SEASCAPE DREAMSCAPE

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Good day to you all.  Greetings from central Florida. A lot of my paintings come from dream sequences I have.  This one was no different.

I haven't been to the beach in months. For some reason, I've been dreaming about the full moon rising over the ocean lately.  I've been wanting to paint a seascape for about six months now, but struggled with certain aspects of painting a seascape.  Mainly, the shoreline parts. I've done many lake/landscape paintings & have no difficulty with the shore lines in those paintings.  Mostly because I've developed a cool technique where the water meets the land and grassy areas.

I decided to do some practice run throughs of just the shorelines.  After sessioning out a couple of hours of painting only shorelines,  lo and behold: I finally crossed that barrier. I was ready to paint my almighty seascape masterpiece.  Wink wink. That was a joke incase you were wondering. Although I was quite pleased with the end result.

I did manage to get into this very cool moonrise painting on wood.  I wanted to capture that dreamy, moody, hazy full moon night sky that I kept envisioning from my dreams.  so I kept the colors dark for the sky.  Mostly shades of blues & black & white...  I had a great time creating the full moon lit sky.  I used Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Blue, Black, and White for the sky.

When I finally got down into the shore line and sandy areas, I wanted to go for a hypnotic effect. But, I also wanted to brighten the theme up just a bit.  I added more colors: Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Cad Yellow. I don't like working with just Cad Yellow. It's amazing the range of colors you can achieve when mixing with the different hues of yellow.

I did some heavy blending and achieved the result for the shoreline I was looking for.  I've been trying to achieve this blurry/hypnotic effect for some time now to actually do a "full painting" with. Out of nowhere, I saw the effect come to life as I was creating the shoreline.  I heard that little painting voice in my head saying, "Go with it. Go with it."  So, I went with it, and I was glad with the results of the contrast of the waves versus the shore line. 

It still amazes me how one painting can lead to another.  Now that I know the secret to getting that blurred out, hypnotic feeling, I can apply to other paintings...Including some smaller versions of this "Dreamy Ocean Moonrise"

COLORS I USED: TITANIUM WHITE ULTRAMARINE BLUE PTHALO BLUE MIDNIGHT BLACK YELLOW OCHRE RAW SIENNA

PEACE OUT---

YOUR UNCLE ALFRESCO...

 

RECENT GROWLER PROJECTS

Greetings from the Complicated Art Man.  It's that Fall-ish time of the year here in Central Florida.  I took most of the summer off from art projects and it's getting to be that time again for new ones.

Hurricane Irma really did some significant damage here in the Orlando area and several trees were blown over.  I picked up a couple of wood stumps and decided to give them new life.  Those art projects are currently in their infancy stages and I will post about them when they're finished.

In the meantime, I've had a couple of growler bottles I've been working on and finally have finished them.  I decided to go with a Florida seascape theme for both.  After a recent trip to St Augustine, I was fortunate enough to catch the sunrise on the way back home.  I caught a few shots of the sunrise over the Atlantic and have been pondering on them for a bit.  After a couple of sketches in my journal, I was finally ready to do up the growlers.

HERE'S BOTH OF THEM

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Once again I took to the "lazy Susan" technique.  I started off by priming the bottle with a couple of coats of flat black spray paint.  If you have never tried painting on a bottle without priming it, good luck getting the paint to stick.  I use a lot of wet on wet technique and it doesn't work without first priming the bottle.  I like to go with the flat black base because it really makes the colors pop once you begin blending.

It takes a hot minute to figure out how to handle the growler while painting on it, without smearing the paint.  For that, you'll just have to figure out which way works best for you.

One of these growlers is going to end up at my friend's restaurant in St. Augustine, Brewz N Dawgz. The owner Roger Lim, was gracious enough to gift me a growler.  This will be the temporary home for the growler, until it makes its way to a permanent home.

I'm excited to start my next projects which will be painted on wood, cut from the stumps that I saved from Hurricane Irma. I will keep you posted.

Until next time,

Keep It Complicated...

THE GROWLER PROJECT

Greetings! I work as a resort pool bartender in Orlando. That's my bread and butter.

Recently, a co worker asked me to paint a growler for her. I was actually shocked that she asked me to do a painting for her.  Nonetheless, I was honored to paint the growler and accepted the challenge.

The growler was from a brewery in Ocala Florida and it was a 64 oz bottle. 

As I started to prep the bottle for painting, I realized that the main challenge was going to be painting on top of the round shape of the Growler.  When I started to sand it down, I realized I wasn't going to able to paint on it properly.

