Gearing Up for 2020!

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." --Mark Twain

It's been .... well .... a while since my last post, but it's time to get back into the swing of things, especially ART things, again. So here's what's been happening as I prepare for the coming year.

I'm on Instagram now, and have begun posting artwork there, as well as reporting on other things going on around the studio and the ranch.
CLICK HERE to get over there and become a follower.

I've also opened a store for buying "Print on Demand" opportunities of my art on not just wall art, but also on a wide variety of products for everyday use, like ... well ... there's a partial list on the right. Lots of choices! Here's a LINK to get to the store. And you can be a follower there too!

But probably most important, is that I've now completely revamped my website into simple categories according to the type of art. Prints of my art are available through the store, but the originals of the paintings can be purchased in the website using PayPal buttons. Click HERE to check out the new site.

And it took a while to get all that working, but now everything, the website, Facebook, Instagram, the store and this blog are now interconnected.
So that's about it for now.......OH WAIT! No it isn't....

Talk about gearing up ..... I've also gotten geared up to paint plein air now as well!
My earlier efforts some years ago always ended up in disaster, but after having many plein air instructors here at Painted Views Ranch, observation of instructors and their students (who were better prepared than I ever was) has taught me that Success needs what it needs, and now I'm ready to jump in and move some paint around outdoors! After all, it's really kinda silly to live here among views that everyone raves about when they see them and not be plein air painting myself. So, here I go with THAT! Wish me Luck!

We're also considering having multiple Plein Air Paint Out Days each year, so if that sounds interesting to you and you're near enough to attend, (we're just north of Florence, Texas) let me know in the comments below, and in the meantime, subscribe your email address to the Painted Views Ranch blog. Here's the LINK.
If knowing how to find us would help you decide, use the link below, then click on "Directions", enter your address and hit "Enter" and you'll know exactly where we are and how long a drive it is from your place to ours.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO DIRECTIONS

And I'm thinking maybe this blog needs a new look too. The "weathered wood" motif has run its course so a new banner in the header, a fresh coat of background color and a style that matches the website would help promote "my brand". (Not sure what that means, but they keep telling me I need to have one. LOL)

So stay tuned, because I'm thinking 2020 could be a fun year! Gotta go

make some paint fly!

More Digitals

Here at our beloved Painted Views Ranch I've been spending so much time getting ready for our upcoming art classes that it's left precious little time for making art, but my iPad is proving to be a great help with that. When I have a few minutes I can work on images and not need a large enough block of time to make it worthwhile dragging out the paints and then cleaning the brushes.

One thing I've learned is that what this digital media really excels at is enhancing photos that I've taken. I've had this photo I took here at the ranch that I've been wanting to recreate as a painting (mainly because I was so pleased with its composition) but just haven't found the time. Because Texas summer afternoons can be brutal, I did take some time to work indoors with the iPad and Apple pencil to make this somewhat boring photo taken at midday ...

... look more like an early morning "Golden Hour" scene.
After "painting" over the electrical wires and other unwanted distracting objects I set up a palette of colors (borrowed from my artistic hero, Maxfield Parrish) and set about doing some enhancements. The variety of digital brushes make it possible to drag colors onto the image in much the same way that a painter would use a flat brush to add highlights on a canvas. But the sky was still lifeless, so I looked through other photos I'd taken in early morning and set up another palette from which to grab colors as I painted a new sky.

I think the end result is a much more interesting image than the original. What are your thoughts?

And I've also been scribbling away using the black and white palette I mentioned in the previous post to create this drawing of a bowline knot.

Unlike the previous knot drawing done from a photo, this was done from out of my head, and the hard part was laying it out so that it actually looked like a bowline should. But from there, the palette made it easy to select colors (OOOPS!) not colors, but the grey tones that would make the lighting believable.

Digital Doodling

I've been enjoying my first forays into the world of digital art with an Apple Ipad Pro, an Apple Pencil and Procreate, an image editor designed specifically for those tools. It's been an interesting journey and seems to have almost endless possibilities for creating art. So far the most significant limitation looks like it will be my imagination. We'll see how it plays out from here. This first one, which I'd call "Space Freighter" made great use of the concept of layers. With different elements of the image being created on different layers which allowed each of them to be created and then manipulated independently from each other, before saving them all together as one image.

