Even though I haven’t posted in quite awhile doesn’t mean I haven’t been painting. Here I am hard at work in a beautiful poppy field during the grand opening of the Duke Farms in Hillborough, NJ over the weekend.

Duke Farms is one of the largest privately-owned parcels of open land in NJ. Created by James Buchanan Duke and preserved by his daughter, Doris Duke. This is a huge 2,000 acre property with 18 miles of roadway, 9 lakes, 45 buildings, 2 ½ miles of stone wall, 35 fountains and more subjects a painter would know what to do with…basically a plein air painters dream!

"Poppy Field" is one of 3 paintings I produced during my first time visit. I look forward to a long season of painting and exploring this great new resource.

Painting info: "Poppy Field", 8x10 inch Oil on RayMar panel.

Better Days

Detail #1

Detail #2

This pear has seen “better days”. When I buy perishable items for a painting subject I intend to paint them as soon as I get back to the studio. However, sometimes I can’t always get to them right away. They slowly turn bad and become more interesting! With pear skin scars, punctures and bruises; I really enjoyed playing up the textural  qualities of this subject.

Medium: Artist quality oil
Painted on: Ampersand Gessobord
Dimensions: 6x6 inches

Golden

Complete Painting

Detail #1

Detail # 2

By creating soft edges, reducing color intensity and using value contrast; I’m able to make the standing pear recede into the background. To demonstrate value contrast, compare the darker value highlight in Detail #1 to the lighter value highlight in Detail #2. To demonstrate color intensity, compare the standing dull yellow pear in Detail #1 to the more saturated yellow and yellow/reds in Detail #2.

Medium: Artist quality oil.
Painted on: Ampersand Gessobord.
Dimensions: 6x6 inches.

Lemon in Wrap

I was originally planning on painting a stand alone lemon. However, I found the way the grocery store baggie was interacting with the lemon to be interesting and I wanted to see if I could create that illusion.

Medium: Artist quality oil.
Painted on: Ampersand Gessobord.
Dimensions: 6x6 inches.

Pomegranate no.3 - SOLD

I’ve painted a couple of pomegranates before and they’re always fun to paint. Very little color mixing was done here. Basically, three reds straight from the tube and a violet were used to create the illusion of form.

Medium: Artist quality oil
Painted on: Ampersand gessobord
Dimensions: 6x6 inches

Autumn Lake - SOLD

Here’s another plein air painting from the same location as my last blog post.

Medium: Artist quality oil
Painted on: RayMar linen panel
Dimensions: 6x6 inches

Two Pumpkins

The summer passed by in a flash and the feel of October is in the air. Here's one to set the mood for the fall season.

Medium: Artist quality oil.
Painted on: Ampersand gessobord.
Dimensions: 5x5 inches.