I was plein air painting with my friend, David Owen, in Brown County, Indiana.
My father and his brother delighted their families by playing the left hand in one key and the right hand in another one. It was very dissonant, but hilarious. We really had to beg to get Daddy to play it, but when he did, we all about died laughing! This is probably my last memory of him before he ended up in the hospital and died.
I painted it so it would seem like a memory, rather than trying to look photorealistic. The underpainting of his skin was done in green, then the pinkish color of his skin came through. His shirt was done in patches of white to add to that feeling.
He is playing “Long, Long Ago”. I really miss him.
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I live in the metro Indianapolis, Indiana area. I love it here, because I’m fifteen minutes from downtown, and five minutes away from the farms. If I’m stressed out I can jump in the car and drive though the corn fields. Somehow they are very relaxing to me.
Sometimes I see interesting things while I’m there. One day I noticed a morning glory vine wrapped around a cornstalk. Normally I would think of morning glory as a pest, but with the beautiful purple blossoms, deep green leaves, and the intricate way the vine had woven itself around the stalk, I felt I had found a natural work of art. I hope you like my painting.
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I think many artists try to get too photorealistic. They put way too much detail in representational art. You’ll see every brick in a building, every leaf on a tree, and sometimes every hair on a person’s head. This really isn’t what we see when we’re looking at something. If you’re going to paint representationally, squint your eyes . . . only paint what you see.
This painting is my memory of my wife and kids weeding the garden. I have only painted shapes and values. You can tell my wife has eyes and a mouth, even though they aren’t painted in. You see the highlights and lowlights in the subjects’ hair without painting each strand. Look at the simple skin tones. I have painted simple corn plants and have filled in the background with a basic green color. You can tell the sun is shining by looking at the values I have used.
Try my method. Simplify.
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Shortly after I moved to Indiana ten years ago, my friend Joe taught me how to fish for smallmouths in the rivers. We’d just wear our swimming suits, a tee shirt, tennis shoes, sunglasses, and a ball cap. We would wade down the stream and cast our lines to the sides near tree roots. Soon we’d have a hit and the water would splash as we reeled in a nice smalley.
I’ve always enjoyed water and have loved painting the rivers here. This painting is of Sugar Creek in central Indiana. It shows what it looks like in the early evening. The trees in the distance have sunlight on them, so I painted warm colors — light green, orange, brown. The closer ones are in the shadows, so they have been done in bluish tones. The colors of the sky and sunlit trees are reflected in the water. If there was sound you’d hear the cicadas singing in the trees and my feet splashing in the water. This is one of the things I love about living here.
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This is a video clip of a recent art show at the Green Door Fine Art Gallery in Greenwood, Indiana. I was the featured artist, so you can see what my paintings look like, as well as what it feels like to attend an art opening.This show featured many cityscape paintings of Indianapolis, San Francisco, and other places as well.
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When I was a ten-year-old kid, my family went with my grandparents to visit Arches National Monument. (It is now Arches National Park) I was fascinated by the huge sandstone formations and giant rocks. I loved climbing all over them. I felt like I was in in a fairyland. Later on in my life I’ve traveled there and have felt the same magic.
This is Delicate Arch. If you ever make it to Arches you should take the hike to see it. It is really awe inspiring.
I have used complimentary colors as I painted the blue sky versus the red sandstone. There is atmospheric perspective as you look at the background and see the bluish mountain range in the distance. Also notice the many shades of red in the arch and the rock ground beneath it.
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