Sunday, November 18, 2012

After the Open Studio Tour

Couldn't post during the tour, no WIFI. Had a great time painting and talking to the tour patrons and the fellow artists sharing the lobby of the Shenandoah University Theater.

"Arts Council Sour Grapes", Steven J Parrish, 12" x 9", Oil on Linen, SOLD



















I started this painting Saturday morning and battled sunlight coming in the windows all day. I moved the lemon slice 3 times and finally got a group decision that this was the best composition.Near the end of the day as the sun set and my spotlight finally gave me the highlights I expected I got some great suggestions from tour goers about the reflections in the Ball jar. I wiped off the middle lemon and called it a day. Sunday morning I managed to block the sunlight enough to finish the painting at about 11:30 AM. I remembered to bring some Cadmium Yellow to re-paint the lemon. Amazingly enough you can't paint a lemon with just Cadmium Lemon. My fellow artists and visitors declared victory and told me I was finished. I agreed, I really like the loose brush work and the exposed canvas, this is one of those paintings you can ruin by over working. The title of this painting was also a group decision and is really about the colors and in no way represented our mood or opinion of the tour. We had a real blast talking art and life for the two days. Just need to sign, mount, frame and deliver. As always I am truly humbled when someone appreciates one my paintings enough to add it to their collection.

Me hard at work in front of some of my other paintings.














"Cookie"s Boxes", Steven J Parrish, 10' x 8", Oil on Linen, UNFINISHED



















I started this painting on Sunday at about 12:30 PM and managed to get it this far along when the tour ended at 5 PM. The two lavender colored boxes I borrowed from Cookie Robb the stained glass artist setup next to me. The color of these two boxes really went well with the background and the lemon. I hope to finish this painting in the next week or two.

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Shenandoah Art Council open studio tour

The Shenandoah Arts Council's open studio tour is this weekend November 10-11 2012. I will be painting at the Shenandoah University Theater lobby both days. Come out and watch me paint.

I will try to post some photos of this years painting at the end of each day.

Here is the painting I did at last years tour.

"Holiday Pressure", Steven J Parrish, 20 x 16, Oil on Linen



















This is the painting I did two years ago.

"Odd Lot", Steven J Parrish, 20 x 16, Oil on Linen



















Hope to see you this weekend.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

The completed paintings + 1

Day 1 painting; I didn't actually do anymore work on this one. I just put a coat of Resin Gel to bring back the color.
"V", Steven J Parrish, Oil on Linen, 8 x 10, Complete

 Day 2; I didn't actually do anymore work on this one. I just put a coat of Resin Gel to bring back the color.
"Art Deco Pipe Wrench", Steven J Parrish, Oil on Linen, 8 x 10,  Complete

Day 3; I worked on the lemon slice, re-shaped the bottom of the pitcher, added the burn out between the lemon and the cup. Sorry about the glare photo taken with iPad. 

"Lemon Aided", Steven J Parrish, Oil on Linen, 8 x 10, Complete
 Day 4; I re-painted the top cup completely.

"C Cups", Steven J Parrish, Oil on Linen, 10 x 8, Complete
Bonus painting (The +1); I painted this in Bethlehem, PA last year with Linda Volrath and Sandra Corpora. I have always wanted to finish it and today was the day. This is part of the construction being done at the Steel Stacks renovation at the old Bethlehem Steel Mill. All three of us painted this view that day, the construction workers thought we were crazy painting their equipment. I don't think we ever convinced them how beautiful it was. I do think they appreciated our interest in what they do. Follow the this link to Linda's painting Sandra didn't put her version on her website.

"Steel Stacks Construction", Steven J Parrish, Oil on Linen, 10 x 8