Woman Near Green House

 

Woman Near Green House  16x20  Oil on canvas panel

Updated Photo 1/2/10  - The photo of the "new" painting is on the left, the "old" painting is on the right.  I tried to improve the rendering of the woman's hands and face.  The darker photo is just digital bloggerization; I didn't change anything about the house in the painting. Honest!

For a person who tries to avoid GREEEEEN, I sure went through a LOT of green in this painting.  I picked this out of some public domain photos on the internet cause it seemed like I needed to make a painting.

It's hard to believe, but this will be my last posting in 2009! Tomorrow is 2010. That number seems cumbersome to me but I'll need to get used to it.

I'll probably make some adjustments to this painting after a while and before I sign it. I guess it will be finished when it's finished.

Happy New Year!

NOW WHAT? - revisited

I'm not sure what happened to some of my photos in my "Avocaken" blog postings, but some disappeared and some did not. I have reposted many of the photos of my art but can't find some others due to a hard drive disaster a few months ago. Although I thougt that I was making regular backups, i found out that I was kidding myself.

ANYWAY. . . . . I'm reposting what I have and removing the "debris" left from the vanished photos. The missing photos' frame have an imbedded link to photo-land in the blog-sphere that I like to remove. Ya can't have what isn't there anymore, I guess!

I'm building another blog showing how my art studio was built. Melissa and I put in a lot of time and effort into the building of the studio and the result is WONDERFUL. In the middle of the construction I got sick and had to stop doing physical things and "take it easy". So it took us longer than we hoped to complete the project. See my new blog at http://kensartstudio.blogspot.com/

Bon Fire on the Beach

Bon Fire on the Beach 11x14 Oil on Masonite Panel

I had to stop "messing" with this painting. I don't know that I'm happy with it - yet but I'm going to let it rest then take a look at it in a couple of weeks/months. Some paintings seem to just jump out of my brush onto the canvas but this one . . . grrrrr Perhaps it wasn't meant to be?

I finally figured out why my post formatting was being weird?!?! There's a SETTING to use the "new" editor or the "OLD" editor. I chose the OLD EDITOR and badda-bing, badda-boom I'm a happy dude. It probably doesn't matter, though. YA THINK??????? DUHHHHH!!!!!!!! But I'm grinnin'!

:-)

Couple on a park path

Couple on a park path  16x20  Oil on canvas panel

Updated image 3/31/2010

This painting is a composite of a couple of photos that I've seen - the couple was at a county fair near Seattle. The path is a different take on one of my previous posts - House on Smith Ridge Cutoff.  Instead of a country road, I made a park path.

This was painted on one of my homemade canvas over masonite panels. I'll put some "how to" directions in my studio blog when my studio blog is ready for this.  :-)

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas . . . .

Merry Christmas - Our house December 25, 2009 7:00 AM - 18 F

It started snowing last night - dry, blowing stuff. If you look closely you can see the snow stuck to the wall near our front door.  The temperature now (8:20 AM) is 18 F and the wind is still blowing the dry snow in swirls. It's beautiful as long as you look at it from a warm room. The accumulation is only an inch or two except where the wind has piled the snow. The ONLY reason that I went out was to find our morning newspaper - almost buried in the snow drifts.

 

Look closely & you can see the "fairie dust" (blowing snow) from our back door. The sun is coming up just above my studio.

My First Watercolor Picture

My First Watercolor Picture 8x11 watercolors on "watercolor paper"

For my birthday this month, my brother & his family gave me a wooden chest full of art supplies. The chest has 12 colors each of watercolors, acrylics, oils, pastels, oil pastels and colored pencils. It's sort of overwhelming, as the only medium I'm "comfortable" with is oil paints. I'm going to give all of them a try using this same photo.  The art chest also came with two 8x10 "canvas panels" and a pad of "watercolor paper".  So, I can stop when the paper and panels are used up. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

This is my first try at painting with watercolors since I was in public school 'way back in the 50-60's. About the only thing I learned was that I needed a BIG bowl of water. The rest of what the art teacher tried to tell me is dis-remembered.  For this painting I worked from a photo (of course) that I found somewhere on the WWW.

