WHAT AMOUNTS TO A YEARLY UPDATE

In September 2015, I loaded up my car and headed out, taking a drive that ultimately took me on a lap around Lake Erie. I wanted to meet up with my friend, Australian painter Colley Whisson, as well as visit my family up north. I decided to take the car since it would allow me to stop along the road and paint anything that might interest me.

Sketchbook scribbling

The first night was spent at a B&B in Little Rock, Arkansas. In the morning, before heading out of town, I painted the Junction Bridge, near the Clinton Presidential Library.

Junction Bridge,  Little Rock, Arkansas 9x12"

I wonder if this sign was vandalized, or if it's sorting itself out. Either way, it made me chuckle like a seventh grader.

Sign for the Clinton School of Pubic Service (Ha!)

While still in Arkansas, I saw an abandoned "shotgun house" and met the owner as I was painting it. He told me that 10 people, who worked for him picking cotton, lived in there at one time... and there was only an outhouse out back.

Shotgun house, rural Arkansas 9x12"

Next, it was on to Tennessee, where I met up with my friend Colley, who was in the US teaching some workshops. I took a workshop with him several years ago and we became friends. I highly recommend his classes and videos.  We did a little painting and photographing around Leiper's Fork after he finished his classes there, then took a drive to visit painter Lori Putnam and her husband, Mark Putnam (who created the Value Viewer app for iPad and iPhone). Lori is a terrific painter, and I was more than a little jealous when she and Colley traded paintings! Colley was kind enough to give me the painting shown here when he finished it.

Colley Whisson stands between our paintings of a barn in Leipers Fork, TN

Some more Sketchbook scribbling 

The former Gray Drug Store in Franklin, Tennessee is now a restaurant. I stood in a doorway and painted it one evening after dark.

Gray Drug sign in Franklin, Tennessee 9x12"

I dropped Colley off at the airport so he could go teach another class in Atlanta, then headed up into Cincinnati, Ohio to visit my oldest brother George and his wife Martha, who took me to see the Loveland Castle (or Chateau Laroche), a museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. I went back to paint it after I left their home.

Chateau Laroche in Loveland, Ohio 9x12"

After painting the Loveland Castle, I drove up into Cleveland, where I stayed at my brother Tony's house overnight. Tony and I then hopped in my car and drove to Windsor, Ontario, where we visited my cousin Frank Gabriel (son of my uncle Frank Gabriel) in the hospital. He unfortunately passed away the night after we were there. Then it was across Ontario to Stayner, where my sister Mary and her husband Ken live on their farm. While there, we also drove to nearby Collingwood, where our oldest sister, Gina, is in a nursing home.

The Richardson Farm in Stayner, Ontario 9x12"

Tony and I completed the circuit around Lake Erie, and then I did a bit of painting at  Squire's Castle, in the Metro Park in Willoughby, Ohio, near where I grew up.

Squires Castle in Willoughby, Ohio 9x12"

Next it was back home to Texas. On the way, I stopped only to sleep in a truck stop parking lot for a few hours and then at a rest stop in Texarkana for about an hour. The only time I didn't drive on the entire trip was when we got back to Cleveland, and Tony drove his wife Lisa and me in his car to dinner with our sister Maria and her husband Paul.

No doubt about it, I like a good road trip. I need a trailer.

RECENT FIELD SKETCHES AND STUDIES IN THE STUDIO

These are some of the studies I did in the studio during the last few months. These are presented in no particular order, date-wise.

I used a mixture of flour, water, food coloring and a little rubbing alcohol inside the jar to mimic paint, without destroying it. The perspective on the bell is a bit wonky and skewed. I suppose I should fix it...

10 x 8" Brass Bell and Ball Jar study

14 x 11" Floral Study

10 x 9" Floral Sketch

"Laundry Day" is roughly 15 x 12", but I always intended to crop it down to about 12 x 9" or so, if I decide I like it. I definitely have to fix the ellipse that makes up the top of the sprinkler.

The antique iron belonged to my wife Leslie's grandmother, and the water sprinkler thing in the bottle was from my mom.

Laundry Day

10 x 8" Jar of Almonds

14 x 11" Study of Glass Jar and Bottles

9 x 12" Bottle Tops

This was my baby cup, given to me by my eldest sister when I was born. Like me, it is old and tarnished.

8 x 10" Silver Cup Sketch

An oil study of my mother's meat grinder. It was one of the things she brought with her when she emigrated from Austria in 1957. Two other things were a brother and sister of mine.

7.5 x 14" Standard Werk Nr.5 

A quick sketch of some flowers on my back deck.

8 x 10" Flower Pots

Next, I have some 9 x 12" Field Sketches. 

I painted this bridge in La Grange, Texas. I will now pause while you make your own ZZ Top joke.

8 November, 2014 La Grange, Texas

I found this spot across from the Amtrak station, and down the street from the Consulate General of Mexico in downtown Austin. I had to avoid a lot of land mines while I was painting. I wish people would clean up after their dogs.

19 January, 2015 Baylor Street, Austin TX

This is from St Valentine's Day, 2015. I went out to Pedernales Falls State Park, and decided to get some practice painting rocks. The grass ended up looking too chalky for my taste. Too much white paint, and not enough yellow.

14 February, 2015 Rocks at Pedernales Falls State Park

Finally, some recent Sketchbook pages. These are done in casein or watercolor in an 8.5" x 5.25" Strathmore watercolor sketchbook. I am really enjoying using casein, because it is opaque, and I am able to completely obliterate a bad start to a watercolor painting.

