San Francisco Cable Cars Painting-Timelapse

Here is a one minute time lapse video of my latest painting, one of cable cars from a photo I took when we visited San Francisco. The finished painting is posted off to the right.

Finishing Methods - Painting 1

I finally decided to use a toothbrush to apply the lights and shadows in the lower left of Painting 1. I could not use timelapse because I had to lay the canvas horizontally. Then I 'spritzed' wet paint off the toothbrush over/through a template I cut out. This helped to cause a more realistic effect of light and shadows. In both paintings 1 and 2, I took some artistic license in interpreting the scene in terms of light, shadow and color, to some extent. The image of the paintings don't quite capture what I see, IMHO.

Working on Two Paintings

I am attaching the time-lapse videos to go along with these. The 'almost-finished' paintings are posted in the column to the right. Some painting sessions go really well. It's just so easy. I have something in mind and it translates to the canvas with just modest effort. Other sessions are a prison riot. Something's wrong and I don't know why and I can't correct it. I try and I try and I try. That's what you see on the video. What should be a thirty to forty-five second video turns into a three minute marathon (more like a few hours in real time). I will say that the ultimate result is satisfactory and I always learn something more along the way. If everything was easy I wouldn't be learning.

Both of these paintings are places along where I play golf. A cemetery. A landscape scene. The light was right so I took a picture and am now using them for painting.

Opening of Attleboro Exhibit

Today was the opening reception for the Members' Exhibit at the Attleboro Arts Museum. We got there a little early. I was very impressed with the level of talent and the size of the exhibition. There were 301 pieces entered by 155 artists. I didn't do a count but the areas of photography and oil painting were most well represented. A number of awards were given out. My own thought was that abstract art was well represented in the exhibits but even more represented in the awarded pieces. I believe and my hope is that my membership will allow me to: 1) obtain much more exposure than just my Taunton Art Association membership will provide; and 2) work toward a higher level of excellence in my work.

The number of viewers of my work should increase many fold. The speaker at the awards ceremony indicated that at a prior 4 day showing, 1400 people had gone through the gallery. There is no charge.The exhibit is open almost daily through the end of January. That's a lot of time. I noticed that a sale of one of the paintings had occurred (red spot). I would expect that more will be sold before the end of the show.

Flatline Virus - Four Stars !!!

My Zombie book, Flatline Virus, is rated 4 stars in the Apple Bookstore, my best selling channel! This is based on 29 reviews. Check it out. Flatline Virus has been on the selling shelves the  longest as it is my first book. Check it out.

Third Painting of Season

I've started on three more canvases this morning. I'll be using timelapse video for each. In the meantime, here is my third painting of this winter season. It was a daylight scene that was not coming out like I wanted, so I've turned it into a night scene with better results (IMHO).

Second Painting

This is a limited timelapse for the beginning of my second painting. It's a look down Gulliver Street toward Route 44 at the Segregansett Country Club. The finished painting may be seen at the right.

First Painting of the Season

Here is a timelapse video of the first few days of working on my first painting of the winter. I had a little issue trying to capture the video from an iPad and an iPhone, so it doesn't go to the completion of the painting. I got about half way through before I switched to the iPhone. Anyway, I have the finished painting below. It is a fall season early morning scene at the Segregansett Country Club looking from behind the 17th green back to the tee and 16th fairway and beyond.

7000 Page Views!

Thank you for viewing my blog.  All 7,000 of you.

I Joined the Attleboro Arts Museum and Started to Paint Again

Yesterday I joined the Attleboro Arts Museum. They are an active group, having a number of talented artists, a gallery, and a number of events in which I plan to participate. These include exhibits, both juried and other. They have a sophisticated website which has links to member artists and their own websites and work. I'm eager to improve myself and will be able to better gauge my development against artists here as well as in Taunton.  The brief look I took of the artists' work through their own websites indicated to me that the level of artistry in Attleboro is more advanced overall than Taunton. Maybe that's unfair because I have not had the opportunity to see much of those in Taunton. There certainly are some talented artists in Taunton. At any rate, this will give me an additional venue in which to have my work exhibited and see.

There is a members only exhibit which is juried later this year. I was told that there will be over 300 works exhibited in this. This compares with 123 in the Taunton Fall Show.

Today was cold. I used some of the day to begin painting. I have chosen 12-15 photos of mine to paint. I am using a time-lapse feature in my iPad to capture the work. I will post the videos of completed works from time to time as I finish them.

Book News

The golf is slowing down due to the cold weather, as expected. I am resuming work on the book and am now at 32,000 words. There's a seemingly long way to go to finish this story. I've got a bad guy character who is also responsible for the line of the story which deals with the UnZombie theme. UnZombies are dead which have been reanimated but don't bite or spread the infection, well, at least through biting. Our bad guy hero has found a way to gain some functionality out of them. That's all for now.

Painting News

There is an Exhibit at the Taunton Art Association for all ribbon winners of the Fall Art Show. I had two. One was the Best of Show. The judges' comments can be viewed to the right on the card they provided. It said "Contrast of Color/Cohesive...Nice Black and White vs. Color Composition/Dichotomy". The Exhibit goes on through November 24th on Sundays from Noon-2 P.M. at the Art Association building on Williams St. in Taunton (thus Nov 17th and Nov 24th are the last two days).

Taunton Art Show Concludes - I Had Two Winners (See which ones below)!!! Hint: BEST IN SHOW!!!

The viewing of entries at the 2013 Fall Taunton Art Association's Art Show was held today from 12 Noon to 4 pm. I had four entries. Honestly, I thought I had my best chance with two entries, one called "Beacon Hill", the other "Cobble Hill Night".

 I also entered "Key West Pier" and "A Day Night Anomaly", both of which were somewhat favorites of mine. I love Key West (the place) and the pier in particular was a favorite spot of mine with plenty of color, shadows and lines.

 The "Day Night Anomaly" was one of a series of experiments I painted of scenes which generated some thought. They included a juxtaposition of day and night, winter and summer, color and lack of color, urban and non-urban.

The show had 123 entries and some really good ones. There were three judges this time who had to reach a consensus on the various entries. It's got to be a tough, although fun and interesting assignment.                                                                                                                    

I was lucky enough to win two prizes:                

BEST OVERALL - "Day Night Anomaly"

(See this painting being created in time-lapse with my video entry below of January 21, 2013)        

Second Prize Acrylic - "Cobble Hill Night" I'm happy to see the judges appreciated the creativity in the 'Day Night Anomaly' painting. I left the paintings that won at the Art Association as they will be exhibited there during November. I wasn't able to sell anything (I don't think anyone did). but perhaps I may be lucky enough to at the exhibit in November.

This was BEST IN SHOW.....

Zombie Book #3

An update. The current word total is 22,000. Lots more to go. Going through the first edit of what I have. Locales in the book so far include the International Space Station, an US Navy Supercarrier in a Strike Group, Chechnya, and El Paso.

Trescott Street Gallery Exhibit Ended Today

Yup, the exhibit ended. I dropped by the gallery to pick up my painting and was told it had sold about fifteen minutes before I came. It's funny that it took me five minutes to realize it wasn't there. Only my First Place ribbon was hanging on the wall.