New Soft Pastel Painting: Speaking Sky

                                                                                Hello Everyone:

This is an original 12" X 16" soft pastel painting painted on a sheet of pastelmat pastel paper.  

Now this was really fun.  I did not have anything special in mind when I started this piece. As usual, I started with the sky and went from there.  Once I saw the sky, I just let my hand go on its own and see what would happen.  It is not only fun, but oh, so satisfying when a piece seems to paint itself and adopt its own personality.  This does not happen often with my art, but when it does, I just let it happen.

Once you do enough art, it will happen for you from time to time.  The more experience you have with your art, the easier it will be to recognize it and then allow yourself to let go and allow it to paint itself.  When this occurs, I call it your inner artist painting the piece.  I do not know if I coined that phrase "inner artist" but I really do believe in it.  When your inner artist takes over, I believe your soul is actually doing the painting.  Your conscious is just along for the ride.  This is why we create.  Whether your a visual artist, musician, theater actor or video game designer, if you create, you have had your inner artist try and come out and play.  Hopefully, you listened and allowed them to create.  That, after all, is where true beauty resides.

Have a Blessed Day.

New Soft Pastel Painting; Soft Colors

Hello Everyone;
I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend.  My wife and I broke out of Illinois and went on the lamb to Wisconsin on Saturday. We actually went into non essential stores (Hobby Lobby and Michaels) and walked around small towns where life is close to normal again.
Sunday we bought a steel fire pit from Menards (store was packed like I have never seen before) put it together and had a fire Sunday night.
Today we relaxed a bit and, of course, I painted.
Here is another soft pastel painting I completed an hour ago.  I used my last sheet of Le Carte pastel paper from Sennelier.  Well, this may have been the last sheet I had, but I will be ordering more soon.  I was torn between pastel mat and e carte and for me, le carte works best.  Both are wonderful sanded pastel papers, but for some reason, the le carte tends to work better for my style.  As of right now, I am not sure where my artist journey is taking me.  I love painting in oils, watercolors and soft pastels.  Lately, I have been giving the pastels a lot more attention.  When I enter my studio, all three mediums are right there in front of me, but I seem to gravitate towards the pastels.  I have learned through life to not ignore your inner feelings.  Follow that little voice and go with it.  Right now it's pastels, maybe tomorrow oils.  Part of the fun of the journey is the unknown.  Take that step out in faith and see where it takes you.
Have a Blessed day my friends.

New Watercolor Painting; Moving Horizon

Hello Everyone;
Since the rain still has not let up, I decided to do some more painting.  Earlier today, I painted a soft pastel landscape, this evening, a watercolor painting.  I wanted to make an active sky, not necessarily a storm sky, just action within it.  I used 4 colors and a few blends to give a little movement, then I tried to use soft and hard edges in the clouds to give it a little oomph.
Did this painting work?  I have no idea, but I do know this, I had this image in my head and I painted it.  If you never take a risk, then you will never accomplish anything.  Creating art is all about taking risks.  You can never be satisfied with where you are as an artist.  Each artist must continually take risks with their compositions, or color pallet or technique or anything they are comfortable with.  I do not know this for a fact, but I do believe with all of my heart that the best art is accomplished when we go out on a limb and take those risks.  We create something we did not know we had in us.  Please keep in mind though, when you take risks, you must also be willing to accept failures.  Only a small portion of your art will be the "WOW" art.  Inevitably, we will create many more failures then successes.  If we can accept this and keep on taking risks, you will become a successful artist.  Success defined by you, not a board, or art critics in some magazine.  Be yourself and take a chance.
Have a Blessed Day my friends.