One of the many things that Procreate will let you do is create your own palette of colors so that you can conveniently return to them and select specific colors when you need them. For this next one I choose no colors at all, but instead created a palette of 16 shades of gray, evenly spaced along the spectrum from black to white.

So the whole work was done with only tones of gray and no color at all. That made it easy to locate values that had the best relationship to each other.

I'm really excited about having found this new (to me) media. It will be an interesting journey to watch progress. Wish me luck!

Marsh Creek

It's two years (and a bit) since the last blog post here, so let me quote Mark Twain and say
"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
But I'M PAINTING AGAIN, finally!
Much has happened in the two years passed, including changing residence to a brand new house and suffering through its construction, and getting our place ready for starting an art school at our almost 20 acre ranch just north of Florence Texas. But as for the most recent painting .... well, lets just say:

I'm lucky enough to have a cousin who's lucky enough to have a girlfriend who's lucky enough to have a really nice camera and she was lucky enough to get a very nice photo at the Marsh Creek recreation area north of Downingtown, PA and she gave me permission to "spin off" from her photo. When I saw her photo I thought ... "limited palette, simple layout, just what I need to ease back into the painting groove again."

Marsh Creek

9 x 12"
Oil on Stretched Canvas
$150 US + $8.00 S&H

Click this button to Purchase "Marsh Creek"

If you're interested in learning more about our art school at Painted Views Ranch, visit the post about our first class that was held in November, 2015, or you can visit the Facebook page for the school. If you're a teaching artist and want to schedule a class in 2016, send an email to paintedviewsranch@gmail.com.

And if you're not already subscribed to this blog, just scroll up and at the top of the right hand column you'll find the place where you can subscribe your email address.

ImagineWorld

24 x 30 - Oil on stretched canvas

I've been wanting to try painting this kind of subject matter for quite a while, so when the local art association called "Imagination" as the monthly challenge topic I finally had my excuse. So yes, this literally was just imagined in my head without a reference photo of any kind, without even drawing it, I just went right to laying paint on the canvas. And the nice part about it is that as a viewer, you get to imagine whatever back story you'd like.

Sunset on "Doomsday" - landscape painting by Kirk Witmer

Sunset on "Doomsday"

8 x 10" - oil on wood
SOLD!

This was done from a photo that I took about 5:00PM on 12-21-12. I thought if it was to be our last day on earth I'd want a picture to remember it by. Thank goodness we don't have to worry now about the Mayan's calendar ending. But boy oh boy didn't the Discovery channel get some mileage out of that!

This is the first piece after not painting for four months, so I thought I'd try something not so challenging to ease myself back into the swing of things. It's different from my normal work since it's very loose and "painterly". I know some of my artist friends will be proud of me for loosening up, but I'm rarely happy with the end result when I do that.

Another first for me .... this is actually painted on wood. Raw wood, with just a coat (or two?) of gesso on it to keep the paint from sinking into the wood. I did enjoy working on this new support so perhaps there will be more done on wood in the future. We'll see.

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This painting has SOLD, and I'm sorry you missed out,
but to see more paintings in my gallery click here.
If you really liked this one, email me at the address below
and we'll talk about doing one like it just for you.

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Email the artist at: khwitmer@juno.com

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Patience - Texas landscape by Kirk Witmer

18 X 24" - Oil on stretched canvas This one came from three different source photos and it seemed to take forever to paint. I'd thought of titling it "What's Taking Him So Long?" but realized that "Patience" tells the story just as well. $400 + $24 s&h

Typical Texas Series #1

16 x 32" - Oil on stretched canvas I've decided to work on some landscape paintings of the Texas Hill country for my upcoming solo show in September and October in Georgetown. Well those, among other things. This first one was inspired by a Google maps street view image from along side FM 1174 between 1869 and 1431. Whew! Sounds like a bowl of Number Soup, doesn't it? I say "inspired" because after I got going I thought of all sorts of ways to make it more interesting. So the water, the large boulders and the distant hills were all from imagination. $ 750
+ $38 s&h

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Email the artist at: khwitmer@juno.com

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If you'd like to get advance notice of my upcoming works before
they're made available to the public, click here to submit your email.

