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Again, just back from traveling...and a full day in the studio. I went to work on the nude I had been working on last week. Normally I submit one nude to a show in Astoria, each year. But it is a real push for me as I spend most of my time on landscapes. Years ago I was a figurative painter, but now it is a once a year thing. I have been fortunate and have been accepted into this show two years...but really want this painting to be more like my landscape work, not something very separate. I had worked on a classical nude...but as interesting as that is for a learning experience, I wanted my nude to follow some of the precepts of my landscapes...same limited pallet...blocking in shapes, etc. With my current pallet it is not possible to get the skin tones of the masters, but I really like this more structural work.

We were out of town...and it seems like months instead of days since I was in the studio. I started off with some modest corrections to wet works, and then started on the 3rd in my series of Meditations On A River...trying to capture a specific part of the Deschutes, below our house, on different days, different seasons, different times of day.

Again, this was painted from the top of Mt. Howard, in eastern Oregon. You can see across the snake river to the Seven Devils Mt. range in Idaho. It is spectacular. Painting at this elevation is no challenge, as there is a tram up the mountain...but the fall weather, while sunny is BRISK! (Stargted out at 30 degrees!) I did chuckle a couple of times when curious tourists stopped and commented...my favorite is "We ought to get Granny up here...she likes to paint!" I had a vision of all the "aunts, cousins, grandma's" who "like to paint" standing in a row, brushes in hand painting away!

The Wallowa Mountains are in the extreme north east portion of Oregon. This is probably the most beautiful part of a beautiful state...yes, the Ocean is grand, my own high desert area vast and inspiring,but the Wallowa Mountain area is so remote...no McDonalds' no Wall-Mart...some very small towns, and some great art. There is an annual literary conference in Enterprise, and the art foundaries in Joseph...and the mountains. This was painted at the 8000 Ft level from the top of Mt. Howard. Thank goodness a tram takes you up...carrying my plein air back pack the 4000 feet from the valley floor would not have been possible. As it was, while sunny, the day started out at 30 degrees. (In the past, I would use this as a starting point for a hike to the 10,000 foot level, to see out over all the mountains and into the lakes basin...but that is not imaginable for me with a plein air backpack!

Once a year I enter a nude show...Au Natural..and it is always a struggle for me to come up with something. I used to be a figurative painter,but five years into landscapes means that I don't put the effort into figurative work that would allow my style to evolve. I also have the dilemma that I don't want my styles in the two areas--landscape and figurative--to be very different (the experiment with the classical nude was for fun, only...not for show). So listening to my "inner Ken Auster," I decided to block in some figures in the background. Two customers kindly served as my willing models yesterday. (I hope they read this blog)...so here is the beginning of this painting. I will let it sit for a week or so (then work on the model)...the entry date is not until November. However, I do like the addition of the two clothed people...nudes can be awfully "serious."

Still integrating my Ken Auster learnings into my work. He claims there are 3 phases to painting..Planning where you use your intellect, the painting which is when you are in the zone (passion) and then the finishing of a painting where you make adjustments, the intellect again. Well today was intellect day for this painting that I started yesterday. I adjusted values, did more detail on the irrigation creek/ditch...worked on the sky, etc. Of course like any painting in my studio, it is always only 99% done...I can come by later and adjust. (Adjusting also includes renaming...I find this the hardest part of painting!)

This incomplete painting, is of a scene I pass many nights. There is a small irrigation ditch that runs through an old farm. At sunset this little ditch is as pretty as any other creek or stream. It caused me to think about doing a twilight series. I find as a painter that I need to work through a series of paintings on the same topic to feel like I really understand the works that intrigue me. Nocturnes have always intrigued me, but they take a lot of discipline...values need to be very close (or the hi-lights need to be limited an the focal point) and it is almost impossible to start with a plein air sketch. (Oh, I know it is done, with headlamps, but...). I found it fun and challenging to paint abandoned buildings earlier this year. Think I am on to a new series.

I have been working on a commission for months...I would pick up the work and think I was done, but never was satisfied. I am painting from an old photo...not digitized...very indistinct...so it has been a challenge. It is a lovely photo, never the less, but not a scene that I would normally paint.
So I gave it some additional thought and decided that since it is not my normal type of scene (not the desert, not warm colors)why not just go outside my normal style. This scene really called for a more traditional impressionist approach, so I went over the entire painting today (luckily despite the fact that I had about 5 coats of paint on the canvas, they were thin/underpainting coats) and using a flat brush I simply juxtaposed colors very much as an impressionist would do. I didn't attempt to pair complements, but did go for a very non blended approach. I will look at it tomorrow with fresh eyes and see if this was right.

Labor Day is over, the guests are gone (we had a lot of fun, but no painting)...and it is back to the studio. I am still trying to implement some techniques I got from Ken Auster...so this incomplete study of a great waitress is an attempt at really just blocking in the figure. While I really like Auster's approach for figures in scenery, it is probably not a style I will use for most of my figurative work. This is not a finished work...so we will see what we will see.

I went back to a painting I had thought I finished last week...and realized that I needed to: put more blues in the background, soften distant edges, really identify my focal point, etc. So here is a more finished (I am reticent to say "finished") work. It is important, to me at least, to take a break and come back with a more critical eye.