New Pastel Painting; Soft Pastures

Hello Everyone;
I hope all are doing well.  Here in the Chicago land area, we have a whole lot of rain.  A little thunder, but nothing severe, just a nice spring growing rain. 
Today's pastel painting deals with a secluded mountain scene I call "Soft Pastures"  I do not name all of my paintings (maybe I should) but when I complete one that speaks to me a bit, I tend to give it a name.  The funny thing is, it does not even have to be a good painting, it just needs to speak to me.  I have named some paintings the public has never seen and never will.  Maybe the painting itself was a disaster, but there was one redeeming element that made it speak to me.  That one element surrounded by garbage could be that one insight you needed to execute a really good painting in the future.  That one tiny bright spot could end up illuminating an entire series of wonderful art pieces.  I guess my point is to listen to that inner artist deep within yourself.  Every artist has that little voice that tells them when to stop a painting, where to add that subtle dash of color, where to soften an edge and so on.  The trick to using your inner artist is to be emotionally level.  When you create art, you need to be in a somewhat calm state of mind. The more at peace you are, the less interference there is inside your head.  Once you learn to clear your mind and listen to your inner artist, you will notice that it speaks to you about many things, not just art.  Once you begin to listen to that inner artist, your life, your art and everything else in your life will begin to work for you instead of against you.  Your inner artist will show you the way to your inner peace.
Have a Blessed Day my friends.

New Soft Pastel Painting; Did I Hit It Or Swing And Miss??????

Hello Everyone;
I need your help on this one.  Just as my title asks, did I hit it or a big swing and miss?  This is the essence of art my friends.  Take chances.  I had this image in my head on my way home from work this afternoon and decided to put it on paper.  The concept is correct, I am just not sure if the execution works.  It is a bit more abstract then I imagined, but the colors seem to work.
Regardless of what becomes of this piece, I will keep it.  I may not list it on my Etsy site, but I will keep to refer back to.  One of the best teachers we have is our own mistakes.  The more mistakes you make, the better your art becomes.  I really do believe that.  Once we get into a comfort zone with our art, it always becomes a bit stale.  It makes no sense.  If we do the same thing over and over we should get better, right?????
Think about it this way.  If you lift weights, the only way to progress is to consistently try and lift more weight.  If we lift 100 lbs only, we actually become weaker.  So, it stands to reason that we should apply that same logic to our art.  We do not have to change who we are as artists.  We do not have to change our style.  We do however, need to challenge ourselves within our style, within our own soul.  Those challenges are not clearly evident to a casual observer of our art, but they do make a profound impact on how we see our art, and most times, how we see ourselves as people.  Striving to be better, leaving that protective box as it were is a bit scary.  To some, down right terrifying.  Our growth as people depends on our willingness to step out in faith and be prepared to conquer whatever is in our way and at the same time accept that defeat is a real possibility.  Never do something or not do something because of fear.  Accept defeat as a learning experience and accept success as a step closer to your goals.  Keep it in perspective and watch yourself grow.
Have a Blessed day my friends.

Masters Touch Products; 5" X 7" Canvas Panel Oil Painting

Hello All;
I hope everyone is doing well.  I realize everyone is getting antsy to venture from your homes and I can say I am no different.  Here in Illinois, it is 60 degrees today, but most things are closed.  So, I put in my Jimmy Buffet cd, open some windows and paint.  This is my newest oil painting I used Masters Touch products only.  The paint and the canvas panel was from Hobby Lobby before the close down.  I stocked up on panels and paint the day before they closed.  I will not replace my normal oil paints and primed hard board with Masters Touch products, but to be truthful, they are much nicer then I originally thought they would be.  The panels have a rigid backing and a nicely textured painting surface.  The oil paints go on well and the colors are vibrant.  The oil paints do have light fast ratings on the back of each tube that is pretty good as well.  My only real issue is the drying time.  Thicker applications dry much slower then artist grade oil paints.  Now don't get me wrong, they do not take weeks or months to get dry to the touch, but it is a bit longer then what I like.  I am averaging a full week to get touch dry and that is with using walnut alkyd medium from M Graham.  Even so, a week for oil paints is not that bad.  If your looking for a pretty decent student grade oil paint at a great price, by all means, try them out.  I think you will like them.  Have a Blessed day and hang in their my friends.

