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Market Heights: #1
Hey guys! I’m proud of a painting! I have been feeling pretty down about my paintings lately, because I’m not able to produce the paintings that I have in my mind. But… I keep moving. And tonight, the blind squirrel found a nut. Before I get into that, I guess I should show you the […]
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Spiker Park Bridge: #1 & 2
I drive through a park on my way to drop off Norah at swim practice, and I pass the same park when I take Winne to dance class. After we cross a small bridge, I like to go straight where Rachel turns right. Every time I do, the girls tell me not to, because they […]
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Ray Hendershot Exercise, Fieldstone Building: #1
Yet another successful painting from Ray Hendershot’s “Texture Techniques for Winning Watercolors.” I was getting really down on myself recently because the paintings I was making were all turning out muddy and gross. This exercise helped me learn patience. The more I paint through this book, the more I learn about how to rely on […]
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James & Verna’s Barn
My friend Branden grew up on this farm in Dalton, Ohio. His dad and mom, James and Verna, still live there, and Branden lives a few miles away. The last time I was with Branden, we went to his parents to get a live trap for a skunk that made its home under Branden’s shed. […]
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Winter Grape Vine: #4
I have another photo that’s been sitting in my pile of photos I want to paint for several months. This was taken in Gnaddenhutten Ohio, just after sunrise in November. There was a hint of ice frost covering everything, and it was windless, quiet and still. I took this photo, and really like the geometric […]
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Ray Hendershot Exercise: Birch Trees
Tonight, I painted the next exercise in Ray Hendershot’s book. I don’t know why Birch trees feel like a very trite subject to me – but they do. I think every painting of birch trees is essentially the same thing – masked off trunks with something colorful or dark behind them. I think Ray Hendershot […]
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Dock at Deer Creek: #1
This painting is my attempt to recreate a photo that I took one morning just after sunrise at Deer Creek here in Ohio. I went fishing in the morning, and stopped for a moment on the dock to take some pictures. One of my favorite photos was this one: After a few weeks of having […]
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Caldwell Hillside: #1
I haven’t painted in a while, in large part because I haven’t felt inspired by the ideas in my head. There is a photo I have had in my recent photos that I’ve wanted to paint. The photo wasn’t great in terms of composition, but the memory of the scene was very strong. I remember […]
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Ravenna Road: #2
Tonight, I painted and failed oh so miserably on a self portrait. I would show you, just for laughs… but it’s already put away. Trust me – it’s awful. After bombing on it, I decided to try to paint the barn I found on Ravenna Road once more. I wrote about my first attempt here. […]
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Ravenna Road: #1
Rachel, my wife, is a social worker at Aultman Hospital’s cancer center here in Canton, Ohio. She was recently exposed to two people who have the Corona Virus at work, so she was mandated to self-quarantine for 14 days in our bedroom. She toughed it out, and thankfully did not show any symptoms. Now, I’m […]
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Barn in Walhonding: Studies
I think I’ve learned my lesson by now… before I paint, I need to study my subject. And, what’s the point of doing all these studies if I don’t take the time to reflect on them to better evaluate what I’ve learned by doing them? That’s the purpose of this post – I want to […]
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Eiffel Le-Croissant
I saw a picture by u/le-croissant on Reddit r/MostBeautiful about a month ago, and I loved it. (Instagram @the_casual_iphonographer) He gave me permission to paint it, so I gave it a shot. The first time, I hated it. Actually, I should be more clear—I liked it a lot, until I decided for some reason to […]
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It’s all part of the journey
I have to remind myself over and over… you are only a year and a half into this. I’m a sophomore in high school… I should expect to paint like I’m sixteen. I have been running into a slew Of failed painting again. I’m not sure why exactly. For some reason I’m no where near […]
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Glitter War: Final
I bit the bullet and just went for it today, and painted that Glitter War painting my brother asked for a while ago. He lives in North Carolina, and they are in town for Christmas, so I figured if I paint it now, I can save myself from having to mail it. This painting has […]
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Caudill’s Old House
My friend asked for a painting of the house that they sold recently after upgrading to a newer home. The picture she sent me is below: The first thing I did was try to think through some of the problems I would need to solve: The house itself is fairly small in this image, I’ll […]
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Downhill at Dawn: #3
I liked my painting on the 1/16th sheet enough that I decided to try the same thing on a half sheet. I’ve never painted a half sheet before, so this was a little new. The one thing I knew at the outset was that no matter what, I couldn’t let myself overwork it. I knew […]
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Down Hill at Dawn: #2
I almost always paint on quarter sheets. So tonight, I cut one of those quarter sheets in half, and set out to paint something little. I’m really quite pleased with it. The last time I painted this scene I tried about a billion different things. This time, I simplified. No surprise, simpler have better results. […]
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I Will: #1
This is my quarter sheet draft of the painting I worked on the past two days. I wrote a lot about it in the post about the studies so I won’t go into much detail here on the process. But, I do want to show some of the photos from the process, and reflect a […]
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I Will
My last post was a pretty big downer. I’m glad I wrote it because it’s honest. But it also highlighted how inadequate I have been feeling lately. That post was titled “I can’t.” Today, I decided to paint and post again, and I wanted to title this one, “I can.” But that’s not honest. I […]
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Canton Bridge: #3
I went for another try at that city Bridge. I should probably go out and paint from life, instead of making this up from my imagination, but it’s really freaking cold outside. I wanted this to read like it was painted here in Canton, Ohio. Even though this isn’t a real bridge anywhere in Canton, […]
