In These Months as Winters Watch Unfold

I painted this piece as one of the several entries I need to have for a number of upcoming holiday themed art shows that I want to enter.  The last few pieces have been of cute little chickadee so this trio of white tail deer was a nice change.  I was so inspired that I even wrote a few lines of poetry to go along with it.

You know as a child, I remember snow being so much fun and I enjoyed many a day sledding, building snowmen and winning a snowball fight or two.  The best days were those when school was cancelled due to road conditions.

As an adult snow doesn't offer the same appeal to me.  I'm very happy to live in an area that snow is all but a non-issue and in 38 years I have only had to really contend with it once and for any seasoned winter driver, my stress I felt that on that day would be laughable.

It is beautiful however and painting it is enjoyable.  So I've been painting my share of snow scenes these past few weeks.  This particular piece I'm calling "Winters Watch" It is painted in acrylic on an 18 x 24 inch gallery wrapped canvas and will be making it's public debut hopefully at the gallery at Lake Las Vegas during December.  I will keep all my art show participation information current on my social media and website.

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Winters Watch

By

Julie Townsend

Dreams of coming spring are covered thickly

Under a sparkling blanket of fresh fallen snow

Pine needles glistening frosted and no longer prickly

Bowing to the ground in a white splended show

The trees are a cast robed for a part in the icy scene

The moonlight adds drama and suspense as the curtain begins to rise

Nothing but twinkle and glitter to fill each gully and ravine

Such beauty spread softly that you scarcely believe your eyes 

The sounds of the hooves breaking through the ice crust

Are muffled by the thickness of the surrounding bitter cold

Their each step is exaggerated by the added effort and thrust 

Life is full of drama and conflict in these months as winters watch unfold

I Would Much Rather Paint Snow than Shovel it!

First Light

This piece was absolutely a joy to create.  I can honestly say that I love painting snow, I love looking at pictures of snow but I have never been a great fan of being out in it.  I'm pretty sure there are times as a little girl growing up in the Missouri Ozarks that I experienced some childhood enjoyment from the cold wet stuff.

Getting to enjoy a SNOW DAY would probably top that list.  We would have school cancelled because the vast network of gravel roads in Miller County were too dangerous to travel when they were covered with snow and ice.  Sledding was also a lot of fun and I can remember that perfect hill between my neighbor, Donna Wood and her brother Don's house.  What a thrill to fly across the snow and end up rolling into a snow bank.  I also have great memories of building a snowman with my grandmother on her front lawn in Swedeborg, Missouri.

 I have ZERO experience driving in the stuff and find dealing with it stressful and exhausting.  I think it has only snowed in Las Vegas maybe 4 or 5 times in the 38 years that I have lived here.  After all I was only 16 when I moved here and so I have never had to deal with it on a daily basis.

This piece maybe small but the colors are impacting as well as eye catching.  In the right frame, this piece can easily become a focal point in any room.  If you are interest in seeing more of my work, then please click on the gallery tab above or visit my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.

I also think this piece makes an amazing shower curtain or throw pillow.  You can order prints or accessories at my Fine Art America Site

Just One More Pan

I just finished another in my series "Seeking Color" and I'm excited how it turned out.  When I started my initial plans for the painting I envisioned an white haired prospector that even though his gold bag is full is stopping one more time along the mountain stream to try to find "Just One More Pan".  His bedroll, supplies and all important gold pouch are stacked near a fallen tree.  Next to him he has his rifle ready to grab if necessary.  He is intently working his pan and is excited to see a couple of gleaming specks have already washed up onto the pan.

This series is inspired by my love for the state of Nevada-One of the largest gold producing areas in the world.  Nevada mines 79% of all gold found in the United States and this rich history spans over 150 years.  The Nevada miner is a sturdy and adventurous lot. To the likely protest of his family in the east, he traded in his plow for a pic, shovel and a couple of gold pans to seek a dream only the streams of the Sierra Nevada's or the dry dust that covers the desert floor could satisfy.  Few actually saw that dream come to fruition, many died in pursuit of the dream and Nevada is one of handful of states that owe them much.

If you are interested in this painting or seeing others in this series, you can check out my gallery page or contact me at Julie@JulieTownsendStudio.com.  

"Just One More Pan"- 16 x 20 Original Oil Painting

"Taking a Break"- finally complete

It seems like I have been working on this piece for longer than I care to consider but it is finally ready for a coat of varnish and framing. Yesterday I included the piece on my website gallery and my Fine Art America site.   It has been a challenge not only because it was a more complex painting but because I suffered the loss of my dear mother-in-law during the process.  I'm really going to miss taking each piece over to show her as I complete them.  She was so encouraging to me and really acted as she genuinely loved seeing each and every painting as I finished them.

