Tulip Festival Painting - Part 2

It was a goal to make this painting have an old masters quality to it. I wanted it to have a significant warmth that would almost radiate from the work. In order to do that I used a technique of underpainting called grisaille, which is an underpainting done in nearly monochrome. Often it is done in shades of gray but I wanted the warmth to come through in the final painting, so I opted for yellows, golds and browns.

As you can see, the whole painting was completed in these tones prior to adding any other color. I had family members who saw the painting at this stage and thought it was finished. Nice of them to think that, but it was far from done!

This was at a point later as I began layering color. I tried to remain mindful that the colors not get too vibrant or vivid. Even the red of the little boy's jacket was muted to help in creating the old masters feel. 

Next blog post will show the completed painting and unveiling event.

Good Soil - Part 3

Here is the completed painting. I titled it Good Soil for a few reasons. We are blessed here with some of the best soil in the world. Good is an understatement. The richness of the land is portrayed in the vibrant and vivid colors in the painting. The size of the barn is large, a sign of prosperity as well. The young farmer is deep in thought, or prayer. He as well is soil, as the soil in the parable of the sower found in the Bible where the seed falls on different types of soil.

The farmer has much on his mind. His crop, the livestock, his family and many more things. All are in need of good soil.

"But the seed on the good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a good crop." - Luke 8:15

As the painting progressed, I took short video clips of the progress with my phone on an app called Cameo. It is a 2 minute video, and you can watch it here.

Below are a couple of photos taken after installation in the lobby of the bank. The painting has a great location in the new lobby area via the west entrance to the bank. Stop and take a look in person if you can.

Learning Commons Painting - Part 1

It has been quite some time since I last posted. It has not been that I haven't been working on art, but rather just been busy with life and art I suppose. Or are life and art the same thing? I thought I'd share with you a project that began in April and was just installed last week.

 Back in April, a Call for Art was sent out by my alma mater, Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. They were in the final stages in constructing the new Learning Commons which is to house the college's library and information resources.

Included in the Call for Art were details of the facility, including color schemes, fabrics, surfaces and more.

Judging by these elements and after giving it some thought, I decided to submit a proposed piece of art that would be created specifically for the structure. A piece inspired by the design elements of the facility, by the purpose of the building, and by the mission of the college itself.

I really wanted to have a piece of my art selected for this library, because for the past 30 years, a large artwork of mine graced the old Ramaker Library at Northwestern. When I was a student at NWC, I painted a 4'x105' mural that has since remained on the upper level of that building. I thought it would be nice to have a piece of my work in the new library as well. I'm not certain what they plan to do with that piece, as they will be converting Ramaker into an office building for the college. I think I'll try to get in there and take some photos in the next week. I'll post those for you to see.

So, the image I submitted to the selection committee was one I created in Photoshop. It is a graphic representation of a corn crib. A simple structure, but one that has intrigued me the last few years. You see, this particular corn crib sits just to the south of the Pizza Ranch Support Center, where I work each day. I have sat in the main conference room there and gazed out the window at this structure. The light changes on it throughout the day and the simple geometric shadows have always made me want to paint it. Here is a photo of it.

Those simple shapes, angles and patterns seemed to fit with the details I saw in the Learning Commons interior design. Below is the sketch/rendering I initially submitted for consideration.

This is obviously very different in style from the way you are familiar with seeing me paint. More on that another day. To be continued...

houses the college’s library and information resources - See more at: http://www.nwciowa.edu/news/press/3465/students-to-benefit-from-campus-improvements#sthash.gtNNMyGF.dpuf

Learning Commons houses the college’s library and information resources - See more at: http://www.nwciowa.edu/news/press/3465/students-to-benefit-from-campus-improvements#sthash.gtNNMyGF.dpuf

Learning Commons houses the college’s library and information resources - See more at: http://www.nwciowa.edu/news/press/3465/students-to-benefit-from-campus-improvements#sthash.gtNNMyGF.dpuf

Oh, Brother

When I came up with the idea of incorporating an actual farm windmill as part of this artwork, I initially didn't give a lot of thought to exactly how that was going to become a reality. When it comes to building or fixing things, I am not very gifted. Fortunately, I have other family members who are willing to come to my aid when there is a need. As you saw in an earlier post, my Dad built the canvases. My brother Mike is a real fix-it guy. My other brother Bruce was the brains behind conceiving the apparatus we needed to mount this windmill.

