Barn Doors Open

This one kind of took me by surprise and jumped on and off the easel today...

"Barn at Gulf Creek Farm"

Release Me

This one is pretty much done, I've got to stare at it for awhile and then sign it.

"Release"

Background

The background is well underway...

I Think Its Going To Be A Fish

A new one underway.

Santa Fly

Santa Fly

Hand-tied on a 1/0 stainless steel hook and

packaged in display box.

Click here to purchase

Trout Brook Winter

"Trout Brook Winter"

 16x20 Acrylic on canvas

Almost A Knife Casualty

The second knife painting ready to come off the easel.
I thought I'd lost this one but woke up one morning at 3 AM with it on my mind.
"Painted in my head" for a couple hours, then got up and finished it off.
That's how it works sometimes...

Autumn

Although the colors here this fall weren't quite as vivid

as they usually are, I brought them back with this one from a photo

I took a few years ago.

Cuts Like A Knife

This morning, for the first time in 30 or years,

 I picked up 30+ year old palette knife with serious intent.

Happy Halloween!

A little photoshop fun with a photo I took a few years ago...

Fly box

One of three custom fly display shadow boxes I created, featuring flies by my Uncle Al, who piqued my interest in fly fishing so many years ago. I wish I would have asked him to teach me, but at the time, being so young, it looked magically impossible...

A Horse By Any Other Mane

"Macey"

Reigning it in

The horse is showing progress.

Still some work left.

Horsing Around

Change of pace, just a little underway.
Commission work. Macey the horse.

Brook Trout

Finished.

I had a good time doing this one.

Great subject matter makes it that way.

Thanks again Jay Jones. It was a pleasure.

Visit him @humblefly

and YouTube

Details, Details...

The latest brook trout is almost finished.

While a attend to some final touch-ups, 

I'll bore you with some details.

Once again, but not for the final time, special thanks to
Jay Jones The Humblefisherman for the awesome photo I worked from.

Fishin'

Things are starting to look a little fishy.

Liquidity

Water starting to get "wet".

Streaming

More background work.

Beginning to look like a streambed.

Backing It Up

Background rough in.

Getting the basic shapes and colors blocked in, 

adding basic detail in the bottom right corner.

Reference photo by Jay Jones @humblefly

I've Got This Thing...

...for brook trout.

A big tip of the fishing hat to Jay Jones, The Humblefisherman, 

for the great reference photo that I'm working from.

Here we go!

Trout Lake Sunset

After a little more work all over, calling it done.

Trout Lake Sunset

Labor Day at the Lake

According to a Facebook post I made, this is from

 a photo I took of Trout Lake a year or two ago on Labor Day.

Summer is over so I figured I better get back to doing what I do.

This one will probably get tweaked a little more before I call it done.

Streamside series

Here's a peek at the first two from my new "Streamside" series, 

just off the easel, in the studio for (some better) light.

At least one more for this series, to begin with...maybe more.

The Eagle Has Landed

About to come off the easel.

Special thanks to 

Donna J Pray of DJ Prays Photography Plus

for the reference photo.

Reggies Blind

One of the great things about doing a show is the people you meet. 

During a recent one, another vendor approached me and struck up a conversation.

"Gooseman" from goosemancalls.com told me the story of his close friend and hunting partner Reggie.

Reggie passed away very unexpectedly one Autumn day. The pain of his passing was still clearly evident as 

Gooseman relayed the story of their friendship and their hunting exploits.

It seemed Reg had acquired a fine piece of swamp land that he hunted regularly. When Reg was

looking to buy that property, he told the then-owner that he would never pay a thousand dollars for a  piece of swamp, so he promptly settled on a price of $999.00.

That piece of swamp turned out to be a magical spot. You could watch the migrating flocks

split into two paths overhead. The coastal and eastern flyways.

They watched brant fly high overhead by the hundreds while an occasional eagle cruised the thermals.

Reg hunted and shot just about every legal form of waterfowl in New York from their blind in that swamp.

He saw ducks, geese, beaver, otter, eagles, crows, deer, grouse, woodcock, rabbit,  muskrat and mink

while they sat there.

