A Day in Rome

We visited Rome for one busy day.  After a long drive from the port of Civitavecchia, our tour bus became lost in Rome.  It turned out that the driver had never been to Rome before!  It is a very busy city with a lot of traffic congestion.  The old walled city within takes you back in time from the moment you enter the gates.

The statues and building facades are all very beautiful.  This is part of the dramatic equestrian art that embellishes the Trevi Fountain.

The Pantheon was a beautiful, domed building with massive columns adorning the entrance.  It is filled with art and artifacts of the early church.  Raphael's tomb is within.

This delicately carved pair of doves hang suspended over the tomb of the artist Raphael.

We did not stop at the Coliseum but only saw it from the tour bus as we worked our way past it in afternoon traffic.  We had to hurry, we were on our way to Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica!

Milan, Italy

Milan was the next stop on our cruise.  This is another beautiful European city filled with historic monuments and buildings.  Art is everywhere!

Medieval sculptures and ornamentations are the order of the day in the old parts of the city.

I found the contrast between old and modern technology to be very interesting.

The French Riviera

It  was more than a month ago that I promised to post to my blog during our 12 day cruise of the Mediterranean.  Obviously, that did not happen!  We were so busy touring in each port that I did not get a chance to do much else.  This cruise was fabulous but exhausting!

I expected to see many statues and monuments 'decorated' like this ediface over a doorway, but surprisingly, this was one of the few.  Aix en Provence was a very clean town on the French Riviera.

The old part of the town was filled with delightful inner courtyards such as this one, which is now part of the university that is located there.

This fountain was a beautiful spot in the center of the old town, and students seem to congregate there, to enjoy the sun, to read and to socialize.  Aix en Provence was one of my favourite places on the cruise, offering many wonderful subjects to photograph and to paint.  This is the town where the painter Paul Cezanne lived.  We ate lunch in the cafe where he often spent his afternoons.

Mediterranean Cruise

I arrived in Barcelona early yesterday morning to begin a twelve day Mediterranean cruise.  From here we will travel to Marseilles, France, Savona, Rome and Naples, Italy, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Venice, Italy, Messina, Sicily and then back to Barcelona!  There should be much inspiration for painting along the way!

The picture above shows the Mirador de Colom, a monument to Christopher Columbus, in Barcelona, near our hotel.

Columns from the Temple of Augustus, preserved in Barcelona, inside a building. 

I will post a few photos from the ports we visit over the course of the next two weeks.  This is my first visit to Europe and I am sure I will be filled with artistic inspiration all along the way.  There will be a great deal of art to admire and much architecture to see.  I will keep you posted.

Tropical Rain Forest Toucan - Step Four

I continue to add basic detail to the foliage behind the toucan.  Each plant has it's own shades of green.  The leaf structure and veins within them also vary from plant to plant.  In the background I paint subtle whisps of vines to suggest greater depth in the picture.

I continue to paint layers of detail into the leaves until they seem to be strong enough to stand out without overpowering the toucan in the foreground.  The last thing required is to intensify some of the colours in the toucan, mango, butterfly and tree frog.  The picture is complete when I ad strong white highlights here and there.  I save the greatest colour contrast and largest white highlight for the toucan and it's bill, so that it will dominate the picture, both in size and strength.

Tropical Rain Forest Toucan - Step Three

Now I paint stronger, more vivid colours into the beak and eye patch of the toucan.  Lighter green is back painted into the background to suggest light filtering through the foliage.  This gives another layer of depth to the scene.

Next, I wash in thin layers of acrylic paint over the mango in the toucan's beak.  I am starting to suggest the grainy surface of the skin and the subtle changes in colour from red to lime green to golden yellow.  The complex pattern of the butterfly is laid in with flat colour before I begin modelling the leafy foliage and flowers in the middle ground.  The tree frog requires careful attention in order to keep it from becoming lost against the green frond on which it sits.

Tropical Rain Forest Toucan - Step Two

To suggest thick rainforest vegetation, I paint the background with a solid application of very dark green acrylic paint.  All of the foreground and middle ground objects are now wisible in stark relief.  The dark green will make the brighter colours pop out.

