White Egret Basking in the Sun, An Original Painting by Jimmie

White Egret Basking in the Sun is an original acrylic painting on a 18 by 12 inch gallery wrapped canvas with edges painted black.

What do you think about it?  Do you think of the wind blowing through it's feathers and the brightness of the mid day?  I hope so, as that was the inspiration I had during the work.  My reference photo had great movement for painting the bird, but the background was drab and typical, so I used a portrait approach to add more color and interest.  Seabirds are very interesting to watch.  This little guy was standing on one leg with the other lifted high up out of sight posing just for me.

I hope you enjoy my blog and if you wish to purchase prints, please email me.  The original painting has sold.

God Bless You,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

New Acrylic Painting: 'Roseate Spoonbill in the Marsh'

Roseate Spoonbill in the Marsh was finished today.  It is a 20x16 inch acrylic painting on canvas.

I spent more time on this one to build the highlights and the wonderful cast shadows creating some partial transparency effects in the wings.  Keeping focused on the bird's anatomy to get it right was the primary goalt and I changed the background to push the bird forward.  The marsh vegetation at the bottom foreground added a realistic touch to the painting.  Permanent Rose, magenta and aliz. crimson are the dominate colors in the spoonbill and earth tones with greens and blues for the rest.

If you are interested in this painting or prints email me.  Thanks for visiting!

God Bless You,
Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Roseate Spoonbill Painting

Roseate Spoonbill In Flight, 20x24 inch canvas, oils, $350

I finished it today, for the most part, and will let it dry completely and study it for touchups to do.  These are magnificent birds and I hope you enjoy the results.  I am still working on the oyster boat sunrise painting and plan to get it done over the weekend.

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

Additional note on 10/08/2011 1:32 pm

After studying the painting for touchups, I found a couple of opportunities to improve some minor details on the left wing and also show you a better photo of the painting.  It is now finished and for sale.

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

Roseate Spoonbills, Oil Painting, 18x14 Inch Gallery Canvas

The Spoonbills are done.  Whoopee!  These guys took longer than I expected.  I always see something to touch up after I shoot pictures of the painting.  I went back and forth a couple of times fixing things just a little bit more.  When it gets to that point, I usually call it finished for time being and let it dry in the studio where I can look at it and after a period of time call it final or, work on it some more.  When the oils dry, I will paint the edges of the canvas with acrylics (they dry fast) so the painting can be hung without a frame.

This painting didn't take much for a palette: white, prussian blue, van dyke brown, paynes gray, permanent rose, and a tad of black.  I used large brushes for the rough in: filberts for the birds and reflections, and flats for blocking in the background water.  For the details I used smaller brushes as necessary.  I varied from the reference photo for the color of the water and put in some extra shadowing for the birds as the photo was taken during the bright of the day and a lot of color had been blasted out.  I hope you like the painting and the art tidbits.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

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 on the Waterway

SOLD

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