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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 1
I enrolled in a watercolor class at the Canton Museum of Art. Last week was the first class. In that session, we covered a lot of the basics about what materials are used to paint in watercolor, why those materials are used, and a little bit about some of the techniques you can use to […]
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Plein Air Monument Park
After my first day at IOP, I went to the park and painted this before I went home. I wasn’t expecting my first day painting outside in over a year to result in anything mind blowing – I simply wanted to force myself to go do it. I am intimidated by painting outside because so […]
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Nimisilla C-6: #1-4
I went out to Nimisilla Reservoir today to try some Plein air painting. I am not happy with any of the results, so I tried again at home, and I’m not happy with that either. I don’t feel like doing a full write up on another failed painting, but I am committed to posting even […]
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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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DIY Plein Air Easel
So, I finished my Plein Air easel today. I am proud of it, so I figured I’d share it here – I think the idea of using a bar is pretty inventive, and I think it’s going to be useful when it’s warm enough for me to get outside. Inspiration I should start by saying […]
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Collecting Hay Bales: #1
The last time I painted Plein Air things went terribly. Today, I decided to try again. I drove out on 62, and turned off on Paris Ave where I saw a field full of hay bales. I ended up stopping and set up my easel on the side of the road and got to work. […]
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Plein Air at Salt Fork: #1
I took this photo of my easel set up for Plein Air painting when I was at Salt Fork a month or so ago. Tonight, I decided to try to paint it, and I guess I’ll try to toss myself into the picture. I don’t want to lean very heavily on the photo, which may […]
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Branden’s Yard: #1
My friend Branden lives out near Amish country – I guess you could say IN Amish country, since horses and buggies regularly drive past his house. A few weeks ago, I went to his house, and sat in his back yard and tried to paint it. That painting was a pretty royal failure, but it […]
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Gervasi Gazebo: #2
I tried to execute my plan on my second attempt. I went off the rails in a few places. I’m following the “five steps” from Tim Wilmot’s video. The steps he recommends are pretty much the same steps I see again and again. Some say: “paint dark values over light values” or “sketch large shapes” […]
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Gervasi Gazebo: #1
When I was at the Gervasi Vineyard a while ago, I took a photo of a gazebo because the light was striking in an appealing way. I wanted to paint this gazebo, so first I decided to take my time to create a strong sketch/value study. I particularly liked this sketch, and decided I would […]
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Dairy Farm: #1
This is the first painting after a series of Plein Air and at-home studies of a dairy farm on Route 21 near New Philadelphia, Ohio. The first post is here. The second is here. Sketch I decided to try another sketch of the composition last night, in order to try to simplify the composition a […]
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Salt Fork: #1
I drove out to Do some Plein Air Painting today. A while back I drove home from camping along Route 21, north of Salt Fork State Park. On the drive, I passed a Mutti Dairy Farm, and I took note of it as something to paint some day. So, when I decided to go painting […]
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Plein Air “Sketchbook”
Watercolor sketchbooks are really expensive. So, I bought a square of full-grain leather, and a leather sewing awl. I cut off part of the leather square, and cut it in half, then I sewed each half onto the square. To get the threads nicely spaced, I used a drafting compass to punch a hole, and […]
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Beaver Creek: #1
This past weekend, Rachel took the girls to Pennsylvania to see their cousins, and I got a weekend to myself. Alone time is medicine to me. I decided to take advantage of the alone time, and tossed my easel, my inflateable kayak, a tent, a fishing pole, a blanket, a pillow, some left overs, and […]
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Appalachian Sky
I wanted to capture the feel of standing on the balcony and looking out over the mountains in Banner Elk, North Carolina over our Fourth of July vacation. Composition At first, I painted the scene from our balcony and tried to frame the valley with the trees in the foreground. I tried to “zoom in” […]
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Church: #1
Every year for the past eleven or twelve years, some of my closest friends and I have gone on a camping trip for a long weekend. At first, there were a lot of us, and gradually life got in the way for a whole lot of us, but Babs, Sean, Branden and I still keep […]
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Nimisilla Plein Air: #1
I went out to the reservoir to paint tonight. I planned on walking a bit out to the peninsula, but this little window into the kayak launch struck my fancy. So I painted it. As I painted, I met a nice woman who has been an art teacher for a long time, she seemed happy […]
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Mohican Covered Bridge: #1
It’s absolutely gorgeous out today, so I went to Mohican State Park near Loudenville, and painted the covered bridge. On my way out, as I walked across the bridge, I passed a park ranger, so I gave this to her. It took a lot for me to paint this outside because there were a ton […]
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Mites, mud, and a microscope.
I spent a glorious day yesterday outside with my dog Lego. We fished in my inflatable boat. We walked through the woods. She sat while I painted a church. We drove for an hour and a half through Amish country to my favorite camping grounds. And, she lolloped through tall grass as we climbed a […]
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Back in the saddle…
I went out today to fish, but it was really too windy for my boat, so I decided to do some Plein Air painting instead. I drove around looking for something interesting to paint and found this church on a corner in Berlin. I set up my easel on a patch of grass in a […]