I start to add colour to the Toucan.  There is a subtle pattern in the heavy bill and I wash this in with a mixture of red and burnt sienna.  A bit of blue establishes the local colour around the eye.  A very light, warm wash of acrylic gives the white 'bib' on the bird's throat some form.

Tropical Rain Forest Toucan - Step One

This is an illustration that I created primarily for art licensing.  I started by working out a pencil drawing using various pieces of reference material from my scrap file.  Once the drawing was worked out to my satisfaction, I transferred it to illustration board.

I then used a kneaded eraser to remove most of the pencil from the illustration board, leaving only faint lines to guide me.  Next, I painted in the black areas using acrylic paint.

Holly Hocks

My wife and I used to own a farm on Lake Simcoe, in Ontario, Canada.  For many years, this was the view from my art studio.  The north window faced this barn wall and pasture, where I planted holly hocks, which we enjoyed every summer.  

I enjoy looking at paintings that I have done in the past, that show places and things that may no longer exist as they once were.  It brings back fond memories in a way that only a painting can.  Not only does it record the way it looked, but also the way it made me feel.

This painting measures 16 inches high by 20 inches wide.  Friends of ours purchased it at one of my art shows a few years ago and they seem to enjoy it too.  Prints are available here.

The Stone Arch

I grew up on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario.  One of the places that I loved to explore in those days was Boldt's Castle, near Alexandria Bay, New York.  It is located on an island just off the main shipping channel of the river.

The stone arch that I have painted here was to be the formal entrance to the castle for launches delivering guests from larger yachts anchored in deep water.  A drawbridge within the opening was to provide a prominade on the embankment of the Swan Pond.  Alas, tragedy struck and Mrs. Boldt passed away.   Her husband, Geroge Boldt, was grief stricken and all work on the castle ceased and the entire project was never completed.

This painting measures 9.5 inches high by 13.5 inches wide.  It is painted in alkyd on stretched canvas.  Prints are available at Richard De Wolfe Fine Art.

Traditional Figure Painting

Here is something I came across on Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Newsletter.  It was inspiring to me to learn of an artist who is determined to maintain tried and true, traditional methods of figure painting.  Jacob Collins is a New York artist and art teacher.  His self-proclaimed goal is to be "an old-fashioned painter".  Jacob works from life, be it nudes, still life or figures, in his dark but strategically lit studio.  He carefully draws his subjects by the time honoured method of draw, correct, refine, until he has captured the nature and character of his model.  Some may liken Jacob to a modern-day Rembrandt who stands out in contrast to many of the current avant-garde artists who surround us.  The following video attests to the skills of a modern-day master.  Enjoy!

Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is sad that so few people take the time to visit an art gallery when they travel.  Whether it is a private, personal gallery of one artist's works, or a large collective institution, art galleries hold a wealth of beauty and culture.   When I travel, one of the first things I look for is the art that may be available there.  I do this for several reasons.  One is to see what other artists are doing or have done in the past.  Another is to learn some viewpoint or technique that I might apply to my own creative process.  The most important, though, is to revel in the beauty and creativity that art reveals to me.

I have visited New York City several times, but have not had the time or opportunity to visit one of the greatest art museums in the world, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I am determined to rectify this just as soon as I can return to New York City once more.

Did you know that 'The Met' contains the most comprehensive collection of American art in the world?  It also has the largest collection of Degas works in the world.  In fact, the museum holds the most impressive collection of Impressionism and Post Impressionist art in North America.  Finally, it is a truly global collection of art, the most impressive collection in the western world.

Here is an episode of Great Museums Television that will give you an insight into what a marvel this museum really is.

                                    

A Love Affair With Art

Have you ever found yourself 'falling in love' with a piece of art?  It turns out that you are not alone.  Professor Semir Zeki of the University College of London, England, has demonstrated that artwork stimulates the same areas of the brain that are involved when we fall in love.

Maybe this is why so many artists continue to draw, paint, sculpt, etc., even if the returns are less than a living wage.  I believe most artists can never turn away from the creative path and be happy in life.  It is comforting to know that many viewers and collectors may be equally moved as a result of artistic endeavours around them.

