Landscapes can take a long time to do, but turtles happen fast – – – and they’re fun to run away to when I need it. So, while I’m at work on hard pictures, guess what I’m gonna start showing you?
To launch back into these landscapes, I’m sacrificing a number of unfinished Norwegian mountain pictures. Am tearing, cutting and reassembling them – before working back in. What you see is just the very start of this. I wonder what will happen to these next?
Soon, soon, soon – I will be over turtles. Been thinking it is just about time to dust off the printing press and see about starting the next round of Norway pictures. The one above is from my series depicting Nikolai Astrup’s mountain.
Oh man, always so much to do!
I find myself hip deep in turtles? Yep, really – and I truly don’t know why! It all started when I needed another little break from my Norway paintings, and a bug I was painting (below) went terribly rogue – – – can you see the turtle in there?
Since then, I’ve been wading through these silly critters. You know what? They ARE kinda fun to do! Hey, do you want to see a whole lot more of ’em? YOU CAN, RIGHT HERE!
NOW FINISHED – two more views of the Norwegian mountain I’ve painted many times. I did these at the same time, so I had two scary moments when a few big, ragged and very rapid black brushstrokes either defined the dark mountain’s silhouette or completely ruined the pictures. That was A LOT of effort put at risk! Both came out fine though, don’t you think?
I wanted to do 50 pictures of this mountain – AND NOW I HAVE! Will move on soon – but perhaps I’ll finish a couple more that deserve it!
GET A GOOOOOOD LOOK – – – CLICK EACH PICTURE!
Here are some detail views:
And I’m still painting landscapes – although they’ve changed since my super-realistic picture making days! Now I’m trying for emotion and a gut reaction. I want my paintings to seem as if they capture everything in an instant – and I’m not talking about just what you would see!
THIS ONE IS AT LAST DONE AND SCANNED! Now you can really get a good look at the detail in it. This is, of course, Norway again – and the FIFTIETH of my paintings of Nikolai Astrup’s mountain (see the series HERE).
PLEASE CLICK ON THE TOP IMAGE TO SEE IT BETTER!
Sorry that it has been a few days since I last wrote! I’ve been a bit distracted by new work happening (or struggling) in the studio. I’ll start showing you what’s up in the days to come, but first I should finish this cycle of four pictures from the past. This is the last of the seasons – Winter- and it’s a scene of the Platte River bottoms out on the the eastern plains north of Denver. I remember many bitterly cold, incredibly beautiful mornings.
The toughest part of this picture was capturing the ever so subtle mist rising off the river. Here are two close ups:
This is the third of the “four seasons” illustrations I did for that book oh so long ago. Weird as it may seem, I have no memory or idea of how I managed to paint this fellow’s face so well. EVERYTHING came out just right!
CLICK THE TOP PICTURE TO REALLY SEE IT WELL!
This is the next of the four illustrations I did for that book project oh so long ago. I wish it had been published – I did such a fine job on these.
PLEASE CLICK THE TOP PICTURE TO ENLARGE IT – TRULY WORTHWHILE!
This is one of several illustrations I did for a book that sadly, was never published. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a little masterpiece. I’m very proud of the effort I put in, and although I don’t paint like this anymore, when I look at this I do get the urge to maybe try something like it again one day!
The medium is (as always) India ink, but instead of paper I painted on clayboard – which is commercially prepared substrate (masonite coated with a layer of kaolin clay). Think of it as a very high end scratchboard. Therein lies the key to achieving such detail. I not only painted with the smallest brushes I could find, but also scratched/scrapped back into the surface.
CLICK ON THESE PICTURES TO SEE THEM LARGER – YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID!
Good Morning – – –
I’m back at it after a week spent writing my first ever grant proposal. Yuck, but necessary so I can keep doing what I love doing.
As a sort of re-entry into my work rhythm, I’m fooling with some picture that are awfully ragged. I think I may like these two, especially the black one, although right now they’re held together by tape, dried ink and luck. What am I going to do about all of the holes in the gray one? They’re kinda cool, and maybe kinda not? Hmmmm.
I’ll my hands full trying to get these figured out, stabilized and glued back together! It sure is fun just to fool around a bit. By the end of the week though, I’ll really be back it the swing of things – ink will be flying!
Have the finest day –
Your Buddy Bill
This is the winter in which I’m finally finding a few answers and finishing half completed Norwegian landscapes. Hope it keeps up – I need the room for new pictures that I’m sure will start stacking up this spring!
I’m especially proud of the intertwining of textures here – both real and painted. Definitely a sign of things to come.
It started as the left half of a failed 2-sheet painting, took off on it’s own and ended up twice as tall! Am I ever in the driver’s seat with these things? I might like this more than I realize – just have to give it a little space and time to convince me.
Here are closer views – there’s a whole mountainside’s worth of texture happening in there!
I showed you a quick snapshot of this a little while back, but here’s a really good scan at last. Finally, justice is done to the wonderful mark making that’s careening around in there, almost (but not quite) lost in space.
This is a BIG one too – 36″ wide. He, he, he – just wait until you see what’s coming this spring!
Here are closer looks:
Compared to the last several pictures I’ve shown you of this mountain, this one is so quiet you almost have to listen hard just to see it! I’m not used to whispering like this. Maybe I ought to start working on that.
Yep, yet again it’s that same Norwegian mountain! This is one of my very favorites of the series thus far. Everything came together so perfectly! How often does that happen?
Below are close ups so you can really see what’s going on in there. The area in the lower left is killer fine – nothing but ink and paper – – – and a pressing desire to so beat my picture up that it turns geologic!
Finished and scanned! Okay – – – a storm, the nighttime, a mountain and a black wave. Got it all in there and yeah, I’m pleased! I’ve also added two detail views for you below.
YOU MUST CLICK ON THE MAIN IMAGE TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK!!
Just a couple of kinda cool bugs – a moth and a dragonfly. Happy weekend!
Dark on dark on DARK – am fascinated by it! I would love to one day paint a scene as potent and full as it would be if we were standing in the nighttime, in the middle of everything.
Here’s a closer look at each of the two sheets – – –
Another closer look, this time a detail view from a picture I painted in Paterson, NJ several years ago. Its just a man-made cliff face that was in truth rather ugly, dropping into quiet water. The discovery I made: there’s poetry in EVERY view! And doesn’t it also seem as if you could step into some other world from here too?