Just got word that my solo exhibition has been extended another month and will now be on display until Feb 29th. The Gallery at Pavilion I located at 2101 Parks Avenue, Virginia Beach, VA 23451 9am-6pm M-F.
6x6 Oil on canvas plein air painting in Norfolk, VA alleyway.
Latest time lapse video of figure painting in progress.
Being my worst critic is tough. It's not easy sometimes to post up subpar work for the rest of the world to either condemn or praise. But if I'm to be honest here, I want the mindset of pushing my work to the next level, being critical of the work is absolutely necessary. I've been accused of beating myself over my work, but who else is going to make me realize that last night's painting wasn't good enough? I'm lucky to have family that knows to be honest with my paintings. Tonia here, has really wide shoulders, unfortunately, I made the mistake to over exaggerating them. I'll go back and correct them tonight. Sometimes time away helps me reevaluate the work and identify problems in the painting.
Tonia 12x16 oil on board.
Show on display from October 29th thru January 15th. Hours 9am-6:30pm.
Well, it's been a rough two weeks for me with losing my voice and other non-painting related issues. However, I'm almost back in the saddle and my voice is almost back. If you happen to make the opening reception after 6:30pm, I'll be there holding doors open to let people in until the last person leaves. This exhibition will have over 50 of my paintings up on display.
Right after I blogged my winter painting session, I was thinking, "Wow!" I really need to ramp up my painting while I can. And then everything stopped. My father in law had a heart attack while in the Philippines and a month long process to get him back to the States began. All of our passports had expired and it was a major obstacle to get them renewed. All the while we began to wonder if it we would reach him too late. In the end, he managed to get back to the Virginia. Within that time period, my Grandmother had a heat attack and stroke. It was devastating and by a miracle, she survived to make it back home in hospice care. At 96, we know that her long life journey has neared it's end. Her memory is fractured and at times dementia clouds what little memory she has left. In April, my close friend discovered he has a life threatening disease. It is no small statement that he has been an inspiration and key influence to the developing of my work as a painter. If you have followed me on my social networks, you have noticed the trickle of posts during that time. This blog came to a full halt. I just didn't feel like writing much without addressing these events. My father in law is recovering. Grandma is hanging in there and was happy to have us as company last week as I painted her. It's sad to know her loss of sight has robbed her from seeing my latest works. My friend is preparing for a special treatment that may have a chance to give him a second lease on life. Since this post, I have been in two plein air events, Olmsted and Easton. I have been also juried into Bath County this September. And from there, life goes on and so does painting. As long as I have time.
Cole reading the book of Genesis to Grandma as I prepare to paint.
I found an amazing place to paint to keep me busy for a while. Here's from my first session painting here during the snow, which of course was on my birthday! Very rewarding to also have several inquiries for the paintings. As of this blog post, the top painting, "Winter Turtle Pond" is available. But "Turtle Pond Tree" has sold.
Winter Turtle Pond
Turtle Pond Tree - SOLD
Hey everyone, if you have been following me here on the blog and have liked watching the time-lapse videos of my painting process, great news! I've collected them all on my Videos page, (CLICK HERE)
I've tried to stay busy and keep up the momentum with painting. This week I have seven paintings to talk about. The first and most recent is the submission for THE SHOW, "Bank Noir II", which won an Honorable Mention Award. It was a great show with amazing local work. Very proud to be a part of this.
"Bank Noir II"
My second painting is a demo that I did at the Governor's School for the Arts. Great group of kids that are quick learners. We discussed painting and drawing techniques when drawing from life. Teaching them for the afternoon was a blast.
Painting Demo at the Governor's School of the Arts
I was very happy to learn that my Pittsburgh Street Light" sold at the Randy Higbee 6 Squared Show! I looked online at all the entries and it was amazing to see all the great work. Looking forward to next years, and I should have more than one painting to submit next year.
Pittsburgh Street Light
Got outside to paint plein air and even though it a couple of storm fronts pushed through, staying inside the truck, I managed to get a fun painting of a spot I had my eye on for sometime.
Farm & Engine
The Norfolk Drawing Group had it's painting night and I think I got a good one done and was able to incorporate more paint into the canvas than I had been previously.