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Self Portrait

9x12" - Graphite on Bristol vellum

The local art association that I belong to chose "Self Portrait" as the challenge project for this month, and I've done so many portraits since I started drawing last summer, that I kinda sorta felt like I had to get in on it. If you'd like to order a portrait done in this style (it's all with graphite pencils) click here to visit my website and get more information on sizes and pricing.

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Pipe Dreams in Mason Texas

Some of you know that I was on a field trip to Mason county this past weekend for my first attempt at plein air painting; painting outdoors in natural lighting. I've been resisting it for a long time (do I really need to torture myself with wind, insects and Texas heat?) but I've heard so many artists talk about how wonderful it is that I felt I had to at least give it a try. Turns out ... I was right to be reluctant. Outdoor painting for me on Saturday was pretty much a disaster. The sky was so cloudy and overcast there wasn't much light, which means the rock outcropping that I'd chosen to paint was pretty much all the same values; no highlights, few shadows. I've painted from photos that were more interesting. And then the winds started and got progressively stronger until they blew my panel right out of the easel. I caught it but my thumb wiped out much of a tree that was the only feature in the painting that had gone well. So that's why there's no example of a plein air work to show you today.
If I ever decide to try it again, it'll be from my patio, in the shade, and where I can plug in a fan if it gets too hot, (there are limits to what this artist is willing to endure for his craft) and I'll paint the waterfalls that feed into my koi pond. Enough said about that.

What I really want to tell you about is what a gem the town of Mason Texas is, and the gem that I found there. No, I'm not talking about topaz, the state gem of Texas which (in Texas) can only be found in Mason County. I want to tell you about the friendly, small town atmosphere, and from what I'd heard that day, I got a sense that along with its rich history, the community leaders were working together and working hard to promote Mason as a "go to destination". But the gem that I found particularly brilliant was The Seaquist Home. A tour guide took us many places of historical interest in and around Mason and stopping at this home we were told it was put on the Texas Historical registry in 1974. But what really caught my interest was learning that this grand old home was on the market. My mind gradually started turning to flights of fancy about starting an Artist's Academy there. This is a three story home with the third floor being a 30 x 60 foot ballroom. What a great classroom that could make! And there are plenty of teaching artists within easy driving distance that I believe could be attracted to such an art mecca. Depending on who you talk to and what you read, there are anywhere from 17 to 22 rooms in this place. Not that we'd want to provide B&B facilities for student artists because there are plenty of B&B's within a short walk and many more within a few minutes drive.
I was told that it needs some renovations inside but I've read in my internet research that some were probably started a few years ago but discontinued. Also heard the last person to live there had about 70 cats before the SPCA hauled them off. Couldn't get a look inside because of the No Trespassing signs but on the outside she sure looks sound and grand. And what a great gathering place this could become for artists!

There's only one problem. The tour guide told us the current asking price is $775,000.
Oh well. That's why this post is called a pipe dream. Who has that kind of money? I sure don't. But it's been fun dreaming about it.
If you're interested in reading more about this grand old lady, click here, here or here.
(Google map coordinates: 30.751444,-99.231648 )

Solo Exhibition - Sneak Preview

The Fiddler's Boots

oil on canvas - 24" x 30"
SOLD!

It's the morning after the square dance and as the sun slips in through the bunkhouse window, we can see that the fiddler must have gotten a bit tipsy on his way home and just pulled off his boots, piled everything on the floor and poured himself into his bunk.

This work was going into my central Texas solo exhibition in September and October, but someone bought it at a special pre-show price. You just never know what you'll find here in the way of affordable art, so be sure to subscribe your email address at the top of the right hand column if you want to keep up to date on what's new.
But that's the nice thing about art. No matter how much you sell, you can always make more!

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View of Antalya

8 x 10" - oil on masonite
Click the image for a larger view
I'm lucky enough to have a son and daughter-in-law who were lucky enough to have been able to vacation last year in the resort town of Antalya, Turkey on the north shore of the Mediterranean Sea. I painted this from one of the photos they sent me from their trip. I used their photo because I liked the way the morning light was just beginning to rake down across the hillside.
Well, that, and I thought "this might be as close to Turkey as I'll ever get."

