Tribute - Comet Storm

Another tribute painting based on a classic piece in the late 1980's "Cycles of Fire" science fiction artbook. One of the paintings that I found most striking among so many great ones was one painted by Ron Miller; the scene was that of a young, alien world of fiery colors with numerous comets filling the sunset sky. When I first ventured into landscape painting, I tried to recreate that image, but never succeeded; 25+ years later, I decided to give it a whirl again, and this is my version of that scene. Along the wet sands of a large lake, above the rocky spires and far-away hills, comets hang in the blazing sky.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

An Art Gallery Visit

On Friday, I visited a local art gallery (Benfield Art Gallery) to learn what it would take to be represented there, and it was an interesting experience. A few things I learned:
- As expected, the art market is rather saturated, even in fine arts. Considering how few people actually buy fine art for their homes, this market situation is not surprising.
- Art galleries in bigger cities (Baltimore, Annapolis, etc.) have greater reach and more customers, but also tend to cater to better known artists, with even more competition to be represented there.
- Representation can happen if you catch people's eyes during open shows, which happen once, maybe twice, a year. Still, you need a resume of sorts regarding artistic achievements and such to be considered by art galleries. (This illustrates the importance of an internet presence, where there are fewer barriers to entry.)
- Pricing for framed watercolors on paper that are comparable to my works typically range from $200 to $450. Lesser known artists charge prices at the lower end, of course.

So, while they liked my work, there is still a process involved to even be considered for representation, but the visit was still worthwhile. I recommend that any artist who's looking to sell their work visit a local gallery since it is a good way to learn more about the art market. Pricing examples in particular are worth the visit since there's almost no good information on the internet about that topic.

Stepping Stones to the Stars

One of my other hobbies is creating digital space art; while I've focused more on acrylic paintings in the past few years, this other form of art I also enjoy. Most of my space art was up on another website, but I felt I should bring some of it over here to present a consolidated collection of my artwork.

The road to the stars is represented in this image: life starts on the Earth-like world and eventually realizes the nature of the heavens above. Then, life moves on to the planet's moon, and eventually to other worlds in the star system. Someday, the bright star cluster beyond will be within reach...

Summer Field in Tennessee

This painting is based on one of the photos for the monthly Landscape Challenge over on the Wet Canvas web forums. It's of a sunny, summer field in the rolling hills of eastern Tennessee, probably not far from the Smoky Mountains. It's a beautiful part of the country and an area of great inspiration for painting.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Storm on the Chesapeake Bay

This one was inspired by the storms that sweep over the land in late spring and early summer. Here, we see a cloud-tossed sky late in the afternoon on a sunny, warm day down by the Chesapeake Bay. The landscape was based upon Down's Memorial Park; the two small pillars in the water are navigation beacons, which are quite common sights on the Chesapeake Bay.

Acrylic Painting: 14" x 17"

Bacon Ridge Natural Area: Forest Edge

In Crownsville, Maryland, there's a wilderness conservation area that is destined to become over 1,000 acres of parkland. Most of the park is still wild forest, and though it is usually closed to the public (until it officially becomes a park with proper trails, facilities, etc.), it is open a couple of times to anyone who enjoys hiking. Saturday was one of these "walks in the woods" and the weather was perfect. This is view is based on a photo taken at the edge of the forest looking towards an old meadow. It was a chaotic scene of spring greens, leaning trees, vines, and bushes - beautiful, but complex to paint. I hope the painting captures this jumble of life under the glow of a spring sun with a gentle breeze in the field beyond.

The organization that hosts these events and who has pushed for the conservation of this large tract of wilderness is the Scenic River Land Trust. They've done a good job, and I look forward to the day when this park is open to the public.

