Robert Burridge -Whoa!

This painting is part of my "Roadside Attractions" series that I have been working on for over a year. I was probably 8 or 9 years old when my dad rescued me from school one day and took me to my first circus. I remember every second of that day inside the Clyde Beatty - Cole Brothers Circus. The sight of enormous canvas tents in an open field mesmorized me. The aroma of circus tigers, elephants and popcorn mixed in with fresh sawdust stirred me up. The aerial performers, costumed clowns and the sound of the live circus band pretty much did it for my impressionable self - I was hooked!
After my tenth birthday, I decided to perform a one-man circus act. I loved climbing, swinging and hanging from ropes tied in our backyard trees. In our yard, my dad built a trapeze and a high bar for me. I bought a book on "How to be a Clown." I listened to circus music and I practiced magic tricks which included the family rabbit and dog. During the summer I performed an entire one-man backyard circus act for our neighbors. Now, I swear to God this is true - for the Grand Finale I performed swinging gymnastic gyrations on a burning suspended bicycle ten feet in the air!
"Whoa" was created as a series of three - all a variation of this High Flyer Costumed Bird Performer.
Original 12x12, acrylic on canvas. $625 plus $50 shipping.

Michael Chesley Johnson - Four Values

In my outdoor workshops, I teach John F. Carlson's concept of rendering the landscape in four values. Typically, the darkest darks will be uprights, such as trees; the mid-darks will be slanted surfaces, such as hills; the mid-lights will be flat surfaces, such as meadows; and the lightest lights will be in the sky.

I ran into a situation the other day that exemplified this concept almost perfectly. Rather than slanted surfaces as the mid-darks, I had a distant, befogged treeline. The value of the treeline is close to that of the meadow, but still a bit lighter. You can see clearly how I've broken up the landscape into big, simple shapes and have kept my four values well-separated.



"So Quiet" - Michael Chesley Johnson
9x12, oil, en plein air
$175 (unframed) + $5 shipping

www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com

Journey to England:2

Libby Caldwell, Oil on Panel, 9 x 12 NFS.

Journal entry 2: July 2008.
Heathrow Airport Train Station, London, England. The blue lighting against the wall of the tunnel makes it look like an aquarium, it's mesmerizing. I intend to travel light next time, my luggage is overwhelming the joy of traveling at this point.

Audience II

Vince Fazio 9x12 Oil on canvas panal $140
Every sunset is different and unique, as are the groups that form to witness it each day from this cliff at the edge of the Grand Canyon. This painting reminds me of compositions I used make while drawing subway riders in New York City. Looking down the row they become one group.

Robert Burridge - Free Range

My vision of the great Southwest includes wide open spaces, big blocks of color and organic shapes that blur the edges of land and sky. I painted a series of impressionistic Free Range paintings after visiting the Grand Canyon for the first time. My memories had to percolate for a while before I could put paint to canvas.
Original 12x12, acrylic on canvas. $625 plus $50 shipping.

Adele Earnshaw - Suncatcher

Mouser, who belongs to an artist friend, has been the model for many of my paintings. I expect that soon she will demand modeling fees or royalties. This is a 9 x 12 oil on board.

This piece is available for purchase but I still haven't figured out how to put the PURCHASE info here....though it has been thoroughly explained to me! The price is $695 with custom framing.

Michael Chesley Johnson - Rocks & Rockweed

One of the most popular requests I get during my Campobello Island workshops is for a rock demonstration. Our 23-foot tides reveal fascinating rocks, skirted with rockweed, and their forms and color simply beg to be painted.

For this 5x7 pastel, I wanted to illustrate how I paint these rocks. Rocks are made up of planes, no matter how "round" the rockweed may make them seem. Bare rock, of course, shows this characteristic more readily. Cracks with deep darks further define the rocks. Finally, I stress that any round line must be indicated not with roundness but with a series of short, end-to-end, straight lines. I often use the edge of a hard pastel to create these lines.



