Day 1 of Dog Day Month2

Last years Dog Day Month of July was such a huge success I decided to do it again.

With in a minute of announcing the project I had people signing their pups up. With in 15 minutes I had a gallery wanting the project to exhibit - the ACE Gallery in Fort Collins for the month of October with part of the proceeds going to animal shelters.

Picking the first pup to paint, was a tough one. I have some many sent in to choose from right I was a kid in a candy store.

I picked Cissy because of the eyes and color. I remember last years paintings and Cissy reminded me of a couple of paintings from that project.

Day 1 painting "Cissy" 11x14 oil

Initial sketch on canvas

Blocked in. Cissy is about halfway done.

Thanks to Cissy's owner Roseanne Hart for sending her in!

The paintings of this project are for sale to the pet owners first before they go on public

exhibition at the ACE Gallery.

See the whole month of paintings at James Swanson Fine Art.

Here's to Bailey!

"Angela's Bailey" 12"x 16" Painting by James Swanson

Traveler for this painting was Angela Espin ,UK

When my old puppy Amber past last year I decided to pay tribute to her by painting a dog painting a day for a month- "A Dog Day Month". When I started the project I didn't worry about the painting part of it. I knew I could do that, for me it was to find the right painting subjects for it. So I put out a call to all my Traveler friends with pets to start the thing off. 

Angela and Bailey

Old friend and hill walking traveler Angela I thought was a no-brainer. Her and her buddy Bailey have been scampering around the mountains of the UK for years and I knew there was some great paintings to do from their travels.

 A Sad moment: I contacted Angela about what I was going to do and find out if it would be alright, but I heard back something that I never expected. Poor Bailey had just past that day. Oh I felt so bad for them.

Angela did agree to let me paint something for the project and sent me many photos of Bailey, but I had this one in mind. I didn't know that this was from their last walk together when I asked for it, but I did when I painted it.

This is how I went about the painting-

 The painting started with a light Burnt Sienna wash. I pulled out the white areas with a paper towel and roughed in the drawing.

 I mixed up my palette of colors for the painting and started with the dark areas letting the canvas come through.I then painted in the background and sky. And then the gate.

 I then painted the fence structure with clean simple strokes. Bailey was next. I wanted him to feel and be painted just like everything else at this point. At that point the painting was all blocked in and I knew all the finishing details were next.

Here is the finished piece as it was on my easel that day. The photo from my iPhone did an OK job to show it for the project on Facebook, but the color was a little off. The details that I loved putting in on this painting (besides Bailey's) were the plants in the front and the light on the fence posts

This is how it really looks.
"Angela's Bailey" was one of the more heart felt paintings that I painted for that series. I liked the way it turned out so much I made into the cover of the calendar for the project.

I must say Angela had a hard time getting over her Bailey dog and who wouldn't? Bailey was a great friend and companion. Their walks together were beautiful and memorable. Bailey will not be forgotten.

Now on to new adventures in painting! See you on down the road.

See more of the paintings from this project at TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org

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!

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.