The Artist And The Traveler - Painting From Afar.: September 2011

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Land that Time Forgot!

"Mackinac Horses"

By James Swanson

20" x 16" Oil on Linen Panel

Traveler for this painting Mary M.

News flash! A tiny island off the state of Michigan has stopped time!

No motor cars, trucks or buses move there and people have to get around like they did a hundred years ago by foot, bike or horse.

Downtown Mackinac Island

Welcome to Mackinac Island, and the home of the Grand hotel.

The Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island

This is where we meet our next Traveler Mary M.

One of Traveler Mary M photos

Mary is an old family friend who visited there a few years back and was kind enough to share her photo album from there.

Mackinac State park

Traveler Painting "Mackinac Horses"This next painting came into being because of an art contest at Mackinac. The contest had to do with Mackinac life. Since our friend Mary had recently been there she offered her photos for me to pick from. I wanted to paint horses do I cropped in tight on one to work from.
Painting steps to Mackinac Horses:

Oil sketch on canvas.

Here are the colors I mixed for the beginning of the painting.

The darkest dark colors are painted in first.

Next I moved to the mid tone colors.

Then the higher key colors were added. At this point I decided that I was going to just paint the horses and their rigging and let the background go.

Here the defining of the horses took place. To keep the painting from getting flat I gave the horses their own space. I did that by painting them slightly differently. The front horse received most of the little details while the other horse was done in big simple strokes.

Done. This painting was fun. It was one of those paintings where when ever you put down a stroke you liked it and went on.

Details from the painting

"Mackinac Horses"

By James Swanson

20" x 16" Oil on Linen Panel

Traveler for this painting Mary M.

A big thanks goes out to Mary M. for the use of her photos. See more of her photos here.

Also a little note on this painting, it didn't win a prize in the art show. But it was bought and will be staying at the Grand Hotel. Not a bad new stable.

Well, I'm off to find a new venue to paint. Until we meet again hold on to your horses.

The artist and traveler project is always looking for new places and faces. Contact me here or at www.theartistandthetraveler.org to take part.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Something Old, Is New Again.

"Old Juke Joint"

By James Swanson

12"x16" Oil on panel

Traveler Carrie Layne Mashon
Here are the painting steps to this old juke joint.

Times a Wastin, Let's get Paintin.
Living in Alberta Canada the days tend to start getting pretty short when fall arrives. So those golden hours of artistic light get very precious.

Carrie Layne Mashon

That is where we meet our next Traveler Carrie Layne Mashon. Carrie lives and works there in Alberta and was kind enough to post some of here inviting photos for me to paint.

Carrie's photo that inspired the painting

Traveler Painting "The Old Juke Joint" Carrie and I belong to the same painting group. When Carrie posted her photo I had to paint it. It was just one of those images that said paint me to me. So I jumped to it. Here are my painting steps to The Old Juke Joint.

The sketch on canvas to start. Here I've also painted in the darkest dark colors. These warm darks I will try and not touch too much through out the painting.

Next up is to paint the next darkest colors. The dynamic mountain in the background really helps speed this painting along. The cool shadow is all blues and deep purples.

Here the painting is totally blocked-in. OK it's blocked in now its time to make some adjustments.

Done. I kind of got caught up in this one and didn't take pictures of a couple of steps. But I think you can see how the painting changes from the last image.

Details from the painting