Crosshatch Studio

9" x 12" oil on linen - plein air

Last week, Our new lead pastor at Park Street Brethren Church gave us a short devotional. It was based on  1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the LORD helped us.” He was encouraging us to identify our own Ebenezers. They could be pictures, objects or even the moon. During this past week I was leaving a baseball game in Savanna where I coach my son’s pony league team. I found these rocks set up at the entrance to a long driveway. I thought right away, “a modern day Ebenezer Stone.” I knew right then that I had to paint it. So today, I took my stuff out for a little plein air painting. For me, this is an Ebenezer. I get to talk to God the whole time I am out there painting what he has provided. Isn’t that cool? It was quite a windy day and it had rained hard earlier today. I did the majority of it on site but added a few last touches at home after I couldn’t stand holding the easel any longer. I hope you enjoy it and thing of how the Lord has helped you as you look at this painting.

Feel free to contact me for purchase.

Tags: Ebenezer, landscape, oil, plein air, stone

Kingwood Fountain - 12" x 9" oil on canvas panel

This was painted this past Saturday as part of a scheduled paintout with OPAS. There was a good bunch of artists there on a day where the sun came out and it was nice but got a little windy. I tried starting this painting on a dark background. It was kind of like pulling light out of the darkness. You had to go pretty thick with the paint right away. I had to leave early to go to my son’s baseball game but I wish I could have stayed to see what other fellow artists had created. Hopefully they will get something up on their web site soon. I am thoroughly looking forward to the next gathering. I enjoy getting out on my own too but there is something special about the camaraderie and feedback from fellow artists. See you next time.

Tags: canvas, fountain, greenhouse, Kingwood Center, oil, tulips

12" x 9" oil on linen, White Hyacinth

Merle’s Challenge 2009

Three years ago, a local man named Merle handed our worship leader $100 and challenged the congregation to “grow” it with the hope of helping some needy people in the area. This man has little money and even less desire for recognition, but his generosity and dare to our church inspired the name “Merle’s Challenge” for this grassroots endeavor. We ended up raising $2,100 to help three families with medical bills and Christmas presents. Word of the challenge spread to other churches and groups and many more dollars were raised for needy people all over the Ashland area. Merle’s Challenge became an expression of the love of Jesus as His people reached out to those in need.

This year, Merle did it again! This time, he expressed his concern for the kids in the area who suffer because their families are struggling financially. He gave us $350 and dared us again to grow the money to help kids with basic items that would contribute to their health and quality of life. At church on Sunday, April 19, ten volunteers each selected one envelope containing various amounts of money from $0 to $100, totaling $350. Mine had $20. I accepted the challenge to take the money and creatively, legally, quickly grow it to help out kids in our area. The money will be used to create basic health kits for children in needy families, including things like toothbrushes, dental floss, oral thermometers, ibuprofen, antibiotic cream, etc. - all things that can prevent or ease health issues in kids.

After praying, I felt led to paint this white hyacinth in oil on linen and auction it off right here. The painting will be framed as well. I have used my $20 for the opening bid.  I hope and pray that you feel led to raise the bid to raise money for this worthy cause! The bidding will close at 11:00 AM on Sunday, May 3, 2009, which is when our church service begins and we are to announce our results.

To place your bid, simply comment on this blog post with your bid amount. If you would like to remain anonymous, simply email me your amount and I will place it on the site for you. Last bid in before 11:00 on Sunday wins the painting. Your bid will be tax deductible as you will write your check to Park Street Brethren Church and send it to me.

8" x 10" oil on panel

I went out this past weekend in search of a place to paint. Sometimes that becomes the hardest part of plein air painting for me. I remembered this little pond area real close to town that is in a friends family. Its actually right behind the water treatment plant in Ashland, Ohio. It’s referred to as Cooper Lake. I have been really wanting to loosen up lately so when i saw the great color in the sky and the way it all broke up in the clouds from this front that was closing in on me, I decided to try using my pallete knife to capture that color. I enjoyed it so much that I wound up doing the entire painting that way. This way of painting will loosen you up in a hurry. I really liked this piece but i just tried to do a floral painting the other night with a pallete knife, and honestly, it wasn’t working out so well. Oh well, I will still try this pallete knife thing again.

