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| Kiwi and Pomegranates Oil on linen • 6"x8" |
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| Oil on linen • 8"x14" |
Showing posts with label New Artwork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Artwork. Show all posts
2 Recent Paintings
Here are a couple of recent commissions. I just finished "Kiwi and
Pomegranates" this morning! I had a lot of fun with the pomegranate
seeds and the variety of color in the pomegranate skins. When I took
photos for the house commission, the house was mainly in shade. This
provided the great opportunity to play with the interesting, subtle
grays within the cool shadows.
Buttes, Buddies and Buffalo!
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| Andrea and me at Yellowstone Falls |
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| By Adam (plein air study) |
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| By Andrea (plein air study) |
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| L to R: Me, Dan, Ryan (Ryan is painting a deer skull hanging inside the shed. No, the shed did not fall on him!) |
Breaks from Landscapes
Andrea and Ryan were kind to model for the rest of us to paint. Life doesn't get better than this!
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| Painting Andrea in a tent house |
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| Painting Ryan at Montana Gallery |
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| Ryan by Adam (alla prima study) |
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| Ryan by Andrea (alla prima study) |
Yellowstone
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| L to R: Tyler, Me, Ryan, Dan at Yellowstone Falls (I need to get me some rad shades like these guys!) |
On Saturday, the five of us piled into a minivan and headed out from Red Lodge to Yellowstone. The drive took 6 hours one-way, but it was so worth it! The diversity of Yellowstone's geography and wildlife is astounding. The landscape is characterized by vast mountains and valleys, bubbling hot springs, and the magnificent Yellowstone River and Falls. We saw elk, antelope, a coyote, dozens and dozens of buffalo, and even a black bear cub!
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| Ryan painting Old Faithful |
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| A steaming thermal hot spring by Adam (plein air study) |
Beartooth Mountains
Back in MT, we visited the breathtaking Beartooth Mountains. As I sat on the ground with an expanse of valleys and lakes displayed before me, I was awed by God's creation and felt very small! I prayed that God would allow me to capture just a small portion of the stunning scene before me. I determined to put all distractions from my mind and simply make my painting a celebration of His glory. |
| By Adam (plein air study) |
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| Ryan met a curious friend! |
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| L to R: Ryan, Loren, Keith (friend of Tyler's fam), Tyler, Andrea, Me Everywhere: Mosquitoes |
Signing Off
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| We accumulated quite a collection of paintings! And this doesn't even include the last day's work (Works in progress) |
Check out these links to see our friends' amazing work and more photos from the trip:
• www.TylerMurphyFineArt.com
• www.MontanaGallery.net
• www.DanielKeysFineArt.com
• www.RyanMellodyArt.com
• Ryan's Facebook
• Daniel's Facebook
He Is Risen!
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| Easter Sunrise 2013 Oil on linen • 6" x 8" |
When the alarm rang at 5:40 this morning, I was certainly not in the mood to paint, but I pulled myself out of bed anyway and staggered around a bit until I started to wake up. Fortunately, we had prepared all our gear last night, and my sweet wife had made muffins, so we could just grab everything and go. After a quick stop at Starbucks to grab two coffees, we were on our way.
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| Andrea's 1st Oil on linen • 6" x 8" |
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| Andrea's 2nd Oil on linen • 5" x 7" |
Jonathan inspired us to adopt this tradition as our own. We hope many other artists will do the same, in celebration that our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer in the grave, but is risen indeed! Happy Easter, everyone!
Three Recent Still Lifes
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| Spring's First Array Oil on linen • 12" x 9" • Available To inquire, email Contact@AdamClague.com |
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| Blues and Yellows Oil on linen • 7" x 5" • Available To inquire, email Contact@AdamClague.com |
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| Longing For Beauty Oil on linen • 11" x 16" • Available To inquire, email Contact@AdamClague.com |
"This fall, my wife and I stopped at a convenience store that had a large basket full of unusual gourds. Initially, we laughed at how delightfully ugly the gourds were. But eventually, we also marveled that each was unique, fascinating, and even beautiful in its own way. My wife surprised me by buying several for me to use as still life items. To me, one of the gourds (pictured in the upper left) resembled a freakish creature with a swan’s head and spider-like legs gripping a yellow-and-green beach ball. Try as I might, I could not abandon this characterization of the gourd. As a result, this painting is somewhat allegorical. The gourd peeks from behind a leaf to hide its supposed ugliness as it gazes upon the lily and longs to have its beauty. But unlike the ugly duckling, which eventually becomes a beautiful swan, the gourd will never become a flower. But it does not matter, because all Creation, from the majestic sunrise to the humble gourd, is already beautiful. We just have to teach our eyes to recognize it."
