Longacre Art Studio

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6X8 oil on canvas panel $100
I was keeping my 6 month old grandson, today. I started this little painting when I put him down for his nap. He woke up early, and wanted to play. I finished the painting with him riding my left hip with my arm around him. He seemed to enjoy the whole process. He got so tuned in on what was going on that he learned to watch my brush mix the paint, and then would squirm and giggle just as I was ready to make a stroke. That’ll keep you loose!

6X8 oil on canvas panel $100 (see PURCHASING for framing offer)
This study is from a secluded nook on Town Lake, in Austin. The composition was a fun exercise using the “golden section”, also known as “the divine proportion”. A very fascinating and useful way to approach composing. The amazing ratio or proportion determined by 1.618 is found throughout nature. It’s represented mathematically as PHI, and the related “fibonacci sequence”. If you haven’t looked into this phenomenon before, prepare to be awed.

Well, that was fun! My studio schedule has been so crammed lately, I’m way behind on posting. I’ll flog myself later. Anyway, I had a bit of time so I put this little painting down with knife and brush.

SOLD 16X12 oil on canvas panel
This is the finish of a recently commissioned piece. One of my collector/friends decided to surprise his brother with a painting of them both with his brother’s daughters. They were spending a day at their lake house, flying kites, early this spring when the reference photo was taken. I rearranged the figure grouping a bit to make the shapes more cohesive, and redesigned the placement of other elements to lead the eye and create balance. It was a joy to see how pleased he was to see the finish. Thanks, Clay!

12X16 oil on canvas panel $225 (plus shipping)
This is from photo reference I gathered while visiting the Amalfi coast in Italy. I found the scene on a little side street. Some residences had tiny enclosed gardens surrounding their entry. Everything about the fence and planters appeared handmade and had been baking in the Mediterranean sun for years and years. I love the organic naturalness of this subject.

SOLD 20×16You may remember this subject from the sketch I posted back on March 24th. This is the finished painting, commissioned (before the bluebonnets were in bloom) by the folks who own this lovely, lodge-style, log vacation home. It’s perched on a cliff-top, hundreds of feet above Lake Granite Shoals. Although the lodge itself is an impressive, three-story architectural delight, they asked me to create a painting that simply offered my impression of the beauty and uniqueness of a visit to the sanctuary they’ve named “Eagle’s Nest”. Thank you, M&D for the privilege!

This was done for commission. I enjoy doing these interpretations from what are often fairly mundane snapshots taken by the pet’s owner. Part of what’s so nice about doing them is that people are so appreciative when they see the dazzle of a little visual poetry applied to their beloved animal companion.
Lately, I’ve been so busy with commissioned work that I haven’t managed to keep up with posting. Sorry, folks. I’m doing all I can. A kind of happy dilemma! I’ll try to adapt.

11X14 oil on canvas panel $175
Okay, this probably comes as a surprise to you folks who are following my paintings. I put this together to use as an instructional example for my students. I’m covering the elements and principles of design with them, so I did this imagined composition using a complementary color scheme with discord accents. That probably doesn’t mean a lot to some of you, and I won’t bore you with the details.

I almost didn’t post this at all, but I’ve been working on commissions recently and hadn’t posted for awhile so I thought you might want to see what I’m doing. It was a lot of fun to paint this, and I’d be interested to know what you think of this. Be honest! I can take it.

Another from my recent trip to the Guadalupe River. I love the way the cypress trees grow in groups right on the banks of the river with their roots going into the water, the graceful patterns of their foliage and the cool blue violet appearing grays of their bark. What more can you ask for painting?

6X8 oil on canvas panel $100 (see PURCHASING for framing offer)
I like the way this turned out. The subject is from the same creek as yesterday’s painting. I’m just looking upstream from the same location. I decided to show you my two main preparatory stages, again.

First the basic composition and value arrangement. I usually don’t work this sketch out any further than the placement of the main masses of dark along with a general indication of grays, leaving the raw canvas for the lights. This stage is the biggest help in establishing the confidence that I have something, and the fun factor gets a real boost once I can see balance, focus and pattern at work.

The next stage is to lay in transparent color (no white in mixes yet) to approximate the major color masses. Here, I lay the foundation for the interplay of hues. I try to put these washes in darker and stronger than they will appear in the finish. I like painting the first round of thin opaques (white added to color) on top of this loose brightly colored underpainting.

In the final stage, I begin with the thin opaques to establish value and chroma (intensity) relationships, while adjusting the interlocking silhouette patterns. When that’s done, I can begin to load in thick paint to further refine color, define edges and establish the focal area.

A gorgeous, clear morning in the Texas hill country near Hunt. The sun was still low enough to be streaming down the creek bed at a low angle and illuminating the banks in dazzling, golden light. The mirror reflections on the quiet water made a compelling motif.

The morning sun was just above the horizon, and setting everything into clearly defined light and shadow patterns. Painting the beach towel to convey that effect was my main challenge in this. I also like the way the sand shovel catches the light and carries the oranges over.

