.  I painted this in my living room one evening and during the process my son picked up the truck to play with it multiple times.

Recent Paintings

These are a couple of paintings I did this week.  They are both done from life of scenes around my home.  They are both done in acrylic and relatively small (the palm tree is 14x18 and the couch is 11x14).

Tucson

Well I just got back from a short trip to Tucson to visit family.  I had an opportunity while there to get out and do a little sketching.  The sketch above is about 4 x 6 watercolor and gauche and the two paintings below are both 8 x 10 done in oil.

Getting Outside

These are some sketches I've done in the last week or so.  It's been pretty clear lately, (though rather hot) which has made for some good (though less than comfortable) sketching conditions .  These are all done close to home near the L.A. River, and the local foothills.

Griffith Park Sketches

These are a couple sketches I did this week near Griffith Park.  I did a couple of other ones too, but they came out pretty bad.

The Verdugos

This is a quick little painting I did tonight.  It's based on a photo I took on a hike a little while back.

Feeling Kind of Sketchy

I got up early this morning and went to the hills to do a little sketching.  It was good to see the morning light and smell the earth and sage and sumac.  I really need to do this sort of thing more often.

Playing With Some Acrylics

The other day I decided it would be good for me to just play around with some paint.  I've been so focused on doing really intentional work for my portfolio that I thought I might be good to experiment some.  Truth be told I would like to see more movement and expressiveness in my work, so these sketches were an attempt to loosen up a bit.  They started out really free-form and kind of developed from there.  They're done in acrylic in a 7X10 sketchbook.  I may revisit them someday as more fully realized paintings or maybe not.

Boats Revised

A little while ago I posted some illustrations I did inspired by Robert Luis Stevenson's "Where Go the Boats".  Having never really been satisfied with the way they came out, I decided to go back and rework some things.  These are the updated versions.  Hope you like them.

Illustration Friday- Space

"I'm stepping through the door, and I'm floating in the most peculiar way."
-Space Oddity, David Bowie

When I saw Illustration Friday's topic this week was "space" this was the first thing that came to mind.  I love the song and I thought it would be fun to do something music related.  Hope you guys like it.

Illustration Friday- Faded

I have been super busy lately and haven't been able to post anything on Illustration Friday in quite a while!  It's fun to be back at it again!

Head, Hands and Feet

I just finished up a great class this week.  The class focused on the drawing of heads, hands, and feet, and was taught by the very talented draftsman and instructor Karl Gnass.  It was a great class and I learned a lot!  These are some of my drawings from class.  They are all mostly 5 to 8 minute poses except for the last one which was a homework assignment (self portrait). 

More Studies

Well here are a couple more sketches.  There's this great little park close to home that I go to a lot.  It's really quiet and there are some interesting things to paint.  These are both done there a couple days apart.

Landscape Sketches

These are some quick sketches that I did today on my lunch break and after work.  I just put together a little painting kit to help me keep it simple and get outside more.  The idea is to do these small paintings quickly and often, and hopefully get better at working with color and composition.  I was inspired by two artists I really admire: Nathan Fowkes and Andrew Hem who both do little paintings like these in their sketchbooks.  The medium is opaque watercolor and white guache and they took about 30 minutes each.

New Portfolio Page

Hey everyone,  these are a couple of paintings I did a few years ago.  I just put them and a collection of other images on my new portfolio page.  Check it out if you haven't already!

Where Go the Boats?

Dark brown is the river, golden is the sand.

It flows along forever, with trees on either hand.

Green leaves a-floating, castles of the foam,

Boats of mine a-boating- where will all come home?

On goes the river, and out past the mill,

Away down the valley, away down the hill.

Away down the river, a hundred miles or more,

Other little children shall bring my boats ashore.

Where Go the Boats?

Robert Louis Stevenson

Wow, its been a really long time since my last post!  I've been neglecting my blog in order to get some personal projects done- this being one of them.  This was a project that my wife came up with to give me something to paint.  I really wanted to try something in a picture-book format but I didn't want to tie up too much time on a longer story.  It was a great opportunity for me to work with a sequence of images and try to carry the story through.  The paintings are about 14 X 25, under-painted with acrylic and then finished with alkyd. Overall it was a great process, though pretty humbling, and I'm excited to try my hand at it again soon.