A Painting from Today (updated)

I added a few more brushstrokes and here is the finished piece. I thought that it might be interesting if I left the image from yesterday for comparison.


"A Glance to the Left", 6" x 8" oil on board, 2008
Private Collection


"A Glance to the Left", 6" x 8" oil on board

I only had a little time to paint today, so I started a new 6x8. Here is how I left it.
There are a few things that I want to adjust tomorrow. Then I will sign it and re post the photo.

"La Capilla, Fading Light"

"La Capilla, Fading Light" , 14" x 18" oil on linen, 2008
Private Collection

I started this painting in December, but got working on other things and never finished it up until now. I started with the idea that this would be mostly low (dark) values, but to get the light effect I wanted there had to be some higher (light) values thrown in here and there.
It was a difficult painting for me. I strayed from the original plan a bit, but sometimes you just have to be willing to go where the painting is taking you. The focus is on the church and the fading afternoon light, but the tree and cacti in the foreground are important to the setting too. I painted just enough detail so you would get the feeling of looking through them, but not get caught up in them. There are lots of horizontals and opposing verticals, and then the contrast of the organic vs. man made structure. It ended up being a complicated piece.

"Valley View"

"Valley View", 8" x 16" oil on linen, 2008
$930. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner

This is the second small painting in this series that I talked about in my last post " Into the Valley".
In this one I wanted a broader view of the valley and mountains beyond. To force myself to work quickly and deliberately, I gave myself a limited amount of time to complete the painting. Details were kept to a minimum. I worked for about two hours before it was time to go get Erin from school. That was my time limit.
In the afternoon, I returned to the studio with a fresh eye and pulled a few things together for about another half hour or so.



"Valley View" detail

"Into the Valley"

"Into the Valley", 11" x 14" oil on linen , 2008
$950. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner

I have worked two days on this painting and it is time to stop.
For now at least.
My plan is to do a few small paintings along these lines. I think that this will make a nice larger painting, but I want to work with a couple of different compositions first and then go from there. I consider this a sketch for a larger painting, but also a finished painting in itself.
I like the opposition of lines in this one. I tried to emphasize the different directions of the hills and lines in the fields. I left the sky out completely. I am thinking that I will do another that pans back a bit to show a little sky.
Often, I will do a series of a few small pieces that might lead up to a larger painting. One of my reasons that I like to work this way is to be able to try a few different things without having to cram all of my ideas into one painting. It REALLY frustrates me when I overwork a painting. Once you go too far, you can never really recapture the freshness that was lost. I know this from having done it so many times. Working on a few versions of a piece can sometimes free me from feeling that I need to get it ALL just right. I can show a little restraint knowing that I can try it a little differently on a separate canvas. Another way that I try to keep myself from overworking a painting is to try and stop when I "THINK" it is about 90% "FINISHED". I'll set the painting aside for a while and come back to it with fresh eyes. Usually I will find that what I "THOUGHT" was the remaining 10% is not really necessary.
Does that make sense?

"Light from Above"

"Light from Above", 11" x 14" oil on linen, 2007
Private Collection

I did not get to paint much today, but this is a new painting that I just finished up. It is a studio piece based on an 8x10 plein air painting.
I don't often feature the sky in my landscapes, but the sky on this particular afternoon was extra special so I gave it center stage and two thirds of my composition.
I paint this view often, there is something about it that attracts me. There is a slightly elevated spot where I can look down onto the fields a bit as they spread out in front of me toward those trees. There is a brick maker's place over there and always some animals, but that was not the focus of this painting. I'll post some other paintings of this spot on another day.
I like this one a lot.
What do you think?

"Daily Crossing"

"Daily Crossing", 8" x 16" oil on linen
Private Collection

I like the simple design of this one and how the goats all link together. The shapes of just a few of them are enough to fill in the blanks and let you know about the others. I did not count legs, and I don't think that is important.

Happy New Year!

I have picked up the brush again after a bit of a break from painting. I am almost done with my projects around the house and we have been enjoying our holiday together relaxing and playing.
The New Year means it is time to get back to work though, and I have been itching to get back to painting. Here is the my first painting to post for 2008. It is not quite finished, but done enough to post here for you to see.
( It is finished now and I have changed this to the finished painting 1/15/08 ).