The windmill itself weighs 60-70 pounds, and it needed to hang at the end of a shaft projecting out of the wall, beyond the surface of the canvases. That requires a hefty device.

Bruce came up with a blueprint of what was needed, and even built in a system of set-screw adjustments that would allow for slight adjustments to be made to the tilt of the wheel after mounting if necessary.

He then worked directly with the guys at Randy's Ironworks of Orange City to fabricate this heavy-duty item. I do mean heavy-duty–I think it probably weighed at least 30 pounds. I'm not usually into this kinda thing, but it was a thing of beauty, and I think I thought so because it looked like it was going to work so perfectly.

The contractors building the event center had built into the wall extra support to allow for mounting at the appropriate area of the wall. You can see from the photos that the base plate is embedded just beneath the sheetrock. After Bruce finished installing the apparatus, the drywall crew came back and patched in the sheetrock, textured and painted. All that extends from the wall is the shaft for mounting he mill.

That's my brother in the pictures above. I couldn't have done it without you, Bruce.

The Windmill

When I proposed the concept of incorporating a vintage windmill as part of the artwork, my thought was that it would be ideal to find a windmill locally, within Sioux County. Little did I realize what a challenge it would be to find one.

The wheel needed to be 6 feet in diameter in order to fit the scale of the overall piece. I put the word out to friends and family to be on the lookout for a windmill, but I had little success. We began searching online and found numerous sources that are manufacturing new mills, but I really felt it was important that this be a vintage mill, with the aged patina and wear that could only be found in an antique wheel.

We got a lead on a 6-footer that was near Lincoln, Nebraska but after exchanging e-mails, photos and phone calls I didn't like the looks of it.

I talked to windmill restoration folks who informed me that the 6-foot wheels are harder to find than the larger 8 and 10-foot variety. There were fewer of the 6-foot versions made to start with, and then those 6-footers did not hold up to the "Prairie Winds" as well as bigger wheels. As a result I was told "For every 6-footer out there, there are may be 100 of the 8-footers".

"Oh, that's just great",  I thought to myself.

Enter Ellen Sattler, of American Windmills. I found her website and gave her a call. Ellen was easy to talk to and very helpful each step of the way. She sent me the photo above and I thought it looked just perfect. It turns out Ellen is about as far from Sioux County as you can get–California. She dismantled the wheel completely and shipped it to Iowa in a box that looked way too small to contain a wheel of this size.

Mark Pottebaum and Marty Guthmiller took on the task of assembling the puzzle and did a great job. The wheel had just the right look and feel to it. Below are a couple photos of the assembly process.

 

 

Taking Shape

More photos of the painting as it progressed.

The prairie starts to take shape.

Blue Skies

It's always exciting to put the first color on a canvas–especially when you can use a big ole brush filled with buttery bright oils.

This shows the first pass on the clouds.

And a shot with my eldest son, Joe, striking a dramatic pose.

Setting the Tone

This is in the basement of our house. I toned each canvas with a warm mix of yellow ochre and burnt sienna. The soft warm color gives a nice base for each subsequent layer of paint that is placed on top of it.

We then assembled all 4 canvases together. They just fit in my studio, which has an 11 foot high ceiling. In this photo my wife, Denise, gives the appearance that she completed the task by herself. Actually, it took 4 of us to manhandle  these into one single unit.

Canvas Maker

My dad has made and stretched many of my canvases in the 30+ years that I've been painting. Every once in a while a big project like this comes along and he needs to go into "super-sized" mode.

Here he is in the basement of the shop. This was back when the snow was still flying. He fired up the old pot-bellied stove you can see in the background, and went to work laminating poplar boards to create the sturdy stretcher frames for the canvases.

