new work in progress

It's been a week since I last posted something.
Thanks for reminding me Christine.
I have been working in the studio this week. Schools are closed because of the flu scare and we have been trying to stay in the house.
This is what I was up to today. It is a street that I have recently painted, but a different design. I like the way the light and color is coming along in this one. There are some wires that I want to add in tomorrow, and a few more things. I am going to try and not pick at it too much.



Work In Progress 11" x 14", Frank Gardner © 2009

An adjusted plein air painting

This is a painting that I started when Jerome was down visiting last month. We were painting the church and field with some cows in it. The cows kept moving around really really fast. I tried to catch at least the gestures on the spot. I was not real successful with all three of the cows.
It looked rather busy and unfocused when I got it back to the studio, so I reworked it a bit. I decided to take out two of the cows and add the guy who was spreading out these dried corn stalks for the cows. It is a smart way to get the fertilizer where he wants it. He put piles of the stalks here and there in his field and the cows did all the work.


"Feed for the Cows", 11" x 14" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2009



As it came home from the field , © 2009



The scene

Little Demo

This is a little 8" x 10" that I painted the other day. I took some pictures along the way again, so I've posted them below.
Step Four is how it looked when I stopped working on the spot. The light had changed a lot and lunch was ready. The next day in the studio I worked a bit on the large tree on the right. There were just a few other minor changes. I think I made a few more strokes after this last photo was taken, but I don't have the painting here right now to compare. There is a little pump house hidden beneath the tree on the left.


"Sol Dorado Looking East", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2009


Scene and Step One, Frank Gardner © 2009


Step One, Frank Gardner © 2009


Step Two, Frank Gardner © 2009


Step Three, Frank Gardner © 2009


Step Four, Frank Gardner © 2009


"Sol Dorado Looking East", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2009

Finished "View of Rancho del Sol Dorado"

This is the finished painting that I started one morning of my painting workshop. You might remember that I posted a photo of the setup in a post called on the spot. I made a few adjustments to some values and added a dab or two of paint here and there when the lines were just in an awkward placement. Other than that I pretty much left things alone. I really like the look of this painting.



"View of Rancho del Sol Dorado", 18" x 24" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2009
Private Collection



The set up, Frank Gardner © 2009


There are some photos of me working on this one in this blog post by Marian Fortunati. She was nice enough to post quite a bit about my workshop on her blog.

sheep by step

Here are the step by step photos of the sheep in the painting from the last post. I was hoping that a few of you would find this interesting, so I took a few pictures along the way.
I was going to just leave out the text explaining my steps, but I added a few words at the end. I think the steps speak for themselves. Besides, they say a picture is worth a thousand words.












Frank Gardner © 2009


I picked a few sheep from different photos and painted the dark shapes to place them. Next I added the blue to continue building up the form. Then I painted in the white highlights of the backlit sheep. That is what really sharpens them up. The next step was to cut back into the forms with the background colors to adjust the shapes just a bit. I'll often over paint a shape and then come back with another color to adjust it. You can see what I mean by this best on the head of the sheep to the far right. The last photo shows the painting after I decided to wipe two of the sheep out for a better overall composition. I knew I could always paint them back in if I decided I liked it better with all five.