Hi,

I may look at it again tomorrow and see something that needs to be fixed, but for now, the painting is finished. It's taken me longer than I thought it would to finish this one. Finding time to paint lately has been a challenge. Lawnmower is broken, garden needs planting, garden beds need turning, and it rained all weekend. The rain gave me a chance to clean my studio, and work on finishing my wife's closet remodeling project. I've kind of been dreading finishing this painting. I know what I WANTED it to look like, sometimes paintings don't turn out the way I envision them. Painting the small potted iris plant by the window was a fun challenge. Now that I've finished this painting, I'm ready to get out doors and paint some plein air for the up coming Plein Air Competition in Fulton this month. If you're in the neighborhood, it is May 26 through the 29th. It is in the "Brick District" of Fulton, where the roads are paved in brick. The Art House is hosting this wonderful event. I will be participating, so I've got to get brushed up on my on location painting skills. This first picture is a close up of the Iris I painted in the window.

This is the finished painting.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the progress of this painting. I've got other ideas for more Views Out the Window.

Until next time,
Donald

Hi,

I took my wife and daughter to go see Jungle Book at the theater the other night. It was very good. Might be too intense for little ones when it comes to the Forbidden City and the scene with the monkeys. King Louie was larger than life... LOL

I've been seeing a lot of beautiful sunrises lately and taking photos. I'm looking forward to painting them.

Well I've got a LOT to do today, so I better get at it. Sorry no new updates on the painting. I hope to finish it this weekend. I did paint the wall and the window trim. The pot is almost finished, now to add the plant, and I'm still thinking about adding a horse.  You will just have to wait and see.. :)

Until next time, take care,
Donald

View Out the Window 4

Today I worked on the tree and the barn. I getting close to being finished with the "View", now I have to paint the trim around the window, the wall, table and the plant and pot on the table. If you were going to hang this painting in your house, what color wall would go well in your house? Here is a close up of the barn.

Above is the almost finished "View" out the window. I'm still debating on adding a horse or cow, I'm thinking the fence needs to be darker even though it is a white fence. I also need to work on the clouds a little. Horse or cow??? That is the question... :)

Until next time, thanks for reading!
Donald

View from a Window post 3

Well, today I had a wonderful time painting the hills, worked on the tree a little, and painted the barn. Since this is all from my imagination, I have to pick colors myself. I keep an interior color chip chart on the wall of my studio for just such an occasion. I like to pick colors that people use for their interiors so the painting will go well with their walls. After all, the ultimate goal is for this painting to be enjoyed by someone, and have it hanging on their wall. NOT collecting dust in my studio for years. So, here is the next few steps in the painting. I don't want a big dark hole in the middle of the painting where the barn door opening is. So, I've decided I will hang a lantern in the barn and have it illuminate the inside of the barn so there will be more details inside it. The trick here is for the light in the barn to not be brighter than the sunset, or maybe it should be. That would shift the interest to the barn, away from the sunset. Hmmmmm? I've still got to decide if I want a cow or horse on the other side of the fence. If you could vote, what would you vote for? A horse or cow? Drop me a message or email and let me know. Thanks for reading! OH! I bet you want to see the painting. Okay, here ya go.

 Until next time, be safe and God Bless!
Donald

View From a Window step 2

Hi,

Well, I've made more progress on the painting. The sky is almost finished. I will add more to the clouds, then step back and take a good look at the sky. I will use my trusty mirror to look at it, and get a fresh perspective. It is amazing how I can look at a painting and it will look great. Then turn around, hold up a mirror and see the painting reversed and "BOOM BABY" to quote my grand daughter, I can see something that doesn't look right. Here is the painting with the sky almost finished.

I've got a lot more creating to do. What color to paint the wall? What will grow out of the pot? Will there be a horse behind that fence, or a cow? So many questions. Keep reading my blog to find the answers. I've thought about selling it, and letting the purchaser tell me what color to use for the wall so it will match their decor.

Thanks for reading!
Donald

View Out the Window

Morning Readers,

I’ve been promising you that I would start talking about my painting process. So, let us begin.