"Rastrojo", 14" x 18" oil on linen , 2008
Private Collection

Some of my favorite stuff to paint these days are local landscapes with people and animals. This man leads his loaded burro home with cornstalks that he will feed to his animals. This subject was just right for a loose painting with subtle color and lots of variety in the edges. I wanted to have fun with the paint and push and pull a few details out of a pattern of brushwork.

I wish you all a great year. I am not real big on New Year resolutions, but one goal I would like to aim for is to try a few things to push my comfort zone a bit with my art. We'll see what I come up with.

"Onions and Squash Blossoms"

"Onions and Squash Blossoms", 10" x 8" oil on board, 2007
Private Collection

I am still working on finishing up some ongoing projects around our house, so I have not been able to paint as much as I would like lately.
This is a piece that I painted about two months ago. I am thinking of doing a larger version of it with just a slightly different composition. What attracted me to this scene were the colors and the fact that it is almost all in shadow. I really liked the green of all those onions that the woman is cleaning up. The orange color of the fresh squash blossoms is a good compliment to all that green. We were eating a lot of these delicious flowers in August and September and I guess I had them on my mind.

"Arms Full of Corn Stalks"

"Arms Full of Stalks", 8" x 10" oil on linen, 2007
$720. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner

This is a small painting from today. I have been using the first painting from my last post as reference for two other 8x10's
I wanted this one to be more about the man carrying the load of corn stalks, so I limited the amount of tree that is visible.
I have been working up a few different ideas to see which direction I would like to go with a larger painting. A lot of my color notes in this one are pulled from the 8x10 plein air of this tree.
I have been slow about posting lately because it is the time of year that I try and take a break from painting, shift gears a little, and catch up with a few projects that need doing around the house. I will try and get photos posted of the other paintings tomorrow.

"Woman and Doves"

Here is a painting that I did today. I took a few photos of the process so you can get an idea of how I worked this one up.
One of the choices an artist has when they begin a painting is to limit the value range that they will work in. This can greatly affect the mood of the finished piece.
My goal was to make this painting in a high value key. That means that the values are mostly light as opposed to darker. Tomorrow I hope to get a painting in a lower (darker) key that I will post here.



"Woman and Doves" Step 1

Another decision that I made before starting this one is that I wanted there to be lots of juicy and loose brushwork. So, I decided to work on this one upside down. That way I am thinking of shapes and colors and not "things". I have decided to show these first two stages upside down, just how I was seeing it when I was painting.

In step 1, I mixed up five or six shadow colors and laid those in rather quickly. I was not interested at all in details here, just getting my design blocked in with some nice variety of color. Notice that none of these colors are very dark in value. They actually look a little darker here than they really are because of all that white linen that they are being compared to. I love painting reflected light, and this scene had some nice light bouncing around on those buttresses.



"Woman and Doves" Step 2

In Step 2, I started to add the light family of colors. Again, I mixed up a handful of subtle color variations on my palette first so I could compare them to each other before committing them to the painting. Since I wanted this painting to have a loose look, these strokes needed to be put on and left alone.
Here is where I began to really work my edges leaving some hard and softening others. I am still working on the painting upside down. I did not start painting the color of the woman's clothes yet. I wanted to get most of my subtle colors down first so I could compare my color choices to the colors that are going to be around her in the finished painting.



"Woman and Doves" , 14" x 18" oil on linen, 2007
Private Collection


Here is the finished painting. I wanted the woman to be the center of interest, so that is where I put the brightest colors and some of the hard edges. I also added the doves here at the end so I could just lay them in loosely and not disturb them by trying to paint around them. I was careful where I placed them. I think that they add to the movement from left to right in the painting.



Detail "Woman and Doves"

I don't know why, but with blogger, it seems that the colors are always better when you click on the paintings and see the larger version. They are closer to the actual colors of the paintings.

From Plein Air Sketch to Studio Painting

Many times I will use a plein air painting as the starting point for a larger studio piece.



"San Miguel Viejo Sketch", 6" x 8" oil on board, 2006
$500. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner


That is the case with this series of a man plowing a corn field by an old church here in San Miguel. I go to this location to paint a lot. It is close to my house and there is always something interesting to paint there whether it be the church, workers in a field or a few animals grazing nearby.
On this occasion I was painting a small sketch of the chapel while this gentleman plowed his field. He would pass into my view and I kept thinking what a great painting that image would make. I snapped a few photos as he plowed and later worked up some ideas for a larger studio painting.
In the 6" x 8" study I was just trying to get the simple value pattern down with some fairly accurate color.



