Day 13 - Leaving the Beach

I took this photo down the beach this summer.. It was late afternoon and these ladies were packing up, getting ready to go.  As an artist, you have to pick and choose what to include in your painting.  You certainly don't have to, and probably don't even want to include everything in the scene you are looking at.  There are reasons for this.  Not everything makes a nice composition, for one, and some things just aren't necessary to convey what it is you want to convey.  I highly edited this one, because all I cared about in this scene were the beautiful ladies!  The one putting her hair up was dancing a little dance and they all were dressed in beachy wraps.  I will include the original reference shot so you can see just how much I took away, and changed.  Enjoy!

Leaving the Beach, oil on panel, 6" x 6", to place a bid click here

Reference picture for painting

Reiffton Fire House and Social Quarters Commission

Well, last night was the 'unveiling' of the painting I did for the Reiffton Fire House...  It was so much fun and a huge success!  I thank everyone for their kind comments and am so happy that everyone is pleased with the results!  I enjoyed working on this commission as it used so many of my skills (not just painting).  I feel like a true painting historian!  I put my photoshop skills to use, photography, and of course painting.  Am excited to say that I got another commission to paint a historical house that has been in the Daniel Boone family!  This one will be similar in that I will have to do the same kinds of things I needed to do to complete the Reiffton painting.
 Without further ado, here it is.  Enjoy, and as always, thank you for looking!  Also, if you are in the mood for reading some more, look further below to read in detail about the painting and trucks in it... :)

Reiffton Fire House and Social Quarters 100th Anniversary Commemorative Painting,
Oil on Canvas, 18"x24", 2013

100^th Anniversary Commemorative Painting

The management and board of trustees of the Reiffton Social Quarters hired local artist Karen Weber to create a painting to help commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the Reiffton Fire Company and social quarters.  The artist conceptualized the painting as a blend of old and new as it includes fire trucks that the company has owned and operated throughout the 100 years it has been in operation.  The image portrayed in the painting includes two antique fire trucks from the early 1900’s and 1951 and one contemporary fire truck which is still in operation as of 2013. 

The Reiffton Fire Company and social quarters building is also an integral part of the painting as the architecture is unique to the station.  While the building has expanded through the years to house more fire trucks and include the social quarters, the integrity of the architectural style has been maintained and its beauty has been preserved.

Prints of this painting are available through the artist.  You can contact her at www.karenweberfineart.com

This photograph is the property of a private collector and can be found by clicking here 

In 1930 a firemen's convention was held in Reading. Earl R. Anderson, a local publisher and member of the convention steering committee, photographed  many of the fire companies in Berks County. This is a picture of the Reiffton Fire Company with a pumper truck owned by the company.  The truck is circa early 1900’s.

(The picture above is from the Berks County Historical website.)

1951 Mack Pumper truck owned by the Reiffton Fire Company

In 1951, the Reiffton Fire Company purchased a new Mack Engine.  This engine served Exeter Twp. and St. Lawrence Borough for many years. The engine was sold to a collector and was returned in 2010 via flatbed truck from Texas.  The company started to refurbish the engine starting on the mechanical items. The engine went through several stages of upgrades. As of 2012, the pump maintenance was completed, pump flushed and pumped for the first time in over 20 years.  ETFD is one of the few departments able to save its history with a historical engine. 

The truck will be used in parades and other local events.  (Information gathered from /www.exetertwpfire25.com/news/archive)

Pecking order

Yesterday was the Wine and Cheese Fundraiser... It was an elegant and fun afternoon with lots of guests, music, appetizers, wine, cheese and of course ART.  I thank everyone who came out as well as my hubby for all of his help.  I wouldn't be able to do all of the art that I do if it weren't for Kevin.
The painting of the 3 girls below was from a picture I took at Lake Tobias Wildlife park. As with most places, there was a mix of people walking around but, I guess because of the location, there were lots of Amish people who were tourists just like me.  They were as interesting to look at as the animals were! ( I know that sounds bad, but I mean it in the most respectful of ways, people. I know Amish people aren't animals...) Anyway, I thought I'd show the photo to demonstrate the artistic license that I took with the painting.  Sometimes part of a photo is just right but others parts don't work.  The girls tickled my fancy as two of them were barefoot, and they were just so pretty with their cotton dresses and matching hair.  The sunlight was pretty, glinting off their heads also.

