Fort Bragg Rail Yard

This is the landscape painting I just finished this morning. A few weeks ago I got up early in the morning, before the rest of the family was awake, and hiked downtown to an old rail yard in the heart of Fort Bragg. The rail yard is still in use by the Skunk Train, a local tourist ride that takes daily excursions into the redwood forest.

As I was painting I imagined what it must have been like in the glory days of the Mill. As train after train kept a constant stream of redwood logs flowing in to be cut apart and formed into lumber. What a dramatic contrast to the overgrown and peacefully still scene I had before me.

For the painting I wanted to push the color a bit to emphasize the warm morning light cascading over this once bustling rail yard. I loved the contrast between the cool blues and purples in the shadows and the warm dried grass and rusty metal.

The painting measures 24"x36". Oil on canvas.

1st Place!

I entered the cityscape of Fort Bragg in a members juried exhibit at the Mendocino Art Center and got 1st place! Not only that but the next week someone bought it. It's so nice to get recognition for all of the hard work that goes into making paintings. Here's what the piece looked like when it was finally finished.

July Paintings

It's been a while since I've updated the blog. I've been a bit preoccupied. As some of you know I've accepted a job in Scotland. It's very exciting but also terribly overwhelming. So anyway here are a few paintings from this month.

The first two are from the local figure group. They are 16x20 on canvas panel. I think I worked about 2 hours on each of them.


This one is of the street where I live in Fort Bragg. It's sort of looking back toward my house from the local children's playground. It was nice painting with the sound of kids playing in the background. 6x8 canvas panel.

I painted this one on a recent trip to visit family in Victoria BC. I just got a new pochade box from alla prima and I was eager to try it out. It worked out beautifully. 6x8 canvas panel.


And finally I did this little study on a friends property in Branscomb CA. I painted in oil on this new type of board that I ordered from Real Gesso. The 6x8 board is ABS plastic mounted to a wooden backing. Interesting stuff. I was sceptical at first but the paint stuck to it surprisingly well. The ABS has a smooth sort of satiny feel to it, almost like really thick vellum. I'll definitely be experimenting with the material more in the future.

Different Brushes

These two paintings are of the same model. Both took about 2 hours, oil on canvas panel. On the first I used only hog bristle brushes which create very pronounced strokes.


And on the second I used a mix of hog bristle and sable brushes. The sables tend to blend the strokes together creating a more unified surface.

More Plein Air

Went down to the coast yesterday morning and did a little painting. I'm kinda disappointed in the composition. Feels like a grandma painting. I was a bit apprehensive of even posting it. Oh well, I just gotta keep plugging away. They can't all be winners.

The Beach

I got a chance to hike down to the beach yesterday and do a little painting.

Plein air

I made this painting yesterday for a friend. There's a nice spot south of Mendocino where the forest gives way to grass covered hills. All sloping down into the ocean below. I really wanted to push the somewhat circular composition of the trees and small shrubs in the scene. I'm still not as confident with landscapes as I am with the figure so this was challenging but I'm quite happy with the results.

5-21-09

Here are some figure studies from the last 2 weeks.

5-6-09

More hour long studies. These things go so fast that sometimes, when I spend a lot of time on drawing, I feel like my color suffers. Lately I've been in a drawing state of mind and I think it's pretty apparent when I look at these recent paintings...



...Compared to some of these older ones I just dug up.


It's a pretty exciting balancing act trying to get accurate drawing while making the colors sing.

The landscape is almost finished. I'm just waiting for another sunny day to go out and wrap it up. I think it's supposed to stop raining here on Friday.

4-29

I had a pretty good session at the Art Center yesterday. The first pose was nice but about halfway through the models foot turned a nice shade of purple and she decided she couldn't hold the pose any longer even after a break. So this one is only about 40 minutes of work.



Fortunately we got a little extra time with the next pose though.



And finally, I have made a bit more progress on the Fort Bragg painting. I decided I didn't like the composition with all of the dead space in the foreground so I hacked off the bottom couple of inches of the panel. I'm happier with the overall feel of it now, though I may have to add some clouds or something to the upper right corner. I'll see how I feel about it after I get the rest of the telephone poles in which will occupy the upper left corner.

4-21 Paintings

Had a pregnant model yesterday. Really fun. Someday when I have the money I'll drop a little cash on a private modeling session so I can spend more than an hour on a painting.


And here's the progress I've got so far on the Fort Bragg piece. I've just got to finish up the foreground elements and add in the power lines, streetlights, etc. Then I'll go back on location and check my work against the real thing and make any adjustments I need to.

4-14 paintings

Finished another figure study.

And here's the progress so far on the painting I'm doing of Fort Bragg. My favorite time of day is when the sky just starts to turn yellow on the western horizon. I hope I can pull it off.

I made a couple new figure paintings today. Spent about an hour on each one. I'm pretty happy with the first one(seated). On the second one I swear she moved her arm. I wasn't being lazy. Well I guess I could have told her to move it back... so in that way I was being lazy. But give me a break. I only had an hour.

A couple more of my recent figure studies.

New paintings.

This is a portrait that I just finished of my son Elliot.



And here are a couple of paintings I did at the local figure study group yesterday. I spent about an hour on each.

My new blog is here! Look for posts of my recent paintings soon.