My old friend and traveler Fran Kras sent me this photo to paint for a good cause. This is how it was made. Take a look.

Oil painting by James Swanson Fran's Cats 9"x12" Linen panel
Inspired by Fran Kras's photo of her 2 cats. This painting is going up for auction for a cat shelter in LaGrange Park IL called Cat Nap from the Heart. If you are interested in this painting contact them and maybe you can win it. If you need a great copy writer visit Fran's website she's as good as they get!

Details from painting

Thanks Fran again for the photo inspiration hopefully we can feed some cats.

Check out the "The artist and the traveler" website to see other painting adventures from this series or to start your own.

A Long Way To Get Home.

Our Next Traveler painting comes from the daily commute to downtown Chicago of Ron Guzman. Traveler Ron has been taking my Saturday painting class for a few years now and finally brought in one of his great city scenes for everyone to work from. This was a 3 week project for us because of the complexity of it. Thanks Ron!

"Early Morning on West Jackson Blvd"
By James Swanson & Traveler Ron Guzman
20 "x 16" Oil On linen Panel

Ron's photo at 6 am on
West Jackson Blvd, part of his early morning commute.

 Traveler Painting "Morning on West Jackson Blvd" With Traveler Ron Guzman
Traveler Ron has been studying in my painting class for a few years now. He's always there early with a smile on his face,   ready to get going. Ron's been making some very nice paintings in the class and wanted a bit more of a challenge on our last painting and gave up one of his morning walk photos to the class. 


Here is how the class and I painted the scene.

End of 1st weeks class. This is where we were after one class. We worked out the composition, sketched it on the canvas, and painted in the sidewalk.
There was a lot to take in on this cityscape, that is why we were taking are time and doing a 3 class painting of it.  

Final painting
After the second class this is about where we were with the painting. All blocked in with a few color corrections to make. I spent about an hour more on the painting after class and put in the details that I wanted. The background was wet and just right for the finishing touches.

 Details from the Painting

"Early Morning on West Jackson Blvd"
By James Swanson & Traveler Ron Guzman
20 "x 16" Oil On linen Panel

A BIG thanks goes out to Ron and my painting class for putting up with me this session 9 well all of my sessions:) This painting was a challenge I must say, but we attacked it in smaller bites and made it work!
Check out more paintings from this series at www.TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org
See ya on down the road!