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.

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

Framed and ready to go.

"Old Juke Joint"

By James Swanson

12"x16" Oil on panel

Traveler Carrie Layne Mashon

My Thanks goes out to Traveler Carrie for the use of her image and kind words about the painting.

It's a big wide world out there and I'm still looking for Travelers to Germany India and China.Until next time adios amigo!

Out to Sea

"The Shrimper"

By James Swanson / Li Newton

14"x 18" Oil on Linen panel

A Real Bubba Gumper!

Seeing a new place through the eyes of someone else is what the Artist and the Traveler project is all about. Our new Traveler and friend Li Newton brings just that to us to enjoy.

New Traveler Li Newton

I met Li when I was asked to join a painting group of artists called "Paint My Photo". It's a site where artists from around the world come to meet and exchange things like painting tips, photo references, or show off their latest works and get great feed back on it. A very friendly place, and Li was one of my first new friends there.

Li's wonderful photo of a shrimp boat going out to sea that was used for painting inspiration.

Traveler Li photo story: The shrimp boat photo was taken on Harbor Island, S.C. What a noisy racket those gulls made! I had a week off from school ( went back at 51 to learn decorative restoration in Asheville, N.C.) and we just drove to the coast, no plans, and explored.

The only photo of the painting as it was being created. At this point
it is all blocked in and  ready for details and color adjustments.

Traveler painting "The Shrimper"- I'm sorry to say that I forgot about the painting step photos for this painting. You see I was trying out a new brush technique and got caught up in it and forgot to take them. Here is the new technique that I was trying out though.

I usually start with my darkest dark colors and work to my lightest.  Well I was was trying out these really big brushes ( about 3"wide) and there wasn't much dark to begin with, so I went for the biggest mass area to cover first. And of coarse that was the sky.

I mixed up the base color tone for the sky and then broke that tone down into a few other colors by just adding blue , red or yellow to it. Then with intermingling of those colors, I slapped them on the canvas with big bold strokes.

From the sky I progressed to the blue trees in the background and then to the grasses. That left only the ship to be painted in.

Since I didn't paint in a lot of detail in the background with the big brush I didn't want to tighten up and over do the boat in details. So I only used a medium sized brush ( size 8 ) and my palette knives.

A palette knife is one of the great ways to get some thick clean paint on the canvas. You can see a lot of it's uses here in this detail. See the whites and the lines, only a palette can give you that clean of an edge in thick paint.

The lines and rigging of the boat are just touches of a loaded up with paint knife edge and then a touching of the brush softened here and there.

The gulls where painted in with just the tip of the knife with some paint on it. Simple and clean like the rest of the painting..

Then there is the person on the boat. he only gets the same amount of attention that everything else does, anymore than a few strokes and he will stick out like a sore thumb.

Done and framed

"The Shrimper"

By James Swanson / Li Newton

14"x 18" Oil on Linen panel

A special thanks goes out to our new friend and traveler Li Newton for the use of her photos and for all of her very kind comments about my art. Li is quite the artist her self, check out and enjoy her wonderful paintings and photos here.

Also check out Paint My Photo website, it's a great meeting place for artists or anyone. 

And if you are interested in becoming a traveler for this project contact me here or at the www.theartistandthetraveler.org website.

Until next time so long.

A Higher Education

"Turl Street"

By James Swanson / Traveler Kallie Day

16" x 11" Oil on Linen Panel

See the journey of this painting here and the story below.

She came, she saw, she conquered.

Traveler Kallie Day

This next traveler painting project inspiration comes from my niece Kallie Day, who was studying aboard in Italy a few years back. 

Florence Italy, all photos are from Kallie's trip.

 Kallie was junior at Skidmore College when she had the chance to go to Italy for a semester to study design. While she was there she did a lot of sight seeing of her own. 

Gull and Big Ben

Kallie and her classmates somehow were able to get to London over a weekend and did the town.

The Traveler Painting "Turl Street" When this project idea first came up I was very lucky to have my niece Kallie an Art major in Italy studying. When I mentioned the concept to her, Kallie offered up any photos I wanted.

The photo that inspired me the most right off the bat was this Oxford street shot of hers. 

Oxford, photo inspiration for the painting.

I must say, at first I thought it was Cambridge I was painting, but was quickly corrected by some English friends when they saw the painting.

Here are the steps to Turl Street.- I started this painting as a painting demonstration in front of my class.

The rough oil sketch on canvas to start the painting. I already had a composition sketch made and transferred  it to the canvas. I knew I wanted to paint this one very loose with strong bold strokes. I rubbed and brushed in the sketch with a mixture of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna. At this point the painting was done in my head.

Painting in the dark colors first. Painting in these dark colors  first gives the painting all its structure. Kallie's photo radiated this warm monochromatic tone that I wanted to capture in paint. So I didn't go over board with the color and kept my color scheme heavily in the yellows and browns.  

This painting was part of a painting demonstration so I must apologise for the lax of photo steps here. But I was painting very quickly. Here are the painting steps from the last step. The sky was next. After that I painted background to foreground. Watching my paint edges  the whole way. I then painted the street, car and people.

With most of the painting close to finish here, all I needed to do is some clean up and color changes.

Done and signed. All this painting needed was a little warmer sky.

 Details from the painting.

Framed and ready to go.

"Turl Street"

By James Swanson / Traveler Kallie Day

16" x 11" Oil on Linen Panel

A quick update on Kallie- She graduated from Skidmore College, started Kallie Day Photography Studio there in Saratoga  Springs, NY and recently gave birth to a big happy baby boy named Donate. If you need a great photographer I highly recommend Kallie. Thanks for the photo Kallie

The artist and the Traveler is always looking for new spots to paint and interesting stories to hear about them. If you have any you con contact me here or through the website www.theartistandthetraveler.org

Until next time.