I changed it up a bit to improve the composition a little and to eliminate the lounge chairs that were lined up on a deck that was carved into the stone down at the bottom of the hillside, just above the water. I thought they spoiled the natural beauty of this view. So you can see, I'm finally remembering .... "Don't be a slave to the photo!"

Click the button to buy this painting
US$79 + $8 s&h

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Still Life - The Martyrdom of St. Dunkin'

The Martyrdom of St. Dunkin'
16" x 8" - oil on canvas
SOLD!

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This was a tough painting to do. Not the actual painting part, but staring at that doughnut! Who would have thought that one little cinnamon doughnut would make my whole studio smell like a bakery??? I kept wanting to rip it off the string and gobble it up!!! The set up in my shadowbox was looking quite boring until I added the napkin. Once I'd hit upon the title, picking the color of the napkin was a slam dunk. Ooooh. Bad pun, sorry.

A gallery owner told me about a collector looking for artwork with coffee related themes. I suppose I could have painted a quick cuppa coffee, but you know me. "If it's easy, anybody could do it." So I had to think for a while to come up with something really unique. There's even some symbolism included here, like the red for the martyr and the 13 coils of "rope" in the hangman's noose.

So, what do you think?
Did I succeed in creating something unusual?

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If you'd like to get advance notice of my upcoming works before they're even listed at auction, click here to submit your email.

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Winter Scene - landscape, ice

16" x 20" - Oil on masonite
It seems like it was a long time ago that I got an idea to paint a scene that would be appropriate for having printed up for Christmas cards. and before I knew it, it was too late to get the cards made up. "The best laid plans of mice and men .... " Who said that anyway?
Ah well, the painting is done now. Maybe use it for next Christmas?

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Millie

9 x 12" - Graphite on Bristol 300 series vellum

Amelia Campbell Arkin is a stage, television and feature film actress. She's also my niece.
Click these links to learn more about her.
Link to Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Campbell
Link to Internet Movie Data Base (filmography) www.imdb.com/name/nm0132202/

Gary P. Nunn, singer and songwriter

Here's my latest pencil portrait, just finished this morning.

Gary P. Nunn
8x8" - Graphite on Strathmore Bristol series 300 vellum
Gary is a popular country music singer that lives not too far from me here in central Texas.
I've been to his home and I gotta tell ya, for all his fame and celebrity, he ain't stuck up at all. ;)If you'd like to see the photo I took this from, visit his website at www.garypnunn.com. You can even enjoy some of his music whilst you're there. And if you're anywhere near central Texas be sure to check out his schedule of upcoming performances.

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If you'd like to have me do your portrait in this syle, email me at: khwitmer@juno.com
I won't promise that it'll help your singin', but it's sure to be a nice portrait.

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Catching up on Last Week's Work - pencil portraits

Whew! I'm a little outta breath! I spent most of last week focusing on my pencil techniques. These three portraits are of other artists that are members of another website that I belong to. The images are all done with just graphite pencils on Strathmore Bristol 300 series vellum.

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6x9" - John Stuart Webbstock

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9x6" - Peta Stacy WainwrightThe photo I took this from was very grainy and I did this one just because I wanted to see what it might take to recreate that grainy look.

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Naty - 6x6"

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From Italy

A trip to Birmingham Alabama in the spring of 2010 found me at the Birmingham Art Museum where I took a picture of a very large landscape that was painted a long time ago. I've removed the figures that were bathing in the pool at the bottom. I'm just not ready to show the world my efforts at figure painting yet. Unfortunately I can't remember the title or the artist and I can't find it on the B-ham Museum's website. So I can't give you any names for the inspiration for what I've done here. If any of my artist friends might know ... HELP!!! :)

Oil on Canvas - 9 x 12"
Next time I paint something with this many details I'll choose a larger canvas!!!
I pulled out a lot of stops on this one to get better effects. Including the use of glazing to correct the values of the architecture to make them recede visually and to add in the mists rising from the waters. That was the fun part! :)

Click the button to buy this painting
US$160 + $8 s+h

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Pencil Portraits - Part 3 - Matthew

Because the portrait that I did of Walt Whitman turned out so well I was "under orders" to do portraits of our two sons and daughter-in-law for Christmas presents. It took awhile to get them done, and of course I couldn't post them here for fear of spoiling the surprise, so that's why you haven't heard from me recently. But now that the Christmas gifts have been opened I can finally share them with you. This is our oldest son Matthew, a professional violist.
If you're in the Los Angeles area and are looking for a string quartet or viola lessons,
click here to contact him through his website.

