Working away at my latest painting and will have it up soon! Just a few more touches.
Looking forward to starting another atmospheric Blue Ridge painting. I like to paint in many different directions but the mountains of Southwest Virginia and the Blue Ridge are my favorite selections for subject matter and the hardest paintings I do.
The interaction of warm and cool colors is so difficult to achieve without them blending to grey but I have learned so much about how to get that effect so it is more and more a pleasing experience.
Cheers on a Friday! Please check out my latest Youtube above!Evening Light from Sharp Top Original 12″ x 9″ Oil Pastel painting $246
Wall Art Prints and Prints on household items including face masks
Wow! I discovered a strange way to save paint on my palette. A week ago I accidentally spilled a little mineral spirits into my cadmium red light and it has not dried up at all and I have been able to use it rather than replace it with fresh paint.
That is so weird! I could see linseed oil doing that but not mineral spirits. Sometimes I put out more paint than I need. It is always so hard to know how much of the painting I am going to change and sometimes I end up just adding a few dabs here and there.
Any oil painters that are reading this know how expensive good oil paint is. My paintings cost a lot to make and I am always glad to find ways to keep from wasting paint.
Anyway, just about done with my latest and I am pleased with it! Just have to be careful not to over think it and wreck it.
Cheers on a Monday! Please check out my latest Youtube above!Mid-Spring on The New River Original 34″ x 23″ Oil Pastel painting $1534
Wall Art Prints and Prints on household items including face masks
Well, that was a different experience at the dentist. The hygienist worked for a fairly long time cleaning my teeth and then she flossed them and polished them. Of course, I thought we were done.
Not so! She got out the pick axe again and spent a long time plowing through my teeth and gums. Yikes! I will remember that so I won’t be unpleasantly surprised at my next cleaning.
Anyway, progress is being made on my latest oil painting and I received the most views ever in a 24 hour period on a youtube that I put up yesterday! Lots of great comments!
Please check it out above.
Mountain Lake Reflections Original 30″ x 20″ Oil pastel painting $1230
Wall Art Prints and Prints on household items including face masks
So glad to be back to work on an oil painting of one of my favorite places in Southwest Virginia, Claytor lake! I am looking forward to the warm weather when I can swim there again. It was hard to stay away this summer but I didn’t want to risk Covid exposure.
I have lots of fond memories of swimming there with family and friends. I also want to go to the Peaks of Otter and Wintergreen on The Blue Ridge Parkway. Lots of great mountain resorts that we like to go to. We don’t ski so we like to go to Wintergreen for the hiking and swimming and great food!
After 2020 we need a great break!
Peaks of Otter Lodge Fall reflections Original 40″ x 30″ Oil painting $2760
Wall Art Prints and Prints on household items including face masks
It certainly has been cloudy lately. I don’t mind overcast weather but I would like to see the sun soon. It always amazes me that when I have a patron coming over for a studio visit it is almost always cloudy. We have an active solar house and it is a dark house on one side and bright on the other.
A lot of my artwork is on display in the dark side of the house, not just the studio. I turn on a lot of lights but the natural light coming in through the windows looks the best.
Anyway, I have finally started my Wintergreen sunset painting! It is great to back to oil paint but I think I will be ordering some very expensive colors soon. It would be great if professional oil paint was the same price as house paint. I knew an artist that painted very large works and he would use house paint. I can understand that! The colors are way too flat for me and I want my work to last forever so I use Gamblin and Utrect.
I mostly use the more expensive brand which is Gamblin but I don’t like Gamblin Cerulean Blue so I order that color from Utrecht. I also don’t use earth colors which are less expensive. I have a colorist palette so I order expensive blues, greens, yellows, reds, and purples. I can get any kind of earth color from those colors and I think the effect is more vibrant. Right now, Cadmium Red is $66 for a large tube. I always buy large tubes. The small ones don’t last long at all.
Okay. Enough shop talk! Time to paint. I hope everyone has a great day!
Church Snow Scene Original 16″ x 12″ Oil Painting $384
Prints on Wall Art, Household items, and Clothes available by clicking on the link below.
Be sure to check out my Independent website! The link under Farm near Fancy Gap will take you there!
Life with the Word and Bird Man – Clyde Kessler
Clyde and I are having more trouble finding things than usual. I usually get very aggravated and start cussing like a sailor. Clyde just keeps trying to find whatever it is we can’t locate.
Anyway I told Clyde the first nine chapters of The Marriage book are “Where is it?”
Chapter 10 is “I don’t know”.
You got that right Hubby!
Towhee Hill Studio on Etsy
Be sure to check out originals on Etsy! Link is below Painting
If you like my work but don’t have any more room on your walls be sure to check out my paintings on just about anything on my website or Zazzle! Here is another popular Shore painting ! The link is to this item on a clock!
I am pleased that I managed another Skyline Beauty painting of Austin Texas! Now I will have five for an Etsy listing. This time I decided to use soft pastel colors. I am getting a lot of compliments on my expressive skylines so I thought it would be a nice change of pace to use a different palette. I am very pleased with the results.
My first medium was soft pastels and I know how to mimic that look with paint. Be sure to check it out!
I am looking forward to the patron that commissioned me to restore some glass paintings. He is also considering a lake commission and will be purchasing The Lodge at The Peaks of Otter. He has a print but he wants to get the original and give the print to a friend.
