The Hounds of the Baskerville!

"Baskerville"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Paul
14" x 18" Oil on Linen

The Journey of this Painting.

Release The Hounds!!! as Mr. Burns likes to say.

On this painting journey there are quite a few places I'd like to see just because of a book or movie that I saw.

Traveler Paul

In this next piece we journey from foggy London to the area of Dartmoor to find out about what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" looks like, and met our next Traveler Paul.

Paul's Book

Traveler Paul is an authority on Sir Arthur Colin Doyle and has written a book about it "On the Trail of Arthur Conan Doyle: an Illustrated Devon Tour".


I came across Paul when I was researching Baskerville as an interesting place to see, and came upon "The Baskerville Weekend" and had to check into it.

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

The Baskerville Weekend is your chance to experience the stage from where the famous book was written, take carriage rides like Holmes and Watson did, tour the site of Dartmoor from the moors to the Churches and Graveyards,


and feast with Sherlock Holmes himself. It sounds like a great weekend for mysteries and sleuths, and our Traveler Paul is a big part of the weekend.

Paul's photo for his "Moods of Dartmoor" album which I will be working from.

Traveler Paul Notes: The photo was taken on a back road between Postbridge and Cator Court - very close to Laughter Hole and the East Dart River (Bellever) - this is near the location of Laughter Hole House and The Baskerville Dinning Experience.

Traveler Painting "Baskerville"- I really liked Paul's photo gallery of the Dartmoor moods, it gave me a real good sense of the place. The Photo that I worked from I felt caught the whole aspect of Dartmoor for me. I wanted to paint the painting moody, but not scary.

The Sketch: I'm painting this painting as a demo in front of my Oil painting class. I did the sketch of how I was going to layout the painting. the road would lead the viewer around the painting.

I toned the canvas with raw umber and oil and then wiped off areas that were lighter. I started the painting by sketching in my sketch and painting with the dark colors first.

Moving quickly,(it's only a 2 1/2 hour class) I painted in mountains and the middle ground.

Now I've gotten to the sky and foreground. The sky went in very fast and easy, and I like the way it turned out.

Working on the bushes in front. Here the color has to be the strongest to create depth. The things that are the closest have the most contrast in light and dark and color. So I wanted to paint them in first and then work my way back in the painting.

Working my way into the painting- I'm working on the middle ground here, building up paint thickness in the lighter colors. End of class at this point.

This is after I made a few adjustments in color and design.

Details from the Baskerville Painting

The framed Painting

"Baskerville"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Paul
14" x 18" Oil on Linen

Many thanks go out to Paul and my class for putting up with me on this painting.

Our Traveler Paul is writing up a storm he just finished his seventh book- "Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Devon: A Complete Tour Guide & Companion". Look for it in your book stores.

Time to be moving on to find another Traveler. If you would like to be a traveler in this series drop me a note or clue to where to find you.

Until next time Cheerio!

"Jill"

"Jill"

By James Swanson / Traveler Dustin

16" x 20" Oil on linen

See the journey of this painting.

"Jack and Jill went up the hill." But in this case Dustin went up the hill with Jill.

Our next Traveler is our youngest so far.

Traveler Dustin

Traveler Dustin, is the 12 year old son of my good friend Jill. Who was a Traveler in this series last year.

Traveler Jill

Jill and her family moved to their vacation home in the Adirondacks last year. Where she has been posting wonderful photo of their time there.

"A Poet's Painting"
James Swanson / Traveler Jill

When I was first perusing her albums many of her photos struck me as a paintings waiting to happen. But one photo reminded me of a Andrew Wyeth painting.

Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World" 1948

The only problem was, Jill didn't take the photo. Her son Dustin did. So Dustin is the Traveler for this painting.

Photos are from Jills Album

Dustin's Story from Jill:
Dustin took the picture because I told him too-hahahaha...wish the answers were more thoughtful than that...guess it was really a self portrait with my TMan taking orders and doing his usual best. I can always count on him to take the kind of picture I would take myself.

"My back's my better side-tee hee"


"luckily I have passed down "the eye" Offspring are cool aren't they?"

Our friend Jill is a poet and sent us this little diddly for her sons participation in this project.

A Prose for that painted pose -

"Walking away

Or moving toward

Thinking back

Or looking forward

Was I in the now

Back then?

When was that again?"

Dustin's photo that I will be working from.

The Traveler Painting "Jill" I found Dustin's photo alive in grays, and I've had it in the back of my mind to paint for a long while. The problem was fitting it in. The time has come.
The Sketch for the design of the painting. I really liked pretty much everything about Dustin's photo. All I want to do is slide Jill over to the left and out of the middle.

The Sketch on the canvas. I've also painted in my darkest dark color. I started with a wash of Burnt Umber on the canvas. I then rubbed out some areas and drew in the sketch.

The Start of laying in t of big color areas. This was a little scary of a painting to do, no a fence Jill. Keeping the colors tight in value and croma- intensity of the color- would be key. So I have pre-mixed my colors on the palette so there shouldn't be to many wrong colors standing out.

I'm working my way through the grays, in this painting, warm ones and cool ones. Trying to block in the painting and then to start making adjustments in color and drawing.

here I've started painting in the big areas and then working back into the areas with other colors. This is making the painting take form pretty fast. I watch my brush strokes also at this point, because you never know when a perfect stroke might happen.