I either use water brushes, or a combination of nice Winsor & Newton sable brushes and cheap taklon (nylon) brushes that I got at a Big Lots store.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST

In October, I took a painting trip to Estes Park, Colorado and the Rocky Mountain National Forest, joining about 30 people from the Outdoor Painters Society. I had never been to Colorado before, and had a great time. My friends Mike and Karol Kay Harris offered to put me up (put up with me?) in their condo while I was in town. KK wisely vacated, and Mike and I were bachelors for the week.

Here are a few of the paintings I did that week. They were painted on oil primed linen canvas taped to hardboard. It saves time; if I'm happy with the painting, I can glue it to a panel once it's dry. If I'm unhappy with it, I didn't waste a lot of time preparing a panel. Another benefit is that these sketches take up a lot less room to store than a bunch or 1/8" thick panels do. Even though I waited a few weeks before I put them away, I usually put a piece of waxed paper between the sketches so they don't accidentally stick to each other.

Falls in the Rocky Mountain National Forest, 9x12"

Timber Lake Aspens, 9x12"

Big Thompson River, 9x12"

Moraine Park, 8x10"

In addition to the oil sketches, I had my sketchbook and some ink and casein paint for some quick drawings.

 8x5" Watercolor Sketchbook pages

PAINTING IN ENGLE, TEXAS

Recently, I did a Google search for old gas stations and grocery stores in Texas, and then did a street view of the results. That way, I'd be able to tell if there was a place to park and set up my easel. One of the places I found that fit the bill was the old Chudej Brothers Store in Engle, about 90 minutes from my home. Engle (from the German Engel, or Angel) and the surrounding area was settled by German and Czech immigrants.

As I was setting up, an artist named Terry (I've forgotten her last name... sorry, Terry!) drove up, excited to see that someone was going to paint. I also met the current owner of the building, who stopped to say hi on her way out for the day.

Chudej Brothers Store, Engle TX.  9x12" oil

Terry asked me to stop by her place up the street to show her my finished painting. She drove me around the area, showing me some terrific old buildings to paint, including the 1800s era Freyburg Methodist church. She also gave me some information about the store I painted, including the fact that the old Czech lady that ran the place once told her that a particular stain on the floor of the building was from when a guy was shot years ago...

I will definitely make the drive out there again, once the weather cools off. It was in the mid 90s and humid on Saturday. Hundreds of paintings waiting to be made.

Freyburg Methodist Church

Terry introduced me to her chickens and gave me a pair of fresh eggs.

On the way home, I drove through Smithville, a town that has been featured in several films. I parked in a bank's covered area and painted an old Mobil station, now a retail shop. There was a brief downpour, which made me very happy about my choice of a sheltered spot.

Smithville Mobil Station, 9x12" oil

PEACHES AND CHERRIES ARE BACK IN SEASON

It makes me very happy that peaches and cherries are back in season, because I like them, both as a snack and as a subject for quick sketches made during my lunch hour. I set up a little cardboard box and lamp in my office at work again.

The background for these first images is a navy blue reusable grocery bag that I turned inside out to hide the store's logo. Thinking about it, maybe I should do one with the logo showing. These are all oil on canvas panels that I made.

7 May, 2014 Peaches 8x10"

12 May, 2014 Cherries 8x10"

13 May, 2014 Cherries 8x10"

 I wanted to use a different background color, so I raided my wife Leslie's supply of quilting fabrics for a piece of yellow cloth. She'll never know I took it, because she hasn't worked on a quilt in several years. And she never reads my blog. Then again, no one reads my blog.

14 May, 2014 Cherries 10x8"

On this last one from May 15, I tried to soften some of the edges in the receding cherries a bit more. I was reminded that I had too many sharp edges in the May 14th study. (Thanks, Bruce!) I should probably revisit the May 14th one to play with the edges before the paint dries. I like the look of the red fruit on the yellow background.

15 May, 2014 Cherries 10x8"

END OF 2013 - BEGINNING OF 2014 PAINTINGS

Some of the most recent quick sketches in my watercolor moleskin, using casein paint. The images are each about 8x5"

I didn't know I was doing a rotting fruit series, but the 3rd image indicates that apparently I am... I really need to eat my apples before they get to this stage, but they do make interesting subjects when they look like this.

I've also been doing small studio still life studies in oil:

clothespins 8x10" SOLD

Clay Pots 9x12"

Floral Still Life 11x14"

The dark green background for this 11x14" oil of an enamel coffee pot full of flowers was my windbreaker! 

I was unhappy with the way I painted the background for this Chianti bottle. Although it was an accurate representation of the color and shadow as I saw it, I thought it was too warm and too distracting; it drew your eye away from the focal point. I revisited it a few weeks later. I was much happier with it once I made the background cooler, and darker overall. It made the bottle and grapes pop .

On the left is a jar full of dark home-roasted coffee beans, and on the right is one of the last remaining bottles of my late mother's homemade tomato juice. Both are 10x8" oil.

Before the weather got cold, I did a few field studies.

Bull Creek 8x10"

Boggy Creek Farm 9x12"

Antique Rose 8x6"

Falls at Bull Creek 12x9"

Rustic Farmhouse 9x12"

 Chevrolet at Michaelis Ranch 8x10"

I seriously hate the way the Blogger interface works. I can never get the image layout to do anything close to what I want it to do.