Study - Follow Me. And Why I Paint...

Study, Follow Me
8 x 12 inch oil on panel

My outdoor art show season didn't get rolling until this past August because of the disruptions from the pandemic. After sitting on the sidelines for over a year, I was thrilled just to be back on the road, sharing my artwork, and meeting interested patrons. 

Although it's already the end of the year, it's also the beginning of a whole new collection of artwork as I participate in 25 Days of Minis. For my first painting in this year's collection, I offer this new landscape painting from central Pennsylvania's Black Moshannon State Park called "Study, Follow Me," 8 x 12 inch oil on panel.

As I look back on this condensed year, I am incredibly grateful for your support and for the privilege of being able to create artwork for a living. With this in mind, the overall theme to my collection of minis is a renewed focus on why I paint. Now through the series conclusion on December 25, I'll introduce an original oil painting each day that offers a prism into what I love about my profession. 

That's me, in my studio, with
the first landscape in this year's 25 Days of Minis

I chose "Study, Follow Me" as my introduction this year because whenever I make a painting, I endeavor to place you directly in my subject, as if you could walk along with me and share the beauty of the moment. This composition invites you into one of central Pennsylvania's true jewels among its state parks during peak fall foliage. Black Moshannon State Park is one of my favorite places on earth, and after a prolonged absence following the pandemic shutdown, I was elated to return there this past October and walk along the Star Mill Trail. The morning light transformed this moment along the trail into something magical.

Join me this month as I unveil a new painting each day. I'll alternate between a landscape and cityscape and you can return here for more insight about each new painting. Enjoy!

Spring Plein Air Landscapes

Postcard from the Easel: "Black Moshannon No. 44, Printemps" in progress. This is my most recent addition to a series of plein air landscapes based on this park over the past decade.

By and large, it's been a cool, rainy spring here in central Pennsylvania. But when the weather has cleared, it's been really beautiful. Whenever I can, I like to get out of my studio to one of our nearby state parks and spend a day in my "outdoor office." I learn so much more by working on location. I see the effects of light more clearly and the subtleties of color in features like the clouds are much more apparent. Plus, it's a great outing for my dog, Maple, who relishes the opportunity to do something different.

My trusty guard dog, Maple. Every good guard dog needs her own flannel blanket in the woods.

 

In this post, I'm sharing some photos from a couple of recent outings to Black Moshannon State Park and Reeds Gap State Park. These photos show a couple of oil landscapes in progress. I'm very comfortable working on location with pastel, but I still need more practice with oil painting. I find that mixing colors slows me down a bit relative to just grabbing a pastel stick, so it's a good challenge for me to really focus and maximize the time that I have with each outing.

Of course, I also had to toss in a snapshot of my trusty studio mascot and guard dog, Maple. She really is a vicious guard dog (part Doberman), so she's the perfect companion for me when I go to some remote locations where there's no cell phone service and just bears. It's easier to paint when you know someone's got your back.

The initial sketch, usually done in yellow ochre and maybe some raw umber.

 

Through these "Postcards from the Easel," you'll see a little of my process on location. I like to rough in an armature of the composition using an earth tone such as yellow ochre. Then I block in the major areas of light and dark before delving into the details.

The "block in," establishing areas of light and dark to eliminate the white of the canvas.

 

Reeds Gap is especially challenging because it's so-o-o green. But another fringe benefit of slipping out of my studio from time to time is that I gain a greater mastery of how to cope with so much foliage.

Enjoy!

More refinements. I try to reserve the highlights of a composition as the final frosting on the cake, but in this instance I added some of the specular highlights on the water to establish them for reference relative to the rest of the subject.

 

Almost done! I wasn't quite able to finish this piece out in the field, so I'll make the final refinements in my studio and you'll see the finished piece on my web site soon.

Thank You

Yippee! Another outdoor art show season is in the books and I'm looking forward to a quiet winter with less travel and more studio time in the months ahead.

