Finished- Peme Bon Won River Flush 24"x 36" oil on canvas

My interest was not to illustrate, "this is what a ruffed grouse looks like in hand", but this is what you can expect to see, experience...a hint of the wings explosive in pushing this chunky bird.

A gorgeous day in November along a river in NE Wisconsin

Reds and Bills...

Starting another today...will share a few steps...some thoughts in mind.  Studio work for me the past fifteen years has always been experiment, push...explore, and these come to bear on my times then painting from life, outdoors...here, I am playing with suggesting detail, visual information on perimeters aside from the focal area.  

I will scrape some out tomorrow, diffuse...break edges more...bringing the bluebill (duck) on the far right and the redhead next to it to greater detail and finishing, while trying to maintain visual asymmetrical balance...

I started with a charcoal vine stick...painted in one of my focal interests...and proceeded from there.  I intend to use contrasts in value, purer chroma color...in a way that feels realistic though detail will be sacrificed by degree...

9"x 12" oil on Arches Huiles oil watercolor paper...

Finished.. 8"x 10" oil on alkyd primed linen.. Horse Pull Team

More progress on "Field's Edge"

Really put out and juiced up the paint this afternoon...and decided to add textural impasto work to the field, plus worked the sky more, and some of the foliage.  Believe I need to work on the deer himself yet...

Progress..."Field's Edge"...

Some refinements of the field, textures, more work on negative space, color/values suggesting trees, more foliage...and some knifing work to suggest additional branches...brush.  Coming along

At Field's Edge... 12"x 24" oil

Starting a new one...another whitetail narrative.  
The initial blocking in of masses, values and color for me is like the purest art of the art.  Here the abstract undergirding of what aims to be a working compostion and of sound design plays itself out.  If done well...if expediency nails the essential...the painting is quickly and nearly already accomplished.  The rest is tweaking, finishing...a marvelous efficiency.

On another venue, Facebook...I have comments to that effect that for some the painting is fine as is...

(clicking on image brings up larger view)...

My intent...is to throw a mature buck within the tree line to the left, that will be incidental, that is...likely to be overlooked and missed by most folks finding the landscape painting itself pleasing enough.  This is how encountering a mature buck tends to go.  The one more likely to be intentionally seeking the presence of something special in wildlife is likely to note something different than the trees and vegetation.  It might be in way of slight movement, but it will likely be more in its distinguishing silhouette.  

Now some might say....from the rule of thirds in design, it might make better sense asymmetrically that the buck be standing on the lower right already in the field.  Well, the beauty of a paint knife is you can first try one thing, scrape out if not happy and reposition!

Rules work...and its been said rules are meant to be broken, which I argue is often said to tout and appeal to our creative license and rebellious nature as artists...but will agree that rules can be broken if one understands which rule, and why it is best to break the rule.

If I want to give the viewer a sense of tension...if tension is part of the narrative, then disturbing the visual balance may be one way (psychologically) to deliver that feeling.  Adding a buck to the left mass may add greater weight...true, but it stirs up the tension of the moment as well and may be worth the visual risk taking.

Mature bucks work alone...travel alone, calculate every movement, and is a reason they get as old and as large as they do.  Stupid...does not lead to maturity.  A buck considering running across an open field must have good reason to do so.  Perhaps it is an encroaching threat from behind.  Chances are this would be the narrowest area of the field, a bottlenecked area, and just beyond (to the right) might be a creek bottom with thick tag alder brush.  The threat behind pushing him to make a decision he is not altogether thrilled about.

I will use my manner of peripheral vision to determine what gets what level of degree of finishing and detail to pull off what I want.

Lastly...a reminder that beginning this Tuesday, the repeat of the first series "Foundations- For Reasons Paintings Work" webinar, Go To Meeting starts.  Time is 6pm EST...and you will see a few posts below the outline of the first session.  We will do this series twice per week, for 2-1/2 weeks...thus, the 6th, 8th, 13th, 15th and 20th...
here is the registration link...to sign up, and it is free...
Registration Free- Webinar Series 

Session 4...quite the changes, "Ridge Top Bruiser"...16"x 20"

I decided to paint out the original buck bedded down...

