GEESE AT LAKE WHETSTONE

I finished this simple painting some time ago and wanted to share it as I felt that it captured something of what I saw and felt one quiet evening years ago. I used to live near this lake and would go down there most evenings to paint or watch birds. There was a thriving heronry on the island and along with the usual duck and geese calls would be the persistent bill-clapping of hungry young great blue herons. Night and green-backed herons also used the island so there was always a lot to see. Sunsets were often magnificent over the water although in this painting I kept the colors more subdued to represent the time after sunset. This is when most of the geese would arrive and it was a wonderful experience to watch them as they made their way to the lake coming in from various directions. The lighter areas on the water are where earlier arriving geese have disturbed the surface - being near dark, they would be hard to see so I just put in the reflections. The oil is 9" X 12".

RIVER ROCKS, PART 3

Finally some time to update my blog! I have been really busy completing work for the Waterfowl Festival happening this weekend in Easton MD. The dates are: Friday Nov 14th to Sunday Nov 16th. Hours are generally 10:00 to 6:00. I will be in the Elks Lodge with many new paintings so please drop by and say hello. Website address is: http://www.waterfowlfestival.org/, e-mail: facts@waterfowlfestival.org. I hope to find some time next week to post some of these paintings here.

Shown above is the finished River Rocks painting, one that I will be showing this weekend. Although this one took a lot of work, I was pleased with the finished result. I felt it captured what I saw and felt back when I initially saw this scene. Although I have changed the composition somewhat to comply with my wishes, when looking at this painting I am immediately transported back to the wonderful time I spent at the river. In the end I suppose, all we can do as artists is try to please ourselves and at least in this one, I felt that I have. This oil on board is 16" X 12".

RIVER ROCKS, PART 2

Quite a bit more work done to this piece concentrating mostly on the rocks and the darker areas of the water. I also worked on the lower reflections ahead of putting in the calm water in the foreground. Since I was working on gesso-primed board, it took a few layers of paint to bring the rocks to a level of completion that I was happy with. I especially enjoyed modelling each rock and creating depth in the shadow areas of the water. Being so clear, you could see all the underwater rocks and it was fun creating a surface to the water using opaque paint as opposed to the translucent layers of Raw Umber and Yellow Ochre that I used for the underwater rocks. I also worked a little on the water in the upper part of the painting, all along deciding on changes that I felt were right for the painting.

RIVER ROCKS, PART 1

I became fascinated by these seemingly random jumble of rocks that I saw during my last trip to Canada. I like the way that the rocks seemed to cascade diagonally across the image. The top of the painting is more agitated with the fast running water which gives way to the hardness of the rocks. These in turn give way to calmer water and submerged rocks before the reflections take over at the bottom of the composition. These by the way are from a large spruce tree situated on the other side of the river. As in most of my paintings, I started at the top and worked down not bothering too much in getting everything perfect right away. I knew that I would be going back to do more work on some areas after the paint dried but felt that I was off to a good start.

RED-TAILED HAWK, PART 4

Here the finished painting shows how I have continued working with color and tone generally making the bird's head darker and to define feather markings etc. Some careful (but understated) details are been attended to around the eye along with a subtle wash of pale yellow over the beak and around the gape. I kept the rest of the bird faded out so that the emphasis would be solely on the head. Some careful lifting of color brought out highlights and feather detail where needed. Red-tailed Hawks are quite variable ranging from quite dark birds in the Southwest to pale birds in the North. This particularly handsome bird is a medium plumaged individual and I have painted quite a number of studied of him. The final work is 71/2" X 11".

RED-TAILED HAWK, PART 3

Here I have done a bit more work to the areas around the eye and beak and am almost finished with that. I have also started to work on the nape and shoulder area although the latter will be understated. At this time , it is a case of slowly defining details and bringing the tones up to where I want them. Mostly thin washes are applied and when I am happy with one area, moving onto the next. I spend quite a bit of time just looking at the painting working out in my mind what needs to be done bearing in mind the desire not to overwork the piece.

RED-TAILED HAWK, PART 2

Here I have continued modelling the bird working mostly all over at the same time. A series of thin washes has brought me up to this point with darker detailed areas such as the eye and beak done with a finer brush. I'm happy with the way the painting is going even in this rough stage as in the past I would usually work on one area such as the eye until it was finished. I sometimes felt that I was otherwise loosing control of the work unless I could see that at least some part of the painting was working as I intended. Now I know that I can bring it all together in the end so don't have to worry about areas that aren't quite as I would like them to be. Most of the washes so far have comprised of Raw Umber and a little Burnt Sienna with some Cobalt on the beak. I have further modelled the eye using Burnt Umber and darkened the pupil and surround with Neutral Tint. Still a way to go but a good start so far.