In our fast paced world of instant gratification and endless technological wonders, it sometimes seems like art is being cast off and ignored.  Why create by hand images and objects that a machine or computer can reproduce  almost instantly?  Consider this.  Maybe we still need and crave the human touch.......the touch of love.

Freighter Inviken-Step 6

The final phase of the painting is a matter of going back and refining areas as needed.   The clouds are softened a little and white highlights are added to indicated the direction of the sunlight filtering through them.  The trees and bridge are painted in and if you look close, you will see a tiny tractor-trailer truck at mid-span.  Small details are added over the superstructure of the ship and the hull is embellished to make it look powerful.  I add layers of colour over the small waves and reflect the sunlight with an impressionistic application of white highlights.

The last thing I do is add my signature to the lower right hand corner.  This last image is a professional scan of the finished painting and is a better representation of the true colours in the painting.  As I work, I take digital photos on my easel where the light is not as balanced as it should be, so the initial images can be less acurate.

I wanted to create a painting that suggests power and industry, while at the same time indicating the power and majesty of the natural world.  When I finished, I was pleased with this result.  The painting measures 16 inches high by 20 inches wide, painted on stretched canvas.  If you are interested in purchasing this original work of art or a fine art print on archival paper or canvas, please visit my website at www.richarddewolfe.com.

Freighter Inviken-Step 5

It is finally time to start blocking in the ship itself.  This is a complex shape with many small details.  I take my time, painting in sections simply and as clearly as I can.  The mass of the hull is mostly black with only slight suggestions of form and contour at the rear and away from the sunlight.  On the right side of the ship, where the light is strong, I try to suggest heavy steel plates that are streaked with rust.

The superstructure of the freighter is much more complicated and each area requires careful consideration.  I keep the surfaces that are away from the sunlight cool and subdued and begin playing up the surfaces that face the sun.  This creates the center of interest in the painting.  Everything is now more or less in place and working together.

Freighter Inviken-Step 4

I begin blocking in the clouds now.  I start with the darks, establishing the weight and mass of the cumulus formations.  When I placed the general cloud masses in the sky, I drew them in perspective,  going from large shapes in the foreground above the ship and progressively getting smaller as you look further back and down towards the distant horizon.

Now I begin refining the darks in the clouds and adding mid tones to soften and mold these areas.  I work progressively lighter, leaving the brightest highlights until last.  Now I have established the general look of the sky, with only the ship itself to be blocked in.  The overall look of the painting is beginning to make me want to get back out on the water myself!

Freighter Inviken-Step 3

I continue to build simple colours in the water, the headlands and the bridge that is back near the horizon.  Already the ship seems to be sitting on the surface of the water and moving towards the bridge.

I add more detail to the trees and then spend more time building subtle colour shifts in the surface of the water.  Each wave is a separate surface.  Each of these surfaces is concave in shape, so light is reflecting off of them in a multitude of angles and intensities.  Everything is in continuous motion, so I find the best way to paint water is to recreate the impression it gives you rather than trying to sort out specific details.  I work over this surface a number of times, occasionally adding a thin glaze with one colour to unify everything if it gets too busy.

Freighter Inviken-Step 2

Now I create a tonal image on the canvas, using progressively darker mixtures of my ground colour.  This gives me a feel for the tonal balance in the painting.  In other words, I can assess where the lights and darks will fall and what sort of positive/negative design this will create in the finished work.

Now it is time to switch from acrylic paint to alkyd.  I usually block in the sky first, working from dark to light and distance to forground throughout the painting.  I have painted the sky a darker shade towards the zenith and becoming progressively lighter towards the horizon.  I also keep the sky lighter on the side towards the light of the sun and darker on the opposite side.  As you can see by the light side of the ship, the sunlight will be on the right side of the painting.  I avoid getting to fussy or detailed at this stage.

Freighter Inviken

It is the beginning of boating season here in the Thousand Islands area on the St. Lawrence River.  I love the water and boating, and soon I will be launching my own craft once again.  The St. Lawrence Seaway has been open to shipping for several months now and will remain open until late autumn, alllowing ships from all over the world to reach ports all around the Great Lakes, deep in the interior of Canada and the United States .