I'm already sending out show applications for 2016, but as I look back at this past season I want to say thank you to everyone who came out to my events and who helped make this another successful year of traveling and exhibiting my artwork in locations ranging from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with many other stops in between. It's a tough grind sometimes because I never know how the weather will shake out or even how world geopolitical events can affect consumer sentiment. I can get so busy with the minute details (Do my van tires have enough air? Do I have labels for everything? Did I remember to bring picture hanging hooks?) that I sometimes lose sight of what I have right here in my local area.

Nonetheless, I got a pleasant reminder that there's no place like home last week when it was brought to my attention that readers of State College Magazine voted and helped me take the Bronze Award for "Best Local Artist" in their Best of 2015 reader survey. That was a fantastic surprise for me and I really appreciate your votes and your support of my artwork.

It only makes sense then that with the conclusion of my outdoor art show season this past month, I'm sticking closer to home with my remaining exhibitions for 2015. This month and throughout the upcoming holiday season, you can find my recent oil and pastel paintings at several venues around the State College area. When I don't need "all hands on deck" for an out-of-state show, I enjoy sharing my artwork at both traditional and unconventional venues in my hometown.

Study, Lower Manhattan 6 x 12 original pastel.

First, I've partnered with Moyer Jewelers in downtown State College to share my recent pastel landscapes and cityscapes in the gorgeous storefront display windows at the corner of Allen Street and College Avenue. Due to the window sizes, this exhibition features small format pieces. These are fun, colorful works that I sometimes use as initial studies to work out ideas for larger format pieces in the future. I like creating these works because it's kind of liberating: there's no pressure to "get it all right" with a large format, and I can take some risks with color and composition that might be harder to pull off in a large, in-your-face format.

Winter Pines, Indigo 8 x 12 original pastel.

Unfortunately, due to a boneheaded digital camera maneuver on my part, I deleted my studio photos of these new works, so I can only share them with you right now as they appear in the display window. Once this exhibition concludes, I'll get them properly photographed and onto my web site. In the meantime, you'll just have to swing by the shop in downtown and check them out for yourself.

Study, Moshannon Reflections 8 x 12 original pastel.

The next local exhibition features my original oil landscapes and cityscapes at National Penn Bank at 2541 East College Avenue in State College through the end of November. This show features works of varying sizes as well as some of my limited edition prints.

Study, 6th Avenue Rain 6 x 12 original pastel.

Finally, you can see my recent original oil landscape paintings at the State College Framing Company and Gallery in the Hills Shopping Plaza. These works will be on display through the end of this year. For more information, please call the gallery at (814) 234-7336.

Aerodynamic Painting

They say, "March comes in like a lion, but goes out like a lamb," yet so far this month, it's been mostly like a lion. In fact, there's snow in the forecast this week! Nonetheless, this past weekend brought a brief warm up, so I ventured up to Pennsylvania's Black Moshannon State Park to do some plein air painting. As I get started in the new medium of oil painting, I'm seeking out some familiar subjects to help smooth my learning curve.

My field easel, suspended underneath the tripod base.
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

In later posts, I'll share some photos of my plein air kit. I use a field easel from Artwork Essentials, and most of my oil painting set up fits into a standard L.L. Bean backpack. Unfortunately, I left one key item out of my kit this past weekend: The cleat that secures my easel to its tripod base. Unable to mount the easel on the tripod, I was forced to improvise by suspending it underneath the tripod and then sitting down to work. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because the March winds were roaring heavily this past weekend, and my usual approach of standing at my easel to work would not have been very successful against the strong gusts. Could this be called aerodynamic painting? Hmm.


Shown above is an 8" x 12" field study in progress. There was still a thin layer of ice on the bog and there was even some snow left in the woods (although that didn't stop a tick from climbing onto the head of one of our dogs, argh). It felt good to get out, and once March finally tip toes out like a lamb, I'm looking forward to more outings during the milder days of April.