Midwestern Winter Sunrise 8x10 Oil on board $125

  This painting captures the early morning sunrise on a midwestern field. There is a reflected gown from the ski onto the fields, additionally the sun is captured at the edge of the clouds as it peaks over the horizon. This color scheme is also the basis of several additional paintings of a midwestern farm field in varying sizes and compositions.

Fall Invitation-III oil on linen canvas 4 x6 $45

    This second of two with white pumpkin as centerpiece. Maintaining the fall theme with the gourd and small pumpkins. Soft edges with a bit of an impressionist feel to it. The predominant colors are consistent with an autumn theme and the roses with bridal events.

Fall Invitation-II oil on linen canvas 4 x6 $45

   This is the third in the series and the first of the white pumpkin as centerpiece. The autumn mums blend well with the other fall colors represented in the painting. This was done with simplified palette and using both brush and knife with a predominance of the brush.

Fall Invitation oil on linen canvas 4 x6 $45

  This is the second of 4 with the fall theme. Like the first the use of the birch bark log as the vase for the flowers. Here the flower arrangement is more vertical rather than horizontal. Both use the portrait feature as they are decided for use as a card for a bridal shower. The palette knife was the predominate tool used in this painting.

For Katie's Bridal Shower oil on linen 4x6 NFS

   My middle daughter is getting married this fall. Which means the bridal shower is looming. My wife thought it would be nice if I painted a thematic centerpiece and then had cards made of the painting for the invitation. The painting itself would reside in a shadow box with a collection of other things from the wedding. Well this is the last of 4 that were done-the other three will be posted over the next few days. All of which utilized an autumn theme-as you will see. The others are for sale. All done with brush and palette knife on linen canvas paper

Sailing to Summer oil on canvas 11 x 14 $175

    No wind on a hot summer night, sunset. Rather than sailing drop anchor and enjoy the spectacle. The colors are bright and warm in the sky and reflected in the cool colors of the water. I utilized predominately a palette knife for the application of color and then a wider brush for the blending of the colors.

Erice Sicily 11x14 oil on canvas -sold

  This scene from the old fortress city of Eraci in the northwest region of Sicily depicts some of the old ruins on the top of the mountain and just beneath. There are old Norman fortifications and an ancient church at the heights. The narrow streets and the vistas make for a beautiful scene. Here an old castle sitting on the cliff, is the focal point, the path leading ones eye to the castle. In this work I painted the castle first and then the ruins on the mountain-I wanted them to be an important feature as well. The rest of the painting then followed with the last being the background off to the left as one views the canvas, that was the least important part of the work for me, but did add a depth of field and sense of height to the mountain city

odgen dunes late afternoon oil on canvas 11 x14 $150 unframed

   This painting, completed captures a dune scene in the Odgen Dunes in Indiana. Paths to the beach intersperse the dune grasses and as the sun sets in the west grazes the top of the grasses, casting cool shades. Looking north it appears that Lake Michigan can go forever. The lake, the sky and the beach were done with palette knife while the dune grasses were completed with brush. There may still be some additional changes to this painting-I may be redoing the grasses-attempting perhaps to have the tops a bit more orange. I do revisit paintings after they have been sitting for sometime. May rework them or even paint over them. Some I have done multiple times-perhaps it is a composition or arrangement that I like, would like to do it larger, or perhaps with a different color scheme, or even an alternate emphasis.

Odgen dunes-late afternoon step 3 11x14 oil on canvas

 Typically I will work the sky and background first and then the midground-finally finishing up on the foreground-back to front.  In water paintings that seems to work best for me-however there are other paintings where I might do the midground to foreground, leaving the background to last. Often the focal point is in the midground-and if I really want to emphasize that I will do that first and move from there. In a painting that will be posted next week that was my technique-and I will point it out during the comments as well.

Odgen Dunes-late afternoon Step 2 11x14 oil

  In this step the early underpainting of values with the magenta is followed by thin color. The lake is now blue, the sky a light yellow/gold, the sandy beach tan and the dune grass green. This serves as a coloring of the canvas with color-certainly not final colors, tones and values, but affords an opportunity to assess where the process is. Since the paint is still thin, lightly applied it is easy to change and adjust.

Odgen Dunes-late afternoon 11 x 14 preliminary

 It has been a while since I posted-have been painting but not being real good about taking photos.  Also if not sure about the painting have not been keeping them. Working a bit on compositional sketching which ultimately lends itself to painting. In any case I love the process and to demonstrate the development of a painting. Often they evolve markedly from how they began. This is a magenta acrylic underpainting done with Lukas acrylic studio paint. Loose lines-highlighting the lights and darks only. Even though the sea is hardly magenta it adds an interesting color