The Artist And The Traveler - Painting From Afar.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Christmas in LaGrange.

"Old Lagrange Rd" a painting by James Swanson 24" x 30" oil on canvas

A while back I was asked if I would create a painting for the holiday Christmas season in Lagrange. I live there and have a gallery, so of coarse I said yes. I then started a quest to find the right spot to depict the village in that season.

I scouted for weeks looking at everything, from grey days to snowy days from side streets to the city hall. Finally one morning after dropping off my son at his school, I was stuck at a traffic light in downtown Lagrange and saw this scene from my car.  It was one of those mornings where everything was super bright, fresh feeling and crystal clear. The sun was just making its way over the building tops to my right and the light hits this corner and POW! The buildings start to light up with this warm glow! I pulled out my iPhone and snapped off quite a few shots and new this scene would make a nice larger size of a painting.  

So here are the painting steps I did after taking the photos from the car. This is how I go about making all of my paintings.

Step 1. After I had designed the painting, I toned the canvas and grew in my design.

Step 2. Painting in the darkest parts of the painting. Which were the lower areas of the buildings and the street.

Step 3. Next I painted in the buildings and a few details.

Step 4. After putting in the sky and clouds it was time to go back and make color and drawing corrections.

Step 5. Here the painting is after day one. A lot of nice things are starting to take form. Many areas I won't touch again.

Step 6. OK, after looking at this painting with a fresh eye I felt it was boring and not very cheerful for the subject matter it was to represent. So I when back and incorporated some other photos I took with people in them.

Done! The last stage of the painting. Since adding people I made a few other color changes to make them work with the scene better.

This is how my painting was used in the Holiday postcard.

The painting went on display at the gallery for the season and I am very happy to say that it now resides in the home of one of my painting students.

To see more of this painting project or to see others that I have been doing go to my website www.TheArtistandTheTraveler.org
Cheers!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

A Time To Remember.

It's been a month since the gallery opening of "A Dog Day Month" to remember it I put together this video of the opening to show those who could not make it to it what looked like.

Thanks for watching. I'm still painting dogs right now, so send me some pictures.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

A Dog Day Month

Here are the last few paintings done for the exhibition.

Day #28 "Chester" a 12" x 12" oilChester's owner is Christie McMahon

Day #29 "Charlie" 11" x 14" oil

Dog owner is Alex Page

Day #30 "Brodie" a 14"x11" oil

Brodie's owner Jane Crise

Day #31 "Lexus and Company" 24" x 18" oil

Dog Owner is Sandi Schulze.

Day #32 in A Dog Day Month "Maggie" 12" x12" oil

Maggie's owner is Suzanne Rose.

This is the last day of my dog day painting a day.

These next paintings have been added to the Dog Day Month show. They were done as commissions from the project. A New Day meet "Zeke". Cheryl Spran

Another day another painting. "The Snow Walk" One of the last winter walks with my Amber. It was a good one.

"Nantucket Red" The last of the dog painting series " A Dog Day Month"
It was started as a painting demo in front of a crowd at the Westend Art Festival in LaGrange and finish up at home.

This is the all of the paintings from the 32 days of work made into an invite for the show.

Friday, July 4, 2014

A Dog Painting a Day for a Month

A Dog Day Month

The Dog Days of Summer are upon us, and the Artist and the Traveler Artist James Swanson will be celebrating them by creating a dog painting a day for a month. Starting July 7, James will be painting mans best friends from photos that are sent to him at

TheArtistAndTheTraveler@gmail.com
.

You see a few months back James lost one of his best friends and walking companion Amber, so he’s paying tribute to her and to others friends pets by starting this series of paintings. The paintings will be made into a small gallery exhibit, sale and a self published book with a portion of the proceeds going to local animal shelters.

Want to be a part of the series? Here is what James will be looking for in the photos for it -

James is primarily landscape painter, so interesting landscapes with dogs will be nice to see, but he also enjoys painting portaits and slice of life scenes as well. So he’ll be open to may things. Please send a few photos of your mans best friend to give James a good selection to choose and work from. He will not be able to paint all the pets photos that are sent, but will give it his all to make fabulous trbute of paintings.

Send photos to - theartistandthetraveler@gmail.com
Thanks and good painting!

TheArtistandtheTraveler.org

20 Painting days into the month