Pecking Order, Oil on panel, approximately 8"x8" framed

$75.00 at my website

Before the Harvest

I took a photo of these tomatoes in my garden... Last year!  I have had it in the back of my mind waiting to be painted, and finally felt ready to get it down on canvas last week!  Took almost a year, but that is what is great about reference photos.  You take them when you see them and then don't necessarily have to paint them right away.  It is a different way of working - Not from life, exactly and definitely not plein air.  But, I enjoy working from a photo.  I get to play around with the composition, lighting and values a lot more than when I am working from life.  At least that's how it works for me right now....  So, when I posted these in facebook, along with the gas pump and strawberries, someone thought they were pumpkins!  Interesting what happens when you look at a subject very close up.  They become abstracted a bit and sometimes hard to place.  I don't mind that.  My goal with this painting was actually to try to capture the many hues of green that were present in the tomatoes while also depicting form.  I guess I did that, seeing that pumpkins have quite a bit of form to them!

Before the Harvest, 10" x 10", oil on canvas

Dog Portrait Commission

I am friends with a great lady who asked me to paint a portrait of her dogs.  Actually, it is the woman in the picture I painted of the horse a few posts back.  I started the dog portrait process by going over to her house and taking a bunch of photos of her dogs and getting the feeling for what kind of composition she was interested in as well as color scheme, etc.  For those of you who have more than one dog and have tried to get them all together to get one good picture of them... well, you know it is nearly impossible.  My friend has 3 dogs, 2 of whom are wiggly and high energy.  Point being, I got a lot of great pics of her dogs separately, some where 2 of them were looking good, but not really any with all 3 posing perfectly.  Soooooo, the composition I have come up with is a compilation of actually 5 different photographs.  One each of her 3 dogs, another that was a good background from her kitchen, and lastly one of my friend giving them treats (in an effort to get them to pose). I put a lot of thought into the composition, knowing a little about each of the dogs personalities, and also from discussing what kind of composition she was looking for.  This may not be the final painting for her, but I needed to get started on something, and was excited to do a painting that used more than one photo as a reference, which, I haven't ever done.  The 2 pics included here are what I have done so far.  I will post more pics as I get more done...

Initial drawing on canvas - 18"x20"

Under painting and beginning of Jane

Portrait of Meilea

I decided to really challenge myself and paint a portrait of my daughter, Meilea.  I took this photograph of her sometime this winter and just couldn't get over how beautiful she is and just loved the picture.  It seemed like a perfect place to start.  I also have this wonderful book about painting portraits in oil that I used as I progressed through the painting to get tips on good color combinations, particularly for the hair and skin.  Below are several photos showing the painting in different stages.  The 5th one shows the painting next to the photo, and the last one is the completed portrait.    It took me about a week from start to finish, but I admittedly did not work on the painting on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, so more like 4 days, each session about 4 hours.  I did the original drawing in pencil directly on the canvas, used acrylic to do the base coat and create a monotone value study, then finished it in oil.  Very pleased with the results!

Meilea, 18"x24", oil, 2013

A painting from start to finish: Part 1

Below I decided to record my progress on this still life.  The little blue owl is actually a kitchen timer I bought from 5 below that neither times correctly nor rings consistently...  But other wise is very cute.  He is in 2 of my paintings actually.  I may have to paint him again in different colors and settings at a future time...

I first set up a primitive still life stand, arranged my objects and carefully lit it.  I chose the things because of their relationship of shape, color and size.  And because I like each thing individually also.  In addition I took a reference photo of the still life.  Photos help me to better break down the composition.  I also use photo editing tools sometimes to add contrast to the lights and darks.

 Or take away the color to make it monochrome

...Or blur it to replicate what happens when you squint.  Squinting is important when trying to see the large areas of light and dark.  I have a photo editing tool as an app on my ipad.  I forget the app, but there are quite a few great, and FREE photo editing apps out there that are wonderful for artists.  The tools available to artists today, versus 5 years ago is just staggering. 

...Next post will have the actual painting.