J. Frederick Art: January 2012

Friday, January 27, 2012

Daily Painting Continued...

Well so far so good! I have managed to post something new every day this year ( I know, I know, the year is still young). Today I painted a new pastel of Mount Sopris to put in the Austin Pastel Society Georgetown Library show which we are hanging tomorrow. Talk about last minute. I knew I needed a third painting for the show and since we did not have to submit images, I went ahead and decided on a subject and waited till the day before the show to actually create the piece. Thank goodness that when I went to work this morning on a piece of reddish Windberg paper mounted on some Gatorboard it came out and I was very happy with it. I posted it as my Daily Painting for tomorrow, but if it sells the buyer will need to agree to allow it to hang in the library until the end of February.


"Sopris" 8x10 pastel on Windberg paper

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Austin (today is too for that matter), so I joined some of my plein air painting friends at Austin Java coffee shop on Barton Springs Road to paint. I sat outside with Johnnie and we both painted competing coffee shop Flipnotics, across the street. Their bright green building with neon orange trim made for an interesting challenge. Johnnies turned out rather better than mine, but most (if not all) of hers do.

"Flipnotics" 8x10 oil on canvas panel/board

The day before yesterday I painted a third small painting in a series pulled from photos taken on a painting trip I took with my mother-in-law in 2007 to Portugal with painter Charles Gruppe. I had a fabulous time on the trip and painted 7 or 8 paintings in various beautiful locations. I have an incredible mother-in-law. Not many people I know, would gladly choose their mother-in-law as a travel partner, but I did. She never once said a word in complaint and I honestly had no idea she did not enjoy the trip as much as I did, until I read her travel journal last year. Her paintings frustrated her and she did not enjoy the food choices available in Portugal. (She's a strict vegetarian and they don't go in much for vegetarian fare in Portugal). Anyway the photos we brought home with us have served me well as painting fodder. Here are the three I painted this week from the photos.

"Schlepping My Art Gear" 6x6 oil on gessoed masonite

This was a photo my mother-in-law took of me schlepping my stuff up a steep, narrow street in Obidos, a beautiful, ancient, walled city in Portugal. It was charming with all the old whitewashed walls and either blue or yellow trim. There were flowering shrubs and window boxes everywhere.


"Sintra Center" 6x8 oil on gessoed masonite

The photo of the center of Sintra was one I did originally on site on a 9x12 canvas. That painting sold in Portugal so I did not get to bring it home with me. So I did it over as a 6x8


"Boat Siesta" 6x6 oil on gessoed masonite

"Seated Man" 6x6 oil on gessoed masonite

The painting of the boats I did originally in pastel and sold it to my old boss at the newspaper. I redid it in pastel for a CTPS show. I still have that second pastel version. This is the first time I tried it in oil. I liked the pastel version better.

This week's DPW Challenge Painting was the seated figure. They provided a photo to use if we chose, or we could use our own photo. I opted to use theirs. This is my interpretation of their photo. I changed the man's hat to red instead of black so it would stand out better and I simplified the background.

All paintings available through Daily Paintworks.

Visit my gallery at www.jfrederickart.com

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Tangerine Tango is the "Hot" color for 2012

"Tangerine Tango Poppy" 6x6 oil on masonite

"Poppy 2" 6x6 oil on masonite

No one is trying to call it the new black, but according to the fashionistas "Tangerine Tango" a brilliant red/orange is the "in" color this year. Last week's DPW challenge, challenged us to paint a painting around that color. I did two paintings of poppies using my closest approximation of that color (after all who's seen a tube of "tangerine tango"). This was fun to play with and a lovely color.

"Grand Canyon" 5x7 pastel on Ampersand board

I also painted a small pastel view of the Grand Canyon - kinda ironic, a tiny painting of the Grand Canyon, isn't it? That I used for my challenge painting at the Central Texas Pastel Society meeting. This month's challenge was to paint one of the National Parks hence the Grand Canyon.

While working on my dog series, I decided to try to paint a dog that belonged to one of my clients. I'm afraid I didn't do a great job of him. I don't think the owners would recognize him, but he does look like a cute dog, so I kept him and didn't wipe him out and start over. I named him "Buzzy" but that's not really who it is.

"Buzzy" 6x6 oil on masonite

"Austin Skyline" 6x6 oil on masonite

An old photo I had taken of the Austin skyline years ago, attracted me. So I did a quick oil sketch of it. Anyone familiar with the skyline will notice several of the newer buildings missing, but it was such a lovely shot I couldn't help painting it.

As usual most paintings are available through www.DailyPaintworks.com

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

How Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

"Holly" 6x6 pastel (not for sale)

I am so enjoying my retirement. Every day I get to do my favorite thing, which is paint! Some days I have more time than others but so far this year I've managed to complete at least one small painting a day and that makes me really happy. I realized that while I'm having so much fun, I've neglected my blog, so it's time for me to bring you up to date with the work I've been doing. Here goes in no particular order: