Two recent street scenes

These are two recent paintings of streets here in San Miguel.
I have been working on some other paintings that are not ready to photograph yet, so I thought I would put these up.
The top one is a studio painting from a few weeks ago and the bottom one was done on location back in March.



"View from Top of Correo", 18 x 24" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009
$2,300. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner




"Aldama View, March '09", 14 x 11" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009
Private Collection

New painting of a roadside stand

I have been working on this painting for a few days. This is one of the many roadside stands near the coast that sell fruit, cold cocos, tamarind and other tropical treats. The yellow posts in this one with the coconuts hanging really attracted me to this one. Getting the value and the intensity of the yellow in light and in shadow just right was tough. I ended up printing the painting in progress out in black and white just so I could see the value correctly.
I'm working on a title for this one still.



18" x 24", oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2009
Private Collection


Below are a few details.

Paintings from the Beach

We took a quick trip down to the beach last week. Schools were closed in Mexico because of the flu scare and we wanted to get out of town for a while. The drive down to Playa Buena Vista, in the state of Guerrero, is about 6 hrs. Some friends of ours have a small house there that they let us borrow. I took my paint box and was able to sneak in a little painting time when I was not swimming, relaxing, or keeping an eye on the kids while we were on the beach, ( we took Erin's two cousins with us too ). The beach is isolated and we the only ones there most of the time. Needless to say, we had a great time.
Here is a photo of the beach and below are three paintings. The forth was pretty unworthy of posting. The light changed on me too quickly and I abandoned it.



Playa Buena Vista



"Hammock, Playa Buena Vista", 8" x 10" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009

All of the moisture in the air inspired this view looking down the beach. The hammock under the palapa gives that nice lazy day feel. This one might get turned into a larger painting too. I'd like to have more room to play around with that color. You can only squeeze so much into a small painting.



"Morning Palms", 6" x 8" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009

This is the view looking toward the beach from Anthony and Laura's house. The sun was coming up behind me and it cast a nice light on the palms. I tried to simplify the foliage but at the same time wanted it all to line up in the right spot. A tough one for a 6"x8" panel.



"Evening Mist", 6" x 8" oil, Frank Gardner © 2009

There was a lot of moisture rolling off the beach and I loved the variety of cool colors looking back into the jungle in shadow.
This could make a nice larger painting. I can imagine how it would look if it were bigger and I moved a few things just a bit.

Finished "Evening on Garita"

Here is the finished painting from the last post.
I think adding the wires helped.
The colors work for me in this one, and I don't think that I picked at it too much. It still has a nice loose feel.



"Evening on Garita", 11" x 14" oil on board, Frank Gardner © 2009
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner

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.