IT'S GARDEN TOURS TIME!

I’ve been gone from my blog for awhile, but there wasn’t much going on anyway that you would be interested in. I got a few paintings done for some workshops I will be teaching starting April 12. And spring is always busy when you are a plein air painter. On April 5 the Winter Park Historical Association is having their 4^th Annual Garden Tour. Then on April 20 the Eola Heights Garden Tour, which is only held every two years, will be on Sunday from 12-4pm. Check out my Events page on my website if you want more information.

And everything is well underway for the Horses & Healing equine art benefit for Freedom Ride on May 29. I’m learning the ropes from Mindy Colton who has done these types of events before.

PAINTING IN THE RAIN

Last week I forgot to note that the Central Florida Plein Air Artists met at Mead Gardens in Winter Park, Florida, for our weekly paint out and a demo by Sally Cummings Shisler. It was a cold (for Florida) and rainy day but being plein air artists we took it all in stride. We all donned our raincoats and used umbrellas to watch while Sally painted entirely with palette and putty knives! We’ll be meeting at Langford Park in February and CFWS will be joining us for a fun day spent outdoors painting!

CFWS is the Central Florida Watercolor Society. We met on Sunday, February 3, to see a demonstration by Steve Rogers. Amazingly, he almost completed an entire 28 x 40 painting in less than two hours! His colors are vibrant and he is a very funny guy. By funny I mean he said amusing things once-in-awhile and we all laughed. For example, he explained that a lot of retired architects like to take his workshops because they want to loosen up. That generated much laughter and many chuckles considering we have quite a few retired architects as members! Steve is teaching a workshop this week. Unfortunately, I cannot attend. But I am sure I will hear about it at our next meeting.

For more information: Steve Rogers Sally Cummings Shisler Central Florida Plein Air Artists Central Florida Watercolor Society

MORE PHOTOS FROM A TRIP TO UKRAINE

Here are three more photos I took at the Pirogovo Open Air Museum near Kiev, Ukraine. This set contains the last of my Windmills series. I have other photos but these 5 are the best. Lastly I uploaded a floral photo I took while walking around the museum. Aren't they pretty? If anyone knows what kind of flower they are please let me know! You can see my entire blog here. If you need to email me directly, please click here.

PAINTING WITH JERRY YARNELL

Last week I spent two wonderful days in an acrylic painting workshop with Jerry Yarnell. We worked on a more advanced piece called “Time of Rebirth” with lots of green trees and a small river with lots of little waterfalls. He also critiqued a lot of my work. Everything had the same basic problem – not enough value changes from the background to the foreground. 

I had so engrained the lesson that when I attended the opening of a watercolor show at the Gallery at Metro I saw the same problem in almost everybody’s painting. The error glared at me from each one except my own. But that is just because it is a painting with no background of two civil war horses tied to a picket line (rope). I purposely chose not to include any background to focus all attention on the horses and their gear. This also allowed the detailing in the tack to show off to the best advantage. I had to find some pictures of similar tack used by other re-enactors to get the detail as close as possible to reality. There is no impressionism in this painting.

Going back to values in a painting, there should be at least three (minimum) from background, mid to front. For a more dramatic effect there should be at least five to six value changes from the back to the front. Getting more than six into a painting is very difficult but would be well worth the effort as long as you already have a good composition. That is what I will be working on achieving in my landscape paintings. If you are interested in learning to paint I highly recommend starting with Jerry. He has been painting and teaching in acrylic oil and watercolor for over 30 years. He is very accessible and accommodating to every age and painting style.

PICTURES OF UKRAINE

I am falling into the habit of only adding three new works to my ArtWanted.com gallery at a time. This seems to be a good amount of work to talk about briefly in a blog without boring anyone to death. When I am out with my camera it is usually just used for taking reference pictures for future projects. However, once in awhile, there is a gem. Because the pictures were not taken for the sole purpose of selling them as prints, I did not use the best digital format (RAW) so the largest print one can purchase is usually only around 11x14 inches. But I hope you enjoy them anyway and if you *really* like them please take a moment and consider purchasing a small version for less than $1.95 USD. This is a steal for most overseas collectors when one considers the exchange rate in today's market. These photos including "Windmill With Storm Cloud" were taken during a trip to Ukraine to visit my brother. They have an open air museum called the Pirogovo. It is located about 30 minutes outside of the capital city of Kiev. Except for the first day I was there it rained every day. Fortunately, this made for very unique and interesting skies. "Windmill With UFO" is interesting because I have absolutely no clue what the little blur is behind the windmill on the left. I thought of fixing the picture in Photoshop but I do not like to mess with the photos very much and decided to leave it. I cannot explain the blur. I think it is just a bug. But who knows? "Windmill In A Field of Yellow Flowers" turned out beautifully with purply-looking clouds. I think this is an illusion because the flowers are such a bright yellow. I know the colors are correct because there is just a bit of blue sky showing behind the clouds in the upper right corner. You can see my entire blog here. If you need to email me directly, please click here.