...and some students of mine were none too happy about it, several teen boys like, "Where's the buck?" and told them, "well...you know how mature bucks are.  One minute you get a glimpse, turn your head...take your eyes off them, and they're gone!"

I assured them I wanted to approach representing the buck a little differently..

So, here now the work with the new buck, and like his posturing, attitude much better..and a closeup.  Again, images clicked upon bring up larger view...

Update...Ridge Top Buck...16"x 20" WIP (work in progress)

Linen gallery wrap...added a few more trees to the image, including one more thru the deer...and painted on the sides...

Top Ridge Bruiser...16"x 20" oil on linen...WIP

Work in progress...painting an oak ridge in SE Wisconsin...a mature buck beds just over the ridge...a nearby scrape...started yesterday...a bit of refining...playing with it yet to go...

Donation for Ruffed Grouse Soceity...11"x 14" plein air...

so busy...preparing for exhibitions, teaching, painting...various things I really panicked wondering what I'd do for the annual Ruffed Grouse Society, once more being asked to be the guest artist for the NE Wisconsin chapter...


So...off the wall comes this plein air, and added a pair of ruffed grouse in flight...making "The Quick Escape" which is what I'll call it..


When danger comes one side of a river...the birds will flush and make a hasty exit to a remote spot on the other side of the river...

Jeremy's King... 10"x 6" gouache

My son Jeremy's King salmon...or 

chinook

photo ref taken at night, obviously

and made for some intriguing color

and rendering...

If interested in seeing five stages
of development from start to 
finish in a three second interval
animation, take this link-
Jeremy's King...

Jason suggested I should show a
photo of myself holding a couple of
these smaller gouache pieces to
give more a visual on their size.

I guess they must be smaller than
I myself think of them, but I know
what he's saying...forgive the look,
but just lounging around the house
watching the last day of Olympics,
and you can tell by the eyes, in 
need of a bit more sleep...

One of my VERY FIRST paintings...and available!

I received an email from an individual experiencing a very difficult road in life right now health-wise, no doubt leading to very expensive care. Asking if I would know anyone that might be interested in purchasing this work he bought from me back in 1983...

The painting has a bit of history, personally...as I was finishing up my last year in college on the GI Bill...married with two quite young sons. I was a black sheep, as I would be referred to by art profs as my schooling was during the anti-art era of the 70's...and squirting paint in cow manure and whipping it at a canvas would have gone further to earn myself high marks. However, I was checking books out of the university library copying works of Frans Hals and Rembrandt to teach myself how to paint, and then taking subjects dear to me and trying my hand at it.

I was pouring brownish glazes on my works back then, rubbing off with a soft rag which was a technique of chiaroscuro developed in the late Renaissance and Baroque period of painting. It gives a three-dimensional rendering effect of form, and pulls the work together as a whole.

As it would go...the building custodians took a liking to the development of this work on my studio easel and along with others, traveled the four floors up to see it come along. Not caring much else for what other students were doing, which further led to the disdain for my work and presence.

This piece (if memory serves me right) was finished sometime in my last year around 1979...and in 1983 a good friend prodded me to paint up an entree for Wisconsin's annual Wildlife Artist of the Year competition, which I then won in 1984 and more or less catapulted my career painting.

Were my work in general, and myself as an artist to have an important place in art history...and until one's passing how shall we ever know(?)...a work such as this would have great value, showing the development of a painter. Today...I get about $5 per square inch on such sizes... (24"x 36") and would be worth $4320...painted up fresh. However with history to it, and 30 years more painting that followed arguably some broader intrinsic value.

The owner is asking $1600...and if anyone is interested, please contact me and I'll put you in contact with the buyer. Again...this will help defray his costs of his medical needs, and we wish him certainly all the best.

As always, clicking on the image brings up a larger image to view...

Larry

Ducks Unlimited...Redheads Oil Paintng

The painting was well received the evening of the Ducks
Unlimited banquet, and as I would find out...the revealing
of this work was only a tease, as the larger corporate banquet
of October the 8th is the actual event this one will be auctioned
off. Hoping it will do well for DU...



