I learned a bunch from this first painting- first of all, there isn't a real WHITE paint in watercolors. WHAT? I need to plan ahead and use a potion called Frisket (WHAT?) to cover up the areas that I want to be white or not colored with the paint I'm using at the time. I need to think and that's going to be a problem. :-) WHAT? I thought that watercolor paints came in little cakes, not in tubes! WHAT?

Ken B.

PS the chest came with one really dinky eraser. I'm going need one of those gigantic electric power erasers, I think. Maybe if I can put an eraser in my electric drill . . . . .

NOW WHAT?

Apparently SOME of my posted blog photos are un-posted today! Not all of 'em just some of 'em. Strange!  If I click on the images that ARE visible, I get a message that the photo is not on the server.  If I click on the "frame" of a "missing" photo, the photo is displayed.  I'll wait a day or two or three then see if I need to put Humpty Dumpty together again.  Sigh!

:-)

I'll have some work to do if I need to re-post some of the photos. Finding them on my hard drive will be a problem! Maybe I'll start filing my photos in a more manageable way?  NAH!  I can't remember filing systems.

Santa must have determined that I wasn't a good boy this year and instead of a lump of coal, he hid some of my blog photos.  Bah humbug!

I'm reloading the "missing" photographs in my blog. I may not do them all, but I'll start at the most recent then work to the oldest - MAYBE. It's mighty cumbersome but . . . .

End of the Year Challenge - Different Strokes From Different Folks

End of the Year Challenge - Different Strokes From Different Folks   9 3/4 x 11   Oil on panel

This challenge is hosted by Karin Jurick on her Different Strokes From DIfferent Folks blog.  Artists that chose to participate emailed a photo of themselves to Karin. When Karin had all of the photos, she randomly emailed a photo to an artist. So, most of us don't know much if anything about the subject of the portraits we would paint.

I really did enjoy making the painting of this lady - I don't know her name or anything about her yet.  To understand what I'm saying, go to the Different Strokes From Different Folks blog and see what other artitsts have done. You can also go to You Tube to see the photos and the painting.

I'm having a problem with this BLOG posting software interface so I'm not sure how this will look!  It appears one way in "compose" then another way after it's "published".  :-| That being said, my next whine is that I had to make HUNDREDS (no kidding) of photographs before 1) the color was close, 2) the glare from the shiny surface was gone and 3) the photo was in FOCUS!

My Studio - Displaying paintings on pegboard panels

If you follow my blog, you might have seen my pegboard panels that I made to display my paintings in my studio - see photo to the left. (My pegboard is 1/8 inch thick by the way.) I was having problems with hanging my paintings on the pegboard - first I made my own hooks out of wire then I tried pegboard hooks from the hardware store. Neither "solution" work well. The paintings would go crooked or worse, fall to the floor because the hooks themselves weren't secured well. The store-bought hooks that I could buy locally were also too big - they held the painting too far from the pegboard inviting swing & sway and then . . . . "OOOOOOPS!".

I found a VERY good solution for my situation at Grand & Benedicts The product is called a "pin_up hook", their part number is 009-333 and the hooks cost 15 cents each. The pin-up hooks have two pegboard hooks that hold the hook really well in the pegboard. I use two of the hooks on larger paintings so that the paintings don't tilt on me or fall to the floor.

My display panels are like large pages of a picture book and when the "page" is turned the paintings don't fall!

Grand & Benedicts also has all sorts of other kinds of pegboard hooks on this page.

This review and testimonial is unsolicited and my own private opinion!

Click on the pin-up hook image (below) to see the Grand & Bendecits product page.

Fall 2009 Rogers Art Guild Exhibit

Me with my 5 entries in the Fall 2009 Rogers Art Guild Exhibit. We had 63 entries for the exhibit that ran from October 29th until November 11th. The dancers paintings are 24x30 to give you an idea of size.

One painting was sold from the exhibit - not mine!

This image was scanned from a hard copy photo and my scanner seems to be getting as old as me - lots of lines and s-l-o-w. :-) BUT it (and I) stll works! Sort of.