My tough little critic. My son Owen came in the studio while I was painting and I asked him what he thought. He always has good suggestions on how to fix things. This time I just handed the brush to him and sad you fix it. And he did. Thanks Owen.

The painting is about 3/4 or more done here. A lot of little things need to be done like adding the touch of snow, details in the trees, and adjusting some colors.

Finished. I put in all the snow with a palette knife. I just scraped on the colors with it. It was also used in the details of the trees. If I put the details in with brush I would have tightened up. The knife keeps that from happening and creates interesting effects with paint.

Details form the painting.

Framed and ready to go.

"Jill"

By James Swanson / Traveler Dustin

16" x 20" Oil on linen

My thanks goes out to Jill and her son Dustin our Traveler, and my son Owen for helping out greatly on this painting. Traveler Dustin and his twin brother, another Owen are also published authors. There book " It Isn't Just a Game" is now on at the book stores, check it out sometime.

Well, my first year on this painting trip is over. I was able to make 35 paintings from different Travelers, and I want to thank them for their help and guidance. I have a few more blogs to write on some paintings for year one, but the painting for year two is underway. You can see them early at www.TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org and if you want to be a Traveler you can contact me here.

Until next time Bon Voyage!

Long Journey Home.

"Long Road Home"

By James Swanson/ Traveler Diane
18" x 24" Oil on Linen
For Ogden School 6th Grade class.

How the "Long Journey Home" was painted.

OPA!!! OPA!!! Something must be cooking.

Flaming Greek Saganaki Cheese

I started this painting about a month ago for the 6th Grade of Ogden School in LaGrange, Illinois.

Ogden School 6th Grade class.

Following their directive to paint Greece, I went out and found a Traveler who has been to Greece and had a story to tell about their journey.

Photos from Traveler Diane's photo album.

Traveler Diane has been most kind with putting up with my pestering and questions about her trip.

Young Diane

Diane returned to her birth place after 50 years of being away to look for signs of her past and to take in the ageless beauty of Greece.


During Diane's 15 day trip she was able to meet her Greek relatives, and found a little of her past. You see Diane was adopted when she was 11 months old from Greece by her Greek American family. She also found that home is where the heart is, a little corny but true.

Diane and Greek relatives.

Since the 6th Grade at Ogden school are studying about Greece they had some questions for our Traveler Diane.

Questions from The 6th grade social studies class

Where exactly was the original photograph taken?
The photograph was taken on the island of Mykonos.

Windmills of Mykonos

What body of water is this? The body of water is the Aegean Sea.

What coastal city is this? (If you can't tell, we've recently studied Greece's geography.)

Mykonos, also known as Chora (i.e. the Town in Greek, a common denomination in Greece when the name of the island itself is the same as the name of the principal town), which lies on the west coast.

Ruins on Delos

What types of boats are these? Fishing boats?

I think there were a variety of different boats on the shore. not sure what each of them were for - I don't have very good boat knowledge!

The Photo of Mykonos that I'm working from.

The Traveler Painting" A long Journey Home"
With the 6th Grade a long for the ride on this painting I've taken my time on it. In earlier blogs about this painting I've shown how I go about making a painting from start to finish. This is the finishing part of this painting.

Where we left off last time. The painting is totally blocked-in with paint, and some adjustments in color and drawing are taking place.

I've started here to look at the water and see what it needs. My son Owen a student in the class was good enough to point out that the water needed to be darker up front and I agreed.

The painting is still being adjusted. When you work on one area of the painting lon enough the other parts of the painting say they need some attention too!

The buildings in the backgroundneeded to be pushed way back. They were too bright almost lighter than the boat in the foreground. I was able to push them back by adding a little blue to the buildings color and send them back in space.


When I get to this point in a painting I like to step back and look at it in a different way. I first take a photo of the painting and then take the photo into a computer program called Photoshop and play around with ot to gat the look that I'm looking for. Can you see what I took out?

I still didn't like the way the water was looking, so I took another shot at it. I finally made up my mind to take the nose of a boat out and use the shadow of the water to be the road into the picture.

The painting is getting there now, but to keep the painting fresh looking I flip the painting upside down and paint for a while that way. This is a classic way to see the image as just shapes and not as things.

With the water working the rest of the painting fell into place. And since the kids asked about the fishing boat I did a little more research on them.

- Greek fishing boats have several things in common. For one they are all painted in beautiful clear and strong colors. It seems each fisherman tries to make a unique color- combination for his boat. And second they are all made of wood.

It's Done!!! Only a few little corrections to make and it's there. Here are some closer looks at it.

I heard from more than one Traveler that Greece has more churches per mile than any place else.

This painting was a painting within a painting.

I painted in a little ruin up on the top for my son Owen, because that's what he wanted me to paint in Greece.

My favorite part of the painting. It was one of the places on the painting that I painted once and never touched again.

"Long Road Home"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Diane
18" x 24" Oil on Linen
For Ogden School 6th Grade class.

What a learning expirence for me! Thank you Traveler Diane, I couldn't have painted this piece without your inspiration. It was a pleasure.

And to the 6th grade and Principal Dr. Cynthia Boudreau get your pencils ready, you have to sign this painting too. Thanks for the questions and looking in, I learned a lot. Having a few 6th graders smarter than I am isn't so bad.

Until next time Ya Ssou!!, I'm off to meet up with our next Traveler.