My ancestors were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as “Mormons.” Mobs drove them from their homes in Ohio and Missouri, so they settled in a swamp on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. They drained the swamp and built a beautiful city they named “Nauvoo.” They built the Nauvoo Temple which overlooked the river. Eventually, mobs murdered their leader and drove the people from their homes. They fled to a new home in the west.
After they had gone, arsonists burned the insides of the temple, then a tornado blew it down.
About a hundred and fifty years later, the temple was rebuilt. Some of my children chose to be married there, and one of them requested I paint a picture of it for her home. Not only can she remember her wedding day, but her heritage as well.
Filed under My Inspiration by on Mar 3rd, 2010. 10 Comments. 
I’ve always loved the night lights on downtown city streets. Reflections from store fronts, traffic lights and overhead lights bounce off cars and sidewalks.
Notice the linear and atmospheric perspective. The front car is on the far right but the others end are displayed in a line going from right to left towards a vanishing point. The same thing is happening with the buildings. You will see a roof top at the top right which angles downward to the left and the overhead lights angle to the left. The cars. the roof and the lights all go to a vanishing point in the distance. This is linear perspective.
Atmospheric perspective is shown by the cars at the front being larger than the ones further back. Both types of perspective give depth to the painting. You have a feeling that you could walk down the street.
This painting is 18″ x 24″ and is for sale at $850.00. If you are interested in purchasing it, contact me on the email address on this site.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Sep 16th, 2009. 3 Comments.
Grandma had died. I flew to California to be with relatives and attend the funeral. When it was over I felt lost and lonely. My father knew I’d never seen San Francisco. He rented a car. We drove downtown. I loved my dad. It was great to be with him. We ate shrimp at the pier. We rode the cable cars. He and I went up Coit Tower to see the city. We drove down Lombard Street. I bought a souvenir in Chinatown. We went to a hotel on the hill. It had a glass elevator on the outside. We rode it to the top and saw the beautiful city. We went back to the car. It was alone on the road. All the other cars were gone. We had a big traffic ticket. I still missed Grandma, but at least I had my dad. He’s been gone almost twenty years now.
This painting reminds me of him. Note the buildings are like blocks standing on end. I’ve given the feeling of sunlight with shadow on the side. There is a great contrast with the dark clouds over the bay. The bridge stands in the center of the background.
Filed under My Inspiration by on Apr 24th, 2009. 3 Comments.
I love doing cityscapes! I love painting cars! This painting shows atmospheric and linear perspective. The atmospheric perspective is shown by having a big car nearest us with detail while the cars further away are smaller and less detailed. The same is true with the streetlights and trees. The linear perspective is shown because the street is wider at the front and goes narrower the further you go. Both types give depth to the painting.
Another technique used is reflected light. Look at the left side of the large white car. It has a pink glow on it from the road. Further ahead you’ll see some yellow windows in some of the vehicles. That is reflection from trees. Notice the road is painted deeper red in the shade, but a yellow shade in the sunlight.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Apr 12th, 2009. 3 Comments.
This is the finished work of my nighttime car painting. You saw the progression from Work in Progress 1 to Work in Progress 2. This one actually changed because I moved the buildings on the right further towards the center of the painting. You’ll notice windows. The building in the center emphasizes the linear perspective as the lines move to the left. I’ve worked more on the cars, the lights and a few people. I’d like to mention that I was more interested in creating a “feeling” than a representation.
Filed under My Inspiration by on Mar 13th, 2009. 3 Comments.
The cars are more defined; buildings show up, color is in the streets and lights. Basically, there’s a whole lot more emotion in the painting. I’ve moved from shapes and values to expressing the way I feel.
Watch out for the finished product in the next post or two.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Feb 20th, 2009. 3 Comments.
I’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.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Feb 17th, 2009. 3 Comments.
When I first moved to Indianapolis over ten years ago, I wanted to try painting some city scenes. There are four parks all in a row along Meridian Street downtown. I found a beautiful fountain with a sculpture of a woman playing cymbals at the top, and a group of people dancing around in a circle. Water ran from under the feet of the cymbal player and went over the sides into a bowl below. I thought it was wonderful. I especially liked the view of the War Memorial building right behind it.
I went early in the morning because I wanted the light to be just coming up and shining on the subject. I soon found that it only was good for ten or fifteen minutes and then the sun was too high. I went back on several successive days to capture the fifteen minutes. It was really tricky trying to capture the water. It moved too fast for me to get a real view, so I had to do my best. I wanted to have the painting be much further along than it did, but I started getting harassed by panhandlers. One of them shoved my easel over on the ground and then he slugged me. That was the end of my painting on scene downtown. Actually, though, I like the slightly unfinished look, anyway.
Filed under Oil Painting Technique by on Dec 3rd, 2008. 3 Comments.
Recent Comments