"Autumn Morning along the Potomac" (oil on stretched canvas; 8" x 10")

English Teaching Forum features my painting!

My painting, "Autumn Morning along the Potomac", made the cover of a State Department publication!  The design company that worked on the project found many images and my painting, I am told, was a unanimous favorite.  Does this mean that I am becoming famous?

The uncropped painting; click here to buy

"Sam" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

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"Sam" is for Kristin and her brother, who commissioned the painting for their father.  Sam is a four-year-old black Labrador.  He is a field trial champion and came all the way from Ireland! The reference picture was taken in their dad's hunting blind in Chesapeake on a beautiful autumn day, when Sam retrieved eight geese.

Kristin initially ordered a 10" x 8" pet portrait.  Boy, I wished for a larger painting, so that I could do justice to such an awesome subject.  Then I could paint not only the portrait of the noble dog, but also the still life tableau of the game and hunting blind in the foreground and the autumn landscape in the background.  Somehow, Kristin telepathically read my mind and decided to upgrade.  The power of positive thinking got proven again!

They say that a dog is a man's best friend.  Sam is indeed Kristin's dad's best friend.  Can you imagine how proud and happy Kristin's dad will be when he learns about the thoughtful present on Christmas?  He will only see a card with the image of "Sam"; the painting will arrive after the New Year's Day.  I would like to thank here several clients who kindly agreed to the late deliveries of their orders.  As one client said, it is worth it!

"Sam" in progress

By the way, I took a picture of the painting in progress yesterday.  I don't usually do this, because it puts an additional pressure on myself and the step-by-step photos taken in my studio always have strange white balance.  But I get inquiries about my procedures from curious fellow artists, so here we go.  I use the same methods for all my oil paintings, whether portraits, landscapes, or florals.

I use the grid method to transfer the image to the linen panel.  (Can you see the grids I drew on the print on the left?)  Drawing in raw umber gets done fast.  The next step is a transparent underpainting over the drawing.  The geese in the foreground in the painting has, at this point, only a thin layer of transparent paints, but don't they already look finished?

My goal at this stage is to establish the correct value and color temperature scheme.  Much of the drawing gets lost, as you can see in the dog, who lost all the facial features.  But it's okay.  I don't blindly paint by numbers.  Painting is a continual drawing process with a brush!

I have already started blocking in with thick opaque paints in the landscape background and the weedy foreground.  It probably took about an hour or so to get this far.  It took four additional hours to finish the painting.  (Facial features alone sometimes take a hour.)  It was a long day yesterday!

"Autumn Central Park" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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I love New York City.  It is big, noisy, and a little scary for a suburbanite such as myself.  But, for culture--both highbrow and the rest, there is no other place like New York in the United States. My pet peeve is that I don't get to visit it often.  I have only three or four paintable pictures of this exciting city from my few visits.

The photo I used for "Autumn Central Park" wasn't taken on an autumn day at all.  It was on an overcast day in May during my family's mini vacation that I took the shot.  No matter.  I Photoshopped the picture, intensifying hue/saturation.  You just can't believe what you see these days, ha!

If you send me your pictures to kimstenbergart@gmail.com, I may make paintings out of them.  How fun is that!  At the end of September, I will do a drawing and one lucky person wins a free painting.  You can buy the painting anytime, but there is no obligation.  Thanks!

Today is Day Sixteen of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge.  I am halfway through!

"His Best Friend" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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The reference photo for "His Best Friend" was black and white.  In the picture, the man was walking two dogs.  I got rid of one dog with an awkward posture, and kept just one.  The title obviously comes from the phrase that a dog is a man's best friend.  The rest was up to my imagination. 

I decided that it is to be an autumnal scene in late afternoon light.  The distant trees on the far right was painted in dull violets, whereas the sun-struck area of the tall trees in the center is bright yellow organge.  The man and his dog are rather far away in the middle ground from the viewer, so they are painted small and gesturally.  Even so, the eye goes straight to them, doesn't it?

"Autumn Brook" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Reference photo

It was a picture-perfect autumn day when several members of the Art League Plein Air Painters went to Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  It had been a busy, exciting week, and I was tired.  I walked around, taking numerous pictures of last roses, trees with their fall colors, etc.  But I couldn't settle on any particular view to paint.  So I continued walking down the trail in the woods until I came across the above scene.  This was it!  Except that I had left my painting gear back on the main lawn.  The thought of having to go back to fetch the stuff, drag it down by the brook, set up the gear, and actually paint the scene tired me out even more.

Among my artist friends I am known for my workaholic (or shall I say, artaholic) habit of painting fast and furiously every day.  Not that day.  I decided to give myself a break.  Gasp!  I sat by my teacher and friend, Bobbi Pratte, and watched her paint an overgrown garden.  We kept company, got to know each other better, and had a great time.  It's sometimes good to kick back and relax.

I painted "Autumn Brook" from the photo yesterday.  The background trees with their fall colors are brilliantly backlit.  Tree shadows caress the foreground and middle ground forest floors.  And there it is--a tiny waterfall in the center of the painting.  It was a glorious day to take a walk in the woods.

