As you can see, I've been tapering back on blogging. I'm posting regularly on FaceBook. Please friend request me on FaceBook. Find me there by searching for "Mike Rooney VCU"

Endless Summer-30x40

                       
                               Latest painting from my Havana trip.
                                                        30x40

Dusk on the Marsh 30x40

Here's a recent large painting. you should see it in person. the colors under the top coat just glow thanks to the acrylics I paint first in the underpainting stage.

 

Next week is the big Art of the Carolina's event in Raleigh. Huge art workshop/supplies convention that runs for four or five days. I'll be teaching three classes and as far as I know there are still seats available for all.

 

Thursday Nov. 13- 5- 8 pm-How to Mix any Color with three and white

Friday Nov. 14- 5-8 pm- How to Simplify Complex Subject Matter

and all day Sunday Nov. 15-- my version of the Cape Cod School of Art underpainting method.

I'll also be playing island tunes at the trade show on Saturday afternoon from around 2-4 so come get your caribbe -on!

Boat House 36x48 SOLD

From my marsh series this past summer. Thanks to City Art for selling it at my show a few months back! 

i'm still blogging but i FaceBook alot more and all my new paintings and workshop dates are posted there almost daily. 

If you search mike rooney artist VCU you'll find me and you can friend request me.

plein air sketch Maine coastline

This one is a quick sketch done several years ago near Port Clyde Maine when I was going over to Monhegan to teach. Very near Jenny B's house to be exact.

 



8x10-Oil Sketches from years past

 

 

North Harbor Reflections-30x40

North Harbor Reflections - 30x40

Just off the easel.

Like the warmth of the sunlit shapes against the cool blue shadows.

Keeper of the Light-8x10

Just got back from Maine and Rhode Island. Terrible wifi so no posts from me for awhile. Here's one of the lightkeeers house on Monhegan Island. Its sold.

Penniman's House-8x8

First plein air painting on my Cape Cod-Maine road trip. Capt. Penniman was Eastham Mass.'s wealthiest whaling captain back in the middle 1800's. The arch/gate is a 65 foot sperm whale's lower jawbone.

From Above-24x30

Edge of Evening - 24x30

Headed to Munn Fine Art on Cape Cod soon.

Working a lot more transparently in the shadows these days. Always interested in how I can make things glow more. Read some Stephen Quiller books and added a few tools to my toolbox. He's very good at making things pop.

 He's primarily a water-media guy but the concepts work in any media.

Mid Tide (revision) 18x24

 

Mid Tide-18x24

oil on panel

email me for price and availability

 

 

This is the original painting. painted several years ago. it never sold. Surprise, right? NOT!

 

oh sooo ugly. here are the changes i made.

 

simplified the grass and made it much brighter. 

changed the color scheme warming it up, brightening and lightening it up.

simplified the water strip in the back and made it connect to the tidal pool

punched up the sky.

 

that's better!

 

Marsh III- 30x40

 

Marsh III- 30x40

on gallery wrapped canvas (no frame needed)

email me for price and availability

 

another marsh scene from the series. this ones a larger version of a painting I did last week. in the past I've never been into series. but having done several of each of these marsh motifs I see the value. the more you do it you begin to see things that work for each component of the painting. you keep doing the things that seem to work and you you ditch things that aren't in search of things that do. that way they seem to evolve.

Flowing In- 36x48

Flowing In

36x48 on gallery wrapped canvas

email me for price and availability at rooneystudios@Hotmail.com

so many things about the way i paint have changed in the last year. one area is the size. i never used to enjoy painting big. now i love it. i'm using a part acrylic, part oil underpainting process that gives me the peeks of pure color i love poking out in just the right spots. and I learned a thing or two from my buddy Dan Nelson about transparent glazes. I don't do it a lot but it looks great on certain areas.

also, my color sense went more Wolf Kahn and less Kevin Mcpherson with much looser brushwork.

 

But probably the biggest change is that i'm painting almost everything in the studio since last december. i'm using studies and photo references from years and years painting outside almost exclusively. i think it taught me how to "correct" a photo if I have to.  But I'm doing my own interpretation of the them tho'. i'm not so literal anymore, and don't try to exactly reproduce the scene and light key like i used to. Trying to introduce some "wow" factor into the painting.

 

painting is a fluid thing and the bar is always changing. what i thought i was doing ok on a few years ago, look laughable and amateurish to me now. as the ones i'm doing now will look in several years.

 

that is....i hope!

On the Hill Side- 30x40

On the Hillside- 30x40

on gallery wrapped canvas

email me for price and availability

 

 a different version of Hill Top Cottages.

 

wanted to play with different light and composition. The big ones are fun because you can play in the shapes with subtle temperature differences and broken color (that the computer image doesn't show) that you wouldn't have room for on a small one.

 

And the size of the canvas is a big statement as well.

Hill Top Cottages-30x40

 

Hill Top Cottages-30x40

email me for price and availability

 

this one's from Bald Head Island. I love the elevation on this side of the island. its very desolate feeling out there. sorta reminds me of my travels to Cape Cod and Maine.

Workshop News
there are seats left in next Monday July 13-Wednesday July 15th workshop in West Jefferson, NC. it's a "Loosen Up and Paint Colorfully" plein air class. The weather is much cooler in the mountains and Kathleen says its gorgeous painting weather with amazing mountain vistas. I cant wait! if you'd like a seat email me and i'll arrange it. 

Marsh Land- 36x48

 

Marsh Land- 36x48 on gallery wrapped canvas

email for price and availability

 

still trying to playing with color, paint handling and underpainting techniques. I'm having a lot of fun on these big canvases. easier to be loose on a monster canvas than it is on an 8x10, that's for sure.

I think of 16x20's as mini canvases now. big change since a year ago. changing from cooking oil to Gamsol thinner made this possible. it was just too hard to get all the paint out of a huge brush using cooking oil. now a swish or two in some Gamsol and poof. clean! 

Sundowner- 30x40

 

Sundowner- 30x40 on gallery wrapped canvas

email for price and availability

wanted some razzle-dazzle on this one. used giant brushes on much of this until later in the painting and that kept it loose for quite a while. Gotta know when to stop tightening it up.

Cuba Workshop dates will be January 16-23, 2016. I'll be taking a handful of people with me to Havana, so if you'd like to go, email me and i'll get you the details.

side by side comparison

did a side by side comparison study to see why the blue under painting color shows so blue in my photos. think I figured it out.

 

the acrylic looks bluer than the oil in the photo. Acylic test patch is on the top (see the A) Oil is on the bottom. tho' theyre the same on the real panel they look different to my camera for some reason.

 

I purposely did the left side of both a little lighter and that's whats causing the problem. the dark green I'm swirling in is darker than the purple. so it seems the solution to not having light saturated blue peeking out is to darken the value of the underpainting color.

see how the right side of the top panel looks ok with the dark green added into it compared to the lighter blue below in the oil panel?

 

yeah. glad to at least have a clue to whats been going on.

new paintings this week

 

The Landing-24x40

email me for price and availability

 

Cuban Hero- 18x24

email me for price and availability

Water View 24x30

email me for price and availability