Beckett Ponds 26

A new 8 x 10 in the Beckett Ponds series, this one is a little looser.

Plein Air Last Week

Last week was very busy, painting outside and dodging rain showers. Participating in the Loveland Paint Out, with SWOPA on Thursday in Covington and at the Warren Co. Festival of the Arts on Saturday. Several deluges lead to hurried packing, wet equipment and incomplete paintings. I had to wipe a couple off and start again when the pitter wasn't pattering...

First successfully completed work (second attempt) was "Nisbet Park Ampitheater", painted in Loveland, from under the picnic shelter, on a day with predicted rain (so of course it didn't). Alternating clouds and sunlight make for some interesting decisions on highlights and shadows.

The Baker-Hunt Cultural Center in Covington, Kentucky is a wonderful series of old homes and purpose-built structures in the Licking River Historical Area. This hurried view of the garden was the second attempt that day, getting started after a brief shower put a end to the wiped off first. Again clouds and bright sun alternating...

I went back to Loveland on Friday and painted with a head start from this photo, taken on Tuesday. I mistakenly deleted the photo I took of the painting when downloading the camera. I left the finished work to hang in Paxton's Restaurant (with green umbrellas in the photo) after the wet paint sale on Sunday.

Saturday finished out the week in Lebanon, OH for the Warren County Festival of the Arts. Our Mason Area Painters group was asked to provide some painters to decorate the venue. Saturday was a beautiful day, mostly sunny with temps in the 80's, but 10:00A to 5:00P makes for a long day on your feet painting.

House Commission 6

This is the second of the commissioned paintings I was working on this month. It went through several revisions, mainly to the left side of the painting, to overcome plantings in need of pruning. I'm happy with the results and so was the client.

Water Play

Started on our ill-fated trip by SWOPA to Fountain Square in Cincinnati, I just finished this 8 x 10 yesterday. I got about half way through this oil working on the square, before we were chased off. I didn't think we would get back down there this season, so I worked the rest up from photos.

My wife thought I couldn't do a painting without green... well there is a little in there.

House Commission 5

Yesterday I delivered the first of two house commissions I've been working on over the past few weeks. This one's of a section of an old housing block in the Walnut Hills/Eden Park area in Cincinnati. Most of these homes have been divided up into apartments or condos, so they are multi-family dwellings in a beautiful setting. Each has been painted in an individual color scheme and has unique architectural details.

I started this work in the spring with photos and prep-work. The weather interfered with painting it "en plein air" as the client wanted. I just finished up on the work early last week, painted partially on site. This painting is going to a soon to be married couple as a wedding gift from the brides parents. A painting of their first apartment. The bride was there for the drop off and was very happy with the painting.

Plein Air Hyde Park

The second day of the weekend plein air painting with the Cincinnati Art Club... in the Cincinnati suburb of Hyde Park. I found a spot on the square and concentrated on a portion of the Kilgore Fountain. There was a farmers' market setup surrounding the square, so lots of people and a constantly changing scene.

I kept the lighting as it was at about 11:00A, about an hour into the painting. With a locale like this I needed to include figures, so I picked from the constantly changing cast. Finished at about 1:30P. Unfortunately, no one came to our fresh paint sale.

Plein Air at Foggy Creek Farm

Well, I didn't win any of the six artist's choice awards at the Cincinnati Art Club's first Foggy Creek Farm Paintout. There must have been about 25 of us that showed up to paint this morning, in spite of the rain that was coming down as we left home.

The sky was brightening in the North at 8:30A, when I pulled into the farm yard and behind the barns to park. There had been so much rain last night, that Pax Lindell (the farms owner) and I heard trees crashing in the woods from the creek undercutting the bank. One large tree fell across their front drive, white board fence and into the paddock. Pax has got some woodcutting to do

tomorrow and we all had to leave via the rear drive.

At 1:30P we all displayed our paintings in the shade and voted for the best of the bunch. As I said, I didn't get voted into the top five, but Pax's wife Abby, decided she liked my painting and purchased it on the spot. I only had a chance to get this photo from the easel and forgot the sign the painting, so I'll have to get with the Lindells to complete the job.

Duveneck & Friends at CAB

I just found out... My painting "Beckett Ponds 23" has been selected to appear in the upcoming show Duveneck & Friends at the Cincinnati Art Galleries. One of sixty pieces that will hang with selected works from the Cincinnati Art Clubs collection by Frank Duveneck (1848-1919). Opening next Friday, June 10, 5-8P.


Duveneck, a noted American and Cincinnati figure and portrait painter, was a founding member  and president of the Cincinnati Art Club 1896-1898.


The show will be at the Cincinnati Art Galleries, 2253 East 6th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202, June 10 thru July 8, 2011

The Whistling Boy by Frank Duveneck, 1872, oil on canvas, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

SWOPA on Fountain Square

I usually don't post works in progress, but this is as far as I got on Thursday night. I went with the  Southwest Ohio Plein Air group to Fountain Square in Cincinnati to paint from 4-8:00P. At 6:00 we were asked to leave. So we packed up and wnt to dinner. We will need to finish the paintings later.

I'm checking into permissions, permits, etc. to see if we can get back on the square in the future. If not, I've got a photo (thanks Margie for the loan of your camera) that I can work from...