Digital Value Sketch Nocturne

Digital Value Sketch Nocturne
digital, iPad Brushes app

One benefit of the digital medium is the ability to duplicate an image and do other versions from it. I turned this one into a nocturne. See previous post for the day version.

Still really simple without much embellishment, details or textures.503

Art-A-Fair 18th St. Nocturne

"18th St. Nocturne"    SOLD

oil on panel, 2015

5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

Here is another painting down at Art-A-Fair. I love the nocturne and that stillness of night.

We paint what we see. The view from my balcony, which I have painted several times. This one from early in the evening, lights still on in many of the homes. I love the linear quality of the lit power lines which break up the sky, make the composition more dynamic and gives the painting some energy.311

Art-A-Fair Hopper Railcar Nocturne

"Hopper Railcar Nocturne"

oil on panel, 2015

5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

Here is another new painting currently hanging in my booth at Art-A-Fair
A simple image and composition of a lone railcar. I was looking for that stillness of night, that absolute dead calm, not even the slightest of breeze.310

Art-A-Fair Storage Yard Nocturne (Stars)

"Storage Yard Nocturne (Stars)"    SOLD

oil on panel, 2015

5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)

Happy 4th of July!

I have no paintings of fireworks so the next closest thing was this one with shooting stars. ; )

I like storage yards as a subject and have done several in this series including nocturnes. Although technically some may not be a yard used only for storage, they may be some business, I use it as an all encompassing term for these industrial sites, usually seen from the outside the fence.
I added the shooting stars to offset the stillness of the night.305

Night Rain in Digital

"18th St. Rain Nocturne"
Digital, 2013

I've had my share of struggles with the digital medium. I know I only have the most basic tool (iPad) and app (Brushes) for this but one way to help figure it out is to redo one of my own oil paintings.

I look at tutorials and other digital paintings but redoing one of your own slows down the learning curve.

Now I am only reinterpreting it through a different medium. I was involved in the original decision making so I am not also trying to figure that out. It is a more simplified version with not as much of the orange throughout, the colors are not woven together as well, but I do have more mileage under my belt in oils and it was still a valuable learning excercise.252

The oil painting version here.

Storage Yard Nocturne

"Storage Yard Nocturne (Palms)"
watercolor on paper, 2013
9" x 6" (22.86cm x 15.24cm)
For Sale at DAILY PAINTWORKS, CLICK HERE
Direct link to painting here

The storage yard is inadvertently becoming a series. Something I did not plan but this is the third and I have my mind on a couple others at some point.
Here are the 1st and 2nd.

Industrial settings are odd sometimes. You will see things that you won't find in suburban areas. Here two streetlights, one a warm sodium and the other a cool white light, right next to each other. Even though the orange sodium light is really lighting the storage yard it is still amusing they are side by side. It also made a nice dramatic cast shadow against the gate and driveway.

For me I like the way I was able to play the warms and cools against each other in such a vertical format.
Although this is a real site I made some changes, as I always do, to make a stronger composition. It was fun designing the shapes of the palms. I also added the stack of steel jutting up from the left, the power wire and changed the building.247

* I am still having difficulty with some images uploading in blogger. The image quality if off a little but is the best I could get.
It's random, some days it works fine, other days it's dreadful (and frustrating).

The image on DAILY PAINTWORKS is better.

**I have updated this post with a 'fixed' photo. This is how it should have looked in the first place.

Tree Nocturne Red Curb

"Tree Nocturne (Red Curb)"
oil on panel, 2013
2" x 2⅜" (5.08cm x 6.01cm)
For Sale at DAILY PAINTWORKS, CLICK HERE
Direct link to this painting here.

Here's a new one from my Tree Nocturne Series of an old desolate street.
Again I paint the warm glow of an orange sodium street light which plays so beautifully against the cool blue night.
Under the tree the fire hydrant hides in the shadow guarded by the red curb.241

Once again images are uploading with poor quality. I made some adjustments but a more accurate image can be found at DAILY PAINTWORKS.
This problem seems to come and go. Oh mercy!

**I have updated this post with a 'fixed' photo. This is how it should have looked in the first place.

Night Rain at 6x6 Show

"18th St. Rain Nocturne"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2012

6" x 6" (15.24cm x 15.24cm)

My fourth painting accepted into the 6 Inch Squared Show at the Randy Higbee Gallery in Costa Mesa California.
Another rain painting in the show here.

A simple enough idea, more challenging to paint than I thought.
Warm light on a cold night. Yellow green from the house, orange from the sodium street lights meant the two had to be interspersed in some places.
In reality the light is actually blueish white but made for a cold uninviting image. This is when artistic decisions must be made.
I initially had more yellow from the house light but the painting lacked depth so I added green as the light spread out from its source, even further under the shine of rainy conditions. I finished it off by adding some color accents of blue in the sky and red of the taillights.199

Another "18th St. Rain" here, a view slightly up the same street.
Click rain 'RAIN' LABEL to see others.

