The canvas is 18″ x 36″ and this is an oil painting.

I’m adjusting two areas right now: The color of the sand and the way that the water gets darker in the distance, but also more muted. One is a color issue and the other is about tone.

Mostly, this painting makes me happy when I look at it.

For me, a painting is completed–and successful–when I think to myself, “It’d be okay if this doesn’t sell. I’d kind of like to keep it…”

I’m already thinking that about this landscape painting.

This is one of a series of paintings that are more abstract and have a clearer voice than many of my other oil paintings.

I’m very pleased with this work. It’s powerful and has energy and flow. I like it.

This is the first of three paintings that I hope to complete this week. All of them will go into my July show in York Harbor, Maine.

Three Trees, Bush Park - oil on canvas - 22″ x 28″

I made the sky brighter around the moon, enhanced the reflected light and dark areas, and generally worked on the temperature (warm or cool colors) throughout the painting.

It’s within a day or two of being ready to varnish and frame. I’m pleased with this simple painting. It’s 15″ x 30″ on canvas, painted with oil paints.

It’s tricky to get set up to paint and capture the view before it changes. During a sunrise, even 10 minutes can make a world of difference. So, I worked quickly, relieved that I’d bought a tube of Payne’s gray this past week; it was the right base for the clouds, and –since it was already mixed–it saved me time.

Anyway, I painted this oil sketch on a 6″ x 6″ gallery-wrapped canvas. (That’s one that doesn’t need a frame since the sides are smooth canvas and can be painted on as part of the art.) I’d underpainted it with cadmium red, and it was ready to use.

The painting came together quickly. I liked it.

I worked wet-on-wet. The paint was thick in spots, almost like frosting on a cake. It had little peaks, several smudges, and some of the underpaint showed through.

It wasn’t perfect, technically, but the energy in it was fresh and exciting.

But, with my previous success with a monotype… I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I pulled a print. Result? It wasn’t very good, and the painting faded as well. Ick.

So, I tried to recover the earlier energy. It just looked forced.

At that point, I had the good sense to put down the paintbrush and take a break.

Two hours later, I worked on it some more. This time, it improved significantly. (This is a work that really doesn’t convey well online.)

As I looked at the sketch from across the room–where its impression is best–I realized that my art is often like music for me.

That is, I tend to like music when bands (or performers) are unpolished and the energy is raw. When they deliberately acquire technical expertise, they often lose that sense of vitality and untamed power.

What comes to mind is the 1991 movie, The Commitments. The music in the movie was amazing. The same songs re-recorded for the ’soundtrack’ CD… they were more technically polished but the energy was lackluster by contrast.

So, I’m learning not to keep tweaking paintings past the point where the energy is good.

So, I took out my pochade-style easel (a cigar box mounted on a camera tripod) and did a quick color study of the remaining sunrise.

After about ten minutes, it looked great. The cadmium red underpainting showed through just enough, and it was almost perfect.

“Almost” is often my downfall. I kept working on the painting and pretty much ruined its freshness.

On impulse, I decided to take some canvas paper and pull a monotype. (A monotype is a single print made from wet paint or ink. Generally, only one is possible.)

Well, the print lifted just enough paint off the canvas to restore a lot of its freshness. As a bonus, the monotype turned out pretty well, too.

This is the first time I’ve tried a monotype. It was one of those “nothing to lose” moments, and the experiment served me well. I’ll try more monotypes in the future.

The original painting is 6″ x 6″ on a wrapped canvas. As usual, I painted it with oil paints.

There will probably be one more plugin added to this site,  and then I’ll start uploading many more photos of my paintings and other art.

It’s progress.  I’m pleased.

Right now, many areas are just simple shapes, with color and/or tone suggested. But, despite my eagerness to tweak the reflections too early, I’m pleased with how this painting looks.

This is an oil painting on an 18″ x 36″ canvas.

Upon returning to Texas, my first step was to buy a stack of large-ish canvases, generally 20″ x 26″ or larger. Then, I started several paintings. As of noon today, I’ve started five new canvases. My goal is to have at least ten in-progress, so I always have something to work on… and I meet my target of 10+ paintings for my July show in Maine.

Since these larger canvases intimidate me, I decided to start with the largest. The oil sketch at left is on a 30″ x 40″ canvas. It’s not great, but it’s a very good start.

The red showing through–especially where the water will be–is the cadmium red mid-tone underpainting. In most of my completed paintings, the red doesn’t show very much, if at all.

The subject is York Harbor, Maine. The public beach, about a block from the post office, features one of the loveliest views around coastal York.

At this point, the painting is like a series of jigsaw puzzle pieces, each with a different color and/or tone. I can already see things that I want to change, but the composition is shaping up well. It’s a good start.

I’ve spent a full day adjusting website colors, checking how these pages look on different computer and in several browsers.   Finally, I checked the websites of my favorite art museums and several upscale galleries, and decided to do what they do: I’m using a white background for my articles and images.

There’s a little more to do before this part of the site goes live, but it should be there by the end of this week.

Basically, I wanted to convey the beautiful colors in the grass at this time of year. Some fresh green grass is showing, along with richer green clover. But, most of the land is covered by grasses that are shades of red, orange and brown, with some sand showing through.

In the early morning (and late afternoon) when the midday sun isn’t bleaching out the colors, the park can be absolutely breathtaking. In some ways, this landscape reminds me of the colors in salt marshes along coastal New England.

This oil painting is 8″ x 16″ on canvas board. It will be for sale in July, when I’m showing my work in York Harbor, Maine.