Student Structures

Students on our campus usually play an active role in shaping the physical landscape of campus.  These first two pictures are houses build by students.  They reside out in the canyon and have not been lived in in quite some time but with a little work could be brought up to date and made live-able.

The final picture is a horse statue that is now it the library.  It is called the living library mustang.  I'm not sure how living it is.  It seems to only have a couple of plants stuck on it after the fact, but..... oh well.  The students build the entire statue from recycled materials.

Weekend Sketching

I love reading books.  I've probably read 30 or so already this year, and the latest was a watercolor book.  In it, like in all books of this sort, the artist tells you how to paint a myriad of different things and different techniques in which to accomplish this.

So, I decided to take this particular artist and author up on his challenge and started painting a few of the paintings from the book.  To the left is the second version of this painting.  It's not quite like his, but its not bad for a quick weekend sketch.

The second painting is my first attempt at the same scene.  Not bad, but not nearly in the league as the top one.

This last one is just one more that I took from him.  Again, not bad for a quick sketch.

I should say that these are all on my sketch paper, which is very similar to mixed media paper in texture.  That is, its smooth and almost a little waxy.  I got it so that I could easily take it with me and paint on location.  The air here is super dry and when I venture outside to paint, I find that I often have trouble keeping moisture on the paper.  Thus this paper.

Anyway, enjoy.

Morro Bay from Abalone Shell Beach

Abalone Shell Beach is my name for the beach and not the official name of the beach.  I believe its actually Bluff Park Beach.  I call it Abalone Shell Beach because the beach is made of abalone shells that are probably 10 ft deep or more.  There used to be an abalone cannery that sat at the top of the hill.  What became this beach was the area where they discarded their shells.  As a result they just stacked up and stacked up and stacked up.   Standing on the beach, you can look back at the bluff above you and see several feet of shells above the height of the beach, and looking into the water, the shells stretch as far as you can see into the water.  Its a fantastic place sit.  There are lots of boats tied up there, and I have tried to paint them before.  This is my best effort.  Hope you enjoy.

Anyone Recognize This House?

Yes it is the pride of west Michigan.  It is, of course, The Buckeye House.

Beach House on the Moon (well, maybe the beach)

Watercolor 9 x 12.  This Painting for sale.

Trying to do the stylized method on this picture just like on yesterdays bird.  Putting the darkest part of the sky at the horizon and the darkest part of the ground at the horizon line is supposed to make whatever sits along that line really pop out.  It certainly did with the bird yesterday, today, not quite as much, but i probably didn't make the sky quite as dark as I should have.    I tried to blend and lighten the green as it came down the beach toward the viewer, the ad som mounding and beach grass.  Seeing this painting scanned in, it looks a little too grey for my taste.  I wish I could would have noticed it while i was painting.  I guess that will come with experience.    Also the outlining is purposely done very loosely.  I didn't want to do an exact outline of every shape.  This style gives you indications of where the lines should de, and allows your eye or mind to fill in what it thinks should be there.  Hope you enjoy.

Beach House

Just a quick little painting of a house set back from the beach.

House in a field

Well, it's been a while since I posted a painting.  I hope you all enjoy this one.  The stone wall doesn't quite have the depth that I hoped it would, but I'll work on that and make it better.  The house looks good, the trees, not too bad, and the grasses have good colors.  Admittedly, it's not the most exciting picture in the world, but I wanted to give it a shot.

House on a River

Well, I think I'm getting the hang of some things. The trees in the background do give a nice fall theme. I could have mixed the colors a bit more, maybe thrown in a few reds, but in general I like how they turned out. The trees behind the house I obviously rushed a bit. I really think I got carried away with the reflection of the distant trees. I think it overpowers the water. And I wasn't exactly sure what to do with the reflection of the house. But all-in-all, a good step forward.