To start the above painting, I pulled out a less than successful oil plein air study I did in 2007. The nice thing about using an older, not-so- stellar paint study, is that I’ve found myself less inclined to stay very true to the plein air study, and more willing to make changes for the good of the painting.
This work in progress piece is pastel on a Gatorboard panel that I made my self. I started by an orange toned board, and then painted on Golden Fine Pumice gel in an irregular pattern.
The weather was great this morning in St. Paul, so I spent part of this St. Patrick’s day outside painting.
This is a plein air sketch that I did for part of an upcoming painting. The rest of the project will be posted as it comes together.
We just moved into a new house in a fantastic neighborhood. Every morning, when I eat breakfast, I have a great view of this tree across the alley from us. I think this tree and its crossing branches has such a wonderful shape. I really want to try and complete a painting of it before the leaves come out for the spring.
The above image is a plein air preparatory drawing for an upcoming painting. I used a simple pencil and a white pastel pencil to sketch it out in my spiral bound, grey Sennelier pad.
I’ve been digging through my boxes of pastels to find colors that I can use to unify areas of the painting. To do this, I try to find a color that can be applied to a few different objects.
An example would be the light blue that I was able to use in the background, the table top, and the green cloth on the left side of the painting. By repeating strokes of the same color on top of different objects, it help to create a feeling of those different objects being seen under the same light. In this case, it is cool north light through my studio window.
I finally got back over to the studio today. We have been moving from an apartment in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis, to our first house, over in Saint Paul! I’m thrilled to be living back in Saint Paul, but moving is a lot of work! Every time that I’ve done it, I swear that this is going to be it for a long time, but I think this time, it is going to be it for a long time.
I worked across the whole painting today. My goals were to
With pastel, I usually add in some “pushed” or exaggerated colors at this stage. These colors with get subdued as the painting develops further, but the colors influence can be felt. You can see an example of this with the strong red on the right side of the bowl, or the orange on the folds of the cloth just to the left of the copper canister.
It’s Labor Day, which means summer is coming to an end. In honor of that, I wanted to show off what’s currently on my easel. A summery scene, Alaskan Trail is an 18×24″ oil painting done from some field sketches and reference photos. There is still more work to be done, but I feel like I really made some good progress on it today!
So, you may have arrived here at my blog, and are asking yourself, ” Where the heck have you been?” Well…I’ve been hard at work on a rather extensive portrait project. It can be seen in full detail, going all the way back to the design phase. Check out the portrait painting right here on Jeffrey Smith Art
Work continues on this painting. I’m looking forward to coming to an end on this one, and starting something new! My plan is to start up with my daily painting project again… I miss doing something that only takes a few hours to complete.
So things are finally starting to come together…I’m feeling like I’m rounding a corner on this painting. I’ve grown to really
enjoy using a limited number of pigments…Decision making is certainly alot simpler with only 6 colors!
I’ve been struggling with the paint surface on this piece all along…I decided, “Maybe my white paint isn’t as fresh as it could or for that mater, should be.” For those of you who don’t think that paint can be old even right from the store, think again. I headed off to the studio today, new tube of white in hand…what a difference! It was a joy to work on this piece as opposed to the chore that it had been. I expect great things from this tube of white paint! For those wondering, the new super paint is from Gamblin. I think it’s a great paint, at a great price.
JeffreySmithArt 
