Oil Paintings

Ever since I was a kid I had the notion that since I couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler, I would be wasting my time dabbling in any sort of painting as a hobby. In 2002 a friend who is a talented artist was starting a series of lessons in her home, and on a whim I signed up. I found I enjoyed it and actually seemed to have some small talent to put paint on canvas.

For some time I've been meaning to take pictures of the paintings I've done that are hanging in my house. (I've done at least a dozen others and given them away as gifts, donations to charity auctions, etc.) This morning I decided to get the pictures taken, and I thought perhaps they might make an interesting blog entry. So here goes:

Most of the stuff I do are landscapes, painted from snapshots that I've taken various places. However, once in a while I just start painting and see what happens. This is one of those. It's called "Rain At Sea".

The next two are a set, done as sort of an experiment. Remember I said I couldn't draw a straight line? Well, I wanted to see if I could paint a straight line, which is actually rather difficult. Anyway, this pair are called, "Desert Day" and "Desert Night". The idea was to depict the passage of light though the day, beginning at dawn, into the white hot noon and the colors of late afternoon. Then, picking up where "Desert Day" stops, "Desert Night" depicts the colors of the night, passing from twilight, into midnight, dawn and early morning. These are both small paintings, about 9"x12", and hang in my hallway.

I don't think this is one of my better efforts but I keep it for sentimental reasons. It depicts my backyard when I lived in Marion, IL. The yard was landscaped with river rock pebbles and plants around a pool (not in the painting) and I had a platform built for my swing. The yard was finished just before my back surgery in 2000, and I sat in that swing for hours, enjoying the yard and the plants as I recovered from the surgery. Before I moved to Carbondale, I took snapshots of the yard so I could remember it.

This was painted from a snapshot I took in Mexico on a trip touring ancient ruins.

I've also done a few still lifes. This was painted from actual squash and apples posed against a cardboard background on a checkered tablecloth. I was never happy with the tablecloth, but finally said the hell with it.

The picture above and the next two below all are from snapshots I took in Alaska. The above shows the entrance to one of the glacier bays (can't recall which one).

This one is from a snapshot of a glacier cascading into its bay inch by inch. The reflection of the ice in the blue water intrigued me. I tried hard to get it accurately in oil. Several years after I painted this, this glacier began "galloping" into its bay at several feet per minute and eventually disappeared into the water. It doesn't exist anymore!

The picture below is entitled "Tundra and Tiega", and is from a snapshot taken from a window of the train from Denali Park to Fairbanks. Tundra is the flater area at the base of the mountains and tiega refers to the low growth bushes and trees in the foreground.

This was painted from a snapshot taken in 1997, on the Dingle Peninsula on the west coast of Ireland. So much of Ireland is green, so the shapshot with all the blues and grays and lavendars made a nice contrast.

I rarely do a painting from another media of any kind, but this is an exception. My friend had an old calendar with a photograph of this beach scene from northern California on it. There was no attribution, so I don't know who the photographer was. Anyway, the scene intrigued me, and since I'm keeping the painting for personal use and not selling it, no sweat.

The painting below was another "start slapping on the paint and see what happens" effort. It's actually sideways, since I forgot to rotate it, but I suppose it really doesn't matter much! (other than my signature at the bottom is off kilter) I call it "Lawrence Welk on LSD".

The painting above is one of my favorites. It's from a snapshot of a castle in Scotland, and I love the lush flowers with the shadowy castle in the background. (I was walking on the tan path shown in the painting when I snapped the photo.) This painting, along with "Tundra and Tiega" and "Rain at Sea" were the three paintings that were juried when I was accepted into the local Associated Artists Gallery several years ago.

This is another favorite. Not painted from another art media exactly, but "copied" nonetheless. I wanted a painting for my bedroom to match the sheets and pillowcases on my bed. I took a pillowcase, folded it in half twice, and used the image on top to paint this rather large canvas, which is indeed hanging in my bedroom. An interesting note is that in China I recently bought silk bed linens--and picked a pattern to match the painting!

The painting below requires some explanation. The church I belong to is part of the Unitarian Universalist Assocation. The UU symbol is a flaming chalice, often shown within two intertwined circles. The flaming chalice represents the spirit of our faith and the intertwining circles represent our heritage of Universalism and Unitarianism. There is a bit of a story behind this painting. In 2003, we were in the process of building a new church building. I got the idea to do a painting of a chalice and donate it to the church for the new building, which I did.

After the new building was completed, I waited to see where the painting would end up. After a year, I found it in a storeroom. This requires some additional explanation. At that time, the church had what was known as the "Arts and Aesthetics Committee", a group of women who basically evaluated items donated or purchased for the decor of the church and decided what would go where. (Can you see what's coming?) When I found the painting in the storeroom, initially I was furious and had my feelings way hurt! I took the painting home in a huff and hung it on my wall. In the coming months several other items donated by members got short shrift from the AAC, and tempers flared. Eventually the AAC was disbanded, and things settled down. There was some discussion about this issue, and the consensus was that the AAC had "new white tennis shoes syndrome". (You know, how when you have a brand new pair of white tennis shoes, you hate to do anything to get them dirty---but eventually they do get soiled and then it's OK if they get dirty and you have to wash them.) With a brand, spanking new church building, the AAC wanted to keep it pristine and dignified! Now this is a church of 200 members, many of them young families with kids, and there's no way a building can be used and stay pristine--and frankly, there is a difference between dignfied and prissy. In good condition and clean, yes, but not pristine--and definitely not prissy!

I'm quite certain I could take the painting back and someone would see that it was hung somewhere in the building. However, it was an early effort and I've decided it's not really that good. But I like keeping it on my wall. It keeps me humble.

So, for now, those are most of the paintings hanging around here. (As I'm typing this I realized I left out three small paintings of flowers. I'll snap them another time.) I'm planning another painting for my bedroom, perhaps from a snapshot taken in China. I'll try to be sure it doesn't clash with the sheets.