Cherry Tree and Pines

This one continues the spring theme of flowering trees - can you tell I'm sick of winter? Here's an old cherry tree growing near the edge of a scrubby border near two big pine trees. The mix of light and shadow makes the composition in this painting, while the cherry tree holds the viewer's attention. The cherry blossoms are echoed in the distant cherries and the petals on the ground.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Cherry Tree on a Windy Day

Well, it is FINALLY spring!

So, I figured I'll paint spring-time scene, and flowering trees are the perfect choice. Here, we see an old cherry tree in flower on a breezy, spring day. You can see the shed petals blowing in the wind and scattered along the ground. In the background on the left are some smaller, young cherry trees. The trees were tricky in this one since I wanted to give the impression that they had almost finished leafing out, which is not easy to do, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17" (framed, SOLD)

Sunlit Hillside and Storm Clouds

I've decided to paint something that is about as "opposite" as one can get from the unending blizzards and snow that have hammered the region this winter. This scene, taken from a reference image in this month's Landscape Challenge on the Wetcanvas forums, is of a bunch of small trees on a sunlit hillside moments before a late afternoon thunderstorm unleashes a torrent of rain over the lands. The cloudscape was inspired by one of Bierstadt's works, though his scene was of a similar storm over a small farm. Either way, I think most of us would welcome rain vs. snow and ice at this point!

Acrylic painting 14" x 17"

Poconos Hillside in Winter

This painting was inspired by a photo in the monthly Landscape Challenge on the Wetcanvas art forum. The original photo was taken somewhere in Canada, but it reminds me a lot of the snow-covered forests in the rocky hills of the Poconos mountains of northern PA. It was an interesting challenge to produce realistic snow while not also making the painting feel cold or uninviting.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Redwood Path

Here's my latest painting, inspired by the article about redwood trees in the October 2009 issue of the National Geographic. While I've never been to the redwood forests, I'd like to go there someday and walk in the shadows of the huge, ancient trees that stretch to the sky. The path in this painting wanders amid the giants, leading one through a silent forest that has stood for thousands of years.

Acrylic painting, 14" x 17" (framed, SOLD)

Snowy Field with Trees

Here's a tribute to the first snowfall of the year! An inch of slushy snow is still enough to inspire one to paint a wintery field in the gleaming light of a cold day.

The trees were particularly tricky to paint, since they were bare of leaves (or almost bare since some trees, like oaks, hold on to some browned leaves until deep into winter.) That, and the subdued colors made for a challenging painting, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Acrylic ainting: 14" x 17"

Field of Sycamores in Autumn

This painting was inspired by the monthly challenge in the Landscape forum of the Wetcanvas artist's website. One of the photos has an open field with dry grass with some hills and trees on the right and a smaller, closer tree on the left. I tweaked it a bit, making the trees more distinctive; the larger trees on the left are sycamores (with their distinctive bright and mottled bark), while the distant trees have a mix of red and yellow to draw the eye into the painting.

Acrylic painting 14" x 17"

Forest Path in Autumn

Here's another autumn scene: a quiet path through the woods as the leaves change colors in the crisp fall air. When painting this, I thought of the red-orange trees as some species of oak, while the yellow ones are hickories, though most any trees of the right autumn colors would work. This is a timely painting since the autumn colors are peaking about now as they do most years from the end of October into early November. The color is quite good this year, though the rainy weekends have cut down on how often I can get out into the woods. Thankfully, this past Sunday was beautiful and perfect for a walk down a path like this one.

"Forest Path in Autumn"

Acrylic painting, 14" x 17"

Autumn Barn by the Road

Here's my latest painting, based upon one of the photographs for the October Landscape Challenge at the WetCanvas Landscape forum. The original barn is somewhere in Upstate New York, I believe, which is a beautiful part of the country.

The key to this painting was the multiple layers of color glazed over each other to create variegated autumn foliage on the trees and even in the grass. Distance regression - where the far away trees and barn have lower contrast and fewer details - was also important since there's a lot of open space in this painting between the background woods and the foreground trees.