18"x 24" oil...finished, see steps below...to be donated to
Ducks Unlimited on August the 20th. Click on image to see
larger.



















This painting I've just completed for Ducks Unlimited, and will be the host/featured artist at a banquet on August 20th...to be auctioned off, monies going toward habitat management, acquisition and so forth.

Depicting a scene of Longtail...from a blind on the bay of Green Bay, fond for many many years by myself and friends that hunt waterfowl on the bay. I will be depicting divers...Redheads, winging in and checking out decoys. Stay tuned for more!
- - -

August 6th-
Two days of restoring, cleaning and painting three signs
for the township yesterday and today...each 8'x 12' and
greet visitors are our three entree ways into the town.
Having finished, I wanted to get started on the ducks.
Very difficult to get a decent picture, about 11:30pm here,
and I'll probably retake tomorrow where I can set the
work up outdoors...but, I added these two. The ducks are
a bit more silouetted, appearing lighter here..


















August 7- Added eight more ducks this afternoon, and some decoys, think'n maybe five more ducks in flight to arrive at the feel and composition I want.

more progress...Rough Water Buffleheads...oil painting

A bit more work today...on water, rocks...and so forth...
nearly finished I think...and my palette of color premixed
to work here...

12"x 24" oil...Rough Water Buffleheads oil painting

12"x 24" oil on board...

worked on adding several ducks tonight following my
teaching day...decided on buffleheads, or what we
waterfowlers affectionately call "butterballs"...

Here is a closeup...keeping them in a painterly mode to
be consistent with the painting scenery...and feel perhaps
more like flying and how one would see them. Often in
wildlife art, the norm for representing ducks has been more
detail upon detail...however if one is seeking realism, then
it is not realism to see such. One may get an impression of
some color, some sense of primaries and feathering...but
these ducks are flying along near 60mph...and darting about
constantly-
















Here is the background which I began with first...then
several days later worked on adding the ducks. The work
as seen above is not finished yet...as I need work on the
water, rocks...and perhaps yet a dab or two on the ducks
themselves.





























And my reference which should give you an idea just
how much liberty I took to make my own painting from
it...not a slave to it...

Near Finished...Bluebills on the Bay...oil painting

Added some incoming bills now, and using a rounded
toothpick that I use with a drafting lead holder pencil,
I paint finer detail such as the ripples on the water to
suggest the breeze/wind effects that accomodate the
coming of a front, and also some of the detailing of those
more distant incoming ducks. Here's what that tool
looks like-


















*as always, click on the images to see larger...thanks!

Starting to Add Ducks...Bluebills...

The back is sufficiently dry to begin painting my
bluebills. One challenge is on a larger sized painting
I could easily maintain a painterly emphasis on these
ducks...but, to attain the correct anatomical proportions,
the sense of basic simple details I'm having to use a
smaller brush. I'll be going back in with sky color
when the ducks are finished to soften the contours
of the bodys to thwart what could otherwise feel like
pasted on decals. Two are softer on the right...

Here's what it appears like thus far...












and the ducks up closer...

Framed...Tim's Monster Whitetail

Wow...that was fast, my frame arrived shipped today,
and this should give some idea just how much a frame
can add to the look of a painting. Frames and putting
them on paintings is a bit like experiencing Christmas
for an artist! How fun...

Take 'Em Boys! Finished...16"x 24" oil Bluebill waterfowling

Well...I believe after tonight's session I have completed
this one. I'll let it sit a few days or a week and see
how it rubs on me.

Funny after so many years of painting now, instead of a
feeling of relief a work gets finished, my feeling is like
"Aaahh...dang. Now what?" and I start getting the itch
right away to put another idea together for another work
to paint.

(Click on image to see much larger view)

More work on Mike tonight..."Take 'Em Boys!" bluebills

As the title says, spent a bit more time tonight
working on Mike's head, glove and sleeve and the
shotgun...and using the limited palette as I do
I think confidence comes to make most of what colors
you have on your palette. To paint bold, and I'm
learning I think more and more to add strokes of
color and watch them mix in the eye sitting as they
do on the painting. Here's progress and closeups,
and clicking on the images brings up larger views.