Thursday, May 15, 2008

On The Delta



Early in the morning this Wednesday, I went to the River City rowing Club facility at the Port of Sacramento to do an outdoor painting. The bastards locked the gate! There is a special place in hell for them, and they won't be rowing boats! I headed back to the studio and worked on this acrylic of a boat dock on the Sacramento River in the San Joaquin Delta. It's on 8"X16" wood panel. I don't know what type of wood!...just wood! Sorry, it's the end of day, I didn't eat lunch, and I'm grumpy. It's easy to get grumpy when you are 61 (unless you're teenager...they can put themselves on super duper grumpy autopilot!).

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

A nice painting. 61 is still adolencence isn't it? You are getting close though. That acne will start to clear up soon.

David Lobenberg said...

A hearty thank you, mucho gracias, and danke, On painting, and yea, zits are a bitch!

Frank Gardner said...

Maybe they can row for Dante.
Love your boat/ harbor paintings David. I usually dont like the look of acrylics, but you have changed my mind about that.
I see I have missed a few posts. Let me scroll down.

Nick said...

A very complex picture and it works...bigtime! That jumble of shapes could have turned to mush in lesser hands.Great, David

David Lobenberg said...

Yes, Frank, acrylics can look like oils just don't paint outside in hot, dry weather...ain't gonna work! But inside while I'm working out my colors, I can make changes within minutes...love that ability. Different strokes for different folks...just like brewing coffee. I always appreciate you comments as you are a very fine artist.

David Lobenberg said...

Nick: Thank you so much for your comment, and like I told Frank Gardner (and I'll paraphrase here), I enjoy getting kind words from fellow and talented artists whom I respect!

Cooper Dragonette said...

Another wonderful composition David. I like the emphasis on the reflection and water.

David Lobenberg said...

And another comment from an artist I really respect. Thanks, Cooper. This was a challenging one with getting my colors and especially values in the right spots. I put down my brush and said finished after I laid down the bright river reflection on the lower right of the painting.

hj said...

great reflection on the water, how do you manage?
Bravo!

David Lobenberg said...

Good question Helene. I love using flat brushes for the water reflections. I drag the brush with a curving motion. Even the little reflections of the power poles were done with a small flat brush.

Anonymous said...

I greatly admire your work David- as another acrylic painter, I don't come across too many who use the medium as you do- which is characteristic of oils.
This is a wonderful painting, as is the one of your hand study.

And PS-I also found the " On Painting " site and agree about the humor and sardonic comments that always make me laugh.

I will drag you into my toolbar and I mean that in the most complimentary of ways!

David Lobenberg said...

Bonnieluria: Hello fellow acrylicer! I have many years under my belt as a watercolor painter, and therefor like to move fast. Not that acrylic painting the way I do it is fast...lots of color mixing, blending (that has to be done before the paint dries) , and layering. What is fast is the ability to change colors without waiting days for the paint to dry. I am not at all methodical with figuring out colors and I'm still perfecting my ability to manipulate colors.The ability to play around without waiting for more than a few minutes for the preceding paint passages to dry is a great advantage. Some of my paintings are efficiently painted with only a few layers while others have been "screwed around " with so much that they have many layers. Many layers, however, can make for a very rich look. So acrylic works for me, but I would like to one day nail my colors down faster with less painting time. An acrylic artist I greatly admire is an Englishman by the name of John Hammond. He has a book out that's great (go to Amazon.com). Thank you so much for visiting my blog, and let's stay in touch to exchange ideas. I'm going to add you to my links section.

Anonymous said...

David- Thank you for your really generous serving of acrylic wisdom. I got a big laugh of recognition over the layers being screwed around with because there were many of them.
And that's the way we do it.

I've chastised myself for overworking a piece, but in fact, to get the results I see in my minds' eye, I want all those nuanced color/tone/contrasts and that's the only way to do it.
Otherwise, acrylic can ultimately look flat and cartoon-y.

I'll check out Hammonds' book too.

And continue to utilize your pages as inspiration for having chosen this medium in the first place.
Your work is beautiful. I found the WIP post very helpful in seeing that red wash sky get covered over and toned down to neutral. Great.

Thank you for adding a link to your site-

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

Honestly, I like them both.

Always bring food and drink with you when you paint.

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

John Hammond is wonderful. I love Trevor Chamberlain too.

David Lobenberg said...

I'm going to look up Trevor Chamberlain. Thanks Mary!