Work in Progress

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work-in-progressI’m probably best known for my night-time cityscapes. I’ve sold plenty of them. You’ll see a lot of them on my website. What you don’t see is how they’re created.

This is a painting of downtown Indianapolis at night. I love the feeling of nighttime with its lights, colors, and sounds. I wanted to develop that atmosphere in this painting. First, I put a whole bunch of lights on the canvas with white blobs of paint. Next I put in blocks of buildings and try to develop a feeling of perspective. Most importantly to me are cars. I start drawing abstract automobile shapes, usually with one main car and pieces of cars behind it.

After they are sketched in, I start slapping color in, usually yellows and deep blues to create the feeling of streetlight and nighttime. I have to have red cars somewhere. The closer cars will have splashes of colors to show reflections of the colors around them.

So now you can see how I start. Check out my site in two or three nights to see how my painting is progressing.

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Rose and Pearls

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rose-and-pearlsThis still life has a rose in a vase, pearls, and a silver canister. The tablecloth is black, and a sheet is attached to the wall as a backdrop. There are highlights in the vase which are made with white paint. Also you’ll see spots of white on each pearl and a black shadow underneath them. The edge of the tablecloth has a light value. The sheet is wrinkled. The area with direct light is white or light yellow. Note the bluish shade in the shadows. The rose petals are redder in the light than when they are not. The silver canister reflects the beads and whatever else is around.

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David and Kathy’s Pole Barn

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If you look at my blog on August 20, 2008, you’ll see a video clip of me with a couple of friends doing plein air painting in Brown County, Indiana. The property belongs to David and Kathy Martin. David built this barn. It is surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. The atmosphere is delightful. I was there with one of my best friends, David Owen, one of Indiana’s upcoming artists. I think he’s a lot better plein air artist than I am, so I enjoy being with him so I can learn.

This kind of painting is out of doors on the scene. You slap the paint on fast and try to show emotion in your work. It’s a lot harder than it looks, but it is very fulfilling. The hardest part of painting out of doors is that the sun moves rapidly across the sky, changing shadows and light constantly.

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Shapes and Values

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I once showed slides of my art to a women’s group. One painting had a glass bottle with brushes in it. One of the ladies asked if I had used glass colored paint.

This painting has a clear light bulb with a problem of painting glass. There is a metal pair of pliers with a reflection problem. Lastly, there is an apple.

If you know anything about my technique, it is to look for shapes of colors and values, not at the specific items. I see a shape inside the bulb that has a light pinkish color. I paint it. The threaded part of the bulb has shapes of white and dark parallel lines. I paint them. The pliers have shapes of black lines and shapes of white lines, etc.

Just forget about trying to paint the objects. Find the shapes and values. That’s all there is.

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Burn the Midnight Oil

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I’m often asked by people why I am having success at an artist. They all tell me how lucky I am, that they wish they could have things work out like I have.

Here is the well kept secret to my success:

Burn the midnight oil. Take hours and hours of classes. Paint for hours every day, every week, every year. Draw for hours on end. Take endless chances. Get turned down over and over. Have one success for every thirty failures. Be told you’re not very good. Then keep going over, and over, and over, and over. After all that, you’ll just be getting started. Then keep at it . . . and keep going over and over and over and over. Then after several years, you’ll all of a sudden have a little bit of success and people will tell you how lucky you are.

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Romance

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It is a very cold day in Indiana. The sun is shining brightly on the snow that’s piled up all over. My wife wants to run away and sit with me on a warm beach. I painted this picture for her today. I hope it will fulfill her wish.

The painting has five vertical bands – the sky, the water, the sand, the path, and the grass. This gives the painting rhythm. Notice the sailboats – some are closer than the others. The ones further away are over the horizon line, so only the tops of their sails are visible. Next, notice the two people walking on the left. The man is painted bigger than the woman to make it appear he is closer. Also the woman is painted from her waist up and the man from his ankles up. This is to give the illusion that the beach goes down an incline to the water.

If you look at the two people snuggled together, you’ll notice I have not painted them separately. They are both wearing dark clothing so their backs blend together. The sand has light and dark areas to make it look like ripples. The green area with grass and weeds helps give a feeling of depth to the painting.

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’57 Plymouth

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There are many reasons to paint. Some like expressionist art. It might not be something representational, but the artist’s emotions are there. Some like still life, while others like portraiture. Frida Kahlo did statement art. Picasso did everything from cubist to whatever.

I found some old treasures from when I was a little boy. I loved cars. I cut out pictures of them from magazines. I went in dealerships and took their brochures. I went to auto shows. In a zippered looseleaf I found hundreds of pictures of car ads from the late fifties and early sixties. It brought back the magic feeling of being a boy.

This is a 1957 Plymouth. The Alkire family next door had one. I always thought it looked like a shark that was going to come eat me. It must have been the massive grille that looked like teeth.

I painted this to take me back to those days . . .

“Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me, M – I – C – K – E – Y . .”

“The Lone Ranger Rides Again!”

“Bucky Bucky Beaver, New Ipana Toothpaste . . .”

“Hey kids, What time is it? ” “It’s Howdy Doody Time!”

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