This is a freighter from Europe that I saw several years ago as it was approaching the Thousand Island Bridge, between the U.S. mianland and Wellesley Island, N.Y.  I loved the powerful mass of the ship, rising off of the water like some displaced, highrise architecture.  I found the persepective leading to the arch span of the bridge in the distance to be an interesting design that appealed to me.  The rolling clouds overhead seemed to enforce the energy and power of the massive ship churning upstream to Toronto, Detroit  and perhaps  many ports beyond.

Once I had worked out the composition to my satisfaction, I transferred the drawing to a 16" X 20" stretched canvas.  The next step was to spray the drawing with fixative to prevent smearing when I started to paint.

After fixing the canvas, I applied a mixture of matt medium, burnt umber and cadmium red, to create a warm, earthy ground.  This acrylic mixture is mostly matt medium to maintain a high degree of transparency so that my pencil drawing remains very visible.  The warm colours will be complimentary to the cool blues of this waterscape.  At this stage I am always eager to see some local colours applied to this ground.

Across the Miles - Step 6

The most satisfying part of creating a new painting, (especially one that is a product of your imagination) is seeing it all come together as a credible scene.  This is the way I picture mail delivery 100 years ago, when the majority of people lived in rural settings.  Actually, it is not so different from what I remember when I was growing up in rural Ontario.  The main difference was the mailman drove a VW Beetle rather than a horse and sleigh.  Other than that, this was a daily occurrence at our house.

I have completed the rail fence and then added some wild shrubbery in the foreground to lead the eye into the picture to start the viewer's journey around the canvas.  Tweaking things here and there and painting the gifts in the mailbox complete the picture.

The signature goes on and the painting is finished.  This last image is closer to the actual colours in the painting.  The previous images were shot in my studio with the painting on the easel, without balanced lighting.  This image is a professional scan of the finished painting.

Across the Miles - Step 5

I have now blocked in the entire canvas with colour.  Finishing the snow-cover changes the mood and the look of the painting quite drastically. This gives me a really good idea of how the finished painting will look.  The contours, light and shadows in the snow requires a subtle touch.  It is important to create the illusion of an undulating plane, falling away from the foreground to the mountains in the distance.  The roadway must also appear to 'sit' into the snow rather than on top of it.  The fence now appears to stand up from the snow, three dimensionally.

Painting and refining the white lettering on the side of the postman's sleigh is meticulous work and requires patience.  There is more work in this painting than I expected!

Across the Miles - Step 4

I continue the process of painting from back to front.  I render the barn in the distance, then proceed to the farm house in the middle ground.  Once again, I am choosing warm colours to keep this winter picture from becoming too 'cold'.

The next thing I tackle is the horse pulling the mail sleigh.   This is a critical element in the painting, essentially the center of interest so I must take great care in how I paint it.   I choose to make the horse black to create a high contrast with the white snow around it.

At this stage, I have left out the snow in the middle ground and started blocking in basic colour and detail on the rail fence in the foreground.  This helps me to keep a visual balance throughout the painting.  I have included the rail fence in the composition in order to add 'weight' to the lower portion and to guide the eye back toward the center of interest.

Across the Miles - Step 3

Usually I like to do a quick underpainting with acrylics on top of my toned canvas, but occasionally I will start to paint directly on a toned and shaded drawing.  I have decided to take the latter approach this time, starting from the sky at the top (furthest away from the viewer) and working my way down and progressively closer to the viewer as I go.  This allows me to build an illusion of depth into the work.

To keep the work from being too 'cold', I add warm yellows and pinks to the clouds, suggesting late-day lighting from the left.  I block in the snow-covered hills and move forward through the heavily laden spruce trees.  The last thing I do at this stage is to begin adding more form and colour to the mailman's sleigh and the mailbox where he has just made a Christmas delivery.

Across the Miles - Step 2

Now I start my under painting by priming the canvas with a mixture of acrylic made up of burnt sienna, cadmium red and a generous amount of mat medium to make it very transparent.  I apply this evenly over the entire canvas to give it a warm ground for me to paint on.