"Man Plowing", 11" x 14" oil on board, 2006
$950. Framed. Available at Galeria Gardner


Later, in the studio, I used my plein air sketch and some photos to come up with an interesting composition for a larger piece. I'll often work out my idea on a small scale before committing the idea to a large canvas. Once I worked out the placement of the man and his team of horses I was ready to move on to the larger painting.



"Man Plowing Field", 30" x 40" oil on canvas, 2007
$4,700. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner


Once I have worked out my plan, I can attack the larger piece with more confidence. The focus of the large painting is the team of horses. That is where most of my attention is focused. The chapel is softened so it will take it's place in the background. I liked the way that the tree branches worked in the middle painting so I used that in the large painting as well. It kind of lets you know where I am standing. It clarifies the shadow in the foreground and balances all of the action in the lower half of the painting.

"Last in Line"

"Last in Line", 14" x 18" oil on linen, 2007
Private Collection

This is a new painting that I just took down to the gallery. I call it "Last in Line" because of the little lamb. It seems like the little guys are always last in line when the animals are out.
I have decided to start adding my prices to the artwork that I post if it is still available. I think that I will change my web site to show prices as well. Any thoughts on this?

"Two Roosters"

"Two Roosters", 8" x 6" oil on board, 2007
Private Collection

I painted this small piece yesterday. This subject was perfect for playing around with some subtle color and loose brushwork. I have been working on some larger paintings lately and it is nice to take a break from those and do a few small ones.

"El Mexicano"

"El Mexicano", 18" x 24" oil on canvas, 2006
Private Collection

This is another painting that I like very much, for some of the same reasons that I discussed in my last post "Burro Bonito".
It has a lot of loose painterly brushwork. The few hard edges are reserved for the center of interest, the man and horse. The the rest of the painting is mostly soft and lost edges, which play a supporting role to the center of interest.
In this painting I wanted to convey the sense of heat from the hot sun, so I used a burnt sienna under painting, and let a lot of that color show through.
I paint a thin wash of burnt sienna mixed with lots of paint thinner all over the canvas. When it has set for about five or ten minutes I rub it down with a rag to even it out and leave a transparent wash which I let dry before painting over it. Always do this in a well ventilated area.



Detail "El Mexicano"

For this painting I used a reference photo that I took up the street from my house. There were a lot of trees and nopal cactus in the photo, but I chose to just hint at those so I would not distract from the man on the horse. The background is really just color notes. There is not much value contrast within all of that brush and cactus. That would draw too much attention away from my focus.



Detail "El Mexicano"

The sharpest edges are saved for the center of interest and so are my brightest colors. The red blanket, the yellow rope and the blue shadows on his white clothes are the three primary colors. Grouped together, they help draw attention to that area.
The lightest value in the painting is the white of the man's clothes. The next lightest value is the sky and a few of the cactus paddles behind the man's face that are getting direct sun. Since the man's face is in shadow, I just painted one main tone for his face. After laying in the shadow colors of his face and hat, I worked the negative space around his head and hat with the sky color. Notice how I continued with the same light value, but a different color (the cactus) on the back side of his head. Then, going down the man's shoulder and arm, I used one of the darkest values in the painting against the lightest. It was not like that in the photo, but I changed it to make it fit my needs. You have to be careful when you use photos to not just copy them blindly. I rearrange, edit or combine elements from other photos as needed.

"Burro Bonito"

"Burro Bonito", 14" x 18" oil on board, 2007 Private Collection

I like the loose painterly feel of this piece. My idea in this one was to use subtle color, hard and soft edges and lots of variety in my brushstrokes.



Detail "Burro Bonito"

You can see here that up close it is just an abstract pattern of colors and shapes. I reserved one of the hardest edges for along the top of the saddle.




Detail "Burro Bonito"

Here I used the greatest contrast of light and dark to accentuate the burro's face.