JUST START

Sometimes just getting started takes an extreme effort.  For my art, it's easier if my supplies are already out and set up.  Preparation can take so long that by the time you actually begin work it is time to stop.  I'm not sure there is anything to learn here except that in order to get to the finish one must first start.  Once you have the momentum going it is easier to take the next step and continue.

That reminds me of one of my favorite characters in a book.  His name is Miles.  In the first few novels he is constantly saying "Forward momentum!"  Of course this gets him into a lot of trouble and in order to get out of trouble he must keep the momentum going or he will die, or someone else will die -- in other words, something very bad will happen.

So keep this as a reminder to just get started and let the momentum carry you through to the end -- or the beginning -- of every endeavor.

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PRINTS AND PRODUCTS NOW AVAILABLE

Finally, I have started uploading the larger files so I can offer small to large prints of my work as well as some on canvas! Also, and this is great: You can order my artwork on products such as coffee mugs, mouse pads, coasters, t-shirts, etc. That is so cool! This year I will be ordering some of my own stuff to wear during paint outs and maybe even some gallery openings! I have started by offering prints of horse artwork that has been sold so the original is no longer available. These images have been on Art Wanted for a couple of months but unavailable as prints – until now! If you have any questions about the artwork please contact me. For questions about ordering prints please first try Art Wanted directly as they are located in Iowa and I am in Florida. Here are some introductions to other prints I can now offer for sale: The painting "Dionisio" was named after a wonderful guy at a Walmart somewhere between Orlando and Leesburg on Highway 441. One rainy, windy morning I was on my way to the Leesburg Center for the Arts Back At The Ranch paintout event when I stopped to get some gas. As I walked back to my car I saw that one of the rear tires was half flat! OMG! It’s only 7am in the morning! What could be open where I could get immediate assistance? Some people told me that just up the road there is a Walmart. I race up there (so to speak) and pull in. I pulled in rather close and not in the line. But I explained that I didn’t know how long my tire would hold up and I wanted to get as close to the service area as possible. A man named Dionisio helped me and did not charge me anything to plug the hole in my tire. I gave him $5 anyway and went on my merry way to the paintout. So this painting is named after him. "Serenity" is named thus because I love the serene look that I captured on this horse’s face as he stood in his stall at the Disney’s Grand Cypress Equestrian Center during a horse show there a couple of years ago. His face says it all. This highly detailed drawing has been very popular as a print. It is titled "2 Horses of Rothenburg" because it is done from a photo I took while in Germany. The original 16x20 is very high-priced due to the amount of time and skill involved in its creation and the framing was done by a frameshop (not just me in my studio). I must confess that pencil in black and white is my favorite medium. This drawing was much fun to do and I enjoy sharing it with other people! You can see my entire blog here. If you need to email me directly, please click here.

ITUNES DOESN'T SEE IPOD

For over a year I have been having problems syncing my iPod. It was so bad the last time that I gave up until I had time to sit and find the solution. Since that time apparently this problem has become fairly common-place and sometimes a drastic solution is necessary – reformat the iPod and completely reinstall the software *and* the music! That was to be my last resort. However, it was never necessary! I am happy to report to all you other iPod users out there that my solution was the simple fix: I simply had to restart the iPod services. I am very happy now and will spend the rest of this evening adding new music to iTunes! If you are like me and experiencing similar problems with your iPod I am providing some very useful links below. http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/19256 http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93499 http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93716 You could also consider using a different iPod manager, but if you cannot sync now this will probably not help either considering it was a Windows issue. My little iPod was wearing itself out trying to connect (battery died FAST). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_Managers You can see my entire blog here. If you need to email me directly, please click here.

