Heron in the Marsh, An Original Painting

Heron in the Marsh, Original Acrylic Painting by Jimmie Bartlett, 10 by 8 inches on gallery wrap canvas

This Blue Heron has been hanging around in my photo files for too long and finally got him on canvas.  I put the heron in an entirely different setting than in the picture I took several years ago.  I like compositions that have a strong focal point and foreground with lots of distance in the background.  This fellow lives in the marshes around Matagorda, Texas.

As always, my paintings are available for purchase and prints are available from me and other online websites.

Merry Christmas,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Old River Wharf in Matagorda

Old RiverWharf in Matagorda is my most recent oil painting on a 11 x 14 inch gallery wrap canvas.  The edges are painted and the painting is ready to hang without a frame.

The work required detailing of the water reflections and the old wharf.  The white egret was a bit easier to paint.

The original painting is $200 plus shipping and handling.  If you wish to purchase an original or a different size of print than below, email jimmie@jimmiesart.com.

Prints are also available.

Print Sizes

8x10 $20.00 USD 11x14 $35.00 USD

I hope your enjoy my art work.


Have a Very Merry Christmas,
Jimmie@thebartlettpair.com

Little Beach Bird, Original Oil Painting

I finished the second painting of the bird on the beach.  I like to paint groupings of related subjects and plan to add more to the sea bird list.  Sounds like an excuse to go to the beach and marshes for pics and inspiration.  Hope you like the painting.


God Bless You,

jimmie@jimmiesart.com

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A Matagorda Beach Sunrise Oil Painting

This one was finished yesterday.  I painted it in oils on a gallery wrapped canvas.  The challenge of the contrasting values in the daybreaking light was fun.   I plan to do some larger canvases of ocean scenes as I really like to paint water movement.  Painting a scene puts me there while I am at the easel.
I hope you like this one.  Email me if you wish to purchase.

Let us pray before we paint,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Pelican Swim

If you follow my blog, you already know I love to paint pelicans.  They are such an interesting bird.  This guy is on a 14x18 canvas and done in oils with brush and knife work.  I used the knife to put in the foreground rocks.   I like the texture it gives and makes the subject stand out so well.  I wasn't going to put in the wildflowers that were there, but had a second thought how more color would make the painting more interesting.  The pelican was swimming in the waterway at the Matagorda, TX harbour when I got this photo to use for reference.  The painting is still wet and I may do some tweeking on it after it is dry.  Maybe not?

I have another painting in progress of a sunrise over Lavaca Bay with an oyster boat and crew already hard at work.  To get the good photos to paint from, sometimes we have to get up real early.  I have several photos from that morning in the clip to paint.

Let us pray before we paint,
Jimmie@jimmiesart.com  

The Fishing Pier

The Fishing Pier, Oil Painting, 18x24 on hand stretched gallery wrap canvas is finished.  The previous post shows the start of this painting as a work in progress (WIP).  The paint is still wet and will not be ready to handle for a couple of weeks.   The Pier will be for sale when the paint is dry.  I had a grand time with this one exploring the neat effects of light and shadows created by the sunset bouncing light on the water and pier.

We have two indoor shows this month.  The first one is this Saturday at the El Campo Civic Center and the next one is in Halletsville on the next Saturday in the KC Hall.  If you are in the area, I hope you can visit us and the other vendors.

I hope you like the Fishing Pier.  All comments welcome.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

New Painting, Work in Progress, The Fishing Pier

In spite of the heat in South Texas, painting is still going on in my studio.  I finished the bluebonnet last week and switched back to oils for The Fishing Pier as the acrylics were hard to work with in this extreme heat wave.  This painting is completely from scratch as the stretchers and canvas were made and stretched in my shop.  I added another coat of gesso to the canvas as I like a clean white surface for water scenes.   This work is on an 18 x 24 inch gallery stretched canvas and will have the edges painted when finished.

The inspiration for the painting came from a weekend rv camping vacation on the Colorada River at the LCRA park.  This is a beautiful place as it is located where the river flows into the Gulf of Mexico.  The river and the beaches are full of sea life and activity; perfect for an old painter to take some time to reflect.  Our rv camper has a large window in the back of the trailer in which I spent a lot of time relaxing and looking at this pier.  We took numerous pictures and I chose this one to paint as we got lucky and captured a beautiful sunset striking the pier and river's edge.

The first pic is where I left it yesterday and the second is when I stopped today.  The temperature in the studio was approaching 90 degrees and I was hungry.  The painting is basically undercoated and roughed in at this point.  I prefer to get the entire canvas undercoated quickly, so I can see my foundation and where I want to go with the composition.  The construction of the pier components took more time than the rest of the painting.  Man made objects always seem to take more time.  When undercoating, I like to use thinner paint washes and lay in some detail at the same time.  The thinner paint doesn't completely cover my tracing lines and builds a base to paint on during the refining of the images, color, light and shadows.  I trace the image reference points on the canvas as light as possible and spray a bit of pastel fixative over it to prevent smudging of the lines.  Dark  lines can be hard to cover and show through the paint.   During the next sessions, I will be adding more color and working on the water.  So far, the palette includes white, cobalt blue, d.purple, magenta, deep orange, warm white, van dyke brown, terra green, cad yellow light, raw sienna, and payne's grey.