Fire Pit

"Fire Pit #1"
oil on panel, 2012
3.5" x 5" (8.89cm x 12.7cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Fire is always mezmerizing. It is organic. You can see it but not touch it. It is alive.
I like the idea of it being contained within an unseen pit, the clean edge of the ellipse. Flaming against the blackness but controlled.

This painting needed a lot of inventing of the fire itself, designing the flames to read like fire as we think of it from so many illustrations and graphics. The classic flame design more than a photographic depiction.
This made it fun to play the soft organic lines and shapes of fire against the harder edges of pit and burning wood.189

Click on image for larger view

Otherworldly Mountain

"Nocturne Sulfur Pile Detail"
oil on panel, 2012
2⅜" x 2" (6.01cm x 5.08cm)
For Sale at DAILY PAINTWORKS, CLICK HERE

Yeah, it's small but I really enjoyed painting it, It was tough to photograph it accurately so the original looks far better with a subtle depth and richness I could not get with the photo.

I have been doing a lot of experimental work along with a new body of work lately and this was one of those little excursions I decided to do on a whim. Small and quick is satisfying sometimes.

All my previous paintings of sulfur piles are generally of the whole pile, in the background as another element.
Zoomed in for a detail like this and the pile looked otherworldly, more like a mountain from another planet.188

Click on image for larger view

Value Thumbnails 2

Top: pencil, 2012
page 11" x 8.5" (27.94cm x 21.59cm)

Bottom: Black ink, 2012
page 11" x 8.5" (27.94cm x 21.59cm)
NSF

Here are a couple pages of thumbnails.
The benefit of thumbnails is you can immediately see the stronger designs, throwing out or improving upon the weaker ones.

The idea is to use only 3 values and focus on the design or arrangement of lights and darks as a whole.
A dark, a mid tone and the white of the paper usually, although sometimes I will use a fourth value by indicating the next value from white.

A couple of the pencils have 4 values which is ok provided you don't lose sight of the original purpose of doing them. In this case it was to identify where the brightest lights would be, the sunlit sides of the white tanks in the third row down and bottom left last row. In this way I am refining the lights a bit more and can be sure the shapes within the lights work against the compositional whole.

The bottom nocturnes, painted with a brush in ink, force you to work very thoughtfully and direct since ink goes down dark and permanently. I like doing these for that reason, it exercises a different set of (mental) muscles. The challenge is to not over think them and lose the freshness.

Using a brush means I can lay down wide swaths of blacks quickly and not get too fussy. Perfect for doing nocturnes.181

Click on images for larger view.

OMA Store 5

"Tree Nocturne (Downhill)"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2010
5” x 4” (12.7cm x 10.16cm)

This painting is the 7th of those at the Oceanside Museum of Art store. Click label below to see the others.
The nocturne ... its origin, mid 19th century French from Latin, nocturnus, meaning ‘of the night’.
Like most from my Tree Nocturne Series this is from a combination of imagination and memories, which lends it a subtle surreal quality. Working this way I allow things like the slightly off kilter street, the rustling tree wrapping around the streetlight, the distant harbor veiled in a marine layer. All to give it a more dreamlike quality.145

Link to value thumbnail here.

Click on image for larger view

OMA Store 4

"Tree Nocturne (Billowing Tree)"
oil on panel, 2010
5" x 4" (12.7cm x 10.16cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

Here is another of my small paintings at the Oceanside Museum of Art Store.

The nocturne... its origin, mid 19th century French from Latin,
nocturnus, meaning ' of the night '.

My Tree Nocturne series. I've kept the series compositionally simple, focusing on the tree and usually an unseen light source.
This painting breaks from that slightly.

There is more of a surface showing in the street, the cracks and buckling of decades old concrete, before asphalt. The sidewalk, hints of commercial storefronts and power poles all adding to its more urban setting.139

Link to value thumbnail here.

Click on image for larger view

OMA Store 2

"Encina Power Station Nocturne"    SOLD
oil on panel, 2011
4" x 5" (10.16cm x 12.7cm)

Here is another of my paintings at the Oceanside Museum of Art Store.

No moon, the darkness of night slowly consuming the fading light.
The lagoon for now still visible, but just barely. Soon the only interruption to the inky black will be a thin strand of smoldering embers at the horizon, nothing else till morning.124


Click on image for larger view

OMA Auction Paintings SOLD & OMA Store 1

I'm happy to report that my two paintings for the Oceanside Museum of Art sold saturday at their 'Summer Soirée'. Links to previous posts on this here and here or see below, a couple posts back.

I'm also fortunate to have some of my paintings offered in their museum store. 7 small oils and one watercolor.
The 3 below currently on my blog here, here and here. The train used for my Avatar/Favicon/Photo URL in a cropped version.
The others will come in (near) future posts.

