Oh, what a day for a hike...

We used to hike all the time when we were younger.  Now just the thought of walking down to the mailbox makes me tired.(I need more exercise).  This is part of the trail up at Rocky Knob--a very nice trail, especially in the fall with the leaves turning colors.  This was a "shake the rust off" piece that I did a couple of years ago, and I love that it is a little less refined than some of my other paintings.

Sketches of Alison

In the next few weeks, I am going to be starting a portrait of my lovely wife, Alison, most likely in acrylic.  Until then, here are a few sketches of her from earlier in our marriage.

Here is my favorite sketch of her.  We were sitting up on Rocky Knob, spending part of the day doing some hiking and drawing.  She thought I was drawing the landscape.  I was drawing something much more interesting and beautiful.

 I think she is sewing something if I remember correctly--or probably making a necklace (it's been awhile).

Ahh, here's the artist at work!  Don't spook her--just move quietly along to the next one...

Not my favorite, but still a very interesting exercise for me, and it has some nice treatments--I always wish I had struggled through to finish this one a little more, but, oh well.

Now here's an interesting one.  Never sleep around someone with a sketchbook and a pencil...

 

Swarms of fun

Here's a little advice when going out to do some field painting--don't go when it's the year of the locusts and the sun is beating down.  Trust me.  This was a number of years ago, and Alison and I went to this piece of land and painted the better part of the day.  When the sun was behind clouds, all was quiet.  When the sun came out, it was like a plague of locusts--loud swarming and buzzing sounds all around us.  I even had one get in my shirt while I was painting.  Trust me, Alison did not enjoy that day (I can't say it was my favorite, but I got a nice painting from it).  We did end up having fun dodging the flying beasts and ended up watching a rain storm move through the hills to bring a much needed relief from the heat of the day.

Again, the lighting here is what attracted me--the light filtering through the trees onto the road, the sky showing as pinpricks through the trees in the distance.  Also the red fence gate was, at the time, very important to me in that it gave a wonderful splash of bright color to all the greens and browns.  All in all a painting that made a nice memory of a not so nice day.  Oh, and the field where we stood painting?  There was a house built there shortly after our little adventure, so we were happy to have had the opportunity to paint there when we did.   ~Sean

The road goes ever on and on...

In many of my landscapes there is a road or a path.  I am fascinated by the thought of a passage, of a journey, whether it is in an interior of a structure or outdoors in a landscape.  Sometimes it is simply a literal fascination with the light and composition I see in the countryside, and sometimes the scene becomes for me a metaphor, a picture of our journey through life, through the situations we face. 

Having thought about it for some time, this painting is, for me, a very symbolic painting.  There is a road, a path, that winds on into the distance, bathed in light, but also dealing with shadow.  I wish I could say that when I paint I have these deep-seated feelings about the image, that the reason I paint the scene has some deeper meaning to me, but I find the meaning to me comes awhile after the painting is finished.  At the time it is the light, or the composition, or whatever it is that attracts me to the scene.  This is Poor Farm Road, a road that I love, and if I had the time, would paint many of its scenes over and over again.  The painting measures 12" x 12", and is made up of acrylic washes, a medium I enjoy using (and my budget prefers it too right now over oils).  I have had many people want to buy this painting, but it is spoken for already.  Maybe I will make some prints of it....

Where do we start?

For some time now our family and friends have encouraged us to promote ourselves and our artwork. "But how?" we say. "Have you thought about a blog?" Well, yes and no. You see, my wife and I love creating art, and we like the thought of sharing it with the rest of you, it's just that we are, quite frankly, lazy about it, and though we have thought of a blog, that's all we've done...until now. So, as we get our act together we hope that you enjoy not just the images we share of what we have created, but also the thoughts and ideas behind them.