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)

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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

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 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!