New Oil Painting; Pallet Knife Try

Hello Everyone;
I was not really sure of what to paint today, but I knew I wanted to paint.  I have two plastic pallet knives I bought at Hobby Lobby awhile ago and use them primarily to clean off my pallet when I am finished painting for the day.  Since I had nothing special in mind, I decided to use them to paint a picture.  This is an 11" X 14" oil painting completed 100% with two plastic pallet knives.  I actually don't hate it.  As a matter of fact, it is growing on me a bit.  No lie, they are really tough to get used to, but I do like the different textures and effects i was able to get with them.  I am not sure if I will try this again, but it is tempting.  I did not waste anywhere near the paint I thought I would, and point of fact, it was a whole lot of fun.  I know I will go through all of the YouTube videos tonight on knife painting to see all of the little tips and tricks needed to paint with this equipment.  I don't know, maybe I have found something else to add to my art.  Please believe me when I say, NEVER EVER be afraid to fail.  Always try new things and always think outside of your comfort zone.  When you challenge yourself mentally, you find things about yourself you never thought possible.  New ideas, thoughts, likes and skills.  We can not grow unless we fail and we can not fail if we don't try.  Always try.
Have a blessed and safe Good Friday my friends.

New Oil Painting: Using Cheap Oil Paints part 2

 Hello Everyone;
As promised, here are the other paintings I did today with Masters Touch oil paints.  I was going to make three posts, but I decided to combine the last two paintings into one post.  As with anything, practice makes perfect except for art and playing a musical instrument.  I really believe those are two endeavors where you can never say, I know it all.  You constantly learn regardless of how proficient you become.  There is always something new to learn.  For me, the journey is very rewarding.  When you see where you came from and where your level as an artist is today, it can be mind blowing the growth you had.  Practice is the key though.  What is cool about being an artist is that the practice part is fun.  A lot of times I paint an entire painting, but quickly, thinking very little and kind of feeling my way through it.  Sometime we think too much and we end up removing the aspect of our work that reflects our inner artist trying to be set free.  Another way I practice I posted earlier where I take certain elements and practice them by themselves over and over again trying to get them just the way I want to. 
Another aspect of becoming a better artist is trying new things.  Painting outside of your comfort zone.  Since we are creatures of habit, we tend to stay in our comport zones.  When we do this, our growth is substantially reduced.  We must always challenge ourselves.  When we feel ourselves becoming content, we need to change it up.  We do not always need to make it a drastic change, but we definitely need new challenges. 
This brings me to a final point for today, and this point can be applied to everything we face in life.  Never be afraid to fail.  If you don't fail, that means your not trying.  My father taught my brother and I a very long time ago that there is a huge difference between a failure and failing at something.  Failing at something means you tried and came up short.  You put out the effort , but the results were not what you wanted.  A failure never tried to begin with.  They sit and complain that they can not do anything, complain about everyone else and are jealous of everyone who they think have more then them.  These people never put themselves out there.  They were so afraid of failure that they became one.  Regardless of the results, never stop moving forward.  One step at a time or one inch at a time, so long as you try, your never a failure.
Have a Blessed day my friends

