I'M BACK! ~ Vintage Model T Plein Air

 

"Model T" 

10"x10" 

Sorry for the delay in new posts, but I've been having a computer problem that prevented me from posting photos. I ended up changing web browsers and that put me back in business.  I will try and catch up.

I was thrilled to see that my neighbor bought this old truck and leaves it outside in front of his home. It had my name all over it. I met the owner and he was very welcoming and has even commissioned me to do another painting of his home. Here is the commission painting in progress below. Unlike the truck painting, I am working on this one inside my studio from my photo resources.

"Work in Progress" 

 

Outdoor Painter.com article

 Bob Bahr did a writeup about me over at OutdoorPainters.com the home of Plein Air magazine about my favorite place to paint! I appreciate the press and I'm honored to be mentioned on their site.

"People may know about Randy Saffle's tendency to paint tractors.

But they probably don't know why he does it."

 

  It's fun to see my work collected like this. I get asked some of these same questions Bob asked me all the time. Here was my chance to put it in print. Thank you for the recognition and the chance to share.

Click the link to read.

OutdoorPainter.com | My Favorite Place to Paint: Randy Saffle | Home of Plein Air Magazine

Locally Grown

 

"Locally Grown"

16 x 20

 More palette knife fun. This time from a picture I took of a local farmer that was

giving his time to teach kids how to plant at Nash Farm in Grapevine, TX.

They won't stay still!

 

Painting Willhoites the local biker hangout in Grapevine, but it's not easy when

your subjects keep riding away. I tool a cell phone picture because I anticipated this,

but the final result is probably a mishmash of the real bikes. I will post the final painting asap.

 

I'm not sure what I'm doing with that little brush. I paint most of my work with a

size 6 to 8 flat brush. You can get into trouble picking up the little ones. Your always

better off abstracting the form down to it's essence and minimizing the little stokes.

Paint as much of it as possible with the largest brush you can.

 

cliff notes...

Big brush = good

Small brush = bad

 

 

 

 

It's cooler at night...kind of.

"Last stop and Last Light"

11 x 14 Oil

Texas is so hot it has slowed down my plein air painting, but I did manage to go out a few

nights ago and found this scene. It was still 100 degrees at 7:30 at night! I haven't been out much, but I have been working on several big studio paintings that I will share very soon. I'm finding that my studio work never feels finished. I always think I can do something a little bit better, where my plein air work finishes itself when the light changes or it flat out goes away like this one.

The Old Mill

"The Old Mill"

16" x 20"

I've been waiting for the right opportunity to paint this old mill in Grapevine, Tx. I did make two other attempts, but both went south on me for various reasons. I was leaving the new convention center, looked up and caught the perfect orange light streaming across the mill. It was around 8:30 pm and it was the last minute of light from the setting sun. The mill was aglow with beautiful blues and oranges. I painted this in my studio in one sitting the next day.

I used a quick grid to help me draw the layout and then I washed in Indian Yellow and Phthalo Red Rose. Both are translucent colors. I wanted to maintain the glow from the board shining thru for as long as I could.

 Midway point. Every things blocked in and I'm happy with it so far.

In the home stretch. I waited as long as I could before laying in the juicy thick orange glow.

"My Tractors Sexy" & Finished!

"My Tractors Sexy"

12" x 16" Oil

I promised a better picture of my completed painting from a few posts ago, so here it is. If you missed the step by step photos here they are.

This is also one of my entries into the Grapevine Plein air show coming up soon. Let's see if I can keep my good luck & momentum moving forward!

Come into the light children...

"Green, Green Grass..."

10 x 20 Oil

I tried a more ambitious painting at least size wise. I thought the subject matter would allow me to paint larger than normal and it did. Unfortunately I chose a very windy day and a back lit subject to do this. When, it came time to lay in the grass, I did everything I could to try and duplicate to glowing color I was seeing and I think I accomplished this. You can see in the photo of me working that the color really looked like that! This is one of the reasons that plein air painting is worth the effort. If I had painted this from a photo  back home in the studio, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to make the grass and light glow like this because I wouldn't have seen it the same way.

 

Photo of subject, but from a slightly different angle.

Looking into the light for a long time can make mixing colors difficult.

Detail of brushwork,

The orange glow is the tinted board showing through.

Sometimes letting the board show is the best way to keep a glow.

Step By Step Plein Air Tractor

Plein Air 12 x 16

 I will post a better photo after it's dry.

My block in on a pre-tinted canvas. I was using a 3/4" brush and linked all my shadows to solidify the mass. My darks are not all one shade. They shift from cool and warms and I added some Sap green into the mixture in the grass shadows.

My Subject - Interesting to compare photo with final painting and see where drawing errors happened. Much harder to see when your in the heat of the battle.  

I jumped into the details of the tractor because I liked what the light was doing at that moment and it was the fun part to paint. Tried real hard to leave as much of the beginning darks alone to keep my depth.

I used this long haired brush from Ace Hardware for laying in my grass. It puts down a lot of paint and the bristles make long sweeping texture. Not bad for a .99 cent brush. I typically put the most texture in the foreground and spots I want to highlight. You can see the brush I used at the bottom of the painting.

  

You can see the size of the painting in this shot if you can look past my my handsome profile.