After the story, Gooseman pulled up a picture on his phone. 

It was a shot from that duck blind, taken early in the morning...those mornings most people miss unless they're outdoorsmen.

I immediately said "I want to paint that," and we started talking about the specifics.

Gooseman told me how Reggie's widow, Arlene, had a birthday coming up and how he'd love

to present that painting to her. So the commissioned work was agreed on and I set off working on

"Reggies Blind"

The original now resides with Arlene, where she can see it every day and remember 

the magic of Reggies favorite spot and where his spirit lives on.

Screech

Eagle Underway

If you live in the North Country, you've surely seen this great photo by Donna J Pray

of DJ Prays Photography Plus.

She's most graciously allowed me to use it for my next canvas.

Many thanks, Donna!

The new "easel screen" keeps me from having to twist my neck around 

constantly to see my computer monitor when I need to zoom in for detail.

Break Time

Took a short break from painting...and painted.

A quick watercolor study of Samson the Wonder Shih Tzu.

Leaving

Started some of the leaf work in the foreground...

Swamp Grass

Click for the video

Every Picture Tells A Story

...and there's one with this one, it'll unfold as the painting does.

Sunrise, water, leaves and more.

Just underway.

Racked Up

"Whitetail" 

Done except for the signing.

Never Stop Learning

I spent 16 hours this week hunkered down in front of my computer watching a live webinar entitled "Capture to Print". It encompassed everything from camera set up, lighting, shooting, monitor calibration, Lightroom & Photoshop editing, printer set up and printing...and that's just hitting the high points. I've been doing all that stuff for years, most of the time only adequately at best.

 I learned so much. It was intensive. It was good. 

 It's all about color management...

 I'd completely given up on ever getting "Fog" to the print stage,

but I'm pretty much there.

Whitetail ...still

I pulled "Whitetail" out of the 

'didn't quite make it' pile, and it's back on the easel.

 It's getting a complete rework, background first.

Disregarding the reference photo for awhile,

 and making it more my vision. Time will tell.

Brown Hooked Up

This was a fun one.

Hope to get it down in the photo studio this weekend

for the official print portrait.

Brown in Hand

The hand looks funky right now, when it gets "wet" it'll be better.

Should wrap it tomorrow. My favorite part...all the drips, drops, splashes and reflections!

...and better light for the photo.

Brown Spots

Today's progress...

Water Color

I get completely lost painting water.

It's sufficiently wet enough for now.

Brown All Under

All that white canvas is (mostly) gone.

Underpainting, and the water starting to look wet.

Brown

If you follow Orvis Fly Fishing,

you might have seen a great photo by Sandy Hays

 a few days ago on Facebook.
Thanks to Phil at Orvis for permission to use it as reference.

The next one is underway.

Morning Fog

 "Morning Fog"

8 x 24 Acrylic on canvas

Finally...Fetch

"Fetch" finally got back to the studio last weekend for a photo shoot.

This one was a tough one to get to the print stage.

Lots of photoshop and test prints to get it as

 close as possible to true a reproduction of the original.

"Fetch"

20x20 Acrylic on canvas

Fishing in the Fog

Hoping to really relay that foggy, damp look and feel

of early morning on the water. It progresses...

Working in a Fog

Catching that early morning fog on the water...

Photo Shop

Aside from being down with the flu for the better part of a week,

the photo studio got an upgrade and now occupies one end of my downstairs workshop.

I've had a rack of canvases that were waiting, so I finally got at it today.

"Fin" set up for the shot

Today's set of Artists Proofs

Fin.

Fin is pretty much finished.

Special thanks to Antonius Fischt for his reference photo.

Work

The "work" part of being an artist.

It's not all tossing paint at a canvas.

There are hours of work behind the camera and in

 post production to get a saleable print of that paint on the canvas...

I print small areas until I get it right.

...and then you get to the really hard part, selling it!

The Great Lull

Vacation in the sunshine state, then technology overload.

Back at the easel, paint all over me as Fin progresses.