"Cold Camden"

"Cold Camden", 6" x 8" oil on board, 2007
Private Collection


This is a new studio painting from a photo that I took last October in Camden, Maine. It is starting to get a little cold here. At night. Well, alright, not as cold as what some of you have had, but cold enough to remind me of my painting trip to Maine last October with some painting buddies. We stayed and painted in Port Clyde, but took a day and went up to Camden to visit some galleries and paint the harbor. So, inspired by this "cold", I have been doing some paintings in my little back patio here at the gallery using photos from that trip. This is the first one, I'll post some others later.




Detail, "Cold Camden"


I used a burnt sienna under painting on this piece because of all the "cool" colors ( blues, greens and the white) I wanted it to look cold, but not be too "cool" in color temperature. I left little bits of the sienna showing through here and there. Your eye mixes those in and gives the painting the feeling of the sunny day. Notice how that lobster boat in the back is just a few little strokes and how the green is "bluer" to the left and "yellower" to the right. That emphasizes where the light source is, to the right.




Detail, "Cold Camden"


In this detail I wanted to show how simply the background is painted. I don't want anything back there that will take away from the center of interest, the worker in the boat. Just a few quick strokes to show what's back there, a schooner and a building. Like Hawthorne said, "Only the owner of the house will count the windows".
The edges back there are softer too making the worker in the boat draw your attention. On this scale I could not put in too many details, but I wanted to play around with a lot of subtle grays in the shadows, like in the worker's sweater and pants.

"Little Treasures"

These two little paintings are going to be part of the "Little Treasures" exhibition at the Tubac Center of the Arts, in Tubac, Arizona.
Friday, November 16, 2007 through Monday, December 24, 2007.
This Holiday show consists of 5" x 7" paintings by some of the nation's finest artists.
Tubac Center of the Arts
Tubac, Az.
tel. 520-398-2371
http://www.tubacarts.org




"Feast of Flowers" 7" x 5" oil on linen, 2007





"Pollitos" 7" x 5" oil on linen, 2007

"Done for the Day"

"Done for the Day", 30" x 40" oil on canvas, 2007
Private Collection

I have been working on this painting off and on for a while and just finished it and took it down to my gallery. I had done a small one in the spring and thought that it would make a great large painting. The light on the front of the church in Atotonilco and the shadow in the foreground make for a dramatic composition. It took me a while to finish it up because I would bring it down from my studio and hang it in different parts of my house to see how it would look. Then take it back up into my studio and make small corrections. I'll often hang on to a painting like that for a while so I can look at it in different light at different times of day. It's easy to make a painting look good with a light on it down at the gallery, but I want them to look good when some one walks into the room and the lights are out. Then when a light goes on it it just looks even better. It's real important to get your values right for a painting to work well in a darkened room. That is Alfredo walking in front of the church on his way home with the stuff from his wife's food stand down the street. I've known him since I moved to Mexico about 18 years ago. He is a real nice guy. You can see the smaller version of this painting and another painting of Alfredo on my web site. frankgardner.com

"Taking out the Goats"

"Taking out the Goats" , 14" x 18" oil on linen, 2007
$950. Framed, Available at Galeria Gardner

This is a new painting that I just took down to the gallery. I am working on a 24" x 30" version of this scene. I'll often do a smaller version to work out my idea before committing it to a larger scale. I like the loose brushwork in this one, especially in the man with the goats. I tried to use the road as a way to get the viewer to travel around in the painting.

"Morning Vista"

"Morning Vista", 48" x 60" oil on canvas, 2007 Private Collection.

This is the latest in a series of paintings that I have done based on a smaller painting of San Miguel that I did on location. This one is a studio painting. I loved the way the town was back lit, fusing the hillside and buildings into a few simple masses. This one is a commission that I will deliver next week.



"Morning Vista, San Miguel", 11" x 14" , oil on board, 2006 Private Collection

This is the first in the series, done on location.



"Morning Vista, San Miguel", 30" x 40" , oil on canvas, 2006 Private Collection

The second painting in the series. Painted in the studio. I wanted to explore this idea on a larger scale. There is more detail added to the silhouette of the town. I also adjusted the road in the foreground to give a sense of where I was standing.



"Summer Morning", 30" x 24" , oil on canvas, 2007
Private Collection

This is the thrid painting of the series. This is also a studio piece. I wanted to try this in a vertical composition to see how it would change the feel of the painting.