I always try to have a small sketch book with me. When an idea for a painting pops in my head, I write it down. Later I will flip through the book, find the idea, and explore it. I let my mind wander, and come up with little details that I think will make the painting interesting. Once I’ve got an idea in my head of the basic design, then I get out my pen and start drawing. I might draw the same scene several times, moving things, trying different things, adding this or that. I keep at it until I find a drawing that I really like. Below is my finished sketch.

Next, I take a little dioxazine purple, or a mixture of Alizrine Crimson, and Ultramarine Blue, and add some drier and OMS to thin it out, and use it to draw the painting on the canvas. This is when the fun starts. Taking a blank canvas and seeing a painting grow out of the seed of my idea. After the drawing is completed, I use the same mixture and color in the shadows so they are fixed on the canvas.

The color comes next. I like to start with the sky and move forwards in the painting. Starting with the sunset and moving up or at the top and working down, they both work. I do whatever mood strikes me at the time.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this painting turns out. This is my first time to try something like this. You just never know what will pop up in a painting. To find out, you will have to check back later. 

Until next time, may God bless you,

Donald

Hi,

Well I just wanted to let all my readers know that in May I will be competing in a plein air event in Fulton Missouri. I've GOT to get out and practice some plein air paintings. Most of yesterday was spent blowing insulation into my attic, something I've been wanting to do for over 20 years. Well, I need to get to my studio and paint. I've got a long to do list. I promise I will get photos of my recent paintings and share them with you soon. I've been thinking I would like to take photos of my paintings in various stages and talk a little about what I'm doing.

Until next time,
Donald

Dear Readers,

Sorry to be away from the keyboard for so long. I've been doing taxes and other "fun" stuff. Actually some has been fun. My darling wife and I have been working in our garden. We've planted potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, made two new raised beds, and added wood chips to the paths to keep weeds down. I still have a lot to do in my garden, but more importantly, I've been painting. I've got several paintings finished and I need to photograph them and share them with you.

Thanks for reading! I like conversations, so feel free to ask questions or make comments.

Thanks!
Donald

My Pallet, for what it's worth... :) If you know me, you know I like to joke around and laugh. Sometimes I will say things as a joke and people take me serious. I'm a little like Rush Limbugh, you have to listen to me for six weeks to really understand him. You have to get to know me to understand some of my jokes as well. I really am a pretty punny guy. GRIN

I took a few moments, and wrote on some tape the colors I use and the order I place them on my pallet. I don't normally have the cobalt blue on there, but I LOVE a cobalt blue sky much more than I like an Ultra Marine Blue sky. With a warm and cool color of each primary, I can mix some amazing colors. Greens that will knock your socks off, which this time of year is okay because it's warming up and the floors aren't as cold.

For grins and giggles I lightened  the Phalo Blue and Cobalt blue to see how they compared to each other for use in the sky.

 

If you can see the two blue piles on my pallet, take a guess which one is which? Don't worry, I wont keep you guessing. You have a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time. Cobalt Blue is on the right. To me, they look very similar. So, when my tube of cobalt is used up, I may not buy anymore. Time will tell. That's one of the fun things about painting, experimenting, constantly trying to improve. I can always change my mind.

Until next time, have fun painting, and God bless.

