Palms along the Marsh

My first post for this year is a scene from along the marsh, one of my favorite hang-outs to paint. During this time of year, the lack of rain causes the reeds and other water plants to dry up. The results are beautiful yellows and oranges.  

Lake Shore

..."spring-green" for St. Patrick's Day :o)...  I am struggling with my landscapes recently deciding how much detail is needed to give the feel of the scene in front of me. Here I wanted to emphasize on the different directions the trees are growing (movement) next to the peaceful field and lake (horizontal and relaxation) resulting in some kind of balance...  wow!... I feel quite philosophical today....

Forest Path

For a while I wanted to paint a landscape that has more shaded area than sun light.... I finally tried... and I had to find out that painting shade is difficult!!! I had to take this painting 3 times to the location and finish it there. In this case a reference photo I took was useless because the darks showed up flat without any luminosity and I needed to observe from real life... however, still, I find it sometimes useful to have a photo to decide on design and composition. I guess this is my contribution to the age-old discussion: Is painting from photographs good or bad? ....my answer is that it is just another tool that can be helpful....

Paint-Out

My painting buddies made excellent subjects for this landscape. Recently I have been busy getting paintings ready for a solo show that I will be setting up for the month of February. The show will be at the new city hall of Wilton Manors near Fort Lauderdale. The city is holding an ARTWALK every 3rd Friday of the month, starting at 6 pm. I am excited to have the opportunity to do this as my plan for 2012 is to be more active in exhibiting my work. This will be my first solo show.... you are more than welcome to stop by if you happen to be in the area. Now, as it is most likely you are living far far away... the majority of the paintings that will be in the show you can enjoy here on the blog.
Cheers -

Foxtail Palm

I would like to start off this year with a study that I did on NEW YEAR'S EVE. Here in South Florida the last day of 2011said good-bye with blue sky, sunshine and mild temperatures. Greetings from the sunshine state!!!

Three Brothers

The interesting design of these live oaks caught my attention. As far as I know they are quite old ... their gnarled and crooked growth  tell a story of past struggles...hurricanes, strangler figs and chain saws...survival of the fittest..... they remind me of three brothers looking out for each other with some competition thrown in there... talking about past struggles - let's look forward to the NEW YEAR -
Happy and healthy 2012 everyone!!!!

Park Bridge

Preparing for the holidays kept me busy for the last week or so....now I finally find time to post something new. This is one of the plein air paintings that is now finished. It took several trips to the location to finish. As you can imagine a 30" x 30" canvas in sometimes windy conditions was quite a challenge. I had to put robes with tent stakes into the ground to hold the easel down.... a square format was another tricky thing with this composition... what do you think? Does it work??

Bridge

This plein-air painting is from last fall in the park. It took me 2 sessions to complete. Little did the 2 people on the bridge know that they were posing for me while watching water turtles.

Cypress in Fall

I have not posted much on the DAILYPAINTWORKS.COM challenges as I am finding myself with less time to spare for painting. However, this painting I was able to post for the past week's fall colors challenge. Here in South Florida we do not have the dramatic color change that fall presents up North. However, the bald cypress is one of the view trees that does change colors and goes "bald" during the winter. It is like a splash of color next to all the evergreens.

Lake View

Another plein air painting from the park. This is the beautiful lake that you have seen from the boad house paintings. Here I focused on a rather quiescent mood......

Boat House 3

As mentioned a few weeks ago I am now posting another view of the boat house. I got to finish it over the week-end. Wow, what a "growing experience!!! I found myself much more looking than painting. One big thing (besides the size....lol) was that I had to be so much more patient... a smaller painting I finish in one sitting - this one I had to bring to the park four times to get it finished. That is long for me...but I am glad that finally I am able to "push it" further (you big canvas painters know what I mean!)... I guess I never had to really think about that with the smaller paintings. Now, here it is...let me know how you like it.

Shared Space

I found another plein air painting from last fall. When we arrived one Saturday morning at the park we saw the boy scouts had set up camp over night at our favorite painting spot....

Tree Umbrella

It has been a while... the excuse is of course I am swamped with work and not much time to paint .... As I was looking through my paintings I found this landscape that I worked on over the summer. The original painting was from one year ago and I was never happy with it. The final version gives much more the impression of full sunlight, agreed?

Boat House 2

Here is one of this summer's version of the boat house. How do you like it?

Palm Window

 #1


#2

Here I have a BEFORE and AFTER of an en-plein-air painting. I was out in the park to paint this in spring. If you are familiar with painting on site, you know how much one has to ignore, simplify and pay attention to color perspective. The first painting appears busy. The middle and background did not go back due to the colors being too bright and light which makes everything pop. The second painting is the new version from last week-end. I went back to the spot and repainted mainly the background. Of course it is now a different time of the year so a lot of colors have changed too. What do you think? Is #2 a better rendition? Is there still something that could be improved? Thanks in advance for your feed back.

Sabal Palm

The typical Florida scene...a sabal palm. Also known as cabbage palm due to the first settlers using its core as a food source. This painting can be purchased through my store at etsy.com. Go to: hurterart

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View out the window

Here is my entry for the DailyPaintworks - Weekly Challenge - I focused on the sparkling highlights on the lawn that are contrasted with the red leaves from above...