THURMAN FARM & A MANOR IN MANOR

Usually, when I head out to paint, I pick a direction and aim my truck that way. On Saturday, I decided to go east on 6th Street, where it becomes a two way road, but then ended up headed north when nothing caught my eye.  I soon (well, maybe not soon) found myself north of Parmer Lane near Pflugerville, where I saw this barn and set up to paint on the side of the road. As I was finishing this 9x12, I was approached by the guy whose family used to own the property, and who now leases it. He couldn't remember what the current owner calls the place, but it used to be the Thurman Farm.

Thurman Farm 9x12"

Painting the Thurman Farm

On Sunday, I headed east again, and ended up in Manor (to those of you not from these parts, it's pronounced "May-ner" and not "manner"). I found this old building, which looks like it may have been a general store at one time.

2012-05-20 manor, tx

Painting a manor in Manor

A WATERFALL IN CEDAR PARK

I met Bruce Tinnin, one of my business partners at Powerhouse Animation, to paint in the park behind a YMCA in Cedar Park. There are trails, cliffs and this waterfall. We had a good bit of rain in the last week, so the water was flowing when I did this study. I can see why Bruce keeps going back to this park to paint, and it's not just that it's near his home.

Brushy Creek Waterfall 12x9"

SOME SKETCHBOOK PAGES

I recently bought a set of watercolor pencils, and have been playing around with them and some water brush pens, which have a reservoir of water built in. Having seen James Gurney's watercolor pencil sketches, like this one I know it's possible to do good sketches with these things, but I'm not sure I like the pencils yet. The ink washes are done with a Pentel Tradio pen and the water brushes.

PAINTING NEAR BASTROP, TX

This week, I went out to the area around Bastrop, TX; the second time I went out there to paint. The first time was last year, and I didn't get to paint anything that day, because I (of course) chose to drive in that direction the day the major wildfires started . This time, I drove through Bastrop State Park, and saw nothing I felt like trying to paint. I wasn't in the mood to paint blackened stumps, so I gave up and was heading for home when I saw this broken down stable, with some hills way off in the distance. I'm always drawn to those rusted metal roofs.

This 9x12" study is what came of it.

Stable near Bastrop 9x12"

ANOTHER DAY AT McKINNEY FALLS

I went back out to McKinney Falls State Park while there is still hope of catching some wildflowers in bloom. We're getting to the tail end of the season, and Texas is starting to get really hot. I wandered around taking photos until I saw this hill. It's not the view I thought I would go back to paint, but this was fun.

McKinney Falls Wildflowers 12x9"

You can still find some nice blooms at the park. Here are a few of the flowers I saw today.

McKINNEY FALLS STATE PARK

Today, Saturday, I went out to McKinney Falls State Park, where I took a bunch of photos and painted at the remains of the homestead. I didn't have a lot of time to spend, so I just did this one 8x10" study.

McKinney Falls Homestead, 8x10"

As I was leaving, I came across a really nice field of wildflowers and a mostly dead tree, which would make a great subject if I can get back out to the park on Sunday.

THE PRESERVE AT WALNUT SPRINGS

On Saturday morning, I went out with painting buddy Jimmy Longacre to a new gated subdivision in Johnson City, called The Preserve at Walnut Springs. It's a beautiful 2000+ acre hill country ranch being subdivided into 66 non-contiguous 5-7 acre parcels, with 1500 acres to remain undeveloped. What's really nice about painting there is that they cleared out all the cedar and left stands of native oaks. It was definitely worth the 45 minute drive from my house.

We both did 3 studies: a 2 hour 9x12, a one hour 6x8, and another 2 hour 9x12. Here are mine.

2012-04-07 Walnut Springs 1

12x9"

2012-04-07 Walnut Springs 2

6x8"

In reality, the main tree in the 2nd painting was pretty boxy, but the painting emphasized it too much, I think. The main problem is the even distance from the top and side. To fix that, I should have let it go out past the edges of the canvas.

2012-04-07 Walnut Springs 3

9x12"