Alicia
My "Night Boat" is still a work in progress, I hope to finish it soon.
Work in Progress
And if that wasn't enough, I got to play around with painting digitally on a Wacom and ArtRage this week for a super quick demo.
ArtRage 4 and Wacom Demo
So far 2015 has been a great start, having just been awarded "BEST IN SHOW" for the TAA Portfolio Gallery Exhibition for my plein air series in Pittsburgh. In addition, having paintings in the Randy Higbee 6" Squared Show, the Rawls Museum and the Nansemond Suffolk Academy Art Exhibition. February, I'll have the "Bank Noir" painting in THE SHOW in Norfolk. Last week, I had the opportunity to paint with a group of friends at Mike Brewers studio for a day long painting session of our model, "Bryne". She was a great model and the time allowed me to paint at a larger scale than I normally do, 18"x24" is big for me. This month of painting produced what I consider a personal best in awhile, although I wish I had the time to make a time lapse video of it. "Cavite Afternoon" was my favorite so far this year. So here's to a more productive year in 2015!
Solitary Engine
Time lapse video of my oil painting process in the studio.
My latest studio painting demo painting of ferry boats at night
Here's another painting I did of the Rusty Engine No.5, this time at night. I had a lot of fun on this and have done another time-lapse video to show my painting process. Also of note, I ran into an engineer of the Bay Shore line and he said that Rusty has gone in to be restored. I wonder if I will recognize the engine afterwards?
I had a fun hour back outside painting, although I didn't have much time. With all the Christmas hustling and bustling, painting has been limited to commissions only. Whew, now there's only New Year's Eve left! Made a quick trip to the city dump with very little daylight left, as I was leaving I noticed the light was very dramatic on the entrance to the dump, so I opted to paint it. I actually was a lot of fun!
"Fresh Garbage" Oil on board. 4x6.
Hi there friend,
I just wanted to invite you to the opening reception of my latest group show featuring Bernard Conda, Thomas Bradshaw and myself. I've gotten a sneak peek at all the paintings and it's going to be a great show! This will be a great chance to collect work of the most prolific plein air painters in Hampton Roads. Looking forward to seeing you there!
OPENING RECEPTION
FRIDAY DEC. 12th, 6:30-8:00PM
Rawls Museum Arts
22376 Linden Street
Courtland, Virginia 23837
(757) 653-0754
Exhibition will be on display from
December 12th, 2014 - Jan 30, 2015
As always, you can follow my adventures in painting on my site Liquidmethod.com or thru Facebook, Flickr, Twitter & Tumblr.
This plein air was of Gilfillan Farm, Pennsylvania, an amazing place to paint. Quite a few buildings and fields and in the earlier autumn it the colors came alive.
"Gifillan Farm" 9x12 oil on board.
Here is a side by side comparison.
Last year, I completed the painting on the right with the boat that had no sails. I had been working from two photos I had taken but with different exposures. In hopes of getting all the values that I remember seeing. Once at a point where I thought that any more work on it would destroy the painting, I stopped. For some reason, I let the size of the painting get to me. It was one of my bigger paintings, and the fact that I had gotten lost on the direction on how to complete it, should have clued me in that it wasn't really done. It's true, that most painters can almost always find something to keep working on . But at what moment are we to really know when that the painting is truly done? Confidence during the process can make the decision easier. Other times, it's not that self evident and we have to struggle within ourselves to know when to stop working. Having mulled it in my mind for a few months of what to do, I decided to go back into the painting and flesh out the problems I hadn't resolved before. I think the result is much better.
This is one of my new studio paintings that I'll exhibiting in the group show with Bernard Conda and Thomas Bradshaw next month. I had a little bit of a struggle with this, as all painters do from time to time. There's a desire to grow and yet stay true to your self. I feel the need to loosen up, but find myself trapped in getting too tight with details. Sometimes your head is in the game, and other times, you feel like you just don't know where to start. I may revisit this one with a major crop to only include the engineer and the front of the train. When I experimented with various crop sizes, it did have a different effect. Particularly making the train seem more massive in size and mass.
