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New Oregon Vineyard Photos for Upcoming Paintings

August 21, 2022

For the middle part of August, I’ve been taking advantage of the nice summer days to get out into wine country and shoot photos. These are vineyards I’ve not previously explored so I can extend my collection to include some new wineries. Inspired by input I received from visitors to my booth at the Salem Art Fair in July, and by responses to a Reddit post I put on the Oregon channel asking for people’s favorites, I’ve focused my attention to West Salem and Mt. Hood. Here are a few of my favorites.

It’s Time for Some Fresh New Vineyards to Paint!

August 6, 2022

Every year around this time I get the itch to go out and shoot photos of vineyards to keep me busy during the winter months in my studio when the vines are barren and the skies are gray. Here are a few comparisons of my reference pics with the paintings I’ve done…

Finished Painting – Guarding the Guards

August 6, 2022

Here’s the finished piece that I was working on in my previous post…

Currently on the Easel…

July 28, 2022

The painting I’m currently working on is based upon some photos I took at the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace when I visited in 2015. It was a fun and very touristy thing to do and we were there on a beautiful summer morning. The entire trip remains near-and-dear to me, as it’s the only overseas vacation I’ve taken still to this date. We spent 4 days in London and 4 in Cornwall, two very diverse experiences. When going through my photos for painting references, this scene caught my eye as being particularly unique and challenging to paint. I’m especially drawn to the horse, the strong red uniforms, as well as the whole idea of guards who are guarding the Changing of the Guard – in other words guards guarding guards! Pretty odd in theory, don’t you think?

Below are my initial 14 x 10 inch study, as well as a work-in-progress image. I’ll post the final piece when completed.

Preparing for Launch

July 25, 2022

This painting is now finished and it wasn’t too much of a struggle. Doing the small study helped for sure. I’m pretty pleased with the color palette and painterly brushwork and think the composition worked out just fine. It may have benefited from one or two areas of quietness, as it’s a very active painting. I should keep in mind to allow some passages and washes that don’t include a lot of brushstrokes to help balance the loose mark making for future work, which is something I’m aware of but don’t always include.

More Ideas for Upcoming Competition Paintings

July 21, 2022

Winning an Award of Merit at the Spring Watercolor Society of Oregon show has really lit a fire under me to enter more juried competitions! Both WSO and Northwest Watercolor Society have fall shows with deadlines in August, so I’m focusing on new work to enter. The first painting I shared – “Bustling Pike Place Market Afternoon” – is one option, but looking at it a week later I feel like I’d want to repaint it and let the red flow more freely. It may be a bit too controlled. Here’s my 2nd option. Interestingly, I’ve posted this to social media and even hung it in my booth at the Salem Art Fair and have not gotten a lot of response. Perhaps it’s too personal or something, but I really do like the way it came out. I’ve started working on my 3rd option, too, with a small practice study I did as a demo at the art fair. I’m finding it feels very good to break away from painting vineyards for a spell and am pretty sure when I get back to them I’ll be a better landscape painter after the experience of trying new things (fingers crossed).

The Art Fair Experience as an Exhibitor

July 19, 2022

I’m fresh off my 2nd ever art fair, this one being the Salem Art Fair & Festival in Oregon. It’s a full 3 days and held in a very lovely park setting with 200 art and craft booths, as well as live music, food, wine and beer – pretty much the whole shooting’ match. It started slowly for me, but picked up substantially at the end so I came away pleased with the outcome. Beyond the business side of things, the experience was fantastic. I really enjoyed meeting a lot of new people and talking about art, wine, vineyards and a whole bunch of other topics. I also ran into old friends and my family was amazing with their support with setting up and tearing down. I can see myself continuing with the art fair scene for at least a few years going forward. After focusing on online marketing for the last 5 years, the face-to-face exposure is definitely a positive step for me.

Next up are First Thursday in Portland, along with the Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival in late August – I can hardly wait!

My First Week of Semi-Retirement & New Work

July 7, 2022

A week into my new life and I’m already feeling pretty positive about what I’ve accomplished with my newfound time. I’ve finished 5 medium size charcoal sketches (value and composition studies for potential paintings), as well as 2 new watercolors, 1 small and one medium size. It helps that Monday was July 4, so I’ve actually had 3 extra “art days” in the past 7. I’m also forcing myself to do some more online / social media marketing, which is enjoyable actually (if I can manage to not feel guilty about not painting during that time). I’m thinking of devoting 1 day per week doing so, but realize even that’s not truly adequate. Maybe if I can totally change from a night owl to a morning person I’ll have a better handle on it? We’ll see.

Here’s the new painting, along with a pic of my studio setup. You can see my reference photo is project with AirPlay from my Mac to a large 4K TV. I then have my charcoal study and color samples (which I call my mood board) in easy view, along with 2 sizes of watercolor blocks to work on. The idea was to experiment on the small version before creating the large version, but sort of in real time (ie – try things on the small and immediately apply whatever was successful (color choices, brushwork, spray bottle techniques, etc) to the large piece. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I ever tried this approach and I thought it worked wonderfully. Plus, I get 2 paintings done in less time than it would take to do them separately.

I’ve only started including figures in my watercolor paintings in the last year. I feel like these are the best I’ve done to date. I aim for them to be proportionately correct while also being loose with interesting shapes. They’re quite challenging to get right. I’m not really a fan of watercolor figures that look like blocks with legs and a circle for the head. I want them to have some individual personality, even if they don’t have faces.