Good Spot For The Parade

Good Spot For The Parade 16 1/2 x 20 3/8 Oil on canvas panel

Nov 24 2009 - updated the photo. FINI! DONE!

Nov 20 2009 - updated the photo after "touching up" the painting a little bit. I feel that it STILL needs SOMETHING! I have no clue what. :-)

This started out as a painting of a woman sitting on a sunny park bench reading her book. B-O-R-I-N-G. SO, I sat her down between two benches in an aluminum lawn chair and gave her a warm coat and a lap blanket . Because the parade is taking place in Arkansas, the graffiti on the wall is "localized" a bit. (My apologies to all Arkansans and graffiti artists.)

The strange panel size comes from recycling scraps of Masonite and pieces of wood. I glued the Masonite to the pine wood frame. I "squared" it up with my table saw when the glue was dry. I probably did it backwards, but that's how I usually do things, so why change now? :-)

At last the painting is in focus in the photograph. I told my camera that I wasn't really taking a photo so it relaxed and let things happen. woo hoo.

Weekend Shoppers

Weekend Shoppers 11x14 Oil on Canvas panel

This appears to be a family (tourists?) out shopping on Main Street in Eureka Springs AR. This was in the summer on one of the hotter days we had a few months ago. I'm guess that this is Mom and Dad out with their daughter. I go to look at and photograph the people - Melissa likes to go into the shops. This works out really well for us both.

I had problems with lighting this painting for the photo. I keep getting glare this is the best of many. I'll try again today to see if I can make a digital photo with a smart camera. The camera is smarter than the operator, that's for sure! :-)

Eureka Springs has many natural mineral springs. Two web sites where you can read more about it are: http://www.eurekasprings.com/ and http://www.eurekasprings.org/

We always stop at Bubba's BBQ - really! :-) Good BBQ and real people work there.

This is pointed on one of my home made Masonite panels covered with canvas. These panels have the look of canvas without the "bounce" of stretched canvas. The Masonite is reinforced with 3/4 inch square pieces of pine glued in place. I use better quality carpenter's glue clamped to the frame while the canvas is glued (and back stapled) to the Masonite with rabbit skin glue then I apply 3 or 4 coats of tinted Gesso. Presently my panels are "only" 3/4 inch thick. I'll make some thicker "gallery" panels later. I'll explain it mo bettah if anybody who is interested reads this far and lets me know with a comment.

All The News

$75.00 plus shipping

All The News 9 3/4x11 Oil on Canvas panel

I saw all of these newspaper "boxes" lined up at the NW Arkansas Community College campus and thought it was remarkable that there is so much printed material available. Much of it is free! I'm NOT a student, by the way. I probably should be but I'm not. :-)

The support for this painting is on one of my experiments with Masonite panels. The Masonite is glued to a pine frame and that assembly is covered with canvas. I DO like the look and feel of canvas, I just don't like the "give" of open-backed stretched canvas. I make these braced Masonite panels (no warping), wrap them with canvas, do the gesso thing then make my paintings. A happy camper! The odd size of this panel (9 3/4x11) is a result of using a left over piece of Masonite to test my panel-making method. Maybe a subject for a separate posting.

These panels would be good if a person likes "gallery wrapped" supports. Personally, I prefer putting my paintings in frames - which I usually make myself.

PS - The "box" at the far left (by the tree) is a trash bin! What does that mean? :-)

Seashore #1

Seashore #1 18x25 Oil on canvas

I'm not sure why I chose to make this painting! First of all, I guess, is that it has NO GREEN (worth mentioning). Most landscape paintings are very green with plants that are green. The digital photo colors are a little off, but . . . at least it's in focus!

The title implies that this is the first of several. or at least more than one. You've been warned. I'll be quiet now.

Odds & Ends Nov 9 2009

Earlier in this blog I asked how artists who use gesso dealt with the "lumps and globs" that form over time in acrylic gesso. I heard about storing the container upside down - not good as the lumps still formed. I also heard about straining the gesso through cheese cloth - the gesso I use is too thick to strain through cheese cloth.