KING OR FOOL?

How can you tell when you are either being foolish or wise? It seems like a simple question. But these days you must sometimes wonder at the decisions people make in their daily lives. Everything is about choice. You can choose to go left or right, stop or go, etc.

How do you make this choice? It depends on the situation and your eventual goal. What makes the difference is how you make the decision. Is it with your heart or with your head? For example, do you feel like buying those shoes or that video game? Or do you need to buy those shoes or that video game? Which are you using first? Your heart or your head?

I have been reading a book written by one of my favorite professors, Dr. Kenneth Hanson called "Secrets of the Lost Bible". I am only on page 12 because it has already stirred me to thinking about how I make decisions and what I can teach my son about making wiser choices.

I will be brief: The letter "M" in Hebrew is "moach" meaning "mind". The letter "L" is "lev" meaning "heart". The word "melech" means king and the word "lemech" means fool. In other words, when you put the letter "M" before the letter "L" you are being wise. But if you put the letter "L" before "M" you are doing something foolish. You can practice this the next time you are thinking about pulling out a credit card. I still think it is okay to sometimes put your heart before your head and buy something because you want to. But you must weigh this against your values and goals. Also, consider if there someone else depending upon you to make the right decision. If you are having trouble deciding please ask a trusted friend or family member for help. And always remember to keep your receipt in case you change your mind or it's broken -- the item, not your head.

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SIMMERING IDEAS

Many times I get ideas for a painting or perhaps a series of paintings. This has been going on for me and I have only just this past week begun to fully realize what I will do for my first major series of paintings. It has been an idea for me for the past 1 1/2 years to do paintings of downtown Orlando where I now work. However, this idea has only been simmering in the back of my brain for all this time because it was not ready to be born. I felt this was true and there was no guilt in not starting on my new idea right away! It did not seem appropriate to rush into such a project rashly without a lot of thought and some initial preparation.

Most of the work on any painting or drawing project is done before any paint or pencil touches canvas or paper. You must think through the process first to make sure it will have the best start possible. That is not to say that half-way through you may realize it is going in the wrong direction and not working at all. But that is a topic for another day. For now, the lesson is to realize that running into a situation without thinking first can get one into a lot of trouble. At first things may seem to be okay but watch constantly so you can make appropriate adjustments or corrections.

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ONE WAY TO BEGIN A PAINTING

How do I begin the process of making a painting? Of course, there is first the idea. Next, I consider what medium would work best for the painting. Sometimes a black and white subject such as a dapple-grey horse is perfect for a charcoal drawing on dark gray paper. You see a picture of "BJ" on the right as an example. I knew as soon as I saw the reference photograph that it would be beautiful just to be done in black and white only.

Sometimes while I am working on one painting or project I start another. This is especially helpful when I get to a tough area and I feel I will never get the painting done right! I do something else for awhile to give myself a break. When I go back to the troublesome project I work through it until it is done.

Because I frequently have several projects going all at one time, I find I usually finish all or most of them at about the same time. Of course, if there is a due date or it is a commission I do not follow this process exactly. Although, I sometimes find it necessary to step away from an intense project for awhile to relax. For example, if I am working on oil portrait I might pull out my watercolors and work on a fun exercise or work on a sketch for a new painting.

That is a part of the process of creativity in any endeavor. Whether you are at work, school or home, it is sometimes a good thing to do something different for awhile and come back to your original work. It gives you a fresher perspective and maybe some good ideas for future projects!

HOW TO HAVE FUN - LEGALLY

I had a lot of fun last night. I met new friends, laughed a lot and talked about many interesting topics. We covered a lot of ground in about one hour while eating so this list is straight off the top of my head and in no particular order. I hope I included everything. Ed, Carol, Shari, Sy -- let me know if I forgot anything! Deep breath, here goes: family roots, where are you from?, the Incas, Nicaragua, Tennessee, Scotland, Lima, England, all over!, caricatures, Big Brother, Microsoft, Vista, Cosmos, Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Apophis, 2012 or 2032?, warping space, event horizons, black holes!, the speed of light, Einstein, string theory, M theory, gravity, multiple universes, the Russian ballet and the way Sy makes turkey burgers -- very delicious with his own special way of adding flavoring!