Tags: beach, Corolla, oil, palette knife, sunrise

12" x 9" oil on canvas

This was a plein air study painted last Saturday. It was a beautiful Saturday morning but a little chilly and the wind was blowing pretty steadily. I don’t have an umbrella to use yet so I didn’t have to worry about that blowing away, but i did wind up with full sun on my canvas by the time I was finishing. That and the wind got stronger later in the morning so I decided it was time to finish. This farm is near Byer’s Woods in Ashland County. The twin aluminum silos are what caught my eye. (I think those are silos.) They seemed like mini rockets about to launch. I don’t really care for the composition that much. A perfect example about why you should be doing sketches prior to painting to work out the composition. As a creative director at Red Red Design, I am adamant about doing thumbnails of ideas before starting on actual layouts. You would think I would follow my own direction when in the field painting. Next time I definitely will.

Tags: barn, landscape, oil, plein air, silo

Doug Cooper and I are on a Red Red retreat doing some planning. Our friend Tim has a beach house in Corolla, NC that he lets us borrow as a way to get away from it all to do this planning. Thanks Tim, this is excellent. Anyway, we had a pretty nice day the first day we were here but we were both pretty tired as we didn’t get to the house until 3:30 AM due to flight delays. The second day was a bit colder but it was going to be sunny. I decided I was going to paint the sunrise. I have never done that before. Especially when I’m away like this as I generally like my sleep in the morning. And it was all I could do to drag myself out there. I’m glad I did. Although the moment of the sunrise that I wanted to paint was fleeting, it was beautiful. I am not sure that I did it justice but for my first sunrise, I am happy with it. The toughest thing for me was capturing the waves. I will get a better image of this when I get back home. We have had a good few days here for Red Red Design visioning as well.

Tags: beach, Corolla, NC, oil, plein air

This is my entry for this months Virtual Sketch Date. I did it pretty quickly this time and finely stayed a bit looser than usual.

Tags: birds, feeder, oil, virtual sketch date

This painting came to me because my good friend, Doug Cooper, had the guts to talk about sex and relationships in church. (Got your attention?) Anyway, on the last day of the series he brought out a chuppah which is a jewis a canopy traditionally used in Jewish weddings. It consists of a cloth or sheet, sometimes a tallit, stretched or supported over four poles, or sometimes carried by attendants to the ceremony. A chuppah symbolizes the home the couple will build together. Chuppah literally means a canopy or a covering. Doug had people come up and take a white carnation and stand under the chuppah to re-kindle and pray about their relationships. Lanie and I went up and I think it was pretty special. So this painting is something to remember that experience.

Tags: carnation, chuppah, Floral, oil

This painting is done as a part of the Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge. This is very timely as I just had sushi for the first time this past week. I was visiting a client in Indianapolis and he took us out to a great sushi place. He ordered this huge boat full of sushi. All of it was really good, although i have to admit that i left some of the seaweed wraps on my plate. The sore spot of the evening was that we decided to try Sea Urchin at the end of the meal. They had some fancy name for it. I could have done without that. Thank goodness for the ginger that I could chew on afterwards so that taste didn’t linger for very long. Overall, it was a great experience. I have no idea what kind of sushi this is but it was fun to paint with all the bright oranges that bounce off the black surface.

Tags: oil, sushi

20″ x 16″ oil on canvas

This was a fun painting to do. I actually drew this in pen and ink with watercolor several years ago. It is a barn located on a back county road. The original painter of these barns was Maurice Zimmerman. The last known mail pouch tobacco barns were painted by Harley Warrick. I met Harley at a craft show several years ago. These barns are scattered around several states including Ohio. I took some liberties in this painting to add the black-eyed susan’s to add interest. 

Tags: landscape, mail pouch tobacco, oil