Friday, August 15, 2008

Another One From Today....

just reworked this piece. sometimes standing in the blazing sun in the middle of a busy beach parking lot keeps you from doing your best work. today because of where i was i couldnt pitch my umbrella to shade the palette and the painting like i do 99% of the time. then on top of that i must have had 25 curious people asking questions and telling me about everybody in their family that draws and/or paints. verrrry interesting stuff when youre trying to concentrate! one lady was offering me all these places i SHOULD paint. when i kinda ignored her she said, " well, its your loss if you dont!" i was like HUH?
anyway needless to say it was hard to concentrate, and i had a truck where the trailers are on the back row to the right. then i had this crappy rain cloud that was awful gray, didnt look real and was too busy.
whenever you have a busy section in a painting you should have another area very devoid of details or form to counterbalance the detailed section and to let the eyes rest. what was i thinking. so i came home, scraped the truck and sky and repainted. heres what i ended up with. i like it much better. probably going to paint this 18x24.

At Oceana Pier- 9x12 oil on canvas board
SOLD

5 comments:

Frank Gardner said...

That story cracks me up man. I hate when that happens. A few reasonable questions is o.k. but that is too much. Can't they see you are concentrating?
Your loss. LOL

David Lobenberg said...

Looks great. You do some very nice urbanscapes. I'm hoping to go out shortly and do some myself except unlike you, I'll probably end up with starts and have to finish them in the comfort of my cozy, air cinditioned studio.

mike rooney studios said...

frank-
yeah dude she was a pest. one of her ideas... she says, "you should paint that playground eqiupment over there, some mom would buy it to put in their kids bedroom"
man, what was i thinking doing these trailers when theres some perfectly good playground equipment over there?
MY LOSS i guess. how will i pay the bills this week?
wish i had a dollar for everytime i was disturbed by the comment.. " will it disturb you if i abrubtly start talking to you, taking you out of your zenlike trance, on probably the trickiest part of the blockin?"
if i did have a dollar for everytime that happens i'd never have to paint playground equipment again!

david-
thanks. i love urbanscapes. they are very challenging plein air. i was almost run over earlier this summer when a lady ran up on the sidewalk inches from where i was set up on a busy downtown corner. that was sketchy (no pun intended)
then theres the feeling your always in the way (oh yeah-- i am in the way!)
then i was downtown painting one day. i hear this loud screech and BAM, CRASH. scared the crap out of me. i look across the street (On my blindside) and its a car wrapped around a metal street pole.
my adrenalines gushing and then i see that its a film crew filming a movie and the guys a stuntman. WOW!
i guess all that, and the fact i'm finishing them allaprima in two, two hour sessions (24x30) gives them a loose, abbreviated look with just the basics described.
i love your style and cant wait to see your urbanscapes even if you are going to wimp out and retreat to the a/c and jazz on the Bose stereo, to finish them. LOL

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

I can feel the sweat poring down my temples as I try SO HARD to stay in the zone while ignoring someone yabbering about, of course, the artists in their family.
I had a good one once when a lady said, "oh, my son does paintball", Like it's art. Puzzling.
I'm trying to get braver about choosing locations where I know people will pester me.
By the way , I love trailer paintings and this rocks.
You crack me up.

mike rooney studios said...

mary
i wont pass up a chance to paint an old trailer. these at the beach are painted all kinds of beachy colors and screamed paint me. the only place to get that vantage point was right in the middle of the road. where everybody can give me a dirty look, try to talk to me or look at me like i've got an arrow sticking out of my head. i'm oblivious to it until they insult me or the bottle of drink finds its mark, which thankfully is not too often. all plein air artists have this job hazard dont we?
thanks for stopping by mary