I hope you found this little tidbit interesting.  You are welcome to make comments re. the post and painting.  If you find any paintings on the blog you would like to purchase, check my website http://www.jimmiesart.com/  or contact me for availability.  We also have most of the paintings available in giclee' prints.  Thanks for stopping in.

Let us pray before we paint,

jimmie@jimmiesart.com 

I don't warrant any of my painting processes discussed in my posts, but they work for me. 

Roseate Spoonbills On the Easel, A Work In Progress in Oils on 18x14

Spoonbills are on my easel this week.  The picture at right is where I left it before my studio got too cold to paint in last week.  During cold weather, which is not frequent on the south Texas coast, I do much needed paper work and catch up my website and blog.

We have had 7 seven roseate spoonbills staying in the LeTulle Park pond this winter and what a treate they have been for the public.  They even got their picture in the Bay City Tribune.  These beautiful and very interesting birds have become somewhat tame in the park.  I think being around the ducks and geese and getting use to seeing people in the park is the reason.  Anyway, back to the painting: In the first setting I got the scene blocked in with basic color, highlights and shadow.  I didn't try to get the reflections perfect on first try.  I prefer to cover my canvas completely and then start refining the painting.  I think it is much easier for me to see what I want to do once the canvas is filled.  I was lucky with this one as the 'block in' is close to where I am going with the painting.  In this painting, the water and reflections will be moe challenging than the birds.  The water and reflections do not have to be painted exactly, but need to be believable for the viewer.  No need to paint every ripple.  I tried that once and it gave me a headache.  LOL

If you live in the area or visiting, visit LeTulle Park and the Birding Center next to the park.  You may be able to see the spoonbills or other unique wildlife.  Comments are welcome.  Hope you like the story.

Let us pray before we paint,
Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Pelican At The Marina

 I finished painting Pelican At The Marina today.  The painting is in acylics on a gallery wrapped 13x20 inch canvas which I custom made for this work.  The scene is continued on the edges of the canvas so it can be displayed without a frame.  We were out taking pictures a couple of weeks ago at the marina in Matagorda, Texas and saw several beautiful pelicans waiting for a hand out at the fish cleaning station.  These big fellows let me walk up close and take all the pictures I wanted.  It made me wonder, as if I had tried to get close to them in the wild marshes they would have flown away.  But, I thank them for modeling and giving me a chance to study the birds up close.  This particular view had great light and little in the background.  I took the image and transferred the sketch to the canvas and used a little artist license to put in a brighter background sky to make him stand out more.  I plan to mount the painting in one of my floater frames.  I have to build one first.  I hope you like the painting and story.
 
Let us pray before we paint,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Pelican on the Waterway

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I finished Pelican on the Waterway today.  It is acrylic 20x16 on a stretched gallery canvas with the edges painted black.  I feel real good about this one.  We took pictures of these fellows last November at the Matagorda, Texas harbour on the inland waterway.  This was another scene I knew I would get on canvas someday.  Eleven months later, here he is.   I could never get all the detail of his plumage like it is in the photo, just tried to make it reasonably close.  Same with the rocks and the nice bit of flowers that he was behind.  The light and shadow is strong in this painting as it was mid day when we took the pictures.  I hope you like this big bird.  I really enjoyed painting him.

Let us pray before we paint,

jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Blue Heron Taking Flight, Original Painting 11x14

This great blue heron is about to take flight in the Matagorda, Texas wet lands next to the Colorado River.  He was well over 100 yards away when I took a chance photoshot and got lucky enough to hit the target.  His image came out fuzzy and very small on the photo.  I enlarged the image and increased the contrast enough to paint from.  This painting was a real drill in painting the light and shadows to create the shapes and make him look realistic and a lot different than a fuzzy spec on a photograph.  There are pros and cons among artists about using photographs to paint from, but I could never have painted this fantastic scene without a camera and also a whole lot of luck.  Taking Flight is on a11x14 stretched canvas.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie

Roseate Spoonbill Party, Original Oil Painting

This oil painting is of Roseate Spoonbills feeding in the wetlands of Matagorda, County Texas.  The painting is on an 8x10 inch stretched gallery canvas.

Roseate Spoonbills are seen frequently along our Texas coastline marshes and usually seen together in groups.  This painting was inspired by a photo taken by an artist friend of mine which gave me several photos of the spoonbills to paint.  These beautiful birds are rather skiddish and he had to crawl through the wet and the weeds to get these great photographs.   I hope you like the painting.

Let us pray before we paint,
Jimmie

Note:
Also, if you like my painting, I would appreciate it very much, if you would tell your friends about my blog and website.  As you can see, I do not have outside advertizing on my blog and sites.

A Seagull Moment, Original Oil Painting, 9x12 canvas

This is a plain and simple painting inspired by a picture we took in the marina at Palacious, Texas located on Matagorda Bay.  As you can see, this perching spot is well frequented by the gulls.

Let us pray before we paint,
Jimmie