One of my favorite plein air sessions had to be from the trailer park near Little Creek. I had passed by this beautiful Chevy Bel Air, a 56 to be exact earlier in the fall. Although, it was sunny when I passed by the first time, the clouds had rolled in when I set up to paint. It was one of my first paintings after I had gotten my Easy L Versa and tripod. If you look closely enough you can see I have hardly any paint on the easel back board. The locals drove by and seemed to appreciate it. What I didn't expect was the trailer park management to drive by and start asking if I had a permit. "What? A permit for what? To paint? Duh, no." I thought. But I was polite and explained the whole reason I was there was to paint the classic car. Then I turned the easel around to show her the progress. That seemed to impress her enough to let me get back to painting. Sometimes it's better to set up and paint and then let things play out if someone is curious enough to ask what I'm doing there. Hopefully by then the painting has gotten far enough that I can show my efforts and can see I'm serious about painting.
With everything else going on, I managed to eek out a painting for the Randy Higbee 6 Squared Exhibition, and got it in. I was stressed to get the paint to dry before sending it off. That is one of the short comings of oil is dry time, but most of the times, I'm not on a shipping deadline. It really does make me wonder how Lyendecker and Rockwell made the Saturday Evening Post deadlines with the shipping of the work. I've heard of horror stories of other artists trying to get their oils to dry in time, but craziest one is when an artist (Whom will remain nameless), tried putting his oil painting in the oven at a low temperature. I wrote to him after reading about it and he was quick to say it was a BAD, BAD, BAD IDEA! So, the only real solution I've read and have been told by illustrators is Crystal Clear by Krylon. I did this to some of my paintings back when I was illustrating, but quickly gave up on it because of the nasty smell it leaves behind for a few days. Surprisingly, I haven't noticed any change of color to the paintings I still have from over 10 years ago. Conservators will say it is not good to do this, and I agree. Better to let it dry naturally and then add varnish after the appropriate time.
Next spring, I'll be attending the Olmsted Plein Air Invitational in Atlanta, Georgia. At the time of getting the invitation from Andy Hall, he explained this was their first year. I forgot to post this awesome palette they sent me earlier. Recently, I looked at the roster of the other artist attending. "Whoa!", I said to myself as I saw a who's who of plein air painters also invited. Needless to say, another cool thing I saw was several artists that I had the pleasure of making friends with at Easton this past summer. My next thought was to look at the terrain of the park. The park was designed by Frederic Law Olmsted, who also designed NYC Central Park, (I instantly flashed back to the movie, "The Park Is Mine", starring Tommy Lee Jones). When I got to the park map legend, there were several diagrams of trees and what? Alligators? For a brief moment the thought popped up I might be painting alongside a pond and out of nowhere an alligator would lurch out at me. My wife, who was over looking with me at the computer, said, "The gator is a work vehicle". Duh, I'm such a dunce! So now, I began to think, I'm a train guy, I paint structures, vehicles and buildings. Not many trees. It became very clear that I was really going to need to study and learn how to paint trees and vegetation much better than I currently do. So, after I get my current painting done, (another train), it's off to paint and study trees and other plant life! Also, it's a indication to me that I need to finish the John Carlson book I started, but haven't finished yet.
Doug Clarke is a Plein Air and Studio painter based out of Virginia Beach. He works almost exclusively in oils, as well was on location, to create the majority of his paintings. Currently his working on building a collection of work that captures vanishing landscapes from his hometown area of Southeastern Virginia.
Doug Clarke
Landscape and figure painter pursuing his adventures in outdoor painting throughout the country. An accomplished plein air painter, he has won numerous awards for his depiction of rural and urban landscapes.
Latest Oil Painting
A Study in Flowers #1
Original studio painting by Doug Clarke. 6x8" oil on canvas, unframed.
Original studio painting by Doug Clarke. 6x8" oil on canvas, unframed.
Original studio painting by Doug Clarke.24"x36" oil on board framed in a sleek black floater frame. Contact for packing a shipping costs, this is an oversized painting.
Original studio painting by Doug Clarke. 24x36" oil on cradle board in black floater frame. Oversized shipping.
PLEASE NOTE:
Listed sale price does not include the shipping fee. Shipping charges will be calculated based on the delivery destination. Shipping may be added to your invoice at time of confirmation of your destination.