Show Season

  I will be in North Webster next Saturday the 31st for a one day show and then the following week I will be at Amish Acres in Nappenee starting on Thursday through Sunday. I have been back out in farm country lately painting for these shows. Some of the Water Colors are bright and bold while others are a bit more restrained. It is always a joy to spend time on the side roads in the Amish areas nearby. It is quite peaceful to step back in time a bit to see farming the way it was everywhere 50 years ago. These traditional Water Colors are an opportunity to see the landscape as it was and still is in these unique areas that I seek out as an artist to share with you.

   This first one is of a farm I ran across last week when out looking for painting subjects. While I took some photos a little Amish girl peered around the corner of the house. It was a hazy summer morning that looked more like August or September than July. I could not pass this up with the two buggies parked under the overhang of the old barn and the morning light just beginning to burn through the morning mist with distant trees still blue appearing blue in the morning air. This painting is 11x15 inches, Water Color on 300lb Fabrino CP paper.

      This painting was at a farm that sat right on the end of a"T" road with a wonderful yellow house that is sure to be the subject of a future painting. I took some pictures and the headed down the road only to come back later for more as it was just to good of a place to give up on. Coming at the farm from the east I could see this wonderful yellow bucket hanging under the overshot on this bank barn with the stonewall of the leanto reflecting the wonderful warm light bathing the scene. It was the morning after  a strong weather front had moved through the night before so I was playing tag with the fair weather clouds racing through on the north wind to get the light I wanted. This one too is 11x15 inches painted in Water Color on 300lb Fabrino CP paper. 

    The wonderful scene shown here was just down the road to the east of the previous painting. It is so rare these days to see wheat cut and then shocked up like it had been done for a thousand years waiting in this case to be ran through a threshing machine. We are so accustomed now to seeing the huge combines devour hundreds of acres in a day that a simple scene like this has become a jewel lost in time. In the distance one can see the the chicken house, a small grainery and a long stack of firewood waiting on the winter snow. It is always a challenge to capture the morning light when it is coming right on at you but I was quite happy with this effort. Water Color, 7x10 inches on Fabrino 300lb CP paper. 

     This last little one is a quick sketch to help me work out some of the problems as I prepare to do it on a much larger scale. It is these treats one finds while shuffling around the countryside that keeps me going out day after day. This old handcart full of flowers sitting by a white barn awash in the light of a summer morning is what gets my heart racing. To do this scene justice will take a much larger sheet of paper and some time but the end result will be worth every minute I spend with brush in hand and just pondering how to make it all work. Again Water Color, 5x7 inches on 140lb paper. 

Paintout at Lake Wawasee

  This past weekend the IPAPA sponsered a paintout at Lake Wawasee in Syracuse Indiana and a good time was had by all that attended. The residents of the area welcomed the artists onto their property to paint various views of this beautiful lake. On Sunday afternoon there was a show and sale at South Shore Golf Course where residents could purchase participating artists work.
   Here are some examples of the paintings I did over the weekend in Water Color. My son painted with me on Saturday and wife and daughter helped me with the show on Sunday.

This one is a view from the public access at the south end of the lake painted on Saturday as a small thunder storm was crossing to the the north. It is Water Color, 11x15 inches on 300 LB Paper. 

This one was one of the many wonderful flower gardens around the lake. It is Water Color, 11x15 inches on 300lb paper. 

This is the entrance area to a wonderful house on the lake in the morning light. It is 7x11 inches, Water Color on 300lb paper. 

A shot of the setting I was painting in. 

Another quick shot of a Water Color that is almost finished looking out across a small lake. 

Winona Lake

  I am getting ready for a show at the Village of Winona Lake Indiana and wanted to have a couple of local pieces for the show. This one is from some reference photos I shot there a couple of weeks ago. I wanted something that said Summer and I think this one does! I like these paintings that make a statement and make you feel the them. I like to look at a painting and feel myself becoming lost in it. Water Colors are such a wonderful medium for work like this, strong yet transparent and bright. If you are in the area I will be at the Village at Winona Art Show June 5th and 6th. There will be a lot of wonderful art by many great artists.

