Bales of Hay, or Not

As I think I've mentioned before, Grandpa Gilpin had a farm.

When I was a kid, my brothers, sister and I thought the farm was the greatest place on earth. We were small town kids wishing we could live on a farm too. Everything about the place was magical. The cows, the cats, the fields and forests. We even thought the chores were cool!

One of the events we looked forward to every year was hay baling time. Grandpa would cut the hay, wait a day or two, then turn it over with a big, tractor-pulled rake, then turn it over again to get it as dry as possible. If all went well, we would then go out to bale it. Grandpa would hook up the baler to the tractor, and a wagon to the baler. When everything was ready, my dad, my brothers and my uncle Dave, (just a year older than me) would climb on the wagon and off we would go.

Grandpa would drive along the rows letting the baler munch up the fresh-cut hay, and we would wait on the wagon while the baler pushed rectangles of hay out the back for us to grab and stack on the wagon.

Grandpa's bales were proper bales, perfectly sized for a person to pick up and stack. So when I see these gigantic roles of hay as shown here I also think that they did it wrong. I can't imagine what we would have done if Grandpa made these enormous things. I've never met anyone who worked on a farm that produced these kind of bales. What did the kids do?

Waiting for the inevitable

Another favorite site captured in paint. This one is on the corner across the road from Cheryl and Scott's house in upper PA. An overrun barn, left to stand or fall by itself. Lonely but for the birds, weeds and critters who still find it worthy of shelter.

Imagine my surprise when I found it, a year later, collapsed except for the silo. But that's a painting for another day.

I have some photos, should I paint it?

Break Time (Mildred and Ethel)

The long hard winter is over. Spring is here, bugs are out, snakes are getting run over in traffic. My favorite time of year! Here are a couple cows taking a break, enjoying the weather, chewing some cud.

A tree is a tree

One of the side effects of drawing and painting for many years is, you end up with a lot of drawings and paintings. The picture below started with two tree drawings I did in a sketchbook. They weren't based on any trees in particular. Just ones I made up. I scanned them and then added color, texture and type in Adobe Illustrator. I first started this two or three years ago and forgot about it. Better late than never?

Hoping for Spring

With all the stinking snow around here, it was time to start thinking about something else. So I dug out an old drawing and give it some color and grainy texture via Adobe Illustrator. It's one of my favorite programs, and the first one I really got to know in the stone ages of computerized illustration.

Textures and Colors

Near Rome Pennsylvania I've been able to collect lots of material for paintings. Along the stretch of road that my sister-in-law lives on are lots of old farm buildings and worn trees. This painting was of a corner of an old barn. I had a lot of fun with the light coming through the dark doorway from the opposite wall. Not to mention the subtle color changes in the weathered planks.

Wanted, a tree with lots of branches lopped off

Northern Pennsylvania again. Up a winding road in the middle of nowhere I found this lovely old tree. It is quite battle scarred, but still standing strong, wearing it's sign proudly. I don't remember what was on the sign. Probably no hunting or something. I made it a wanted sign. Fugitives must have been on my mind.

This was done as a class demonstration. Quickly with glazes and dry brushing.

More rooftops

I think this was from somewhere in Ellicott City, Maryland. It's very hilly there. I like the way the houses rise up the hillside.

Old friend

Up in Michigan, in the woods behind the Gilpin farm was an old pine tree. Perfectly groomed for climbing. If you could brave the mosquitoes, it was always worth a visit. This painting was done for a class demonstration. So it's pretty loose, and I left off a branch or two. I did a bigger version that is at mom and dad's house. I suppose the tree is still there.

Jerusalem Mill Flag

Very close to where I live is the Jerusalem Mill Park. It has several restored buildings from the revolutionary period. Some good and dedicated people take care of it, some dressing in period costumes and performing some of the typical tasks of the time.

When wandering around there, I found this flag flying from a window. I really liked the way the light was hitting it with the shadowy brick wall behind it.

All the things I've been working

I've been studying javascript,  learning about video, project management, content management, and many other topics that make the web design world go around. So here is what I hope will be a thought-provoking illustration.

The Smart Shopper

Fence Posts

Whether good fences make good neighbors or not, I'm not sure. But I like painting these old fences and fences posts found meandering the countryside. No barbed wire on this one.

Another experiment from class

Here's another picture done in my Spring 2010 watercolor class. In this session we experimented with using watercolor on non-white papers. In the example, I used transparent watercolor on gray Canson paper. After I had all the darks and midtones, I added the lighter color by mixing my watercolor with white Windsor Newton gouache. I like it!

What a busy winter and spring!

It's been a while since my last post. We have a lot of things going on, including the upcoming wedding of my daughter. But I've still been teaching some painting classes, which are a wonderful mental health break. The most recent session has been a class emphasizing experimenting with different materials. The sample here is one of several done combining ink with watercolor. One of my favorite ways to work. I love the feel of an ink line. For me, it's the closest thing to handwriting a picture. Very fluid and free.

Rooftops and Silos

When I was a youngster my favorite amusement park was my grandparent's farm north of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. I never got tired of climbing the haystacks, sneaking into the empty silo, and feeding apples to the cows. Sometimes my brothers, uncle and I would see if we could race across the barnyard without being chased by the bull or stepping into cow pies. Exciting times! It never really occurred to me that it was a work place for my grandparents, not just a big playground. We even thought helping to bail the hay was an extra treat!

Needless to say, with memories like these, I'm always attracted to farms as sources for paintings. The painting shown here was not from the Michigan farm. This one was from northern Pennsylvania. Just down the road from my sister-in-law's home.

I did this one as a quick exercise after my main class demonstration was finished. The goal was to paint rapidly on dry paper, one area at a time, with the final hole in the barn, showing the interior rafters, done as a dark glaze on a previous wash.

Productive year despite myself!

It was a fast moving year. Lot's of distractions, lot's of things to do. I was still able to get a lot of painting done. Here's one of several class demos I'll be posting.

Each class I teach emphasizes a different technique. This first one was of stream that runs into the Gunpowder river in Baltimore County. I used a direct painting approach. No preliminary pencil drawing was done, I just started covering the page with color.

Toby!

Up until about 6 months ago, we lived next to a great neighbor name Cathy. And she has some great pups. One of them, shown here, is named Toby. A fluffy ball of energy seen here in a rare minute of rest. This was painted in spare time after a class demonstration. And now hangs, nicely framed, in Cathy's house.

We've since moved, but Cathy and her pups are still great friends!

Rice Paper Exercises

When I'm teaching my painting classes, I first do a demonstration for the class. Then, as the students settle in to their own project, I do some experimenting. I play with different brushes or papers, or I severely restrict my methods in some way to explore the possibilities of a particular brush, color or paper.

Lately I've been carrying with me a pad of rice paper. Having painted on traditional watercolor paper for many, many years it has been challenge to work with rice paper. I have found that I must paint very directly with simple strokes and a well-charged brush. There's no working of a large wash, one of the things I love about my usual paper.

In this example, I worked quickly, with no preliminary drawing. I have found, as can be seen here, that I can do a second wash over the first with some good results.

So here is a simple, quick scene done with watercolor on rice paper.

The tractor.

Finally Settling In

I've been a little out of the loop due to our recently moving into a new house. Very disruptive! So I haven't been doing a lot of painting, just 3 or 4 small ones every week. Here's a quick chicken portrait I painted the other evening.

I enjoy the absurdity and cockiness found all rolled into the average rooster.