Farm to Market 3

This painting is next in the series, with a different limited color palette. The only problem is that I don't remember what colors I had out that day, except that the pinks and purples were made with quinacridone magenta and ultramarine blue. 

Farm to Market 2

This painting is part of a series. The original was painted several years ago and was larger. This series will be 16 x 20 and have a limited color palette. This one used ultramarine blue, cadmium red light, and cadmium yellow, with accents of cobalt teal. 

Old Barns

Often, when you see a barn, there are more nearby. In this case there were three. Simplification of the landscape continues to be my focus.

Summer

The color palette in this painting reminds me of summer. The simplified shapes reflect an easy going, relaxing, time of year.

Harvest

I have found myself painting more and more barns. I love how their shape breaks up the landscape. A barn can be any color and that only adds more interest.

Ranch Road

During springtime in Texas, you never know when a patch of bluebonnets will be spotted along a rural road. The limited palette of greens and blues is one of my favorites to paint.

Pitcher Perfect

Fluffy, white, hydrangeas from Trader Joe's. It was a challenge to paint all that white fluff. I think it worked out well. I'm not usually a flower painter, but this was a welcome challenge.

Reduction

Reduction is my attempt to reduce the landscape to its most essential forms while using color and shape to add interest. This is a theme that I have come back to again and again.

Sharing Secrets

This painting was pure fun! I poured some paint on the canvas, tried to make some interesting shapes and worked with a horizontal composition. Then I tried a vertical composition, them went back and forth between the two until I decided on the vertical composition of two intertwined figures. The color palette was limited and values were played with until it worked. Done!

Soaring

This is a triptych, three separate paintings which I worked on side by side. The only common element is the golden grasses that are in the middle. The backgrounds don't line up, but that was on purpose. Sometimes I want to create a little tension in my work. Did you find any other places where you said to yourself, "Why is that...or I wish that was...?" If you thought it, then I was successful. 

Standing Tall

I don't know where I took the picture of this barn, but something about it makes me paint it again and again. It's the same barn as in the painting "Hay There" painted in 2013, and again in "Margo's Barn" which was painted earlier this year, but not posted....yet.

Picked Out

Perfect time to post this painting, Fall is in the air. This is from a trip to a farmer's market in Lincoln Park. This subject has been painted a couple times, but this is my favorite.

Translation

Sometimes you have to mix it up. Here is an abstracted landscape. My trademark colors are used with suggested shapes. It was an enjoyable exercise and says what I wanted to say.

Primarily Peppers

It's funny how a snippet of a scene can bring back the memories of a whole day. Fall, food, friends, and family.
This is the second attempt of this composition. The partially completed canvas was leaning on a table leg while the sun shone through the back of the canvas and created beautiful light streams that had to be painted.

Trio Trio

Another scene from the old Texas ranch - the chicken coop, the dairy barn, and the ranch hand's home. The center building was originally a train depot that was moved and repurposed.

The Red Door

This building is part of a ranch in Texas where I got some old barn wood to make a table for my studio. It was a beautiful place and I will be reminded of it every time I see my table.

Sometimes you can't leave well enough alone. I messed with this painting and here is the revision.

I like this better, and it won an award in a show, so at least one other person also likes it.

Change In The Air

A front came in from the north and made a beautiful mark on the sky.

Recollection

A better name might be Reflection, but this painting is more of an idea of a place. I have simplified the surroundings and let the color be intuitive.

Verde Vista

My largest work so far, measuring 60" wide x 40" tall, is painted on a textured hardboard. This painting isn't all about greens, but how they relate to each other. They took me on quite a journey.

My Kind of Town

If you know Chicago, you know this place. I used gouache in this painting, which is an opaque water-based paint. It has the workability of watercolor and the coverage similar to acrylic paint. I plan to do a series of Chicago scenes like this one. I'll post them as they become available.