 

Working some fence details and adding in the roof. I want the fence to have depth, but I don't get carried away with any one part. Also, I try and keep the darks in the fence connected to the darks in the tractor since they are on the same plane. I paint in my sky last after laying in more trees. After the sky is in, I work the tree branches back on top of the sky. I try to not bring much attention to this area. When I was close to finishing I changed the angle of the house roof on the right side to point back towards my tractor since it is my main subject. ( see final picture )

Reason #214: Why plein air painting is tough.

"Depot"

9 x 12

Painted this late in the day and was surrounded by photographers taking family photos. Grapevine is a very photographic town and I'm lucky to live here, but nothing is as annoying as listening to a photographer shout baby talk to get the little ones attention...over and over and over. I tried to immerse myself in my work, but it was tough.

Christmas Painting Exchange

"All the Live-Long Day"

8 x 10

This is the painting I selected for the Outdoor Painters Society Christmas gift exchange. We wrap our paintings in brown paper, pile them up and play a white elephant Christmas game. It gets pretty heated, because you can steal paintings from other people and everyone gets pretty attached real fast. This will be my fifth party and I have really enjoyed the paintings I received in the past. I got an Ann Hardy, a couple from Cecy Turner and a David Moreland Bates. All are signature members of our group...not too shabby.

I hope I don't disappoint someone that gets this one.

Patriotic Tractor

"Patriotic Tractor"

12" x 16"

I tried this one larger than my usual 9 x 12 size. The increased size made it more difficult to finish in my normal time frame and also made the drawing tougher, because it's hard to hide any drawing errors. Some things worked and some didn't, but it's always fun.

I don't need any extra reasons to paint a tractor, but I loved the little flag on the front.

Sorry 2 My Family

"Parade Tractor"

9 x 12  © 2011

I found this tractor, immediately took my family home, squeezed out a call to a painting buddy and went to work. ( Sorry 2 my family )

I laid the darks in very dry and applied the paint with thick deliberate strokes. I approached it a little looser and personally like the results. I'm real curious what you guys think.

Work Truck

"Old Green Work Truck"

9" x 12"

I found this great truck parked at Nash farm by my house. I had my twenty year old son stand with the door open in the pose shown and used my painters creative license and magically transformed him into a elderly gentleman complete with red hat and suspenders. You can't beat plein air painting and actually being on location, but I will always change what I see if it makes my painting better.

KEEP OUT

 "Hay Stacks"

9' x 12"

Went out with a couple of my painting buddies for some more punishment. You can just feel the heat radiating out of these photos and it was only 9 am! I did get some nice shadows and despite the heat had a lot of fun. We meet a man named Mannie that was working for real that day driving a forklift. He spoke only broken English, but was very excited to see our paintings. We found out Mannie was an artist himself after he showed us a large rock that he had decorated with a sharpie drawing various cowboy related doodles. I encouraged him to drop the sharpie and pick up some brushes. Hopefully Mannie will be starting his own Blog soon.

Glimpse of my palette

Wow, I'm dedicated!

Nash Farm Barn

"Nash Farm Barn"      9 x 12

Sometimes I go out and I don't know what I want to paint and this was one of those days. After moving my easel around two or three times, I settled on this scene. It felt good getting outside because my brush was a little rusty.

I have been on vacation in Colorado for the past week and have several new paintings that I will post this week. The Colorado scenery was breathtaking and very inspiring.

Garden Path

"Garden Path"     8" x 10"

I was asked to do a demo at a local event celebrating National Garden Day last Friday. I wasn't real excited to do this, but I gave it a go. I paint outside in front of everyone all the time, but a demo is different. What if the painting doesn't work? I quickly realized I shouldn't worry because NOBODY was there to watch me! LOL
It was a shame, because the painting turned out okay.

$80.00 w/ free ship

Walking to Texas 2

"Walking to Texas 2"  8" x 10"

Walking to Texas, by Michael Cunningham, was Grapevine's first piece of public art, dedicated in 1996. This sculpture and fountain is a tribute to the pioneer families who came to the Grape Vine prairie seeking a bright future and new life. Located in Liberty Park on Main Street. 

I painted this very quickly as the sun was setting and my wife was shopping! ;?)

This is not the first time I painted this statue. Here is the first painting from last year.

http://randysaffle.blogspot.com/2010/02/walking-to-texas.html

"A Good Book"  9" x 12"

This was my first attempt at painting from a live model and to add to that pressure, the model was my wife. I helped organize a "paint in" a few weeks ago and we had a wonderful turn out with around thirty artists painting inside and out. Along with setting up a few still lifes, I somehow convinced my wife to pose for us. I tried to make it as easy for her as possible, so I brought her favorite chair and book with us and posed her exactly the way she looks most nights. She did a great job. ( Thanks again Sweetie! )

I had no idea how my painting would turn out. In retrospect, I jumped in too fast and should have done more pre drawing. Seeing the photo I took side by side reveals my drawing errors, but I do think it looks like her, so that's good enough for me.

This was fun challenge and I hope to do it again. 

 My beautiful wife!

A portion of our group at work

Plein Air Demo Detail

"A Day of Rest" 

12" x 16"

Here is the promised picture of my recent plein air demo.