Inaugural Posting

Hi Everyone,

This is my first foray into the blog world, so bear with me as I blunder through my first posting. Most people know me as a photographer, and I have no plans to abandon that path. My two 4x5s and 8×10 are here by my side. But painting has been pulling at me for years, so now I am tucked away in northwestern Michigan among the dunes and white pines mano a manowith the oils, determined to paint every day and give myself the time needed for hand and eye and mind to work as one (or at least less like a chamber of commerce committee). I may also add new snippets of writing (notes from the field), nature recordings, and possibly new photographs through future blogs.

I will keep this first posting short and add three new paintings I have completed within the past 10 days. All are oils, and one was completely finished plein air, which means in the open air in front of my subject. It is truly the best place to paint when the landscape is your passion. My palette is fairly limited, with a cool and warm blue, yellow, and red, in addition to sap green and dioxanine purple. I use titanium white or quick dry white (a titanium white alkyd), and on rare occasions Gamblin chromatic black (transparent and not carbon-based). I prefer to paint on linen or cotton canvas-covered hardboard or masonite panels, though I do use some traditional stretched canvases.

Please give me your comments and suggestions for improving my blogs (I know you will without my asking), and let me know what you want to read and know about me and what I do.

The New Paintings 

I painted Cloudy Dusk, North Bar Overlookplein air over three consecutive evenings. The first evening offered beautiful light, and the sky was deep blue and cloudless. I was able to get the basic forms and color of the landmasses but left the sky as white canvas. The next evening clouds moved in and the light peeked in and out, so I got the clouds in and water color as influenced by the sky. I made adjustments to the tree masses and bluff based on the slightly different light. The third evening I refined the colors, paying closest attention to the light in the trees, darkening my darkest values and brightening the lightest portions of the painting, at the end adding the reflection of the bluff in the lake, which I had not noticed on prior evenings. This is an 8×10 linen canvas panel.

$250 framed/$195 unframed

 

Sleeping Bear Lilac in the Sunwas the first painting I attempted upon arriving and setting up my studio in northern Michigan. I took several reference photos, thinking I’d be back with paint and canvas for a plein air session. I don’t think I saw the sun again for five days. So, I started the painting from the reference photos, anguishing over the lilac and its form and color, all new to a Florida boy. The sky and background went in softly and easily. After two days I scraped off the top layer of paint from the grass and lilac bush, leaving the basic form and basic stain–an improvement. A couple of days ago I went at it again, inspired after serious study of brushwork of Herman Hertzog and Emile Gruppe. This is the final result.

 $250 framed/$195 unframed

 

I started this painting, also a 10×8 oil on panel, on a cloudy day after doing a value sketch. I came back the next day to bright sun, set aside the previous value sketch for another day, and focused on the scene in bright light with an incoming cloud bank. I then finished the painting in the studio. The flowers in the foreground are a beautiful yellow, which I hope does come through online. I had fun with the brushwork in the foreground, trying to emphasize the light and texture of the sand spilling over a small crest on the dune.

$250 framed, $195 unframed. SOLD

These paintings are for sale through my studio by emailing jeffripple@earthlink.net or calling 231-326-2047 or 239-642-2255. To view other paintings and my large format photography, please go to www.jeffripple.com and look through the online galleries.

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