More from easton

I'm taking half the morning off to upload the paintings from the trip and add a few more to the blog, then it's back to the trenches with many commissions and gallery work to be done. Here's a better pic of the boat builder painting. The idea was sort of a two parter, emphasize that open door shape, make that the big event but create a secondary event with the guy working in the corner. I was happy with this one and sold it there at Easton. I really like a painting that tells a story.... I'm going to do more of those here shortly in the studio. And here's the other one I sold, quite frankly I did this with a sale in mind, nothing sells like a sunrise or sunset something or another. Is that wrong? Not to me, this is a business after all. The above painting is what I love to do, complicated scenarios with lots of stuff and a story to be had. This painting was just about mood and moody stuff sells. It's why God invented glazes. I liked it at first but by the time I put it in the show there was something off about it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. It'll come to me. and one more that has a footnote or two. I do love painting boats, if I can work in some historical architecture, all the mo' bettah. This boat had a habit of leaving every 2 or 3 hours taking people out for scenic cruises. I kept asking about the schedule and stumbled on a block of time in the late afternoon when it wasn't going anywhere till sunset. It's a skipjack and a great looking boat... I wish I could've gotten some shots of it with the sails up but it was too far out when it was under sail.

I have a habit of TMSing a painting. I put it all in because it's there. I usually have to go back in after the fact to take things out and move values around. For example, in the building behind the boat I had to lighten the values of the darks to push it back a notch and in doing that I took out a lot of the crap in the shadows. I also pushed the darkest dark in the foreground under the boat to bring it forward. I don't know why I don't think of this stuff when I'm doing it but there are so many other things to consider. Which leads me to the work of Tim Bell. His stuff just gets me going. Especially his studies, his small paintings. I realized that the thing I loved about his work was that there was no reworking of anything, he seems to just get it right on the first pass and then leaves it alone. Makes for a very fresh painting. also he leaves out everything except the biggest shapes and lets the color do the work. I'm still learning this stuff.