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"

An Autumn Glade for the Autumn Glade

Well, I named this blog "The Autumn Glade" since I love the woods, particularly in autumn. Then, I realized I didn't actually have any really good paintings of a clearing in a forest in autumn! That lead to my latest painting, which is of an open area in an mostly oak forest near a hilltop somewhere in the mountains (probably the Smoky Mountains or Blueridge Mountains.)

It was an interesting challenge to add enough color to the autumn leaves without making them look fake and over saturated. I particularly like how well the depth regression turned out in this painting - there are multiple "layers" in the painting of landscape features, each further away from the viewer. The hole in the treeline leading to the far-away clouds and mountains worked out well; the clouds are on the colorful side, but I find that I like to paint them with stronger colors to add more depth and interest to them vs. "chalky white clouds."

Acrylic Painting 14" x 17"

Return from Istanbul!

The last week of May, my family and I visited Istanbul, Turkey for a wonderful vacation amid a city full of history and culture. My brother-in-law is from this city, and he and my sister were kind enough to take care of the details for the trip. Amid the excellent food and amazing sights, I also was able to get some photographs that would make great ideas for paintings.

This painting is based upon a sunset over the Bosphorus that we saw from the Asian side (Kadikoy region) early in the week. We went on a relaxing ferry tour of the Bosphorus before getting off on the Asian side of Istanbul to get dinner at a restaurant that serves a variety of authentic Turkish food (more than just kabobs!) While there, we picked up some Turkish Delight candy for our friends and family back in America, and then, as the sun set, we headed back to the water to catch a ferry back.

In this painting, I captured the last glow of light as the sun set behind the Hagia Sofia on the other side of the Bosphorus straight. Another ferry boat, its lights on for the evening, quietly passes by in the growing shadows.

"Istanbul: Sunset on the Bosphorus" Acrylic Painting, 14" x 17" (framed, SOLD)

First Post

My most recent landscape painting that was inspired by the works of Asher Durand, a member of the Hudson River School of landscape artists. I got to see a few of his works for the first time at the National Art Museum in D.C. in April. He was a master of painting forest interiors with accurate trees, which gave me incentive to improve my own tree-painting ability in my landscapes.

Acrylic Painting 14" x 17"