I stayed home from my day job on Friday and had a few hours on my hands so I painted a 20 x 30 oil painting which is pretty much what I do. What makes it unusual is that I sat down to paint with a couple of brushes and began the under-drawing with a brush and when I started to mix up a tone with my palette knife something told me to put the paint on with the knife. I did not touch a brush till I signed the painting. Those of you who have seen my work for several years know that many of my plein air works are knife paintings. However it has been almost a year since I painted solely with a knife.
Knife painting allows me a textural or tactile quality that I rarely find with a brush.
As I have stated before, I was awe struck with the powerful beauty of the Caribbean Sea pounding the east shore of Cozumel, Mexico. I can’t help but try and capture it. This knife painting gave me something….. now I need to build on it.
I have not forsaken my Moab and Arches work in fact I feel that the same energy I get from the palette knife in the beach painting may help me in the Arches.
Enjoy the video its in HD! ( Thanks to Daniel) Watch my Ebay store for smaller plein air works and a couple of mid sized works. Contact me if you are interested in any work on this site.
I painted another smallish Cozumel beach study this week. This one is a little view on the west side of the island. The west side of the island is home to the awesome Cozumel snorkeling reefs the water was much calmer on the west side when I was there although was rarely as calm as I painted it here. I love how blue and transparent the water is I can’t wait to put on my snorkel and enjoy the view. This painting may appear to be complete but I am calling this one a work in progress. I like to work alla prima, completeing the work all in one sitting on something of this scale 12 x 16 inches. However at times a painting just needs more and that is what this little blue-gray gem is telling me it needs more, I just need to decide what that is.
When I go back to Cozumel this spring I plan on doing a few watercolors in my spare time (If I have any). I will be posting a few warm up watercolor sketches in the next month or so so check back and find out whether I can remember how to watercolor.
Temple of Posideon (1989)
The last serious watercolor sketching I did was in the late 1980′s while I was traveling in Greece and Italy. I have included a photo of a watercolor painting I did at the temple of Poseidon on that trip. I sat on a big old block of marble for an hour or so and made this 12×10 painting. It was a beautiful sunny day the sun was glistening out on the Mediterranean sea or the Aegean I can’t remember my geography that well but, I remember the sunshine because I wrote about it in my sketch book. I hope you will check back soon. Check out the small paintings I have for sale on Ebay. I you would like to own any of the paintings you see in my Blog or on my site e-mail me for details.
Some time this spring Rhonda and I are headed back to Cozumel. Last year when we went I did not expect to see the island with my artists eyes I thought I would see it with my tourist eyes. My first surprise was how beautiful the water was from the air and from the beach and finally through a snorkel. I was captivated by the experience of snorkeling above the reefs on the west side of the island. I have tried to imagine how I could paint something that could capture that undersea feeling. My efforts as a photographer may be how I express the snorkel experience.
Chub Express
The amazing experience from the trip was the absolutely sublime feeling I had when I first saw the east beaches of Cozumel. I was nearly breathless. I have stood on the edge of thousand foot cliffs where I could see more than a hundred miles. I have seen hundreds of spectacular and sublime views of the Colorado Plateau. Maybe it is the fact that I have only had brief encounters with the ocean, but I fell in love with the color, the smell and power or the Caribbean surf on the east side of the island. I have completed a dozen small paintings and a couple of large ones based on the little research I did last year. The little 11 x 14 studio work which I included in this post, I just completed. I can hardly wait to stand on that shore and soak it all up again with the eye of an artist. Watch ebay this little painting will be offered up for sale or auction soon. ( I need to Pay for the trip)
I attended a Photography workshop this week in Kamas, Utah. The scenery and company were great! I was able to work in my studio a bit. I am still working on the colors and textures I saw and felt in Cozumel. I included two pictures of paintings from this week one is my view from the area of Palancar reef looking east towards Cozumel. The other is a beach view from the east side of the island looking north. This coming week I plan on painting a bunch so check back and see where in the world I find myself painting.
I made a couple of larger oil paintings of Cozumel beaches this week, one of them will be up for auction on EBAY starting Sunday June 7th. Rhonda and I went out on Thursday and Friday evenings. Thursday we went up to Big Springs. I looked for painting ideas and found one or two and Rhonda took the dogs and went on a hike. Friday we went up to the Homestead Crater in Midway and did a little snorkeling and skin diving practice.
I have been working on a group of small paintings inspired by my recent trip to Cozumel I found the blue water and pounding surf on the east side of the island to be absolutely mesmerizing.
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I painted another smallish Cozumel beach study this week. This one is a little view on the west side of the island. The west side of the island is home to the awesome Cozumel snorkeling reefs the water was much calmer on the west side when I was there although was rarely as calm as I painted it here. I love how blue and transparent the water is I can’t wait to put on my snorkel and enjoy the view. This painting may appear to be complete but I am calling this one a work in progress. I like to work alla prima, completeing the work all in one sitting on something of this scale 12 x 16 inches. However at times a painting just needs more and that is what this little blue-gray gem is telling me it needs more, I just need to decide what that is.