9x12" - graphite on paper
If you haven't seen the drawing of his brother Eric or Eric's wife Sunny,
either scroll down or click here.

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If you're interested in having a portrait of one of your family members done in this style
email me at: khwitmer@juno.com

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Pencil Portraits - Part 2 - Eric

Because the portrait that I did of Walt Whitman turned out so well I was "under orders" to do portraits of our two sons and daughter-in-law for Christmas presents. It took awhile to get them done, and of course I couldn't post them here for fear of spoiling the surprise, so that's why you haven't heard from me recently. But now that the Christmas gifts have been opened I can finally share them with you. This is our youngest son Eric. He said he wished that I'd have given him more hair in the drawing but I told him that "I draw what I see"

9x12" - graphite on paper
If you haven't seen the drawing of Eric's wife Sunny, either scroll down or click here.

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Pencil Portraits - Part 1 - Sunny

Because the portrait that I did of Walt Whitman turned out so well I was "under orders" to do portraits of our two sons and daughter-in-law for Christmas presents. It took awhile to get them done, and of course I couldn't post them here for fear of spoiling the surprise, so that's why you haven't heard from me recently. But now that the Christmas gifts have been opened I can finally share them with you. This is our daughter-in-law Sunny. She seems to like changing her name from time to time but I just call her Sunny.

9x12" - graphite on paper

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Snowmelt

6 x 8" - Oil on archival panel
I haven't painted much lately because I've been spending a lot of time on my hammered dulcimer, thinking that if I could polish up my Christmas repertoire I might try to hire out for Christmas parties the way I did a couple years ago. But I decided I didn't really want to do that again, so it's back into the painting.
This one came from just being desperate to get some paint on a canvas again and it came right out of my head, no photo and definitely not plein air.

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Click the button to buy
US$ 15 + $ 5 s&h

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If you'd like to get advance notice of my upcoming works before
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Burger

When I look at this, in my head I hear Sam Elliott's deep low growling voice in the memorable TV ads from so many years ago, saying "BEEF ... it's what's for dinner."
And before you ask "where's the cheese?" ... this is a hamburger, not a cheese burger. I was all out of cheese that day. :)

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Click the button to buy this painting
US$140 + 12.00 s&h

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Another Promise - nature study by Kirk Witmer

Oil on Masonite - 8x10"
I've had a lot going on in my life lately that has kept me from getting much painting done, but I'll spare you the details. In the time that I've had to paint, there haven't been many survivors.
But the reaction to one 6x8 that I posted some time ago has been so positive that I decided to try it again on a larger scale. If this gets a good reaction I may go at it again even larger and with more of a winter theme. Let me know what you think.

Click the button to buy this painting
US$79 + $8 s&h

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Email the artist at: khwitmer@juno.com

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If you'd like to get advance notice of my upcoming works before
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The Hazards of Texas Wildfire

So many folks have asked me about the wildfires that continue to plague firefighters here in central Texas that I thought it might be good to provide a little info about it here. I happened to catch a Google satellite image of our area (about 30 miles northwest of Austin) at just the right time that really highlights our problem. Of course I have no idea when the images were taken but it's obvious that the part on the left, the green part, was taken some time ago and the part on the right is more recent. That would be the not-quite-so-green part.

We've set a new record for days without rainfall in central Texas, but here in our little community it's been even longer. Where we live it seems like we're always the last in our area to get rain. The grass here is so dry that it actually crunches under your feet if you walk on it. When I go out to play ball with my dog Rascal as he runs after the ball he leaves a cloud of dust and swirling beige grasses behind him. The burn ban has been heightened to the point where we're not even allowed to barbecue outside, which as you can imagine is a really big deal for Texans. With so many showing signs of being in "barbecue withdrawal" there's been talk of setting up clinics to help counsel them through these rough times. (Just kidding.)