Winona Summer

Water Color, 7x10 inches, painted on Fabrino 300lb Cold Press Paper. Sorry this one is sold. 

Some studio work

  I know I should be out painting with this wonderful weather but the schedule around here is crazy right now with school coming to an end so I have been hanging out in the studio getting some work done there.
   This first one is from some reference photos I shot late last winter, I am looking forward to getting back out there and doing some plein air work of this place. Was no doubt quite a house in its time but is pretty well along the road to decline now. I love the blue house against the dull gray of winter. I know it is summer and the world is green again but this one has been burning a hole in mind since I shot the pics and I just had to take a minute and get it out! I love these scenes and the quiet despair in them. Not sure why but they draw me in like a moth to light on a warm summer night. I will be doing more of this place as time goes by, I feel it calling me back.

Up Ft. Wayne Road

  Painting is Water Color, 11x15 inches on Fabrino 300lb CP paper. It will ship upon payment, price is $165.00.

  This next one is from a photo  shot years ago down in southern Indiana over by the Versalles, Friendship area. Could not find it now if I had too and not sure it is still standing. It is an old one room township schoolhouse in late summer with Queen Annes Lace in the field around it. I have never gotten this one painted and ran into it going through some old pics and thought I would give it a try. Every now and then I try to figure out how another artist did something and on this one went after  "Winslow Homer" sky. I was happy with the result and liked the color and depth it portrayed. Thanks for looking and if you have any interest or just questions feel free to email me. 

Lace after School

Water Color , 11x15 inches on Fabrino 300lb CP Paper. Will ship upon payment, price is $155.

To purchase on Etsy click here Lace after School

Across the Marsh

   Here is another studio piece I did last week of a large marsh west of me about 5 miles near where Deep Creek meets the Tippecanoe river. I would estimate the marsh to be about 90-110 acres in size covering an area that used to be drained and pumped so it could be farmed. There are two large areas like this now in the area that were once farmed and have since been let go back to a more original state. Some of these are strange places with floating bogs where huge trees move when you walk across them while others have seemingly shallow streams that are actually nearly bottomless. These places have more life in them that you can imagine year around. While I was out photographing this one muskrats were swimming by while the frogs are singing and the blue and green herons wade the shallows for an easy meal. These are wonderful places we have done about everything in our power to destroy but they are slowly making a comeback. The barn and silo off in the distance is the same set of buildings as the little painting 19th & Fir. That was painted from the west and this from the north.
  

 This painting is 11x15 inches on Fabrino 300lb cold press paper and will ship upon receiving payment price is $135.00. To purchase this painting on Etsy click here Across the Marsh.

Abandoned

   I painted this one from some reference photos I had taken of this farm which is now mostly just a memory. This water color is of the front porch of the house which faced north so the original owners would have a cool place to sit during the heat of summer after a day of hard work on the farm. The foliage overhead s from a huge sugar maple in the front yard which is one of 3 mature trees in the yard. There were various fruit trees and others but they are all gone now. These trees are one of greatest things about these old farms and something you just can't get with new construction. Often the trees and flowers are all that is left to tell us where a farm once was. Many times when I am driving down country roads in the spring I will see the bright yellow of daffodils often by an old red pine and know that long ago someones dreams began here. You can imagine a young wife taking a moment out of a busy day to plant flowers as her husband worked the fields of the farm they built with their own hands.
   Well enough nostalgia for now. The painting is 11x15 inches painted on Fabrino 300lb paper. These works are an attempt to capture rural America as it has been before it is all gone and we forget what the little universe that was the family farm truly was. I am sorry this one is sold.  Thanks stopping by my world.

Little Ones

    Here are a couple of little ones from the studio. These were painted from reference photos I took last week out west of Tippecanoe near a large marsh off of the river near Deep Creek. Both are only 5x7 inches in size. I like doing these little ones to work out some of the issues before committing to a large version of a subject. I have painted the Red Door before and keep trying to capture the feeling of that house. The other is a nice farm at the corner of 19th and Fir road in Marshal county. The barn is currently being used for some horses and has several possibilities as subject mater. Thanks for looking!

The Red Door 5x7 Water Color $39.00 Sold

19th & Fir 5x7 Water Color $39.00 Sold