Abstract Painting- Kick it into gear

 Over the past several weeks I've been on a abstract kick. I've completed four paintings in two months. That's pretty good for me, as I usually only end up with about six to ten every year. I just lack daily motivation. But my brain has provided a couple of ideas lately so I opened up some acrylics and here are the results.

Most are available to watch the creative process on my YouTube channel @Paintings by Pintar

March Madness 24 x 48"

Black Scissors 9 x 12"

Parrots on Black 24 x 36"

Flamingo Flight 24 x 36"

Wave Painting

I recently finished my "first" wave painting. I took reference photos from a vacation to Barbados and used one of them for this work. The challenge was to get realistic looking foam getting sucked back from the shoreline to this incoming breaker. Take a look at this video for start to finish how it was created.
Wave painting with oils

Nocturne Oil Painting Demo with Michael Pintar

Wekiva Paint Out Quick Paint

Continuing my plein air Florida adventures I had found out about this one in an article from Plein Air magazine. My plan was to just do the quick paint. Maybe next year I can investigate getting juried in. The quick paint is part of the last day of events during this paint out, capping the night with the "gala"; music, art and sales opportunities.

Wekiva Island is just outside the state park. I had never been there and it turned out to be one hopping party place. Lots of people much younger than me, families, dogs, and just a fun atmosphere. Oh yeah, there was a lot of art on exhibit and what turned out to be a dozen quick paint artists. While I was fairly happy with my piece (more than two weeks ago at Lighthouse), it didn't grab one of the top three awards. Here are a couple photos I took during the progress.

 The location alongside a creek with sun hitting some top water vegetation

 Block in. Turpy wash with darks

 ID the focal points and wipe out some excess paint

Framed at the car and ready to hand in for judging. Fair amount of palette knife in the highlights

Lighthouse Plein Air Quick Paint

I ventured further southeast in Florida this past weekend and entered the 5th annual Lighthouse Art Gallery Quick Paint event. This 2 hour window of "spontaneous artistic combustion" kicks off their week-long plein air festival. About 40 artists, including me, participated in the downtown Stuart, FL area for the quick paint. It was a bit cool by SE Florida standards and by the noon judging of entries the winds were howling about 20-30 mph. You had to make sure your display easel was weighted or turned just right to avoid having wet paintings from being blown over.

I haven't been painting outside much this year and struggled with moving shadows and a busy street corner where I set up. In the end I was not thrilled with the results but had a good time "practicing" and being out there amongst other artists. Here's a quick set of sequence photos;

 Start block in- 15 minutes

 Lay down darks- shadows already moving- 40 minutes

Finished and framed- 2 hours

Here are some of the entries with a few showing awards that were handed out. Some nice stuff by a good group of 'circuit' plein air artists.

 Honorable Mention

 Third Place

 Honorable Mention

 First Place

Plein Air Cypress trees with Spanish moss

So I'm on a roll (with 2 posts in 1 day) and have a bunch of art that needs to be published...for whoever might be interested in seeing it. Here's another piece I did last week plein air while in the Village of Fenney, central Florida. I was facing the sun so some of the photos are a bit washed. But the sequence is shown below. Painting cypress trees with Spanish Moss is fun. And the bugs were non-existent as was the heat.

 The source photo and location shot

 A quick sketch to get things positioned

 Darks, sky, tree trunks placed

I got to sit right next to the car so the final piece. 1.5 hours 11x14 oil on canvas panel

2nd Place Award

My relocation to The Villages in Florida offers a variety of new art adventures. The Villages is home to what looks like several 100 artists from painters to sculptures, wood makers, fiber and many other media. It's really unbelieveable!

The artist group Villages Art League recently sponsored an exhibition "Inspired by the Masters". As the name indicates, artists research historical paintings created by any of the great master painters of the past and then use one as an inspiration to create their own.

I selected Edward Henry Potthast, an American Impressionist who was known for his beach scenes featuring people at leisure. Several weeks ago my wife and I had visited Daytona Beach and I snapped several photos of people walking the beach and kids playing in the sand. This is the reference photo I used for my inspiration.

I created an oil painting on 18x24 canvas. The piece was awarded 2nd place from the 32 entries.

Florida Heat and my first plein air work

Oh how life just passes us by. One minute I'm living and working away in Milwaukee, the next I'm announcing my retirement and moving to Florida. I'm free now to create. Free from day to day toiling in the office. Weeks have gone by as my wife and I have had to get "set up" in our new house in The Villages. Yeah. 55+ planned community in central Florida. So much to do and it's all fun!

I set up my studio in a 3rd bedroom. I found my easel and Easy L box and off I went to paint. First stop was so close to my house; a county park called Lake Okahumpa, Today was a typical blazing hot June day. Morning 9-11am was the time slot for this painting.

 The first marks. A loose turpy wipe down of paint.

 Setting a couple of darks and slight adjustment from initial sketch.

 Establishing shapes and wiping out strong light areas along with the cast shadows.

 The photos look washed out because I'm shooting with the phone looking into the light. Not a good excuse but it's the truth.

 Light has already moved since I started but I wanted you to see the subject matter. Better late than never.

The Spanish moss hanging from these trees is very unique. Used a smaller sable round to drag a loose bit of paint down off the branches. I think it works. 9x12 on canvas panel with oil.

Winter plein air. Closing out my time in Wisconsin

Just passing through this last winter in Wisconsin. It's off to Florida for the rest of my life with palm trees, alligators and lots of oceans to paint. But why not bang out a few quickies outside in the elements of winter.

 Set up at this creek

 9x12 oil on panel

 Set up next to a small lake 

about to freeze over

 9x12 oil on panel. Man it was cold!

Drive 2 hours. Paint 1 hour. Great old barn in oil

This fall I was driving around aimlessly looking for somewhere to paint. If I spent as much time painting plein air as I did looking for that so-called perfect spot, I'd be a much better artist! By chance, as I blasted down a highway at 60mph I glanced to the right to look up a weedy road. STOP...pull over and back up. Nothing posted as private so I drive in about 40 yards and here is this awesome abandoned bard/shed. The painting had to be looking inside the building with all the broken wood slats and light streaming through the roof. 

I didn't get a close up of the 8x10 oil painting, but it was fun to try and get those grays correct. I kept the palette to just a couple colors and tried to work fast. So after driving for an hour, I painted for an hour. The sun was going down and it was time to,,,drive another hour back home. Such is the life of this plein air artist.

Colectivo Coffee- Corporate Christmas Party raffle item

I was invited back this year to paint at the corporate Bostik Christmas Party. Held at the Calatrava/Milwaukee Art Museum, it was a great event. This painting was a raffle item, won by a woman who frequents this coffee shop, Colectivo, in the Fourth Ward of Milwaukee. Completed in acrylic on 40x30 gallery wrap canvas over 4 hour period. I was able to snap a couple of progress photos (bottom up).