Mega snowstorm, mega blog, 9 paintings over 11 days!

    Today we are having a major blizzard with snow, cold and high winds, but I got a good fire going in the studio, and found a lemon to paint,  I wanted to have the snowstorm outside the window.

     

 Here is my still life for the day, it took me quite a while to put this together, not just the objects, but their arrangement

Here I got the lights and scratched in the bottle,

#965  Still life with lemon       3-14-17      8x10

Yesterday, I didn't get out as early as I wanted, and missed the morning sun, but I wandered around and found myself in a place I've been, it was the same spot but very different. It was pretty cold, probably 20 or so degrees, but there was no wind, and in an an exposed location like this it's unusual not to have any wind, so I took that as a very good thing.

This was May 22, 2015, 

#964 King Rd.      3-13-17         9x12

Saturday was also a bitter cold day, but it was also windy and cloudy. I made a trip to Glens Falls to drop off some paintings, the sun came out  and I found this scene, well protected from the wind in a residential neighborhood with a view of the paper mill. 

This was finished in the studio, a practice I've just started, and just might keep.

#963 Oak St, Glens Falls, NY        3-11-17         8x10

These are called the "5 combines"  which are essentially 5 locks in a row, of course they are the ruins of the original feeder canal, and haven't been used in a long time.



This spot seemed to call me to it. 

The sun even came out for a short while.

Then a little touch up in the studio, why not?

#962 The 5 Combines  Hudson Falls, NY             3-10-17          12x16

This is a spot along the Black Creek in Salem.  While I was painting this I kept thinking that I was putting color in, at least enough, then I step back and I see there is a lot less color as compared to the scene, I guess that's just my eye's filter.

#961 Black Creek, Salem, NY             3-8-17           12x16

This is obviously the studio, I had a lot of trouble with the drawing on this, which I think I was able to fix, but the values never seemed to recover, I also had trouble with the reds.

#960 Amaryllis            3-7-17

Here is the block in for a studio version of a plein air painting of a combine on Brownell corners rd.

One thing I wanted was to widen the whole scene a little. The first one was squished, probably because of the format, and I did peak at the photo, but just to get the drawing in a few places.

#959 Brownell Corners Rd,             3-6-17                   16x20

#958Burton Rd. Easton, NY       3-6-17

Once you start looking for a particular thing you start to see them everywhere, or at least I do, and these I found at the Cargil plant on S.R. 29 in Salem, but there are more, a lot more.

#957 Cargil Graineries, S.R. 29 Salem, NY        3-4-17          11x14

Finished February Paintings

February is supposed to be cold and snowy, and it was, but we got some warm days, with melting and ice, and all that. It was also a productive month with 20 painting in 28 days, here are most of them:

                                      #935 Studio wood fire                 2-1-17                  10x8

                             #936 Backlots, Ballston Spa, NY              2-2-17               11x12

                   #937 Paper mill from Prospect St. Glens Falls, NY              2-3-17           14x16  SOLD

                                     #939 Eagle Bridge rail yard                  2-5-17              9x12

              #940 Cement plant from feeder canal, Glens Falls, NY                  2-6-17              14x16

                            #941 Sleeping giant               2-8-17                  16x18

                       #942 Hudson River @ warrensburg               2-10-17               12x16

                         #944 E. Main St. @ Park Place                2-14-17            14x16   SOLD 

                                 #945 C.R. 59 Graineries                  2-17-17             12x16

                                  #946 Cement  plant, S. Troy, NY.               2-18-17             16x12

                          #949 Salem Courthouse                        2-22-17                    14x16

                                          #950 Yellow flower                    2-23-17          10x8    SOLD

                                 #953 Hudson River @ Warrensburg                    2-27-17                  9x12

                               #954 Yellow flower & clementine                   2-28-17          12x11  SOLD

6 paintings in 7 days: freezing, melting re-freezing........

       Some weeks just move faster than others. That's counter scientific, time is just time, and one second is the same as any other, no?  But so goes the heart, and so goes this painter's life.  I woke up knowing I would go to Glens Falls to deliver some paintings to Saunder's Fine Art, in the Shirt Factory building, and get to do an industrial. It was even sunny, who cares if it was 22 and breezy. I made it to this scene without a lot of fuss, I love large open parking lots.

             I had to eliminate the telephone pole and the tree just to the right, but overall was the best view of this scene from this side of the feeder canal.  In the spring the foliage will return and make scenes like this very different.

                                   Here is my Pallet.

      Here is the initial block in, and there is a lot that happens before this.  I don't do thumbnails, but work it out in my head as I put it together, the parts push and pull themselves a bit in this stage, and the general tones are also mixed and thrown on the canvas.

          #956  Paper mill from Cleveland  St. parking lot, G.F.NY      3-3-17       14x16

      Here is the money shot for the day,  it got a little more complicated than I would have liked, there was a lot of "stuff"  like cars, railings, reflections, and they resisted my gathering them to simplify,  I  just ignored a lot of that detail. I did a few tiny tweaks in the studio, otherwise that's it.

        The back of my van.

             This is a photo looking out the rear window of my shop/studio. I see this a lot.  In the afternoons, if there is light, it will hit the front of that little yellow shed, on this day I chose to go back there and paint it.

           I got this from in back of the building in between the trees.

                #955  Outback (rear window)               3-2-17                   9x12

                                                            I thought this was a little surreal.

        This is how I set up sight-size.

                                       #954    Yellow flower with clementine     2-28-17      12x11

                    On the way back from picking up my show in North Creek, I saw this and knew I has to stop!

       Super quick and super abstract.

              #953  Hudson River, Warrensburg, NY               2-27-17              9x12

     

    Although I took this photo days after, the light had been there on the garbage truck when I initially started to set up.

           #952 Turnpike rd. (yellow garbage truck)      2-26-17        11x12 

           #951      Battenkill @ Eagleville                      2-25-17            11x14

   I had forgot my brushes, which doesn't happen, but I found two strays under the seats in the van, and proceeded to make this mess.  I'm keeping it, just to remind myself how humbling this profession can be.

         This is me in front of my painting at the Small Works show at the Shirt Factory Gallery in Glens Falls, NY.  It won best landscape, so that was a nice surprise!