10×8 oil on gessoed panel $150
This is taken from the view outside our living room window. It was being back-lit by a late afternoon sun, producing an interesting shadow pattern with brightly illuminated foliage. I decided to do a color study with the intent of learning something from using the bright, saturated palette of one of my favorite painters, Mike Svob.

I thought it would be a good chance to show the three major stages I moved through to do the study. Here, first, is the light/dark shape arrangement that I designed from the available scene. Black on a warm neutral toned gessoed panel.
This is how it looked once I laid in the general color notes for the shapes. At this stage, I wanted to place carefully mixed paint paying close attention to the values. It’s really true that almost any color will work if you get the values right. But, I’m also interested in the interplay of the hue selection, and keeping the chroma (saturation, intensity) up.

In the final stage (the first image above), I made adjustments to edges, pattern development, color relationships, detail and attention to contrasts at the focal center. There you have it.

Mike Svobs palette of color relationships always intrigues me, and takes me into an area of painting that’s pure enjoyment for me. I’d be interested to hear your comments or questions if you’re interested.

SOLD 8X6 oil on canvas
This was taken from a pasture on a cattle ranch down on the Texas Coastal Plains. The seemingly endless flat land is interrupted only by thickets and stands of oaks, like these. The sun had just begun to rise, and a thin mist was lifting from the ground. There was silence, except for the distant sounds of birds singing in the little grove of oaks. The scene produced a pervasive sense of peace and simplicity that made me want to capture it in paint.

18X24 oil on canvas panel $650
Okay, I just wanted to have some fun, so I got out an 18×24 and went at. The beach seemed an appropriate place to stage this slightly cock-eyed sunrise. I really enjoyed using my big brushes and plenty of paint.

It’s nice having these irises in the garden. I decided to have another go at them. The structure of the bloom is very complex, and it’s a challenge to keep the brushwork simple and direct. I especially like the purple and violet edges that tinge the lower petals.

I’ve been working on commissioned paintings recently, and have missed my daily small ones. Sometimes I just can’t find a way to manage it. It’s been awhile since I’ve done a still life. I cut this iris from our garden, which is full of these beauties right now. I decided to work a bit larger, just for the exercise.

6X6 oil on canvas panel $100
I found this little cactus as I was hiking back to the house and feeling discouraged about the miserable-flop-of-a-painting I had made that day. Everything had just gone wrong.

First, it took me forever to find a subject, then a quarter of the way into the painting I discovered I had disturbed an ant bed. By the time I was moved and ready to paint again, the light had so changed that I was pretty much inventing what I was doing and it was not going well at all. I marked it up to dues paying and scraped the mess off my canvas, packed up and headed home.

As I was climbing the trail back up the hill, I looked to my left into a little clearing atop the ledge that walled that side of the trail. That put me at eye-level with this humble little prickly pear cactus that seemed to be dancing in the dazzling, late afternoon light.Some of the nice background color was the result of what was left from the scrape-off of the flop. There wasn’t much time left before the sun would drop, but feeling like I had nothing to lose, I set up right there on the trail and went at it. I got the essentials before the sun was gone, and went back to the studio and happily put in the finishing touches. A good outing after all.

8X6 oil on canvas panel $100 (see PURCHASING for framing offer)
What caught my eye in this subject was the contrast of elements: Water/rock, reflection/transparency, light/shade, warm/cool. I was going pretty fast trying to get this down, but it’s the kind of painting I’ll probably do again in a larger size.

I, of course, love doing this subject matter, but, for me, they’re primarily about design, color, shapes, and edges. I try not to get to invested in the rendering aspect. Instead I’m counting on getting the values and color relationships working in a way that both portrays the scene believably and communicates a mood.

I’ve been thinking about doing this one for awhile. The conversation that titles it was overheard. I’ve been holding off, because I thought it may be a little too much on the schmaltzy side. But, today I just decided, what the heck, it’s just another painting, and a great chance to load on a lot of nice color. Painting for the fun of it is a good thing. I’ve got plenty of time to be serious. Pardon my mush.

I decided to go back to another earlier composition, and sing it again in a Spring harmony. I find this kind of exercise useful for my studies since it allows me to focus on specific elements and principles. In this case, color harmony, contrast, and brushwork. It’s also a fun workout for the imagination. I felt pretty bullish about this one so I tried another. It was a flop. Oh well, paint and learn. Right?

This is a composition I used earlier of a scene from one of our hill country lakes. I’ve returned to paint it again, but this time clothed in its new spring outfit. I like doing this at times. From my field notes, I often will recompose a subject in the studio, hopefully strengthening its impact.

The reference for this painting came from a visit to the old Spanish missions in San Antonio. I had intended to do a painting of the mission itself, but it was late afternoon and the entire facade was in shade. As I walked around looking for something to catch my attention, I finally went to see the side that held little interest as far as architectural detail. It was the sunny side, and this lovely bougainvillea was sitting right on the edge of the shadow.

It’s the brief time of year, here in the Texas hillcountry, when the bluebonnets lay carpets of blue on the grassy, limestone slopes. By the staggering numbers of bluebonnet paintings you see in Texas, you’d think their out all year around. This was fun doing my tip of the hat to the season with this little sketch of a classic hillcountry setting.