Here are a couple of photos of dad standing next to one of the larger lower canvases, showing the back side of the stretched canvas. The Prairie Winds artwork has four separate canvases–the top two canvases  in the piece are 48"x48" and the bottom two are each  48"x78". He also built into each canvas, a set of cleats which allowed for custom mounting these directly  and snug to the wall.

Dad has always been very creative and talented, especially when it comes to finding solutions to challenging projects that need to be built or fixed.

He was my first supporter and encourager to pursue my passion for art, encouraging me to draw and paint from my earliest memories of childhood.

Dad will be turning 77 on Thursday! If you'd like to post your greetings here, or send me an e-mail. I'll see that he gets them.

View of Landscape West of Maurice

View of Landscape West of Maurice | 30"x40" | oil on canvas

This is a fairly large work that I recently bartered for a new custom iron railing created by, Lauren Ochsner, a talented local artisan. His acreage can actually be seen in the distance toward the far right of the painting.

Lauren stopped me on the street not long after I delivered the painting. He said he had already framed it and hung it in his home. One of his adult sons saw it and said, "Dad, I'd like to have that after you and Mom are gone." Well, we both had a chuckle over that, but it did make me feel pretty good.

I think it's one of the things I enjoy most about being an artist–that hopefully many of my pieces will be enjoyed long after I leave this earth. I know I still continue to get constant enjoyment out of viewing the paintings of my grandfather, and he has been gone nearly 40 years already.

This painting reminds me of those 17th century Dutch landscapes that I love so much. Flat land with big billowing clouds.

Sold

A Servant's Heart

A Servant's Heart | oil on canvas | 30x40

Here it is, the final completed painting. You've seen glimpses of the hands in the past, but here you can see them completely. Open, giving, serving hands–filled with things that represent what it means to be a servant.

Painting hands is a difficult task, and that was compounded I believe by painting them at this super-sized scale. My son Joe was my hand model and I think his hands worked well–although he wished I had done a better job of capturing his callouses. Tough critic.



My son Jack took the photo of me next to the painting. I thought it would help give you a better idea of the scale of the piece. Pretty large compared to most things you see on the blog.

In Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life he writes, "It is possible to serve in church for a lifetime without ever being a servant. You must have a servant's heart. How can you know if you have the heart of a servant? Jesus said, "You can tell what they are by what they do."

Real servants make themselves available. (the watch)

Real servants pay attention to needs (the coins)

Real servants do their best with what they have. (the nut and nail)

Real servants do every task with equal dedication (the matches)

Real servants are faithful to their ministry (the ring)

Real servants maintain a low profile. (the shadows)

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant - Mark 10:43

A Servant's Heart - Work in progress

A Servant's Heart | detail | oil on canvas

So much to do and so little time. Time is truly a valuable asset. What we do with it is a measure of what is important to each of us. I've had people ask me how I find the time to paint. Usually it's not a matter of finding the time, it is that I make the time to paint. It's important to me.

The watch in the painting represents the fact that real servants make themselves available. They make the time to serve. Making ourselves available is not easy–especially making the time to serve in the right spirit. Do we serve without a hint of resentment?

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve - Matthew 20:28

It's almost time to show you the completed "puzzle" of these detail images I've been showing you this last while. I just want to put a few finishing touches on it.

A Servant's Heart - Work in progress

A Servant's Heart | detail | oil on canvas

Here's another detail of the commission I'm working on. It's coming along pretty nicely.

Servants do their best with what they have. The nut and the nail are the symbols which represent that in the painting. Servants don't make excuses, procrastinate or wait for better circumstances. They just do what needs to be done. They do the best they can with what they have. Less than perfect service is always better than good intentions.

Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. - Ecclesiastes 11:4

A Servant's Heart - Work in progress

A Servant's Heart | detail | oil on canvas

Here is the second closeup detail of the commission I'm working on. This painting is 30"x40" and the quarter you see here is actually about 6 inches wide on the canvas. Each element in the painting is symbolic of a different aspect of being a servant.

Servants are always on the lookout for ways to help others. How sensitive are we to the needs right in front of us? Opportunities come and go quickly.

You can tell what they are, by what they do. - Matthew 7:16