"Rocks and Rockweed" - Michael Chesley Johnson, PSA, MPAC, PSNM
5x7, pastel, en plein air
$60+$5 shipping

www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com

Carol Marine - Codependent

Carol Marine 6"x6" Oil on canvas panel - bid
I found this little blue vase in a thriftstore recently and it spoke to me. The flower I've been growing in my garden. There is a whole bed of these and they're rather delicate little things. By the time I had finished the painting the flower was closed. The next day it was open again!

Journey to England:1

Libby Caldwell, Oil on Panel, 9 x 12 NFS

Journal entry 1: July 2008.
On my way to England. The flight has been uneventful so far. I'm looking out of the window now and clouds appear to have formed what looks like a kingdom in the sky, and the sunlight seems to be beckoning us homeward or at least reassuring us as we pass by. There is a gap in the clouds, exposing a shocking contrast of dark, gloomy land.

Audience

Vince Fazio 9x12 Oil on canvas panal $135
There are a few places in the world where people gather to watch the sunset. At edge of the Grand Canyon the mix is particularly international. At any given sunset you could expect representation from all the continents and many different cultures and languages - for a moment unified in a singular experience.

Betsey Nelson - Blue Boat

Betsey Nelson - Blue Boat pastel on paper 9x12 $125
This piece was a warm up for an oil painting. It was also done to try out some new pastels. Unfortunatly when I arrived on site I had forgotton my other pastels so it became an exercise in a very limited palette. I liked the results and learned alot.

Sands – Messing Around in the Studio

This painting started as a disaster of a drawing that I had to do for an illustration project. Seeing as I had nothing to lose I started playing with it – painted with watercolor, drew some more, added sawdust and layered paper onto it with polymer gel...  just experimenting.
This is what happened. 
These days this is what I do - have fun. 

You can visit my website to see more: www.peggysands.com
(FYI this is what my new class ‘Romper Room Meets Foundation Drawing’ is about.)

Burridge - Here It Comes

I live in California, on the central coast - four hours south of San Francisco and four hours north of Los Angeles. I have started a new series of inspired by the wildfires that have gripped the state. Even though the fire in Big Sur to the north and another in Goleta, south of us don't pose a threat to our area, we have smokey skies, vivid sunrises and blazing sunsets. It is a terrible beauty, to be sure - powerful, threatening and alive, all at the same time.

Original 10x10, acrylic on Fabriano Watercolor paper. Unframed. Matted and bagged. $275 plus $25 shipping.

Adele Earnshaw - "Aspen Shadows"

This little original is 7" square on gessoed board. This one comes with custom framing and is available for $450 including framing and shipping.

I broke my right wrist two years ago. The splint made it impossible to work in watercolor so I painted in oil for several months. By the time I had the flexibility back in my wrist, I was an oil convert! My goal in painting this small oil was to create a focal point by making everything else in the image less important.

Michael Chesley Johnson - Liberty Point Wave

Rocks can be overwhelming - especially when there are many of them! Sometimes you'll find a group of rocks with a built-in composition that works perfectly. But more than likely, you'll have to search for a pleasing design. Quite often, the solution lies in finding a point of interest, zooming in so it fills the frame, and then zooming out just a bit to include a few other elements for a successful design. I try to use the fewest elements I can.

Where I live, along the bold coast of the Canadian Maritimes, we have many tumble-down cliffs, ragged points and nameless rock outcrops. The other day I went out with my pastels to paint Liberty Point, a massive rock just off the southeastern tip of Campobello Island. First, here's a photograph of Liberty Point so you can see the complexity:



But rather than try to capture the entire rock in all its glory and fail, I decided to take a small view and succeed. I chose a couple of rocks down near the water line with a wave breaking gently over the wrackweed. It's an intimate close-up.



"Liberty Point Wave" - Michael Chesley Johnson, PSA, MPAC, PSNM
5x7, pastel, en plein air

www.MichaelChesleyJohnson.com