Saved One

Most paintings have an ugly phase, which is just part of the process. I'm sure this is what scares many people off from painting and is almost as bad as the blank canvas. The painting above was in a state of ugly that stumped me for a while. It was sitting in my basement studio in plain sight. I left it there to torment me and force me to, at some point, finish it.
I finally got into it again this weekend and finished it up. While it isn't the best, I think it is out of it's ugly phase.
The refurbishment of the old Pioneer Courthouse cupola intrigued me because they had this white covering over the facade while they did the work.
One of the things that was troubling me was the building in the background. At first, I painted building with all the windows. It stole attention from the cupola, so I decided to paint over it. Bits of the background building can be seen in the painting, which is just enough to give a context to the courthouse roof.
The light in the scene is from an early morning sun. The contrast is subtle and the painting could have been helped by darker shadows. Contrast is important in paintings and it is something I look for in subject matter, but don't always get.

More Sky

So I added more texture and color to the sky of the "Lost Tracks" painting. The two bright spots at the top are from my lighting in the studio. The paint is very wet and is reflecting a lot of light, plus my studio lighting set-up is not great.
I think that the new color and texture helps to enhance the perspective and helps to unify the look of the painting. Getting the brush strokes to move through the power lines is tough and is something that I will need to work on. Still, not too bad.
I continue to work on my photography of the work. The previous image in t his post was taken in my basement with two 100 watt lamps, but the color was wrong and there was a lot of glare at the top of the painting.

The image above is a repost and was taken outside with the previous camera. The color is good and the light is ok. It is best to see them in person, of course.

Loosen up

The following three pieces are still wet. With these, I hope to get a showing at a local cafe or eatery and put them up for sale.

This 24" x 24" industrial scene goes back to what I started last summer. I like the Industrial landscapes for their chaotic geometries and unpredictable color and light. This vista was an image that I had filed away, but rediscovered. It is probably my favorite painting so far, and my latest. I may do some retouching of the sky, but I want it to sit for a while.
I used a canvas from a previous abstract that I was not happy with. Traces of the older painting can be found if one looks closely. You won't see it in this image, but traces are there.
I tried very hard to keep loose and let the brush strokes show with this one. I exaggerated the colors to give a colorful spirit to the painting. This feels like a turning point for me.


The following two paintings are small 8" x 10" paintings. Sometimes, I find the backs of buildings to be more interesting than the front.
Again, I tried to stay loose. In the water tower painting (the last image below), I left some of the iron oxide under painting to show through. This gives a nice layering, which I need to do more of.

Sketching outside

Here is a pencil sketch of a food cart at Portland Staste University. This was an absolutely fantastic day to draw outside. I used an Eagle 314 pencil and spent only about thirty minutes on this.
I was hoping to do a sketch a day, but that is not happening. I will try to do more.

Art as decoration

This is a 3D Studio (computer) rendering showing a 8' x 12' sculptural painting for an office building lobby. We sometimes design big walls for art only to find that the client does not necessarily want to spend $20,000 for a large art piece to put there. It seems like there is an opportunity to make art for these kinds of spaces without breaking the bank. I came up with this concept of different size canvases with superimposed geometry. I feel like I could do it for $3000 and make a profit. Artists and gallery owners who sell large scale work will probably frown on this kind of thing, but maybe there is some room for me to get in the door. It can't hurt to try to use my architectural connections to sell my art.
To make this image, I used an existing model of the space. The idea for the piece was sketched on yellow tracing paper and scanned into the computer. I made 3d objects of the canvases in the 3d program and added the image of the sketch on top, which is called mapping. While the sketch was done with colored pencil, it approximates the look of a hand painted image.
How do I feel about art as decoration? Art is decoration for most people, on the surface anyway. The fact that they want to spend their hard earned cash on a custom piece says something and if they want it to match their sofa...so what.
It would be nice if there were more of a dialogue between the architect and the artist. Having an artist make a piece for a space makes a lot of sense to me and seems to make it less of decoration and more of an intervention. It has more meaning perhaps with respect to the architecture.

Still Wet Portland

I just finished this 11 x 14 painting of the Portland Tribune building. It is the back of the building and It is the view that I see from the parking garage where I park my motorcycle. I like the building massing and the way the morning light hits the walls.

I am trying to get more color variation in larger planes in the scene. As I study other painters work it is clear to me that successful paintings pull more and more color out of both bright and dark areas, which can make a simple scene much more dynamic. A photo of the subject may not even reveal these colors and the need to be interpolated or fabricated. Either way it makes for a much more interesting piece.

Exaggeration of color is very important in the city scenes, which can tend to be more grey in reality.

The mind will perceive the colors when one is viewing the subject in person, which is the benefit of on site work. When working from photos, which I am forced to do, one must remember the subtle colors and or fabricate them.

The following set of four 18" x24" paintings are for sale.

I hope to get them up in a coffee shop in Portland and sell them for $150 to $200.

Most cafes that want to hang your work seem to want at least eight paintings, so I am working on a few more.

I think these are good explorations, but not where I ultimately want to be with the work.  If I want to sell these, I probably shouldn't admit this.

I am learning a lot from each painting that I create, which is a good thing.

The two foggy paintings are very subdued and cold and don't have the depth or color that I was seeing in the real scene.  There are bits that work for me, such as the glazing that is starting to happen.   Still, I need to work harder at creating depth and color in these (see Monet in London for his foggy work).

The "cranes" I like, but the perspective is a bit off and there is no energy.   It is an interesting moment in Portland's landscape.

My favorite is the "sunrise".  I like the colors and the different geometries in the scene.  The contrast is good.  I think that the view of Mt. Hood and the city are fighting for attention, which I'm not sure is a good thing.

The next paintings after these will attempt to focus more closely on urban scenes and I hope to start bringing the human figure into the work.

Portland Fog I

Portland Fog II

Building Portland

Portland Sunrise over Mt. Hood