With these pieces, miniature (8” by 10”) plein air paintings of Grobs Farm in Indian Hill, Ohio, I am trying something different.

05 17 10 Grob farm lg

Grob Farm – May 17, 2010
10 x 8 inches, oil on canvas

05 04 10 old Farm Buildings lg

Old Farm Buildings – May 3, 2010
Original Oil Painting Blog by American Oil Painter Daryl Urig.
8 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

At first, I approached this project by creating sketches and taking photos of the farm back to my studio. I used these studies of the farm to paint a large image of the farm on canvas. Unfortunately, I quickly realized I needed to get my canvas on location to capture the Farm (see below).

grob 1

So I hauled my 36” by 24” canvas, a pallet with oil paints and an umbrella to Grobs Farm. I needed the umbrella in order to shadow my painting correctly while outside. I started my second session with this piece (see below), which lasted about two hours. That’s the longest you can paint outside without a dramatic change in daylight. Monet, with his Impressionist pieces, would paint on location for just a short period of time, then pack his things and move on to another painting for a short period, and so on. Lighting is everything, as you want to capture an instance of light with an image, not movement.

grob 2

I used straight oil paint, odorless turpentine and a no.12 Escoda, long Filbert to build up on my first session’s efforts that I painted and then scraped down with the side of a pallet knife to create a nice paining. This technique was used by Degas, Whistler and many other painters, and it seems to leave a lot of the image. Fortunately, it slightly blurs the original painting, thinning the canvas and leaving paint within the canvas’ weave.

Working plein air the past two days gave me more to which to react and interpret than working from a photo. I might move back to the studio at the very end of my painting to adjust and add detail, taking the advice of an artist I recently read who said although we learn from plein air, paintings are finalized in the studio. I hope he is right.

I am not in a hurry with this large painting of Grob Farm and would like to develop it over many sittings, adjusting and adding to it over time. This is a new journey for me, and it does not get better than this… Painting what I love, outdoors in the summer in broad daylight!

(By the way, today as I painted at the farm, there was a dead possum close to my feet. Maybe this added to the experience? At the very least, it provided a great contrast for my piece!)

Stay tuned as I add to this painting and see its progress.
Read more about this story in a later blog post: Developing a Painting of Grobs Farm #2

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Recent work: https://www.darylurig.com/2010-paintings.aspx
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American Oil Painter Daryl Urig is a member of The Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America and Cincinnati Art Club. He has taught at the University of Cincinnati for over 8 years and is president of Total Media Source Inc.

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