I was going to need to be able to move the bottle around without touching/handling it. Basically,  I needed to be able to move it from side to side, without any hinderances.  

My neurons were firing quickly, as I was already in a creative state of mind. I grabbed a lazy Susan from the pantry. The Susan allowed me the flexibility I needed to paint on the growler freely. You'll see below how this technique worked.

SANDED DOWN GROWLER 

SANDED DOWN GROWLER 

A big part of the prepping process was the fact that paint doesn't stick to glass so easily... I had two main stages of prep. 

1: Sand the bottle surface down with 60 grit sandpaper.  

2: Primer the bottle with flat black spray paint. Two coats.  I chose black so that the colors would pop really nice.  Now I was ready to paint my masterpiece. LOL. 

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The finishing touches to the painting was the "FLORIDA ROOM/WINDOW EFFECT.

As I was painting the growler and moving it around from side to side, I started to understand clearly that this was an art piece that begged to be "looked" at.  That's when I came up with the idea of adding the windows effect.  I think it really made a difference and I was amazed at the change in perspective.

The real finishing touch came with the clear coat of gloss. I used Rustoleum's cystal clear gloss. It gives it a super nice luster and a protective coat over the paint.  And this project will need the protection.

Painting on glass is very tricky.  The paint can chip off at any given time, after it dries.  That is why you should not try to handle the bottle with your hands.  It will be impossible at some points not to do so, so you just have to be careful.

I hope you enjoyed this blog.  If you have any comments, feel free.  Or drop me a line via the contact form.

PEACE OUT---

C.A.M.

STRETCHED OUT CANVAS? NO PROB

Traveling with your artwork, can make pieces vulnerable to getting damaged. When I came back home from my last show, I realized one piece had leaned into another, causing the canvas to stretch. This can also happen if your artwork isn't stored properly. 

I came up with an idea to cut the canvas off of the stretcher, and paste it on to a wood board I had previously custom cut myself. I took the idea one step further and decided to "create" a little.  

Here's the work from beginning to end. 

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Original piece

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This was a good experiment and I didn't have to throw away the painting.  I have to put a few finishing touches on the wood board and then I'll be satisfied with the end result...

Good luck and keep on painting

Your Uncle Alfresco... A.K.A. THE COMPLICATED ART MAN.

THREE OF A DIFFERENT KIND

Greetings and salutations from the Complicated Art Man.  It's another spectacular spring day here in Orlando.  High of 65 and a little chill in the air.

I wanted to share with you three different versions of a painting that I recently did.

I temporarily have named the painting "Moody Lake".   I was inspired by a picture someone posted on Instagram.  The picture was taken somewhere in the Northeast.  Connecticut, If I'm not mistaken.

This first version was painted on an 8" x 10" canvas.  I really enjoyed painting this piece, but I wanted to go somewhere a little "darker".  I envisioned this piece, but more hypnotic or dream like.  So I went for it.

MOODY LAKE

This is the second evolution of Moody Lake.  You can definitely tell the difference right away.  the sky is darker and stormy looking.  Is it a snow storm, or a rain storm coming?  Who knows, who cares. 

MOODY LAKE 2

The trees were done with a broken stroke technique.  I used a script liner brush.  I kept the paint really wet and thinned it out with water.  This technique let the paint flow like ink, allowing me to paint very freely.  I also used the same technique for the "aire/atmosphere" using different hues of blue. I was going for a "dream like" feel on this version.  I feel as if I achieved what I set out to do here.  I still wanted to go deeper. Something was telling me I could go "darker and more mysterious."  That led me to a version three.

MOOD LAKE 2 FRAMED.  WHAT A DIFFERENCE A FRAME MAKES

SLITHERING MOORISE

ENTER VERSION THREE: SLITHERING MOONRISE.  Keeping in theme with the second version, I kept this version dreamlike, hypnotic, and moody.  I added the full moon after going out during the full moon, to one of my favorite spots in Winter Park.  A B O BAR.

While tipping back a cold beverage and enjoying some peel and eat shrimp, (A B O has some of the best peel and eats I've had in Otown, JUST SAYIN.) I noticed the full moon doing full moon like things behind some trees.  I decided that I would add the full moon to this version.  So I did.

The full moon reflections came out "slithery" on the lake... Hence the title: SLITHERING MOONRISE.  This really is a "dark & moody" piece.  The picture shown is the best picture I've been able to capture.  The sun was setting and it really lit up the painting, something nice.  This painting needs to be around the right amount of lighting, to pop.