New Oil Painting; Cheap Oil Paints Review

Hello Everyone;
Since so many non essential stores are closing now, I still wanted to paint, but not use my really good paint not knowing when I could replenish.  My wife and I went to Hobby Lobby on Friday and I bought their ten 50 ml oil paint set.  Masters Touch paint was at 50% off so that set cost me $14.99.  This landscape and the following two posts were painted with these paints and they were painted on Masters Touch canvas panels as well.  I do not know the drying times as of yet since I did these paintings today, but this is not bad paint.  Actually, it is much better then I expected.  It mixed clean colors, it had a creamy consistency and the colors look bright.  I was able to use the same techniques I use with my more expensive artist quality oil paints.  Don't get me wrong, these paints can never replace artist quality paint, but for artists of all levels, there is a purpose for them.  For artists, it is a cheap way to try new techniques and pallet knife work without costing a lot of money.  For beginners, it is a nice paint to start with.  The pigment loads give good coverage and as I said before, mixing clean colors is not difficult as with other cheap brands of paint.  If you do decide to try these paints, (whenever stores open again)  be sure to use their 40% off coupon or wait until Masters Touch products are at 50% off.  It really becomes a great deal then.  One more nice thing about these paints is the tube size.  Normal artist quality paint comes in 37 ml tubes.  These are 50 ml so you get a lot more paint to play with.  Whenever you get a chance, go to your local Hobby Lobby and pick up a set.  They also sell them in individual tubes as well.  Have a Blessed day my friends.

New Oil Painting; A Blessed Day

Hello Everyone;
Here is another new oil painting.  This is an 11" X 14" original oil painting completed on a triple primed stretched cotton canvas. I just love the peaceful feel to a lonely waterfall.  This is a painting of a place that to my knowledge, does not exist.  I had this image in my head yesterday of this secluded, peaceful scene and decided to paint it.  Most of my work is from my imagination.  That is why most of my landscape scenes have certain similarities to them.  My style, if you can call it a style is peaceful, secluded places that have no interference from the real world.  We get so much garbage from everyday life, we do not need it when we get home as well.  My strategy to fight the ever growing rash of fear mongering media and self centered lying politicians is to get lost in my mind.  Explore beautiful places that do not exist anywhere except within the confines of my heart and then paint those places.  All are welcome, but there are some rules.  First rule, no one lies to each other.  Rule two, no one hurts each other, and the final rule.  Every morning when you wake, you need to reach your arms out to the heavens, take a deep breath and say Thank You for this perfect day.  We need to try that once in awhile instead of what we are doing now.  Who knows, maybe it would make things just a bit better.  If not, I still have these peaceful places in my heart and I will continue to paint them as long as I am allowed.  Have a Blessed Day everyone.  Everything is good.

Practice Makes Perfect

Hello Everyone:
So, you want to be an artist, or a musician or an athlete.  For most people, the race is won before you even get to the track.  Everyone who is successful in anything in this world makes it a point to practice their craft on a regular basis.  I heard on ESPN one time that Tiger Woods hits at least 1,000 golf balls a day trying to improve on each swing.  That type of dedication can make you one of the best in the world at something, just like he is.  If you are a person, like me who wants to be really good at something, but cannot devote 12 hours a day to our craft, then we must still practice regularly, but not quite as obsessively.  For artists, try and give an hour a day to practicing techniques, brush strokes, etc...  I paint a lot of landscapes, so trees and mountains and things are very important in my work.  I use old cheap canvas panels and do landscape elements regularly.  These are in oil paint, my sketchbook has the same types of practice elements, but those are in watercolors.  Really, if you give an hour of real practice each day, you will be surprised at how quickly you improve.  Once you start to see your work bear fruit, you will increase your practice time without even thinking about it.  One thing to keep in mind though.  If you make a finished painting each day lets say, that is also practicing, but I found that when you use your best materials with the mind set of making a finished piece, subconsciously we do not allow ourselves to experiment or take chances.  Those chances, thinking outside the box is where we grow the most as artists.  Just a thought.

Oil Painting: Quiet Peaks

Hello Everyone;
Here is another oil painting I finished today.  Yes, I finished two oil paintings within a few hours of each other.  Oil paint is a very easy paint to manipulate.  You can brush it over wet paint, you can wait to dry and brush into dry work, you can combine the techniques.  Oil painting is complicated in some ways when it comes to mediums and solvents, but in its application, oil painting can be the most forgiving of the painting mediums.  This painting has both techniques I mentioned in this post.  The sky was completely dry when I painted the clouds in and the mountains were very wet when I painted the highlights.  As you can see, both work well, it is just a matter of practicing enough to get comfortable with the techniques as well as the paint you use.  Oil paint and really, all painting supplies vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.  French Ultramarine for one brand acts and looks a bit different then another so it is really important that you understand the paint you use.  It will help make your learning curve just a bit easier.