I had another pleasant surprise while painting this one, as my brother and sister-in- law visited me on their way back from a wedding in Virginia. The painting still needed the last highlights and shadows added in when they arrived, but they liked it anyway, and even took a few of my other paintings back home with them. Publicity is good, and what's the point in painting if you can't share the results with others! Thank heavens for the internet since that makes it a lot easier.

"Autumn Barn by the Road"

Acrylic Painting 14" x 17" (framed, SOLD)

Ahwahnee Meadow, sunrise

A few years back, while wandering around the internet, I happened to find an amazing webcam in Yosemite National Park. This webcam looks out across Ahwahnee Meadow, towards the mountains and typically provides a clear view of a beautiful region of the park.

One morning, I was fortune enough to visit the webcam during a golden sunrise, with clouds rolling down and through the shadowed mountains and mist in the field. I knew I had to paint this image at some point, and here it is. The foreground trees - large, old conifers of some sort - were added in to give a sense of scale to the meadow through use of an interesting foreground. They also let me get in some dark values to balance out the glowing sky. Enjoy!

"Ahwahnee Meadow at Sunrise"

Acrylic painting, 14" x 17"

Storm over a Mountain Lake

Here's another summer scene - storm clouds pass between distant mountains while sunlight falls on old conifers by a large lake. The weather in the mountains can be violent and unpredictable, but also beautiful.

Painting mountains is still a challenge, as are exposed rocks. It may be a case of "paint what you know" in that there are no mountains or exposed cliff faces here in Maryland, so I only have photos to use as a reference. Still, I think this one turned out pretty well.

"Storm Over a Mountain Lake"

Acrylic painting 14" x 17"

After the summer rain...

Here's my latest landscape painting - it's a view across the far-away plains near a grove of trees. In the distance, storm clouds can be seen, and they've already passed overheard, leaving behind puddles in the marshy area beneath the hillside.

This painting had a few new experiments: the raised foreground hill and low horizon make the sky the key aspect of the painting. It also has a lot of "nothing" in it that goes all the way to the horizon; this can be challenging to paint since the regression must be done correctly (colors and details fade away, etc.) Also, this is the first time I've tried rain puddles - I think they turned out well. The key thing is to make sure the puddles (which can be treated like small lakes) are in a muddy-looking part of the ground. Otherwise, they look strange sitting in the middle of green grass.

"After the Summer Rain"

Acrylic painting, 14" x 17"

Downs Memorial Park by the Bay

One of my favorite local parks to visit is Downs Memorial Park, which lies on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This park has over 200 acres of forests and trails, as well as a large shore along the Bay with grassy areas and benches available so one can spend an afternoon looking out across the Bay, watching ships pass by in the distance.

Autumn is one of the best times to visit this park since it is full of trees that change interesting colors: chestnut oaks turn bronze, sweetgums change from orange to wine or rust red, and hickories turn golden hues. A good number of trees grow right down by the water on small raised embankments. From these areas, one can stand in the shade and look out across the water, as seen in this painting looking southward from the water's edge under a group of trees. In the distance, you can make out the far shore of the Bay across the waters.

"Downs Park in Fall by the Bay"

Acrylic painting, 14" x 17"

Summer in the Park

Here's a new painting based upon a reference photo for the monthly Landscape Challenge on the Wetcanvas forums. The photo reminded me a lot of a local farm park that has a lot of open, prairie regions with some woods mixed in along its edges. If you walk the paved perimeter trail, you'll see lots of cleared meadows between the trees - in some places, if you take a photo at the right angle, you can get an effect like that of the Great Plains.

This painting was an experiment in dappled light filtering through the edge of the woods. The mix of shadows and scattered highlights, particularly along the grass and road, add an almost Impressionist quality to the painting. I added the flowers on the right and in the grass beyond (the white tufts are Queen Ann's Lace) since it summer, and what is summer without wildflowers?

Acrylic Painting 14" x 17"