Start painting and the ideas will come!

68 consecutive days of 100+ degree heat = 

lots of time in the studio.  

I have been working on a batch of  12 small format Lake images using photos and sketches of Lake Travis, outside of Austin TX, from 5 years ago. These miraculously appeared on my old Sony memory stick one day after cleaning out my studio closet.  I knew I had the references, but I had to do some digging to find them. 

Since I have a commission having to do with this subject, I decided to continue experimenting with H2Oils over an acrylic underpainting to bring the project to completion. 

I began on canvas which had been gessoed with a blue tint.  You can see bits peeking through.   I have to say that the H2Oils are "easy" compared to the acrylics.  They go on over the top of the acrylic under painting like butter if combined with a suitable medium.  The down side, of course, is the drying time.  I use an H2Oil linseed oil and a bit of Liquin. 

The painting pictured here is roughly 87% complete.  I'll post it again once complete.

10 x 10 x 1.25" Original mixed medium on canvas

12 x 6 x .75" Original mixed medium on canvas

 I had several 6 x 12 x .75" canvases laying around so after I finished up and my palette was a wreck, I mixed the leftovers into a nice grey blend and painted in loose mid tone sketches.  We haven't seen anything resembling rainclouds this summer, so these are my rain prayer paintings.

Happy Painting to all!