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. 

Bluebonnet Painting 20x16

I needed another original bluebonnet painting to take to shows and decided to take the study I had done on 16x12 and paint it in acrylics, rather than oils, on a larger 20x16 format and hopefully make some improvements as compared to the previous study.  My biggest obstacle turned out to be the summer heat.  My studio a/c running full blast could not stay ahead of it during the day.  So, I painted furiously in the early morning and late evening and even then, it seemed I spent more time keeping my acrylics wet enough to paint with, than actually painting.  The humidity was also low which made the paint dry quickly.  I am switching back to oils for the next couple of paintings.

I should be in the doghouse for not posting much last month.  Most of my efforts went to rebuilding my website, where you can use paypal to purchase originals and prints of my work, and painting on the Bluebonnet.  Please check out http://www.jimmiesart.com/ .  I will be posting more paintings and prints on it.

We have two indoor Arts/Crafts shows next month.  On August 13, we will be in the El Campo Civic Center and on August 20, in the KC Hallettsville Market Day.  I hope those of you in the area will visit our booth.  We got some rain today.  I pray for more.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Garden Gladiolas

Garden Gladiolas, Original Acrylic Painting, 16x12 inch Gallery Canvas

The Garden Gladiolas was fun to paint.  The beautiful reds and varying light created some nice contrast.  This stem of flowers came out of my wife's garden.  The palette was mainly cad red med., cad red lt., cad red deep, yellow ochre, umber, sap green, tad of cad yel. med., and white.

In between trying to keep up with painting, my computer crashed and had to replace it.  I like the windows 7 on it, but---there is always a but, some of my older programs do not work in it.  I am rather displeased, as my old website editor will not work in W7 and I can't update my website.  I am trying out several trial versions of web editors on the market to see which will work best for my site.   If anyone has some suggestions re. web editors, I would really appreciate the feedback.

I hope you like the painting.

Let us pray before we paint,

jimmie@jimmiesart.com

The Cornfield Barn

Original Sold, Prints Available at www.thebartlettpair.com

This is an acrylic painting I did today on a 9x12 gallery stretched canvas with edges painted.  This beautiful field and barn is located in South Texas on hwy 111 between Midfield and Lake Texana.  The weather is very hot and dry and the field looked like it could really use some rain. I used a bit of impressionism for the field and took artistic liberties with the barn.  I really liked the way the tall corn was crowding the barn and the colors blended like a storybook scene.  This was another one I knew I had to paint.  I hope you like the painting.

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

Mexican Sunflower

An acrylic painting of a Mexican Sunflower, 14x14 gallery stretched canvas, edges painted.

This was painted as a still life setting in the studio.  The flower was my grandsons graduation class flower as it brightly displayed the Van Vleck Leopard's school colors.  Each graduate presented their mother with a Mexican Sunflower in appreciation of their support.  I figured if it represented that much of an honor, I would paint it so it would last in memory.  Besides, it is a pretty flower.  I enjoyed working on this painting.
 
Prints are available if you would like to purchase one. 

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

Old Galveston Square

After several years of on and off painting sessions, I finally finished the 18x24 inch oil painting of Old Galveston Square.  The reference photo was taken in the winter of 2002 with a Mavica digital camera, which was the best digital back in the day.  However, it was great for taking closeups, but not for panoramics with distances.  I used it anyway as it has my grandson (standing in the warmup suit on lower left) and my wife (standing by the bus looking at the game)  in the picture. My grandsons and I have played chess on a frequent basis since they were old enough to learn.

The poor quality of the reference photo was a good excuse to go back to Galveston to take more pictures and enjoy the town.  We went several months after hurricane Ike had come through, and it was demoralizing to see the destruction left by it.  The people were already recovering their town.  Very visibly, shop owners and residents could be seen running saws and hammering away to rebuild Galveston.  Those folks are strong Americans.  For what I needed to paint from, the first visit back was not very productive due to the reconstruction and things about the square had changed. The next trip a year later was much more productive and to our joy, the square was active and people were playing chess again.  I  was able to capture some close ups of the pieces to compare against the older photo.  Also, rebuild my memory about the square.

The work took a long time as it had many components that had to harmonize to make it work. The final session of painting was about six weeks of work when not going to shows and letting paint dry enough to start again.  So, in painter talk, was this painting done from a photo or from life?  I like to think it was a little of both.  The visits set the mood and feel and, the photo refreshes the memory while you paint.  I had to interpret and deviate quite a bit from the photo because some things just didn't look right.

Some people would probably think putting so much time into one painting is rediculous or either the painter (me) didn't know what he was doing.  Probably the latter.  I have been known to overwork a painting before.  Many I complete in short order, depends on how much fun I am having.  In the case of Old Galveston Square, it was one of the most enjoyable paintings I have worked on.  My wife is my second set of eyes and although not a painter, she is a great critiquer of paintings.  Her critiques during the work really made a difference.  I would appreciate your comments re. the painting.

I plan to hold on to the original for awhile, but will have prints for sale soon if anyone is interested.  I hope you like the painting and my rambling story.

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

Lexi Portrait

This little girl is 2 1/2 years old and very beautiful.  I painted her from a photo in oils on a 14x11 canvas.  The blush came out looking a little stronger in this picture than is in the painting.  I painted this one alla prima (few hours one setting).   This one was for my daughter's best friend which made it special to do.  I sure had fun painting her.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Apple Trio

This is a small 9x12 inch acrylic painting on a paper made for acrylic painting.  I thought it would be interesting to try the paper out on an easier subject such as apples.  This surface is rated at 185 lb./400 G and comes 10 count in a pad.  I know nothing about ratings of paper for painting.  This surface is thick, so I figure it must be good.  LOL  Maybe a watercolor painter will help me out with that. 

It seemed to fight back at me by bowing up when I covered the surface with the paint, and moreso when I thinned the paint.  I found I had better results by letting it dry and not thin the paint with water.  After I got the hang of it, it came out pretty fair.  I sketched the apples on with pencil and did an undercoat in burnt umber thinking I could blend and glaze in the background without losing the apple underpainting.  Almost did.  I brought the apples back up with a green then worked on completion with the reds.

I like to do studies by starting with sketches then do small paintings which may lead to painting the scene on a larger format.

I hope you enjoy Easter, our holy day in worship to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Blue Bonnet Bucket

 

SOLD

I painted this little scene of blue bonnets on an oval galvanized bucket I had bought to paint a couple of years ago.  Seems like all my ideas take years to fulfill.  Anyway, I painted it with acrylics in a crafty mode on sides and ends, and put a clear gloss seal on it.  We used to do a lot of crafty painted projects a few years back when we went to the Canton First Monday Market every month.  That was 'back in the day' when I painted everything on anything that stood still long enough.  LOL Did that for several years and loved it.  This one is 15 3/4 inches long across the top,  9 3/4 inches wide across the top, and 5 3/4 inches tall.  It is listed in my etsy shop. 

We were at the Bay City, TX Market Day last Saturday and had a great time.  The weather was beautiful and we got to see some friends and push some art.  Bay City has their Market Day on the third Saturday of the month starting in March.  Thanks for stopping by.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

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