Northville

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This is a painting of the very charming town of Northville, Michigan.  It is west of Detroit, closer to Ann Arbor.  I love that place.  There is a magic feeling there.  I especially love it because I found Sherrus Gallery of Fine Art there while I was just browsing the streets.  I walked in and was completely blown away by that fabulous place.  When I met Sherri, the owner, and Sara, the manager, I knew I had to exhibit there.  I didn’t think I had a chance, though, because it was so fantastic and I doubted they would give me a chance.  Luckily, they  did.  I’m so glad.

The painting shows perspective.  Look at the roof line.  It is higher on the right than the left.  That gives the image of depth.  I have included people walking up the sidewalk.  The famous clock is prominent on the left. The painting is bright and colorful, giving it the happy feeling I feel whenever I’m there.

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Meandering

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If you drive about five miles east of where I live you are in the  farms.  There are corn fields as far as you can see.  Every so often there will be open areas where cows are grazing, and there are a few hog farms.  I find a lot of peace driving around though that area.  It relieves the everyday stress that wears me down.

I wanted to portray the typical view I see.  This is my impression of it.  A lone cow stands on a small hill between a meandering stream.  In the background you see the yellow cornfields with woods further back.  The nearby hill is graced by dramatic shadows from the trees.  Can you smell the grass?  Can you hear the cow?  Do you feel the breeze?  Are you at peace?

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Madison Bridge

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The Ohio River is the border between Indiana and Kentucky.  One of the most scenic and historic towns in Indiana is Madison.  There are a lot of old mansions there.  Each year they have boat races on the river.  I really  love it there.

One night I took my wife there to spend  the night.  We stayed in a hotel at the east end of town up on a hill.  We really didn’t know what it would look like in the daytime.  When we got up in the morning we stepped out on the balcony to see this spectacular scene  —  there was a bridge going over the river to Kentucky.  Mist was rising from the water.  The fall colors were brilliant.

When I painted the scene I did everything from the river and up the hills in  a very pale white, then gently layed in some color to give the misty, foggy feeling.  The bridge was done loosely with faint portrayal of structure.  I painted the river white and put a little reflection in it to make it “wet.”  There is not a lot of detail in the trees or buildings, just a block of color here and there.  The lone car on the road gives life to the picture.

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Train

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There is a park near where my children grew up that used to have a rocket ship slippery slide.  You would climb up inside of it, then go down the slide.  Kids liked to link up and ride down together.  This painting represents the excitement they would have when they travelled down in a train.

The background is basically non-detailed because the focus is on the children.  The faces are done in a quick, impressionist method to give the feeling of motion.  Since their faces are not done in a photo-realistic manner, they could be anyone’s children.  I have portrayed each face with a different kind of expression.  My intent was to creat the feeling of the excitement and innocence of youth.

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Classroom Demo

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Whenever I teach my still life oil painting class I do a quick demo. I try to show the students the techniques that will help them do a successful painting. Often they don’t see the same things I do, and while I’m painting they become aware of the things they didn’t see before. Obviously, this is not a finished work. My technique is to find shapes of colors and values, then put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Another thing I see is the different type of light – the bowl has light on the right side that is a blue tint. It is a reflection of the sky coming in from the window. On the left side is yellow light from the indoor bulbs. The metal cup reflects different light values, and they are indicated by long stripes down it. The shadow to the right of the bowl is a light blue-violet.

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Arlene’s Place

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I used to be represented by a gallery in Rising Sun, Indiana.  It is a charming town along the banks of the Ohio River.  You can look across at the village of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky.  The gallery owner suggested we have lunch at Arlene’s which was down the road a ways.  It had great views of the river and the food was good.

The techniques I’d  like to mention are reflections in the water and atmospheric perspective.  To do the reflections, just paint the image of whatever is above the water, then paint some white or light blue strokes through it.  That’s all you need to do.   For the atmospheric perspective, remember that cool colors recede and warm colors come forward.  The grass by the building is warm green, but the hills are further back, so it is lighter and has a bluer hue.

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