KEEP CREATING & HAPPY PAINTINGS YA'LL-

YOUR UNCLE ALFRESCO.

LITTLE BIG ECON STATE FORREST (ORLANDO, FL)

One of my favorite places in Orlando is the Little Big Econ (Econlockhatchee River) State Forest in Geneva, Florida (EAST ORLANDO)

I mountain bike and trail hike there often.  Recently, I stopped to enjoy the view and noticed a how great it was from the trails. The palms & trees really jumped out at me from this vantage point.

LITTLE BIG ECON RIVER TRAIL

I've ridden through this part of the forest countless times.  I guess this time, I just saw something different.  I decided I wanted to paint this scene.

So, sticking with my current phase of "minimalist palette", I started with a black and white theme.  I decided to add color, but in limited amounts... I used color mostly for the sky, and used different hues of yellows, browns, greys for the "bluffs" and water reflections.  I wanted to keep my version dark and moody... As if it was right around sunrise.

ECON RIVER TRAIL BLUFFS

Isn't it amazing how the painting changes in different lighting?

The bluffs (dirt walls) were done with the paint knife.  The knife puts out some great texture and gives the painting an awesome 3-D effect.  I just love the way the colors all blend together and the paint breaks off where it wants to.  It's truly organic.  You just have to trust the knife and let go.  I was very satisfied with the reflections.  It was tricky keeping the canvas wet.  I started this painting off with a dry canvas.  I added a slow medium as I went along, for blending purposes and the reflections.

Colors I used were: black, white, alizarin crimson, yellow, yellow ochre, hooker green, and pthalo (thalo) blue.

HAPPY PAINTING YA'LL!

FRAMING MY OWN ARTWORK

It's an incredibly beautiful day here in Otown (Orlando).  I got up early today to make some more frames for some of my pieces. I'm now using Birch wood. Originally, I started making frames with pre cut pine strips.  The cost per foot was outrageous.  Making the switch to Birch was a no brainer.  It's much lighter and the grain pattern is stunning.  It really pops out when you add the stain.

I recently went to Home depot and bought a whole sheet of Birch plywood.  I cut my own strips for the frames using my table saw.  It's way more cost effective and with the leftover wood, I cut some custom frames for future "wood" paintings. 

LOT OF FRAMED PIECES

These paintings in the pic above are all framed and ready to be hung.  

Framing your own artwork is a strong selling point, especially since most people don't want to deal with having to frame a painting themselves.

Once I got my framing formula down, the task got much easier.  It's like anything else: Practice makes perfect.  I can make two frames in about 2 hours.  Cut, squared, glued, nailed, and ready for staining.  Not too shabby.  

I highly suggest buying "pre stain wood conditioner" by Minwax.  It penetrates the grain nicely and prevents blotching.  Also, it will save you having to apply multiple coats of stain.  Two should be plenty.  Remember to sand prior, and in between stains.

Here's a few more pics of my framed and soon to be framed artwork.

The Journey Home and Moody Lake

SLITHERING MOONRISE AND HAVASU WATERFALL

With these last two pieces framed, I'll be ready for the Wine and Art Walk in New Smyrna Beach next weekend march 25th.  

HAPPY PAINTING AND KEEP[ CREATING YA'LL

C.A.M

TOUCH OF BLUE 1 & 2

I hope everyone enjoyed their Superbowl Sunday.  That Patriots comeback and Falcons meltdown was definitely one for the ages.

My plan Sunday was to go to the Mt. Dora Arts Festival. I got up early on Sunday and got involved in this painting.  The original idea came from a real picture posted on Instagram.  It caught my attention because it was a black and white.  I decided to make my painted version of it with touches of blue values.

I kept my palette to a minimum using only black, white, pthalo blue, and a touch of pthalo green. The canvas was an 8 x 10. My idea was to start with a smaller painting, then take the idea and work it onto a bigger canvas.  

TOUCH OF BLUE 1

The latter version I wanted to make more subdued, with a dreamy like feel and mood. I did expand the palette a bit, adding purplish hues.  I mixed pthalo blue and  alizarin crimson for the purple values.

TOUCH OF BLUE 2

The result was what I was going for.  I had some really cool jazz music playing and it got me into this "free" broken stroke zone.  That's when I added the flecks for an atmospheric feel.

I still want to do another version going for a full hypnotic theme.  I'll shoot for that later this week.

By the way, I never did make it to Mount Dora... Oh well.

Have a great week.

Uncle Alfresco