Oil Painting: Peaceful Day

Hello Everyone;
Here is a new oil painting.  This may be the first oil painting on this blog.  It has been a long time since I painted in oils.  They are very complicated, messy and very dangerous to use if your not careful.  Those are really, the very reasons why I stopped painting in oils almost six years ago.  Since then, I have learned of new products and techniques that make painting in oils much safer, and nowhere near as complicated.  I missed the lush, deep colors oil paint gives you as well as the ability to correct mistakes much easier then most painting mediums.  Shortly, I will be posting the supplies I use when painting in oils.  If you wish to try this wonderful medium, be sure to do your research first.  Learn as much as you can from blogs, you tube and any other resource you can find.  Once you have all of the information, you will have much more success and much less frustration.

Watercolor Painting; New Painting On Aquabord

Hello Everyone;
Here is a new watercolor painting.  As you know, I have been using aquabord a lot lately.  This painting is no different.  I used a 5" X 7" piece of aquabord to do this simple landscape.  I am finally starting to get used to the amount of paint needed to make the colors stand out better.  That really is the main issue with using this support.  The amount of paint and water on your brush.  I believe, once you get that combination down, painting on this surface will be much easier and very rewarding.  Lifting color is truly as easy as advertised.  Lifting for your highlights is pretty simple.  A damp clean brush and a paper towel to wipe off paint from each pass. You generally do not get to pure white again, but you get a really good highlight.  The mountains in the distance and the foreground rocks were highlighted that way.  As you can see, the lifting of color works very well.  Even though learning how to use aquabord can be challenging and it does take some effort, I am convinced it will be well worth the time.

Watercolor Painting: Really? A Bird on Aquabord

                                                                                Hello Everyone;
Here is another bird painting on a piece of Aquabord made by Ampersand.  This was completed on a  6" X 6"  1/8" panel.  For some reason, I have never tried the square panels.  I always overlooked them.  This bird vignette actually looks a bit better on a square panel then a standard 5" X 7".  Again, these panels have a bit of a learning curve.  I do not want to talk you out of using them, but I need to give my honest assessment.  Actually, the only reason I keep trying to use them is two fold.  First, I like the idea that my customers can hang their paintings without glass or frames.  A huge savings right there.  The second reason is the work I have seen on these panels by artists that really understand how to use this support.  The colors are magnificent.  Edges are defined or faded out perfectly, the whole piece just looks much better then paintings on paper.  For those two reasons, and possibly others, I will keep trying to perfect my technique using them.  I do believe the time and patience needed to get good at working on this support will be rewarded by how my art will eventually look on them.  In the mean time, My work looks good, just not where it will be one day.  Have a blessed day.

Watercolor Painting; Practice On A New Surface

Hello Everyone;
In the past, I have tried any number of different surfaces to paint my watercolors on.  I tried boards, paper, watercolor ground just to name a few.  I keep searching for that perfect support that will allow my work to shine, but also make it easy for my customers to display their purchase.  Traditional supports for watercolors is paper.  With paper, your painting needs to be matted, then framed behind glass to protect it.  Watercolor canvas is nice, because you just have to seal it, then frame without glass.  The problem with watercolor canvas is that the paint does not absorb anywhere.  It stays on top of the canvas.  The colors are bright, but it is very difficult to make the work look good (in my opinion).  Ideally, you would have something in between paper and canvas.  A support that absorbs paint and water similar to high end watercolor paper, but the colors still remain close to the surface for brilliance.  I am not sure yet if I have found that surface, but this Aquabord made by Ampersand is trying to fill that need.  Pictured here is a 5" X 7" piece of aquabord I am practicing different elements on.  It has some resemblance to cold press watercolor paper, but just a little.  This surface takes some getting used to, but so far, I like the way my work is looking.  You can find it anywhere online that sells fine art supplies, but I have found that Blick seems to have the best prices.  This is a 3 pack I paid approx $7.50 for US dollars.  Aquabord comes in many popular sizes and best of all, they have a 1" 1/2" cradle.  That means you can seal your work and your customers do not have to spend additional money on framing, just hang as is.  I do not know yet if I am going all in on this product, but I do know I will be doing much more experimenting.  So far, this definitely has possibilities.  Let me know if you have ever painted on this surface and what you found.  Have a blessed day everyone.

