A little more light

Here's the next step.

Step 5 - first highlights

Some roof tops and cool shadows

Everyting still is pretty simple. Broad shapes of different colors...

Add a little foreground and blend...

Barn step two

I was able to spend a little time on the sky tonight. Just a background layer. I'll continue to work my way forward. At this satge it's easy to fall into "Bob Ross" type tricks. I must stay alert. I will paint what I see! No knife tricks!

Barn raising

Oil 36" x 12"

Underpaiting

My son's first oil painting

For Christmas my 14 year old son received his first oil painting set. After the holidays died down a bit we finally had time for his first lesson. We did a little bit of everything. Color mixing, bush techniques, "drawing" with a brush and a bit of knife work too.

I know I'm his Dad but I think he did a great job for his first time out. It was a wonderful way to spend New Year's Eve.

Happy Holidays everyone.

My little brother and I

My little brother and I
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

Little brother is coming for Christmas. Thruth be known, he's taller than I am but I lucked out and retained my hair. He doesn't really look quite like this. Niether do I. But this is a fun caricature of the two of us together. I framed it and am going to give it to him as a Christmas present. The rest of the family will think we're off our rockers, but that's not so unusual.

Oh yea, he's on the left. I'm on the right.

Progression

Progression
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

Well, we had our office holiday party over the weekend and it was a great time like every year. This painting was my secret Santa gift for one of my coworkers. We were encouraged to make our gift but only a few of us did, so I was a little embarressed. But she sent me a photo of it hanging in her house so I guess she liked it.

I took a look through my photos of it and thought it would be interesting to view the progression in one image. Hey, did I just make new art out of old art?

I figured it out!

I figured it out!
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

The foreground on this was really bothering me. A lot of you made helpful suggestions so I could tell it wasn't really jelling with you either. The background and foreground were too disconnected, but I think I fixed it. Let me know if you think otherwise.

Sorry I've been away.

It has been a while since I posted anything. My day job has me quite busy lately. But over the holiday weekend I managed to sneak this one in. It's larger than the other ones. This is 8" x 10" on canvas. I kept the foreground pretty loose but I'm not sure if that's the right approach. It might be to disconnected from the focal point. What do you think?

Third day on the farm

Third day on the farm
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

It was another rainy weekend so I headed back the same farm. This is another 4" x 6" oil. The problem with shooting these little guys is that when you upload them they tend to render larger than the original painting, and then start to fall apart. It's like what happens when you take a photo from the newspaper and enlarge it. All the dots from the half tone show up. Here, the weave of the canvas gets too big.

So do me a favor. When you have this on your screen, stand across the room to look at it. :-)

Number two in a series?

Number two in a series?
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

It was 10:00 last night. I was really tired because it was a long day at work. The TV was on and it was tempting to just plop down and veg. But I didn't. I went down stairs and did another little one. This might have been better had it been earlier in the day and my brain a bit fresher, but that's OK. It was just fun to do.

Oil on canvas board 4' x 6"

Better Color

Better Color
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

That's better. The color of the last post was bothering me. I shot it last night indoors. This one I took outside in the day light and the color is much more accurate. Please pardon the multiple posts.

Rainy Day on the Farm - Oil on 4"x 6" canvas board.

Rainy Day on the Farm - Oil on 4"x 6" canvas board.
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

I went out this past Saturday (during our rain storm) looking for the perfect overcast landscape. I took a lot of photos but this is one little study that I jumped on right away. I had trouble photogrphing the finished piece however. It's still too wet to scan, so the color harmony is a bit off, but I think you get the idea.

You can see from the title that it is small. I'm taking a lesson from Amanda on how we can make small paintings important. I hope.

The Well Step 2

The Well Step 2
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

The goal of this session was to get all the values in. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I have to be away tomorrow, but I am hoping I can start laying in some color on Sunday.

The Well step 1

The Well step 1
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

I had the day off today. An unexpected treat. I got up early, worked in the garden, did some freelance work. Then started this painting guilt free. It was a lot of fun just to push the paint around.

For Wally's poetry marathon

I made changes to this based on feedback from a lot of you to push the background back. I also wanted to use it to resond to Wally's call for entries to his poetry marathon. The poem is below...



Think Like a Tree

by Karen I. Shragg

Soak up the sun
Affirm life's magic
Be graceful in the wind
Stand tall after a storm
Feel refreshed after it rains
Grow strong without notice
Be prepared for each season
Provide shelter to strangers
Hang tough through a cold spell
Emerge renewed at the first signs of spring
Stay deeply rooted while reaching for the sky
Be still long enough to
hear your own leaves rustling.

I THINK I'm done

I THINK I'm done
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

I wanted to finish this tonight. So I got to work after dinner. I ended up trying to tie the high lights in the sky into the foreground. And that was about it. I thought I had more work in front of me, but this is feeling pretty resolved. Perhaps when it dries I might add a violet glaze over the left portion of the house to push it back a bit.

My father's 80th birthday is comig up in very soon. He just bought a new home in the mountains of North Carolina. My wife suggested giving this to him as a house warming/birthday present. What do you think?

Getting back to basics

IMG_7177
Originally uploaded by chuckrose1.

I was talking with a collegue of mine today about painting. And about blogging. We were looking at some beautiful lanscape paintings and it really got under my skin. Why I am I hesitating? What's holding me back? Why can't just go home tonight and paint?

I started to count this list off on my fingers. I've paid my bills for the month, I'm caught up on my freelance work, ( I could always do more when it it comes to my day job so what's one night ) There's nothing on TV I want to watch. My kids are all out doing things.

GO DOWN TO THE BASEMENT AND PAINT!

So I did.

I'm not finished with this piece, but I'm happy with it after a couple of hours of work, I wasn't sure if I should post the work in progress, but you know me... show everything.

So here's me getting back into oils after a vacatiion that has gone on way too long.