Notes from the print studio

Winter Trees

10 x 8

Etching/edition of 50

This fall I have finally had the opportunity to get back to printmaking after a long hiatus. I love the process, a wonderful combination of artistry and craft. Up until now, I had concentrated on drypoint which is a type of intaglio process which involves working directly on the plate. Recently I have done some etching which involves covering the plate with a ground and then working the image into the ground. When the plate is placed in acid, the lines incised into the ground allow the acid to bite the plate. It's a little bit of magic every time you print!

I am offering a few of my efforts for sale through my studio. They are priced perfectly for a holiday gift! Click here to see what's on offer and to purchase.

Autumn Harmony

Autumn Harmony

24 x 18

It's my favorite time of year- finally! When I was saving this image of a newly completed painting to my computer, I had to laugh at the number of painting titles that start with the word "Autumn". There's Autumn… Light, Moment, Interlude, Sunrise, Evening, Morning, Sunset, Dusk, Road, Crossing, Woods, Reflections …well, you get the idea. Yes, I  love to paint autumn. This year, I am actually painting it "in season" instead of months behind, so I hope to show a few more with titles that start "Autumn" soon.

PS. There is a new post up on the Field Notes blog about Speed of the Line & Stoppers. Want to know more? Check it out!

PPS  Our popular online class Composing the Landscape starts October 31.

Fall?

Is it fall? Not quite yet, but it is September and fall cannot be far behind. Fall and winter are my favorite seasons. Those spare, stripped down landscapes and subtle color harmonies thrill me as no saturated summer greens ever can. Here is one new painting for the Collectors' Reserve Show & Sale at the Gilcrease Museum opening in late October.

 Winter Reflections

20 x 16

detail

News for the New Year

A Patch of Sunlight in a Wood

60 x 48

I am very excited to say that I will have a feature article in the March issue of Southwest Art Magazine. The article will include the work for the Lennox Woods show! After spending the last two years working on this project, it is very gratifying to have this happen at this time.

My schedule now is long days in the studio followed by dinner and returning in the evening. I have about five weeks to finish and there is still much to do.

Spreadsheets. Really?

Illumination

48 x 64

(click for larger view)

Spreadsheets. Not a word I would have ever included on a list of things I might learn about over the course of working on my solo show. But, here I am two years later finding myself creating spreadsheets to keep track of and organize over forty paintings for the show.

The exhibition will hang in two separate venues (Galerie Kornye West and The Botanical Research Institute of Texas) and is organized around the theme of the four seasons in Lennox Woods. Early on, I worked out the number of pieces I would paint for each season and the size ranges and how many in each range, and roughly how many of each would hang in each venue.

As the work begin to take shape, other things needed to be kept track of- what pieces had been photographed, what was finished and what was work in progress, how many of each group still needed to be started, and the frame status for each piece.

Then, some pieces were sold and others left the studio for the gallery. Some pieces were varnished and others had not been (making it easier to work on them again if I wanted to).

When we started working on the catalog I needed to keep track of what information had been given to the designer of the catalog and what was still needed. And, of course, the deadlines to get the work finished, photographed, framed and delivered.

It turns out, spreadsheets are a great way to organize all that information in an easily accessible and organized way. Spreadsheets. Who knew?

Working on the "big boy"

One of the most exciting things about painting for my solo show next spring has been the opportunity to work in large formats. I have learned so much about how to go about this, mostly by trial and error. These days my studio is a jungle of easels and paintings, but I cleared away some of the clutter to show how I started this large painting, 72 x 96 , aka "big boy" which will be the centerpiece of the show.

I have described in another post how I use sketches, drawings, memory and imagination plus a study to start the process. A grid is made on tracing paper over the study and proportional squares placed on the larger canvas in charcoal. In this first image you can see the 18 x 24 study (which is at the underpainting stage) on the right, the grid in the middle, and big boy on the left with the charcoal grid laid in. All images can be clicked on for a larger view.

 Here is the grid. The main shapes and lines in the composition are traced in pencil after the grid format is drawn in in pen.

Here is the 18 x 24 study (unfinished).

Here is the underpainting more or less complete. This took about two days of work.

Up on my little stepladder working on the underpainting.

Merry Christmas!

Edge of the Field 

8 x 10

This little painting was done about two years ago and posted on this blog around this time in 2010, I think. Recently, I decided to tweak it a bit, adding some cool notes and also the movement of the birds in the sky (click for larger view). It still says a lot about how I feel about the landscape around my home in the fall and winter months -something starkly, simply beautiful and melancholy at the same time. And it also speaks to my place in the scheme of things.

Best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!

Autumn on My Mind

Due to illness, I have been away from both the studio and the field for about seven weeks. This is the longest hiatus away from creative work that I have had in the last fifteen years or so. I don't like it one bit, and particularly during this, my favorite season. So today I thought I would post some images from other autumns which were more productive. Just looking at them makes me long for a nice long tramp in the woods. Soon.....