Tinker Bell and TobyMac
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| More Whipped Cream Oil on linen • 24" x 14" • Sold Portrait Award of Excellence, 2013 OPA National |
The painting to the left is a recent one of my 5-year-old cousin. Her family was in town visiting, and I decided to take the opportunity to paint her. She was a terrific little model, especially when entertained with her favorite Tinker Bell movie and supplied with plenty of ice cream and repeated servings of whipped cream (hence the title)! Of course, even the best-behaved 5-year-olds can't sit still forever. When the whipped cream ran out, she found it much more interesting to hop off the couch and "help" Andrea and me with our paintings. She had a lot of fun putting strokes on our paintings as we directed. Maybe she is an artist in the making!
I did this simple sketch of my cousin from life. Although the sketch is very basic, it helped me keep my colors more life-like while working from photographs for the larger painting.
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| Study for "More Whipped Cream" Oil in linen • 5.5" x 4.5" |
I don't know about you, but the music I listen to while I paint has a great impact on my work. One song in particular, "Steal My Show" by TobyMac, has had a big influence on me lately (listen below). The songwriter asks God to steal his show, recognizing that his own performance is of much less importance than the work God can do through him. That kind of humility is inspiring. Naturally, every artist wants people to enjoy his work. But when I seek man's recognition instead of God's, I set myself up for disaster. When people praise my work, it's easy to let it go to my head and forget that it's God that gave me my talents. This song reminds me to ask the Lord to "steal my show" and do more with my life than I ever could on my own.
Happy New Year!
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| Our photos were taken by the talented Arielle Elise Royer, who has such a wonderfully artistic eye! |
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Weekend With the Masters 2012
In September, I again had the privilege to be an assistant at the annual Weekend With the Masters, alongside my good friends Jonathan Stasko and Ryan Mellody. The event offers workshops, demos and lectures by some of the top artists in the industry. It's a real treat to see these artists demonstrate and teach. This year, WWM was held in San Diego, and my friends and I arrived a few days early to do some plein air painting of the beautiful landscape. One evening, we drove to a beach in La Jolla to paint the sunset. By the time we found a parking spot, hauled our gear down to the beach and set up, we only had about fifteen minutes before the sun slipped below the horizon! We painted frantically in an attempt to capture the beauty, which was stunning but oh-so-fleeting. It was an exhilarating time with great friends!
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| La Jolla Sunset Oil on gessoed panel • 5" x 7" • Sold |
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| Laguna Coast Oil on gessoed panel • 8" x 10" • Sold |
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| L to R: Me, Jonathan and Ryan at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, which hosted this years' event |
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| Jeremy Lipking demonstrating |
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| Jeremy Lipking's demo completed |
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| Painter and musician C.W. Mundy |
Daniel Gerhartz has a terrific blog post on his time instructing at this years' WWM, including photos of two stunning head study demos. Be sure to read his post here.
AMO (Artist Mentors Online), a blog radio program, conducted interviews with several of the WWM instructors, including C.W. Mundy, Sherrie McGraw, Jeffrey Watts and more. In these interviews, the instructors discuss some of the same valuable principles they taught in their workshops. They are definitely worth your time, and, best of all, they are totally free! To listen, visit AMO's blog here.
A Very Merry Christmas
While Andrea and I were dating, her family introduced me to the joy, hope and wonder of live Christmas trees (my deprived childhood knew only of stuffy artificial trees). On this, our first Christmas together, Andrea and I instituted the new Clague family tradition of harvesting a live Christmas tree. However, we wanted to be frugal, so we constructed our own small "tree" from pine branches taken from our own yard. After warming up inside with homemade lattes, we added the lights and decorations. We were so pleased with our first little tree, that we were inspired to do alla prima paintings!
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| Our First Christmas Tree Oil on linen • 7" x 5" • Not for sale |
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| A Truly White Christmas Oil on linen • 16" x 8" • Available To inquire, contact Hudson Fine Art |
I'm excited to see what 2013 holds in store (like hopefully more frequent blog posts), and I hope you are too. Happy New Year and happy painting to all!
Satisfied Inside
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| Satisfied Inside Oil on linen • 7" x 13" • Sold |
It can be difficult to make all the elements in a scene look like they are illuminated by the same light source. One might think that all that is necessary is to simply identify the color of the light source (in this case "green") and then add a little bit of that color to all the other mixtures. However, this kind of mechanical color mixing rarely looks true-to-life. Yes, the color of each surface in a scene will be affected by the light source, but the degree to which each color is affected can only be determined through careful observation of the subject from life.