If you want to see more of my art, please go to http://www.ArtByDonaldSmith.com 

Today I will tell you about my current pallet choice. I'm using a warm and cool of each primary, then mixing the secondaries with them. I do cheat a little and use Cadmium Orange. I arrange them from light to dark, and I put them in the same spot so I will always know where they are. On the top left is Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Pthalo Blue, Ultramarine Blue. Next I take equal amounts of Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue and mix them to make my purple. Greens are mixed from combinations of Lemon Yellow, or Cadmium Yellow Med and one of the blues. Lemon Yellow is a cool blue, mix it with Pthalo Blue and you get a REALLY BRIGHT green. Mix Cad. Yellow Med and Ultra M Blue and you get a grayed down green. Each of course can be adjusted to the value and intensity you need for your painting. Pthalo Blue is a cool blue and VERY powerful. When you use it, use a small amount. You can always add more, but you can't take it out if you put in too much.
TIPS:
1) If you need a light value color, then start with light colored paint. Use white only if you don't have a paint light enough for the value you want. Too much white can be a bad thing.
2) Mix your greens rather than use a tube. You end up with a larger variety of greens which makes your painting look more interesting.
3) The purple I mix from the Alizarin Crimson and Ultra M Blue can be modified with Cad. Orange and a touch of Cad Red to make a NICE Burnt Sienna. Add some Cad. Yellow Med and a little white to that and you get Yellow Ocher.
4) Use the purple, and a touch of Cad Orange and a little Ultra M. Blue and you get Burnt Umber.

Sometime soon I plan on showing photos and how the colors mix to make the colors I've discussed.

For now, I plan on going to my studio and working on a painting. I will show a few step by steps of my process in my next post.

Until then, have fun painting,
Donald

Race

Morning,

Saturday evening I took my wife on a date. We went to see "Race" at the local theater. It is PG-13, men in the locker room in towels is as "racy" as it gets. I love a good pun, LOL. A lot of cussing that could have been left out. The movie is the story of Jessie Owens preparing and competing in the 1936 Olympics. Lots of racial tension. Jessie set some world records and won 4 gold medals at the Olympics. It took over 25 years to break his last record. You can watch a preview of the movie with a quick Google search. It is a good date movie. I wont tell you why, don't want to spoil it for you.

Next post I will talk about the current pallet of colors I'm using and how to mix them to get the colors you normally get from a tube.

Until then, have fun painting,
Donald

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I am an artist. I love to paint plein air and in my studio. My specialty is landscapes painted in oils. I am married to a wonderful woman and this June we will celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary. We have one son and a daughter, one dog named Sadia, and a kitten named Jitterbug, 7 chickens, and a calf named Floppy Ears. I live on a small farm that's been in my family for over 100 years. I call it "The Heart of Missouri's Outback."

Mostly I will talk about how I paint. The colors I use, mixing them, and techniques for applying the paint to canvas or gessoed panel. I make my own panels. I also plan to talk about "Marketing Art" because I find it an interesting topic.

I've read that it takes 10,000 hours to master a subject. Well, I painted my first oil painting when I was 10 years old and my mother entered it in the Tulsa County Fair. I won a second place ribbon.

Since then I've spent a LOT of time reading and practicing the art of painting. I have a large collection of books and a wonderful course on Mastering Art. I've read all the course material, 6 volumes, but to actually "Master" all that is being taught takes a life time. Composition, drawing, brushwork, mixing paint, value patterns, Notans, the list goes on.

In 2009 I entered a competition to participate in "Missouri's 50 Best Artists" and one of my paintings was accepted and toured the state.

I am still painting, learning, growing, improving and having a blast painting. There is nothing like sitting down at a blank canvas and wondering how this painting will turn out. I strive for excellence! Sometimes I fail, but I am stubborn. I was trying to split a 16" diameter log about 20" long the other day with my splitting maul. I hit it about 15 to 20 times and the maul wouldn't even stick. Normally I can split a log in 1 to 5 blows. The next day I hit that log 15 to 20 more times, and the next day again. On the 4th or 5th day the maul FINALLY stuck in the log. I KNEW I had won this battle. I picked up my other maul and used the first one like a wedge and split that log. Normally you can see a limb or not, and know that a log will be hard to split. This one had the start of a limb inside, but it didn't show up on the outside of the log. I use that same stubbornness in my paintings too. Sometimes I can fix the painting, other times I set it aside, and paint a different composition of the same subject. I keep at it until I get it right.

That's all I have time for today. Have a wonderful day and have fun painting today, I will.

By the way, Copyright © 2016 ArtByDonaldSmith.com
All rights reserved. All paintings and images on this blog are fully protected under International Copyright Law

May God richly bless you,
Don

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