"Duck Pond" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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Reference photo

At the outset of every painting, I always feel two emotions: excitement and fear.  I feel excited about the subject AND fearful about whether I will be able to pull it off.  If there is no challenge, boredom will set in and only slapdash work will come out of the painting session.  Yes, I live on the edge.

When  I went to paint at Wide Water along the C & O Canal a week ago, I took a walk to walk off numbness in the toes.  It was a bit chilly, yes; but, oh boy, it was gorgeous.  There were several mallard ducks and lots of Canada geese in the water, fishing and sunbathing.  I took many pictures.  Yesterday, I decided to make something of the above picture, with a bit of both feelings I just mentioned.

I cropped the photo to focus on the ducks and warmed up the palette.  Wobbly reflections of trees and their brilliant leaves fill up the entire painting, but without the two birds, it won't make any sense.  It would have been nicer if one of the ducks had been a female, but I didn't want to invent their colors.  Just to be on the safe side.

"Autumn Canal" (oil on linen; 12" x 12")

"Autumn Canal" blocked in

"Autumn Canal" almost finished

Today a group of friends, now called the Art League Plein Air Painters, went to Widewater along the C & O Canal, just north of Washington, DC. It was a chilly day, but the light could not have been better. In one more week, most leaves would be gone.  Fall colors were absolutely breathtaking.  I walked around along the canal and down to the Potomac River, taking pictures.  Wow!  I was in a painters' heaven.

Remembering how cold it got last Friday when I painted outside, I was better prepared today with woolen socks, boots, leather gloves, and a warm hat.  Even so, my toes and little fingers became numb after a while.  As I am determined to paint some snow scenes this winter, I'd better get a serious winter gear.

After a few hours of painting, we all walked over to the historic Old Angler's Inn for lunch to celebrate the launch of our new group.  We are going to design the "official" hat, have a group show at a gallery, and do lots of fun things in the future.  When several students of Sara Linda Poly started painting outside of her class last year, we had no idea where it would lead.  Another group out of The Art League organized a plein air painting group this summer.  What we did was to combine the two groups.  As they say, if you build it, they will come.  For us, if you start painting together, more people will join us.  We are thrilled.

"Autumn Woods" (oil on linen; 12" x 9") sold

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Reference photo

I went to paint on the grounds of Madeira School in McLean, VA last Friday.  Before leaving the school, a friend of mine and I decided to take a walk to Black Pond within the grounds, most of  the 376 acres of land is wooded.  We got hopeless lost and ended up back at the parking lot!  The walk itself was lovely, though, as the sun had finally come out, casting dappled light on the path, grass, and trees.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I must say. 

I painted "Autumn Woods" in Bobbi Pratte's landscape class yesterday.  This term's focus so far has been trees.  I've noticed that you just cannot get away from trees if you are interested in landscapes.  Whether they are the center of interest or serve only as a backdrop, trees pop up in so many of my landscape paintings.  It will take many years of serious contemplation and practice, I think, to become truly at ease when it comes to painting trees.  Let the fun begin!

"Autumn Day at the Bay" (oil on linen; 9" x 12") sold

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Lately the Washingtonians have been basking in a gorgeous weather day after day, as the Mother Nature is trying to make amends after earthquakes, torrential rains, and flash floods of past several weeks.  Which means--I MUST GO OUTSIDE TO PAINT!  So a couple of friends and I made an plein-air-painting outing to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge on Friday. 

This haven for migrating birds, nature lovers, and other creatures that reside in grasslands and marshes is located 20 miles south of Washington, DC, at the confluence of the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers, just half a mile off the hustle and bustle of the busy traffic on Jefferson Davis Highway (US Highway 1). 

None of us have been there, so didn't realize how much we had to walk lugging our painting gear.  Sure, along the way, we took lots of pictures of other scenic spots.  But when we saw the above view, our jaws dropped.  Lots of Canada geese were resting in the water.  We also spotted egrets and herons.  There were no clouds in the sky.  No bugs, no pestering onlookers,  just an occasional gentle breeze to cool down our brows.  Tranquility reigned.

"Fall Patterns" (acrylic on paper; 15" x 11") sold

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Do you like Wolf Kahn, a great colorist?  His calendar hanging in my office claims on the back that he is "probably the foremost American colorist."  Whether you agree with it or not, I surely love his semi-abstract art.  But I don't have the courage to paint with his bright yellows, mauves, aquamarines, pinks, and scarlets.  If I dare, my teachers would probably admonish me to tone them down to more "natural" colors.  Perhaps only masters, such as Kahn, can truly follow their aesthetic choices.

In "Fall Patterns", however, I hear the echos of Wolf Kahn.  Have you ever seen the violet fall foliage?  Why is the ground under the tall trees burgundy, or the sky so chalky Naples yellow?  But the painting works, and one feels that it is fall and the leaves are changing colors.  I don't know what got into me to paint like that, but surely like to do it again.