Master Artist Richard Schmid shares much practical guidance regarding color harmony in his book Alla Prima. Here are a few of my favorite quotes on the topic:
• "Harmony then is not 'what goes with what?' It is more like 'What color doesn't belong?'—What isn't possible under this light? Certain colors simply cannot occur under given light conditions."
• "To create the illusion of nature's light-generated harmony in a painting, it is usually only necessary to recognize which color is predominating in the light on your subject, and then restrain its complement… By 'restrain' a color I do not mean eliminate it; I mean subdue it by not showing it in its purest form."
[A color's complement is the color directly opposite it on the color wheel. Red is the complement to green. In the scene I painted, it would be impossible for a bright red to be visible under the greenish light. A bright red object would appear muted.]
• I think this quote helps sum up this post nicely: "Your perception and judgment are also a part of the harmony, and there is no formula for that. However, knowing that certain colors will probably have to be moderated to achieve a harmony will help your decision making."
Once again, I am reminded to just be faithful to paint what I see! And speaking of painting, I should get to that. So, until next time… happy painting to you all!
Braving the Cold
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| Braving the Cold Pastel on paper • 22" x 17" Currently unavailable |
I wanted to make this drawing a study in textures. There are three contrasting textures in the piece: The hat, the skin and the scarf. I tried to apply the pastel in ways that would best represent each unique surface quality. I used a paper blending stump to render the smooth skin, applied the pastel roughly for the knitted scarf and crosshatched for the herringbone hat.
I tightly rendered the face and hands, then sharply transitioned to looser rendering for the peripheral elements. I originally planned that the jacket would add a fourth texture variation, but ultimately decided the strongest way to communicate the beautiful rhythm of her pose was to reduce the jacket to a few simple lines.
I was inspired by Susan Lyon's beautiful conté and pastel drawings and used some of the supplies she recommends (Prismacolor Nupastels and Canson Rives printmaking paper). The Nupastels adhere well to the Rives paper, but can be lifted easily (and fairly completely) with a kneaded eraser, providing maximum workability.
Deserted Yet Stoic
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| Deserted Yet Stoic Oil on linen on art board • 8" x 10" Available. To inquire, contact the Clague Studio |
My final plein air this winter was Deserted Yet Stoic, shown above. About five to six inches of snow had accumulated the evening before, and it was still snowing intermittently the next day. My girlfriend, Andrea Orr, joined me in painting this abandoned barn, which stood open like a cavern to the elements. The temperature was below 30º, and snow was blowing nearly horizontally, creating mini snowdrifts against each pile of paint on my palette! While in the field, I focused on painting the values and temperatures I knew my camera wouldn't be able to capture, but worked from photographs later to finish up.
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| Deserted Yet Stoic (Detail) While studying Gerhartz's book Not Far From Home, Andrea noticed he had splattered paint in one piece to create the illusion of falling snow. I decided to give it a try. I thinned my paint with linseed oil until it would spray in tiny droplets when I used my finger to gently pull back and release the hairs of my brush. I used a Rosemary & Co. mongoose hair brush, which has the "spring" I needed. The key is, don't overdo techniques like this or they can look "gimmicky." |
• Dress appropriately (too obvious?). Wear long underwear, wool socks (two pairs if necessary), good waterproof boots and protection over the ears, nose and mouth. Wear gloves that allow sufficient dexterity to set up your easel, squeeze out paint, etc. Try fingerless gloves that have mitten "hoods."
• When you start painting, remove your glove from your painting hand and quickly place your hand inside a wool sock. Then poke the handle of your brush through the wool sock. Now you can have the precise control over your brush that is only possible with bare fingers, while still keeping your hand nice and warm.
• Use chemical hand warmers. They are relatively cheap and easy-to-find and can be placed inside your gloves, boots, hat, painting sock, etc. to keep warm. Activate the warmers before you feel like you need them, since they can take 15 minutes or so to heat up.
• Use linseed oil to keep your paints from becoming too stiff in the cold.
• Invest in a plein air umbrella to shield you, your canvas and your palette from sun and precipitation.
• Every few minutes, take a short break to jog around your easel to increase blood flow.
• Paint with an artist friend that keeps your spirits high. I usually plein air with Andrea, and she always does just that!
• Visit Starbucks® afterward to warm up and to reward yourself for sticking it out.
• The most important factor: God desires to help His children accomplish what He calls them to do. Don't forget that He is just a prayer away!
*These are all artists who paint stunning winter landscapes (among other subjects)… from life!
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