Buggie, an original oil (SOLD)

9 inch square tonal painting (sold)

Terry Muira Challenge

Terry Muira is a great tonalist painter that I have admired for years.  If you want to get great advice from a truely talented and successful artist, follow his blog.  This month, he posted a photograph of a simple traffic scene and invited fellow artists to interpret it into a cityscape.  Cityscapes are quite intimidating with the myriad of shapes, colors and detail.  The key, according to Terry, is to simplify.  So, this is my submission to the challenge.

Group Mass

Edgar Payne describes the use of groupings to develop a perspective of depth.  This painting uses that concept as well as atmospheric perspective.  In this painting, the further from the view, the less detail is seen.   My goal was to bathe the painting in golden light while developing the perspective.  Hopefully, I did that.  This is an 8 x 10 inch painting entitled, Crossing The Street.

Coastal Rocks, An Ell composition

As I mentioned in my last post, I am trying to gain knowledge from the famed book on landscape composition by Edgar Payne.  This painting could be considered a Steelyard composition which has a large tall mass on one side, but a smaller on the other; however, I think it fits the Ell (rectangular) compositon more completely.  The Ell basically is shaped like the letter "L" with an extended bottom line.  Hope you enjoy my compositon.  This is a 9 x 12 inch seascape based on the California coast.

Diagonal Line Landscape

I am reading Edgar Payne's book entitled "Composition of Outdoor Painting."  It is always recommended by landscape workshop artists.  It is extremely helpful in finding the composition that works for your art and your vision.   In an effort to learn and improve (we all want that!), I am going to paint a landscape from each of his compositional types.  This one is the diagonal and is entitled "Downhill".  This is an 8 x 10 somewhat tonalist painting.

For sale at my website or Etsy shop 

Point - A Cold Wax Painting

Artists have many choices of mediums or additives to change the way paint is manipulated and the way it appears when dry.  One choice I discovered recently is Dolands Cold Wax.  It is basically a wax product that can be used for abstraction and impasto effects.  It also leaves the finished painting with a beautiful matte finish.  When totally dry, it can be rubbed with a soft cloth to add a sheen.

The attached painting, Point, is done totally with cold wax medium, oil paints and a palette knife.  The strokes are buttery soft.  The medium also allows for gradual value changes.  I did three paintings with the wax before I got the hang of it.  I hope you enjoy seeing this unique medium at work.

8 x 10 inch cold wax and oil painting on linen board - for sale at Etsy shop.