Carolina (http://loquemegustaaquiyahora.blogspot.com/) suggested using plastic food covering film (Glad Wrap or similar) on the surface of the gesso inside the container. IT WORKS! I cut a circular piece of plastic film using the lid of the container as a pattern and put it on the surface of the gesso. I've been using the same container of gesso for several weeks and NO LUMPS! I need to use gloves to handle the film, but that's OK. I also had to replace the plastic film because I let it dry out and the gesso on the film caked up and was making chips of gesso.

THANK YOU CAROLINA! You rock! (But you already knew that.) :-)

Now if someone can tell me a "safe" way to transport paintings to and from art shows. . . . . .

Airport Travelers - DSFDF Challenge 52-54

Airport Travelers 9x12 Oil on masonite

This is my version of Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks (DSFDF) challenge 52-54. Periodically (two or three weeks) Karin posts a photograph on the DSFDF blog for artists to make their art then send a photo of their art back to Karin who posts it on the DSFDF blog. It's worth a look to see how different people make different art from the same subject matter.

City Rooftops - DSFDF Challenge

City Rooftops 12x17 Oil on canvas

This is my version of Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks (DSFDF) challenge. I didn't submit this to her blog as the deadline for submissions was several days ago. Now there's another challenge - maybe I'll have the time to participate in the new challenge.

It's really an education to see all of the "entries" to Karin's challenges. She posts a photograph on her blog then artists submit their version / vision of the photo. Take a look at the blog at http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com/

House on Smith Ridge Rd

House on Smith Ridge Rd 18x24 Oil on Masonite

Nov 9, 2009 - updated the photo. I (tried to) added more fall colors into the trees and leaves on the road. Also put more shadow here & there. The photo appears lighter than the painting. Go figger!

This is an (apparently) abandonded house on Smith Ridge Road, properly called County Road 80) not far from my home. Smith Ridge Road is not often used anymore as there now is a paved road called Smith Ridge Turn Off.

But Smith Ridge Road is (for a transplanted city guy) very pretty with trees hanging over the dirt road. The road is very muddy after a rain and very dusty until it rains. Take your pick!

What's Happening?

I HAVE been painting, I just haven't gotten any to a point where I want to publish a photo for the world to see.

Friday, October 17th, our Art Guild participated in the Rogers (Arkansas) Third Friday Artwalk. From April until October historical downtown Rogers stores and shops stay open until 8 PM. There's musical entertainment, crafts vendors on the sidewalk and etc. Our guild was assigned the first floor of a vacant store and we put out our work hoping people would come in and maybe buy something. 10% of all our sales goes into our "scholarship fund" to be awarded to two Rogers' high school students. ANYWAYYYYYYY, only a few people came in and only a few very small items were purchased. I'm thinking that most people came in to get out of the cold for a few minutes. We raffle a painting for a dollar a ticket and it did so poorly that we're going to try again next week. The temperature dropped into the 40s with a brisk wind and people either stayed home or went home if they were at the Third Friday event.

October 29th through November 11th is our Guild Fall Exhibit and Sale which will be located in the Rogers Public Library. We'll be selling our raffle tickets and 10% of proceeds go to the scholarship fund. Maybe we'll do better in two weeks than we did in one stormy night. :-) We even have a reception where people can meet the artists and enjoy (I hope) some light snacks.

This week I've been making some picture frames for a friend in the Art Guild. The frames aren't perfect by any measure, but they look good, they're substantial and by golly they're pretty inexpensive! I have learned that I want to buy a power hand sander!

How do other artists transport several (some 20x30) from home to show and back home? I stacked them up in the back of our Subaru with blankets in between. But a couple of paintings still got scuffed. HOW DO YOU DO IT? HELP!!!!

Farmer Reading His Newspaper

Farmer Reading His Newspaper 24x30 Oil on Masonite

Updated photo Nov 1 2009

A hard working man relaxing with his newspaper before his day begins, after the morning chores have been done or at the end of the day.

I think that I'm going to stop right here before I mess it up (more?). I was thinking about the left foreground - seems too smooth & bare. BUT I dislike making grass, gardens & such. I even thought about putting in his pooch but thought that was too cliche.