Austin Blue Stage One Original 12″ x 9″ Acrylic Painting NFS
Prints on Wall Art, Household items, and Clothes available by clicking on the link below.
Be sure to check out my Independent website! The link under Memphis Green will take you there!
Life with the Word and Bird Man – Clyde Kessler
Well, I got my new phone. I stared at that box for a few days and then was notified I should set it up. I can’t believe how much trouble I have with this sort of thing. The last time the operator had to admit something was actually wrong with the phone and we had to send it back and get another one.
I told Clyde if you hear me crying it is because I finally opened the box. He said if I hear you laughing I will know you chucked it out the window. As it turned out we spent an hour and a half trying to get it set up with an operator.
After forty five minutes he assured me the minutes had been transferred to my new phone. I tried to make a call and was informed by the phone there would be charges. So we started over with another operator, this time on a chat. Finally I can use the phone.
Now I just need help getting all the stuff from my old phone transferred to the new one. We will call a friend that is much younger than us to help. He is not from India. We can easily understand him. Yikes!
Towhee Hill Studio on Etsy
Be sure to check out originals on Etsy! Link is below Painting
Across the Marsh at Pawleys Island Original 40″x30″ Oil Painting $2480
If you like my work but don’t have any more room on your walls be sure to check out my paintings on just about anything on my website or Zazzle! Here is another popular Skyline painting ! The link is to this item on a notebook!
I am so pleased to be finished with the second glass painting restoration! Had some trouble with certain colors resisting but after many layers it is completely covered and I will send a file to the patron.
He has one more so I am looking forward to seeing him and giving him the first two. He said the first one looked wonderful!
They certainly are interesting paintings. My husband said they looked like illustrations for books. Below is the second one.
North Albemarle in McLean Virginia Original 40″ x 30″ Oil Painting $2430
Be sure to check out my Independent website! The link North Albemarle in McLean Virginia will take you there!
Life with the Word and Bird Man – Clyde Kessler
Clyde is always complaining about traffic. For some reason a lot of dangerous drivers seem to find him a lot more than they find me.
Well, yesterday I had an interesting experience I had to tell him about. I was driving along when I noticed in the mirror a driver weaving back and forth which made me nervous. When the driver was practically touching my bumper I could see it was a girl that kept looking at herself in the mirror and then looking down to the seat.
I am pretty sure I have mentioned before that my brother-in-law always gets off the road if someone is barreling down on him. He says he had better get out of the way. That guy must be on a mission for God.
Well, I don’t usually get out of the way but I did turn off and let that girl pass because I think she must have been on a mission for Revlon. Clyde agreed.
Towhee Hill Studio on Etsy
Be sure to check out originals on Etsy! Link is below Painting
Mid Spring on The New River Original Top 34″ x 23″ Oil Painting $1504
If you like my work but don’t have any more room on your walls be sure to check out my paintings on just about anything on my website or Zazzle! Here is another popular Skyline painting ! The link is to this item on a notebook!
My neck is just about well. Still can’t turn to the left without pain but it isn’t bad. Excited about starting a new Skyline Painting today! Still working on Charlotte, NC and then I think I will paint Richmond. Working my way out from beautiful Southwest Virginia.
Bowling starts tonight! Yea!!!!
Dream Horse Original 16″ x20″ Acrylic Painting $670
Prints on Paper, Canvas, Metal, and Greeting Cards Available at KENDALL KESSLER ART
In spite of a sore neck I was able to go to Yoga yesterday and the class was full! Great to see so many people there! I just avoided any position that involved turning my neck to the left. It is still sore. I still don’t know why I woke up Monday with a horrible pain. Anyway, it is just about gone. Yes!!!!
Check out my latest Charlotte NC Skyline painting!
Charlotte Gold Original 12″ x 9″ Acrylic Painting $236
Prints on Paper, Canvas, Metal, and Greeting Cards Available at KENDALL KESSLER ART
As I have mentioned ad nauseam I spend a lot of time on the computer promoting my artwork. I used to run around to galleries which was quite a chore so I really shouldn’t complain about all my computer chores, but I do.
I am always thinking about what I need to do and don’t want to do and then I am reminded that most of the chores take two shakes of a lamb’s tail.
Well, the problem is there are so many chores that I am shaking that lamb’s tail all day long.
Clyde said I should watch out. Peta might come after me.
Monday is not starting off well. I thought I was working on a draft and instead I typed over yesterday’s post. Oh well, like my son says, “Mondays and Tuesdays are rough on me.”
I am never using the glasses by the computer again. They fall down my nose so I am always looking up at an angle and this morning I woke up with a sore muscle in my neck. Ouch! I have plenty of glasses in the kitchen and now one of those pairs will be here.
Craftsman Original Oil Painting Sold
Prints on Paper, Canvas, Metal, and Greeting Cards Available at KENDALL KESSLER ART
I have been married to the Word Man for so long that I am starting to come up with some humorous sayings.
I am always baffled with the amount of attention that is paid to small things and not important ones. I am not going to give out examples for fear of offending someone.
Here is what I came up with.
Attention to small things rather than the big problems in our society is the nuts and bolts of stupid and that is what makes the world go around.
Clyde had a different ending to the saying but I think I had better not print it. “World” will do.