The seascape project again and the passing of a well known artist

Here is the seascape project to which I have returned. I signed it, but there are still a few little tweaks I want to give it before I deliver it to the dealer. I put it aside for a while so I could return to it with a fresh eye. That is often very helpful. The painting is a 26 by 36 and I worked on it about eight days.Plus another day for the field study from which it originated. Seascape is the hardest thing I do and I always feel like I have been beaten with a stick when I finish one. I have done a lot of them, but only recently have I felt confident about what I am doing. I believe I will paint another. I did an 18 by 24 for the show in Kennebunk. I worked on that one day outside and one in the studio, as I said before usually I make sketches outdoors and seascape in the studio, but that one seemed to work.

I am doing a demo tomorrow at the ocean point studio/gallery in East Boothbay, Maine the address is 130 Van Horn road. If you are in the area, and want to come, I will see you there. I am going to do a seascape demo, I hope it goes OK, that's always a gamble. But I like doing that because I use no references. That means people don't get the idea that I copy them from photographs. It sort of proves that I can do it.

I got an e-mail the other day asking me about using cool lights and warm shadows the question was "doesn't that break the rule of warm lights and cool shadows in sunlight?" Yes, it does, generally outside on a sunny day you will see warm lights and cool shadows. And usually that's how I paint it. However it is always useful to have a trick or two up your sleeve, and reversing the temperature of the light is one. Sometimes in the morning or on gray days you will have cool lights, and always in a north light studio. But I have said before in the blog EVERYTHING is a servant of my design, including my color, and if I can make a picture look better by changing this or most anything else I will. This is grad school level stuff though, before you start doing this kind of thing you need to have command over how to play it straight.

I also wanted to mention the passing of William Reese, a well known western artist. I never met him but he was well known and did some fine paintings. Here is a link to his web site

Below is a page from that site.

Born in South Dakota and raised in Central Washington, William F. Reese has been painting now for over 50 years. Like most everyone he started drawing at 3 or 4 but went on to begin painting in oil at 12. After high school Reese went to study fine art at Washington State College and then on to Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles. He worked as a sign painter and a sign pictorial artist for thirteen years, in Washington, Oregon, and California while he was building a following for his easel paintings. In 1971 he left the sign business to work full time in his studio in Bellevue, Washington, where he also taught privately the art of drawing and painting. Currently his studio is in Wenatchee, Washington where he and his wife Frances now live.

His work is basically the diary of his life. Working mostly in oil, but at the same time he has produced a large body of works in other media, such as watercolor, pastel, and sculpture as well as his drawings, lithographs, and etchings. He works entirely from his life's interest and experiences. Working from live models and in the field Reese relies heavily on personal observation, each piece a personal statement from and about his life. Reese's work has been shown throughout the United States and in many exhibitions abroad. His work was included in the first exhibition of contemporary art from the western world in mainland China since China's reopening.

Many art magazines in the last 35 years have published articles on Reese's work, he was the subject of an award winning book by Mary N. Balcomb entitled Wm. F. Reese, American Artist published in 1984, as well as one written by Arlene Kirkpatrick entitled Masterworks of American Art Published in 1985.

He has received many national and regional awards over the last 40 years including the Robert Lougheed Gold Medal from the National Western Heritage Museum, two silver medals from the National Parks Academy for the Arts, and the Best of Show Colonel Smith Award from the National Wildlife Art Museum.

Because of his broad interests, great range of subject matter, and diversified media Reese is a very a difficult artist to categorize and label as to style and school, most will probably label him as a post impressionist with a touch of expressionism.