Watercolor Painting; New Finished Painting

Hello Everyone;
I usually do not paint winter scenes since I really do hate the cold weather.  However, since it was 20 degrees as a high today, I figured, why fight it.  Painting in and of itself is a challenging endeavor, but painting a winter scene in watercolors has its own separate challenges.  Convincing snow is the main issue.  Since most watercolor purists use only the white of the paper for snow, it requires some really good planning.  The shadows will create the illusion of snow in that instance.  For me, I use a little bit different of a technique.  First of is the wet into wet sky with dark mayan blue.  This is a very deep blue that has a slight resemblance to paynes gray, but obviously much more blue in it.  To me, this looks a lot like winter blues you see in landscapes.  For some reason, when I paint this color onto the paper, I need to get a sweater, it just gets colder in the studio.  That is an atmospheric part of the equation.  Show the viewer a sense of cold.  The last part is easy,  I use white gouache.  Yes, that sounds like cheating, but I don't care.  It gives me the look and feel I want.  I have tried using the white of the paper and for some things I keep it that way, but for winter scenes, I much prefer the white paint.  I just feel it gives a much more realistic feel to being snowy.  The fact of the matter is, you are the artist.  Use whatever tools at your disposal you need to convey whatever it is you want.

Watercolor Painting; ACEO Painting

Art Cards Editions and Originals.
Besides the long winded name these small paintings are a lot of fun to create.  For some reason, your mind does not worry about messing up the painting.  Maybe it's the small size, or maybe the little cards are just that much less intimidating.  Whatever the reason, I recommend you try some.  To be a real aceo, the painting surface needs to be 2.5" X 3.5"  Really, you do not have to paint only.  You can draw, stamp paint, do most anything you wish.  I use the Strathmore Watercolor ACEO paper I get from Dick Blick.  They are 140 lbs watercolor paper and already cut perfectly.  If you have a good paper cutter, buy watercolor paper and cut your own.  When I do these small pieces, I try my best on each one, but I do not labor over areas like I do on much larger pieces.  The old saying less is more really strikes a chord with these types of paintings.  For me, there are only two rules for aceo paintings.  First, make sure the size is correct, and second, have fun.  That's all you need.

Watercolor Painting; Sketchbook Work

Hello Everyone;
Here is another page from my sketchbook I have been working on.  I have been battling a bout of food poisoning and have not really had much energy.  It is so nice that sketching in watercolors does not require a lot of physical energy.  If you can hold your brush and a thought, you're in business.  If you noticed, I have been practicing people a lot more then in the past.  Most of you probably remember my post on my desires to start to do story telling with my paintings.  For me, it begins and ends with painting convincing figures.  Once again, I have no desires to make them photo realistic, but I do want them to be painterly and believable.  As I sketch these figures, my mind starts to wander about what types of situations these people are in.  Where are they going?  What are their intentions and so forth.  I am not sure, but once I get good enough and consistent enough with figures in my paintings, I believe I will add them to most of my future works.  I have always been drawn to art work with people in them and I think many people may feel the same as I do.  Like believe that paintings are not just about the aesthetic beauty of the piece, but of combination of the beauty coupled with the story of the painting as well.

Watercolor Painting Video; Landscape Painting Tutorial