12" x 9" oil on canvas panel

The Virtual Paintout for the month is in Stavanger, Norway. Using Google Street view, you find a place to paint and go at it. Great idea and fun especially during winter months. I would much rather be on location but this is still good practice.

Available for sale. Contact me if you are interested.

10" x 8" oil on linen panel

This paintout was done as a part of a Virtual Paintout hosted by Bill Guffey.

Virtual paintouts use Google Street View as a resource for traveling the world to find interesting locations and subjects to paint. This was kind of fun at a time when there is 2 feet of snow outside. I found this view while cruising through the streets of San Francisco. I decided early on to try and find a market in Chinatown, and this was the result.

9" x 12" oil on panel

I was supposed to be going to Columbus for a paintout with the Ohio Plein Air Society, the group that I belong to that provides opportunities to paint with others that share my passion. Because of the big snowstorm, i didn’t try to drive down there. Instead, after digging myself out I went downtown Ashland to do a little plein air on my own. I set up to paint this scene and after I got it roughed in the wind picked up and started blowing snow off of a nearby roof, right on top of me. So, I packed up and went back on Sunday afternoon and the sun was out and it was a perfect afternoon. I feel pretty good about this one. I feel like it has good design, good lead-in, and a focal point.

The setting is on Second Street in Ashland. I was actually right behind my office where we just recently moved Red Red Design. The main building shown is what used to be a pillar of the community, Gilberts Furniture. But a few years ago, it went out of business and the building now sits empty. the building on the right was the stores warehouse and it is being used and has great potential. The overhead walkway connects the two buildings.

36" x 18" oil on stretched linen

This is the largest painting I have done since picking up a brush again. It was a lot of fun to pull the colors together and design the piece before starting to paint. I was trying to make the day look really cold yet add some warmth through the bird.

9" x 12" Oil on linen panel

A couple weekends ago was whitetail muzzleloader season here in Ohio. My son and I join a group of guys (and one girl) at a camp in Danville, appropriately called, The Joy of Living Camp. It is a great social time for us as much as it is a great opportunity for hunting. This year I decided to pack my plein air supplies and on Saturday afternoon I took a break and painted. This is the first time I have painted outside when it was so cold. The temps that afternoon was about 15. Maybe. The nice thing is that you can drive back into the property so I was actually standing right outside my car to paint this. Two of the biggest does I saw all weekend ran out of the woods to the left and right behind this dead clump of trees while I was painting. They wouldn’t stop and pose for me though. I asked. I really enjoyed doing this and I am threatening to concentrate more on painting next year. I’ll still keep my gun by my side too, just in case.

16" x 12" Oil on canvas

This is a portrait done for the Different Strokes From Different Folks web challenge. It’s always interesting to try something new. I have not done a full portrait painting since I was in college quite some time ago. Enough said. This was a lot of fun and I hope I came close to capturing her character. Once again, I really wish I could get myself to loosen up. I need to practice that. Maybe next year. The fun thing is that I have no idea who this is. I suppose I will find out eventually. Get on over to the challenge web site and check out all the work that is there. There is a great mix of styles to peruse.

12" x 16" watercolor

I had started this painting en plein air but ran out of time in the field and decided to finish it in the studio. The sheep were very curious as to what I was up to and stood watching me very attentively. I also made a new friend in some kind of mutt that day.  I’m thinking I may try an oil painting of this same scene as a large painting. So far about the largest work I have done is 16″ x 20″, but I’m thinking much larger which is possible now that I have a studio that I can leave set up all the time at home. I hope you all have had a great Christmas and blessed new year.

9" x 12" watercolor

This was done for Karen Jurick’s, “Different Strokes From Different Folks” web site. She posts an image there and then challenges artists to paint it and she posts them back to the site. It is amazing to see all the different ways that people interpret the same image. Check it out.

For mine I decided to try a watercolor. Recently, I watched a video on watercolor painting by Alvaro Castagnet. That guy is amazing. Once again, he is loose and captures the essence of a place with as few brush strokes as possible. Something I strive for. So this painting is a result of watching that video. No comparing please.

Ebony Pencil in Japaneese Moleskin

Follow the adventure of this group of artists from around the world, in a Moleskine Sketchbook Portrait Party.

The idea of this is to draw or paint a portrait of the owner of the moleskin and and include a portrait of yourself as well. Then pass the book on to the next person on the list. Eventually, you get your own book back with lots of interpretations of yourself and one of each of the people in the exchange. There are 14 artists from around the world participating in this exchange. This is Lisa and a study of her eyes. My part in this is the peeping eye looking through the square hole in the paper. This has been a fun project but it is moving a little slow right now.

12" x 16" oil on linen panel

This is the same barn as I had painted before. It is a very cool barn so I decided to go back and paint it again with the fall color all around. I actually left work early one day last week to go paint this in plein air because it was such a great day. This was also entered into a competition on Facebook believe it or not. Its called The First Annual Autumn Arts Painting Challenge and Competition on Facebook. Check it out if you want to see a bunch of really nice artwork.