Bridge Among the Cattails

My second painting for Paint Marceline plein air. While I was painting this another artist set up across the stream from me. His painting was a close cropped view of one post and the water. His was a very nice composition. 

9" x 12" oil on Raymar panel. 

Espalier Golden Delicious

Yesterday I participated in the North Missouri Arts Council's plein air event in Marcelline, MO. The method of growing espalier makes a wonderful subject for a long format. I did not win anything but had a great time and met a lot of very talented artist. Two of the winning artists were John Preston and Deb Baughman. John has a blog with lots of great information.

12" x 6" oil on panel to

Matching Pair

They have two horses pulling the wagon, so there are several matched pairs. Some bays, chestnuts and sorrels that team up together. I think these two might be a matched pair.

12" x 6" oil on panel.

Draft Horse

A painting based on one of the photographs I took. 

6" x 6" oil on canvas 

Percheron Horse

Today I tried painting a horse plein air. The herd of about 14 horses are used to pull wagons for the tourists. They are constantly moving and even though I was painting as fast as I could I ended up mostly depending on my memory. The view of the river off in the distant is another element I hope to incorporate into my painting. I think that was worth plein air painting this scene. 

Theses are the photo references for a studio painting. I liked the pose on the left but the light and shadow from the horse on the right.

Painting and drawing horses was a lot of my early art education. I got the book Album of Horses by Marguerite Henry for Christmas and sketched every horse in the book. That is also how I decided that these might be Percherons, although there looked to be some Belgians in the herd. The action sketches were so dynamic. This made painting the simple horses grazing so much easier. I often wonder where she got her training, copying Sir Alfred Munnings. or maybe Frederick Remington.

American White Park Cattle

I have an up coming exhibit with an animal theme. Three artists...the others medium with be fabric and ceramics. You may be seeing a lot of animals paintings for a while. One of my favorites.. the American White Park.

6" x 6" 

View from the Old Skunk River Bridge

I think this view was easier in the winter. The color of the muddy river with the shadows running across it was a good exercise in neutral colors. 

6" x 6" oil on canvas

River Bend

This is one of my favorite spots. This view is from the boat landing on the banks of the Skunk River access looking east. I was inspired by the light crossing over the tree reflections. The last time I was here I could not get down to the bank and painted the tracks in the muddy riverbank.

10" x 8" oil on canvas.

Wilson Lake Wildflowers

The road at Wilson Lake was closed down to my favorite painting spot. I did find this scene with wildflowers in bloom.

8"x 10" oil on canvas

View from Heron Bend

I went plein air painting at Heron Bend with Jessica .http://jakpaints.blogspot.com/ We both used 6" x 12" painting panels, but hers was horizontal and mine vertical. They say that the horizontal format is more tranquil and vertical is more dynamic. All I brought with me was the 6" x 12" and I liked the driftwood and the distant trees. When a view inspires sometimes you just need to go back and do another painting because you cannot get it all in.

I paint on preprimed canvas and attach it to panels later. This gives me the option to crop the canvas to get a better composition.

6" x 6"

6" x 6"

6" x 8"

Sunflowers in a Blue Vase

I liked this blue vase and how it worked with the sunflowers. The light shining through the vase on the shadow side left a nice bright blue. 

6" x 8" oil on canvas

Road Through Wilson Lake

Late afternoon at Wilson Lake. The light changed so fast I had to remember the light on the tree trunk and the sunlight on the road.

6" x 8" oil on canvas

Volunteer Historical Society

I had a great time listening to the volunteer from the historical society. He was full of lots of interesting facts about Fort Madison and Lee County. 

This is the the rough in after an hour and a half.

11" x 14" oil on panel

TBT Denning Place Barn

This is a watercolor I painted probably 25 years ago and the barn has since been torn down. It was my first plein air painting and it took two Saturdays. When I went back the second time my dad had cleaned up the weeds for me. My aunt Adelaide also wondered why I would paint the overground weeds. I went to visit my aunt Pauline in the nursing home and it was on her wall. I am honored that it was one of the things she brought from home. 

10" x 14" watercolor on 140 lb. paper

Beautiful Morning

I didn't plan to go painting this morning but when I walked outside it was too nice to work inside. A friend joined me at Wilson Lake to paint the water lotus. If I can get in a couple of hours to start the day it is just like that early morning walk to the non-painters. 

6" x 8" oil on canvas

The lake was beautiful and inspiring.

Main Street Volunteer

Volunteer for the Main Street organization. This organization helps promote downtown. We have a very vibrant downtown in Fort Madison. She has also volunteers on the Fort Madison Area Arts Association board.

11" x 14" oil on panel  

Sunset View from Rodeo Park

We went plein air painting at sunset. I did not like the results when I used the headlight a couple of nights ago. The light would focus on one section and I needed to see the colors/values relative to each other. Still looking for a better option. This was painted using the natural light remaining shortly after the sun set. At least it started there and by the time I was finished I could see the values but not so much the actual colors. I was surprised to see this. 

8" x 8" oil on Raymar panel

I worked on this the next morning. I wanted the far distance trees and buildings to recede.

Muddy River Bank

When I paint at the Skunk River access I can usually set up on the river bank but the river was up and the only way to get there was to walk through the mud. This scene of the muddy boat access challenged me. I have not painted mud before at least not intentionally. I should have done a close up study.