I've already started another prospector piece but this time in acrylic.  Hopefully I will be able to showcase that one here in the next few weeks.  I have always loved American history and trying to capture the rugged beauty of the American west is a challenge that I really want to pursue.

"Taking a Break"  18 x 24 Original Oil painting

I've Got Homework

I've been taking private painting lessons now for almost a year and I have to say that I have learned so much.  I would recommend taking lessons from a local artist if you are at all interested in improving your skills.  Even if painting is only a hobby, there is so much satisfaction in tapping into your creativeness.  In a world that is crazy out of control, painting gives me the ability to escape and create my own world.  It might be a mountain stream, an old barn or the ruins left behind by some long forgotten miner. They allow me to escape to another time or place.

Not only do I learn from painting the lessons with my instructor Lily Adamczyk, I find that I actually learn more when I bring an original piece that I have worked on myself and have her critique it.  Her experienced artist eyes can see small flaws and areas of needed correction.   I have on several occasions shared these critiques on this blog with the hope that as I learn there is someone else out there that actually can benefit from my lessons.

This piece that I'm calling "Taking a Break" is an 18x24 Oil painting that I have worked on for several weeks.  It is a particular challenge for me because of the size and detail of the prospector.  I usually paint in acrylics and appreciate the speed that the paint drys and so when I paint in oil I find myself impatient because you often have to wait for the paint to dry before you can proceed.  Often I will find that I'm just pushing muddy paint around the canvas which is what I did in this piece as I struggled to paint the rocks and the water.

Before taking my painting to my lesson

Here is the piece as it looked when I took it to my lesson yesterday with the following corrections brought to my attention.  Now I have lots of homework to bring this painting to the FINISH LINE.  I'm certain that I will share in a blog post very soon the finished product when I get all my homework done.   Here are my needed corrections:
    1.  Background trees are too bright and detailed.  Below you will see that one tree has been adjusted to better reflect the distance element.  I have to fix all of them to match this one. HOMEWORK
    2.  The water has too many lines and is too bright especially in the distance.  This makes the water look unnatural.  I have also not done a good job of painting around the rocks.  Normally in a composition like this you will have painted the water before proceeding on to the foreground but because of my going back and making changes I've actually worked on the water after my prospector and rocks were already painted in.  Lily helped me by showing me how to correct the water and so have to finish the river.- Homework
3.  We added depth to the foreground by adding more dirt area between the log and the rocks.  I have to correct the rocks by changing their general shape and color...More homework.
4.  The details in the grass blades need to be more defined.  I have painted them to uniformly by making them all the same size.  The grass in the background appears too clumpy and needs to have a more random appearance- More Homework
5.  We fixed the fire by adding more Naples Yellow to the flames rather than yellow and smoothing it out.  I have to add back in the smoke once I have finished with the rocks- You guessed it- more homework
6.  We added more highlighting to the log, the hat, the cup and plate, the gold pan and shovel.  By adding a darker background color the result was the prospector and the log popped more.
7.  The shirt required more rounding out in the back and adjusting in the front where he it would meet his pants.  Now my prospector has a little more natural look rather than the appearance of being stiff.  I had painted his suspenders with paynes gray and didn't think that as they came up on his shoulder the sunlight would change that color to a blue hue.
8.  The tone of his skin that was shadowed from his hat wouldn't only be grays but would have a glaze of skin tone.  Lily had me brighten up his cheekbone and nose to finish off his face with a more rounded appearance.  We also made a correction on his wrist where I had painted the shadow of his sleeve too dark.

My painting waiting for me to make those final details that will bring it to the finish line

There is Just Something Stunning about Birch Trees

This week I have been working on a large 24 x 36 acrylic painting that I think I'm going to call "Autumn Gold".  This painting was inspired by a collection of photos that we took while on an October hike, with my oldest son on the Galena Creek Trail, near Reno, Nevada.  A beautiful hike and has been a continued inspiration for me as I have produced a number of paintings in this past year from the photos we took.

There is just something amazing about the color and contrast that birch trees bring to a mountain slope.  The leaves have a quality that make them almost appear to sparkle when there is a gentle breeze blowing across of the mountain side.  The white of the bark glows and provides a striking contrast to the heavy pine trees in the area.

With this piece I've attempted to capture that feeling of a crisp October afternoon as you walk along a small mountain stream somewhere in the mountains.   The sounds of the breeze and water fill your ears as you stand frozen just drinking up that peace and beauty.

I might add a little bird in the pine tree but haven't decided for sure. I have used a paste medium additive to my paints for the first time.   This gave me a thicker application that I actually applied with a palette knife to give that impression of heavy bark on the pine tree.  That was fun and I think the final results turned out just as I had hoped for.