Fires, as many of you know, have wiped out whole communities. Believe it or not, one has even been attributed to arson when four teenagers were seen leaving a woods just before a fire broke out. Well known artist Carol Marine lost her home and the new studio that her husband David worked for a year to build, escaping just in time with their camping trailer. They won't be rebuilding, but instead will move to Oregon. You can read more from Carol herself at her blog, http://carolmarine.blogspot.com and from David's point of view at http://dpwnews.blogspot.com

We're pretty much a tinder box here in Texas and there's flooding in the eastern states. That all makes me wonder: "If we can build pipelines that will move oil, why can't we build pipelines that will move water?" I guess it's because there's more profit in oil. At least until water becomes more precious.
The most likely saving grace for us here in central Texas would be rain from a hurricane that passes through, but that won't be very welcomed by the Texans who live along the Gulf of Mexico. OH! But there's no "global climate change", is there?

So ... are we in imminent danger? No, but we have created a prioritized "Bug Out" list.
Is the threat everpresent? You betcha.
One careless smoker, or even a hot shell casing from a rifle shot could set it off. And it's dove season right now. And deer season is coming. I'm just glad I don't smoke and I don't hunt, so I can't be blamed if it happens.

In closing, I just want to say.....
GOD BLESS THE FIREFIGHTERS.

Morning Fog - landscape by Kirk Witmer

Daily painting for 9/12/11 - 6 x 8" - Oil on archival panel
I titled this "Morning Fog" but as you can see it doesn't have anything to do with needing a second cup of coffee. The effort here was to convey a mood without the use of color, but instead only using values. The first step in this procedure was to create what I call "eco-gray". I do that by taking all the leftover paint on my palette from the last painting I did and mixing it until it's a uniform shade all the way through. Depending on what the last painting was, the gray may be tinted differently in each batch, so if it's too far from neutral, I'll add a touch of whatever's on the opposite side of the color wheel to pull it back toward neutral, then mix until well blended.
From there, I pulled out some white and black and started mixing a series of values. For this one I found I needed almost no black.

Click the button to buy this painting
US$ 19 + $5 s+h

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The Barley Harvest, landscape w/ figures by Kirk Witmer

18 x 24" - oil on stretched canvas
This is the third in my Dorchester series. Like the first two, I've relied on lighting to set the mood and figures to tell a story. This one is obviously in bright sunlight across the landscape, which explains why, before the days of sunblocking lotions, the ladies are wearing clothes that will protect them from the sun as they work.

Click the button to buy
US$ 495 + $ 35 s&h

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Steampunk Jeff, pencil portrait by Kirk Witmer

Pencil portrait - 9 x 12"
I did this portrait in response to a challenge for artists on one of the many websites in which I participate. It was an interesting effort for me. Not because of this particular subject, but because of the "challenges" it presented. Most importantly the reflections on all the hardware. I hadn't had a subject that has presented that challenge so far, so I couldn't resist the temptation to jump in on this one.
For the purists who want to see just how close I got the the original, the challenge photo is inset into the upper right corner here.

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Walt Whitman, pencil drawing by Kirk Witmer

Pencil portrait - 9x12" on 100lb Bristol vellum
American poet Walt Whitman (1819–92) Author of "Leaves of Grass"
This is my fourth pencil portrait. The source photo is known to be one of several taken of Whitman at the time, but he chose this pose as his favorite.

Click the button to buy
$80 + $8 s&h

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If you're interested in having a portrait done in this style, email me at: khwitmer@juno.com

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If you'd like to get advance notice of my upcoming works before
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Country Lane, landscape by Kirk Witmer

18x24" - oil on stretched canvas

Click the button to buy
US$ 450 + $18 s&h

There is a 6x8" artist's "study" done before this painting was started,
that will be included at no additional cost as part of the purchase of this work.

This is the second in my Dorchester series. It shows us a young lady on the road, going from the sunlight into the darkness of an uncertain future.
Here's the screen capture that became my source photo for this painting. It's easy to see I've made a lot of changes, starting with the widesecreen format! But overall I think the changes have improved the composition and provided for more excitement in the finished work.

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