Dusk at Devil's Den

I'm very pleased to announce that my watercolor and colored pencil landscape, Dusk at Devil's Den, was accepted into the CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America)'s Explore This! 9 online exhibition. With this acceptance I earned my CPX Signature Status, and just received my certificate and pin in today's mail. You can view the exhibition at http://www.cpsa.org/view-explore-this-9.

Witness Tree at Devil's Den

I've been in a bit of an artistic funk this year -- I keep working but often find I am not as satisfied with the results as I would like. In an attempt to break out of this negativity, I decided to create a small landscape based on a portion of the Devil's Den area on the Gettysburg Battlefield. I had recently read an article indicating that the tree depicted here is one of the few remaining "witness" trees -- meaning, a tree that is confirmed to have been present during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, and that is what spurred me on to choose this particular location.

Recently I received some very good news regarding this painting, done in colored pencil on PastelMat: it is one of only 101 works selected for the exhibition, America's Parks Through the Beauty of Art. In addition, it was chosen as one of the Top 50, and will be part of a travelling
exhibition, moving from Missouri to New York to Wisconsin, beginning in March. Folow this link to read the juror's statement: http://www.outdoorpainter.com/whats-current-and-whats-coming/americas-parks-exhibition-begins-tour.html. While I realize that being pleased with our own work is what's important, not the opinion of a juror, this was a welcome "shot in the arm" for an artistically-uncomfortable year!

Completed and Sold!

I did complete Sunset, Peter Frey Farm in late June, and it and another small landscape sold in early July to a gentleman from Pittsburgh.  I enjoy these Gettysburg landscapes and am now experimenting with using Neocolor II (Watersoluble Wax Pastels) on some larger versions, as they lay down much more quickly than the Inktense pencil/colored pencil combination.

In-progress: Barn at the Peter Frey Farm

This needs some work, primarily to the tree on the lefthand side, but I'm pleased with how it's coming along so far. I'm working with an  Inktense watercolor pencil underpainting on white PastelMat, and adding dry colored pencil color enhancement and detail on top. It's turned into one of my favorite working methods for landscapes.

Dusk at Devil's Den

I believe this is done -- added some detail but I didn't want to overstate it. So I'll post it for now and spend some time looking at it in this new form to see if I feel it truly is finished.

Devil's Den at Sunset, Step 2

I taught a workshop over the weekend on using Derwent Inktense water soluble pencils as an underpainting for colored pencil drawings. Since I had this piece with me to use as an example of a couple of concepts, I spent a little time during the lunchbreak punching up the watercolor layers and then last night had some time to add some dry colored pencil detail. It's starting to head the direction I want; it does seem to look a little too dark, overall, in this reproduction.

Artistic Struggles

Devil's Den at Sunset, step 1



As I'm sure so many of my artist-friends can relate to, lately I've really been struggling with making progress on any of my various projects. I have a number of commissions on which I'm making progress, but I've found that it's also very important to me to have my own personal project "in the works", something I'm very emotionally connected to, to keep my spirit alive. That is not to say I don't have any emotional connection or sincere interest in my commission work, it's just to say that the feeling is not quite the same as when I'm doing something of my own choosing. I'm emotionally connected to the Basil Biggs project but am finding some of my references to be lacking; I'm emotionally connected to my third -- and probably final -- piece involving Sarah Emma Edmonds but I'm finding it difficult to determine a direction for that piece. Recently, however, I've hit on some ideas and now have a vague notion regarding the composition of that piece, so I'm hopeful that I'll be posting a rough layout of it soon.

In the meantime, in addition to teaching a number of classes and workshops in OH, I've also been studying the pastel landscape work of Richard McKinley, and am trying to work with his "underpainting" concept for some small landscapes I'm doing of the Gettysburg battlefield. The image above represents my watercolor pencil underpainting with a minimum of colored pencil applied on top. But again, I appear to be "stuck" when it comes to moving forward with this composition.

I know this is just a natural part of the artistic process, but I have to say it's very uncomfortable and i'll be pleased when things start to smooth out a bit.

Codori Barn from Little Round Top

I took a break from working on my latest Battle of Gettysburg/Civilians of Gettysburg piece about Basil Biggs, to produce this small landscape from the Gettysburg battlefield. I created a much smaller version of this scene in colored pencil for entry in the upcoming Miniature Art 2011 exhibition at the Council for the Arts in Chambersburg, PA, and decided to try this second, larger version using watercolor and colored pencil on a sienna-colored piece of Pastelmat. Once again I love this particular combination of media and working surface; it's the same combination I used on Summer Sunset, McPherson Farm (see post from June 12), and on my one-day drawing/painting giveaway of  Stone House, Manassas National Battlefield (see post from June 21).