Once that is dry, I use a mixture of the same colours, but with less medium and I wash in some tonal areas to establish some basic form.  I work up some darker areas using the same colours and I delineate some details, such as the rail fence, sleigh, the horse and the buildings.  I place dark tones on the fir trees to establish a pattern of snow on the upper side of the branches.  Things are starting to take shape!

Across the Miles

Here is the beginning of another new 'horse and sleigh' painting.  These pictures are especially popular with my clients for such things as Christmas cards and puzzles.  This one is called "Across the Miles".  It is a depiction of the mailman making his delivery rounds by horse drawn sleigh.  The scene is a snowy landscape in rural America, just before Christmas.

This canvas measures 16 inches high by 20 inches wide.  Once I have worked out my initial drawing, I transfer it to stretched canvas, then spray it with workable fixative.   Once that is done, I'm ready to start painting!

Arctic Summer

I created this painting when wildlife art was in high demand.  That wasn't the reason that I painted it, but  that market has fallen off drastically, so I paint much less wildlife now than I did then.  Art subjects are cyclical and like every business, you need to pay attention to what the market wants, at least some of the time.

The Arctic wolf lives in a tough environment, above the treeline.  Summers are very short there, and the tundra bursts into bloom for only a matter of weeks before temperatures begin to drop once more.  These pups are enjoying the mid-day sunshine while the mother wolf keeps a watchful eye on them.  There is little cover for them, should a predator happen by.

I painted this picture on stretched canvas using alkyd paints.  The painting measures 16 inches high by 22 inches wide.  I used a circular composition to direct the viewer's eye from the pup in the foreground, up to it's mates, and then to the mountain peak in the background before flowing to the she-wolf and back to the pups again.  The colour scheme is warm, which fortifies the feeling of mid-day sunshine.

You can find this painting and archival quality prints on paper or canvas at my web site www.richarddewolfe.com or my publisher's web site http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/richard-de-wolfe.html

Running Horse

This is something new I am experimenting with for art licensing.  I am working with computer software to create the entire illustration.  I bought a drawing tablet and got CorelPaint software with it.  I have been experimenting and here is one piece of art that I have created as a result.  I am using it in conjunction with PhotoShop software that I am more familiar with.  CorelPaint seems to be a really great tool, so I may decide to purchase a complete and more current version.  Both CorelPaint and Adobe PhotoShop are great tools both for creating art and manipulating digital files for today's graphic artists.  If you haven't tried CorelPaint, I highly recommend it.

Painting Progression4 - Winter Really is a Blast!

In the final stage of this illustration, I add a sprig of holly to give it a Christmas feel, which is important for licensing.  I apply a glaze over the entire painting to unify all of the colours and to create a tonal cast upon which I will paint my final highlights.  The glaze is a weak mixture of ultramarine blue made extremely transparent by combining with a large proportion of mat acrylic medium.  I mix them together well, and then apply this evenly over the entire surface of the picture.  Once it is dry, I repaint some of the snowflakes and the highlights on the main subject with pure white to make them stand out.  A signature is added and the picture is finished.

Painting Progression3 - Winter Really is a Blast!

I accentuate the shadowing on the scarf before adding a snowflake pattern to the material.  I continue to add detail, both light and shadow, on the fur, eyes and features of the polar bear's face.  More modelling is also added to the mitten.  The last thing that I do at this stage is to paint snowflakes in the air.  I add 'speedlines' to suggest a driving snow storm, in keeping with the title of the piece.  This also creates another illustion of animation in the painting.

Painting Progression2 - Winter Really is a Blast!

In this stage I continue to block in flat , local colours on the touque, scarf and mitten.  I add simple detail to the bear's fur, nose and eyes and create a little texture on the fuzzy edge of the touque.  I have just started to suggest a lighting scheme in the fur, with a warm cast on the upper right and a cool blue cast on the lower left.  The picture now has a loosly defined colour scheme to build on.  Any mistakes can easily be corrected as I move forward from here, since I haven't commited myself to much detail yet.