Finally done!

Autumn Arrangement

20 x 16

This is one I have been working on for a while now! Click on over to the Lennox Woods blog to read about the process.

Forest Floor

Forest Floor Study

14 x 11

Lately I've found myself looking down a lot. The textures, colors and patterns of the forest floor are endlessly fascinating. You can click on this study for a larger view. This is just one very small aspect of a big new project that I am very excited about. I can't say more just now, but stay tuned!

Autumn, Farewell

Autumn Road

16 x 20

Available at Hildt Galleries, Chicago

One of the many things I love about fall in northeast Texas is how long it lasts. From early October right through December, there is a constantly changing show of subtle autumn color, increasingly mixed with bare branches and set off by the dark greens of the pines and cedars. This year, despite the drought and perhaps because of it, the color has been a bit more saturated. The wonderful rains that finally came provided enough moisture to turn all the fields an emerald green, creating a delicious color harmony.

This little side road runs off the main route I take on my morning walks.

detail

Autumn-Morning Mist

Autumn-Morning Mist
12 x 12

There was most definitely some wishful thinking going on in the studio when I painted this. Hard to imagine that fall will ever come, but I was able to conjure up this painting of those lovely autumn mists from memory.

Southwest Art Magazine Article

I am happy to say I have an article in the April issue of Southwest Art Magazine! The painting which is featured in the article, Autumn Light, will be part of the Spring Gallery Night show at Galerie Kornye West, opening this Saturday, March 27 from 5-8 PM.

(Click to enlarge)

Here is another new piece I'll have in the show. I'll be in Ft Worth for the opening so if you are in the area come by and see me!

Evening Pool
18x 24
Available at Galerie Kornye West

Sold

Autumn Twilight

Autumn Twilight
24 x 30
Available at Hildt Galleries, Chicago

This is another of those fall pieces that I put aside last November to work on other things. Its been almost four months but I still have a very vivid memory of the evening that inspired this painting.

Reboot

Autumn- Rick's Pool

8 x 12
Vine charcoal on Strathmore paper
Sold

Every once in a while you have to shut down and reboot your artistic energy . I've just come off an intense three months in which I completed almost 40 paintings for various shows and events. Although I have a solo show coming up in February at M Gallery in Sarasota, this week I just couldn't pick up a brush. Instead, I made a series of charcoal drawings- some studies for paintings I have in mind to do for the show and some simply for pleasure. I feel better already!

Autumn Light

Autumn Light
24 x 30
Available at Galerie Kornye, Dallas

Every year this time, I have to adjust to the changing light. The thing I notice most is that the light is "harder" - a result of less moisture (humidity) in the air. We've had so much rain this fall, this hasn't really been noticeable until this week. Soon, the moisture returns in the form of lovely winter fog. But, for now, the clarity of the light is striking.

Evening Glow

Evening Glow
30 x 37.5

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face.

John Donne

Evening Pond

Work in Progress
Evening Pond
36 x 30

As I've written many times before, there is something very compelling about autumn to me. Visually, its a time that the landscape begins to strip itself bare, to uncover and expose the structure of things. The rhythm of life seems to slow, even to ebb. The sun which used to set directly behind my house, offering extravagant sunsets in summer, has migrated to the south and slips below the horizon, sending weak rays of light across the field behind my studio.

Autumn Pond

Autumn Pond
10 x 8
click to see larger image

One of the things I really love is the change of seasons. Fall, in particular, seems more drawn out here than in other places I have lived. The crisp halcyon days of indian summer have slipped way to the almost brittle melancholy of late autumn. The crunching sound of dry leaves underfoot follows me on every walk. The landscape has opened up again, bare trees revealing corners of woods that have been hidden from view all summer. Right before my eyes, the landscape is reinventing itself.

The Season Turns

Right before sunset yesterday a front came through. I woke during the night to the sound of rain. This morning it was a bit cooler, but still mild. But, I could feel that the season of bright autumn days was giving way to something else. Bare trees now mix in with the rusts and ochres and trees in the distance look more violet. The grass has stopped growing and everything looks more spare, stripped down. Out on the road, windswept with leaves, it felt a bit desolate, like every living thing was turning inward, preparing for the rigors of winter.

I stayed in the studio most of the day and worked on several larger pieces. This is the latest on the 48 x 60. I've worked on the trees a bit more, repainted the sky and glazed over the edges of the trees again. I've had to wait several days between each session, not only to let the glazes dry, but also to "oil out" in between. Oiling out is an old term, used in the 19th century, to describe the process for bringing the colors and values back to their original state. When oil paint dries , the darks will dry a bit lighter and the lights a bit darker. So before you start again, its necessary to use a bit of medium over the surface to regain the saturation, color and value. There are still several more painting sessions to be done to complete this.


I've also been working on two other under paintings. I finished this 30 x 30 yesterday and a 36 x 30 today. It was a good day in the studio.