OMA Auction Paintings

Top:        "OMA #1"            SOLD

                oil on panel, 2011
                10" x 7.5" (25.4cm x 19.05cm)

Bottom:  "OMA #4"            SOLD

                oil on panel, 2011
                10" x 7.5" (25.4cm x 19.05cm)
View the complete art auction online; Oceanside Museum of Art Blog
For more info or to place a bid on any artworks in the silent auction call 760.435.3722
or email ; danielle@oma-online.org.


Here are my two paintings for the Oceanside Museum of Art Auction/Fundraiser. See previous post for more info.
Having visited the museum during the day as well as after dark to really study the architecture I decided to focus in on its entrance instead of a panoramic view, choosing two slightly different views, each taking advantage of that time of day and night.


"OMA #1"
This is the most dramatic nocturnal view of the Oceanside Museum of Art entrance. Lit up from inside, the architecture has a completely different character with an emphasis on it's warm interior.
Diagonal lines of light, the stairwell and interior corridors converge on the museums strong signature "O" located prominently at the center base of a pyramid shape formed by the lights of the upper hall and highlighting the reception area.


"OMA #4"
This is my favorite view of the Oceanside museum of Art; it transforms the formal architecture into diagonal planes and highlights the strong lines in the windows.
The reflected light off the unseen side of the glass provides extra drama against the dark marine layer.
The Museums strong signature "O" logo is prominently featured against the dramatic glass architecture of the entrance and draws in artists, art patrons and the public.122,123


Click on images for larger view

The Oceanside Museum of Art 'Summer Soirée'

The Oceanside Museum of Art, a hidden gem in north San Diego County California, recently held the artist donor reception (June 26th) for their 'Summer Soirée Art Auction 2011'. I had the pleasure of meeting lots of interesting people, including other artists whose work is also part of the auction.
Events like this are always a treat because it gives us artists a chance to give back to the museums, the venues that in turn support our love of creating and earning a living through art.
The auction/fundraiser is June 28th through July 23rd, culminating in their Summer Soirée held Saturday July 23rd at the museum. All proceeds from the sales of art go to support the museum. Bidding is open to the public.

I had the honor of painting two pieces for the auction (bottom photo), choosing to focus on the stunning architecture of the museum.

As you can see from the first two photos, the huge plate glass windows are actually sliding doors that allow them to turn the museum reception area into an open air event, perfect for the summer.

For more info on the art auction click here.
Click images for larger view

Park Nocturne

"Tree Nocturne (Park Hillside)"
oil on panel, 2009
7.75" x 7.25" (19.685cm x 18.415cm)
For Sale at Daily Paintworks, CLICK HERE

The nocturne... its origin, mid 19th century French from Latin, nocturnus, meaning 'of the night'.

From my Tree Nocturne series. This was painted in one sitting or alla prima. Alla Prima, derived from Italian meaning 'at the first'.
I very rarely complete a painting in one sitting since I prefer working in layers but sometimes the image just 'falls out onto the surface' as it did here.

Painted from my imagination having seen so many urban and suburban parks. Hints of buildings, a walkway and sloping grass was enough.121

Click on image for larger view

Subdued Energy 2

"Tree Nocturne (2 Figures, City View)"   SOLD
oil on panel, 2010
5" x 4" (12.7cm x 10.16cm)


The nocturne... it's origin, mid 19th century French from Latin, nocturnus, meaning 'of the night'.

Like most from my Tree Nocturne series this is from my imagination and maybe distant memories.

Being more of a night owl I love the faint buzz of the nighttime air. As Ray Bradbury so perfectly described in one of his books... it's  "... the gentle hiss of distance...". I could not say it any better than that. It is not quite silent, but you can't really hear it either. It's just there.
Although it dominates the composition the tree is not the main focus. The figures overlooking the city, silhouetted against the bright lights, command the attention, even if small.
I designed the foliage of the tree to radiate outward from the center and pushed the color saturation a bit to give the scene more life, that subdued energy of the suburb and urban setting.
This is what I had in mind for this painting as well as the other one under the same post heading 'Subdued Energy' here. 116

Link to value thumbnail here.

Click on image to enlarge

*Update - previous post original value thumbnail here.

'Of the Night' 3

"Nocturne-Lucy (Cat)2"
oil on panel, 2010
5" x 7" (12.7cm x 17.78cm)
private collection

The nocturne... it's origin, mid 19th century French from Latin, nocturnus, meaning 'of the night'.

A perfect subject for the nocturne, the cat. Surreptitiously slipping through the hushed night without a sound. Low to the ground, quick light steps with a purpose. It's shadow the only thing to keep pace.

My sister's cat Lucy. I spent what seemed like forever trying to capture the night shot, no tripod, handheld, just clicking away... far more challenging than the daylight, especially a moving subject. I would get the shot but not the action, the action so familiar to us... fleeting, almost unseen.

She finally had enough running around then just sat there watching me, with her curiosity, tilting her head and staring.106

Click for "Nocturne-Lucy (Cat)"
Click on image for larger view