Sunset on the Hills

Acrylic on Canvas. 33.25" x 24".
Image by Ross Wilson, 2010.

I seemed to be running out of my greens, whites, and blues a lot faster than anything else, so since I can't afford new paints just on a whim I decided I had better get some use out of my reds and yellows, and I'm pretty happy with the results. At this point, I've realized a common trend in these works are night and day, moon and sun, and so forth, so I'm goign to embrace that until I get this set of ten that I'm happy with. Anyone got a clever name for this . . . 'series'?

I guess this reminds me of the rolling plains of America's Midwest, the rolling hills soaking up some fantastic sunsets. And man, those states manage to pull out this color palate that is out of this world during it's sunsets, maybe only topped by the Southwest's deserts' purples and oranges. I sort of love this one in its simplicity, honestly I just wish the sunset didn't resemble a sunny-side-up egg quite so much.

Island Chain

Mixed Paint with Acrylic on Canvas. 29.5" X 20.25".
Image by Ross Wilson, 2010.

It's hot as sin out in Portland right now! They say there's always a few days a year where it gets to be unbearable, I guess this is it. Upper 90's. Still, glad I ditched the East Coast before their two month long heat wave. At least it's not so humid here. I don't do well in heat. Which is a shame, there's so many other parts of the country I'd love to spend time in, both the South and the Southwest have this incredible allure to me. I just don't think I could make it through the summer in either of those places. Anyway, in this unbearable heat, this just happened to come out, if I have to deal with this kinda heat, this is where I'd like to be. Secluded tropical islands with some cool ocean to dip into. With plenty of coconuts to eat, who needs civilization.

I started this working with out plethora of cans of house paint to get the basic idea down, then went into the details with acrylics. I think this is my most successful attempt at painting clouds so far! I just wish the sun wasn't so lopsided. Oh well.

I really wish I could dive into that ocean right now.

Small Farms at Night

Acrylic on Canvas with Gloss Finish. 34.25" x 32.5".
Image by Ross Wilson, 2010.

Well now we're getting somewhere. I've got colors and shapes all pulling the viewer into a focal point nicely, and the farms, kind of an afterthought, create a lovely setting for some epic countryside vista I'd love to see. I roadtripped out to Portland from Boston earlier this summer, and I'd like to paint more places inspired by these travels. Usually though, as I'm working it all starts as colors and shapes that slowly start to pull themselves together, and sometimes they take the shape of someplace I've been, sometimes they don't. This one I have to say though seemed to find its inspiration in the rolling hills and quaint farmhouses out by Lacrosse, Wysconsin, where I spent a pretty epic three days surrounded by tasty cheeses, bad beer, and of course, June Dairy Days (or JDD if you don't want to sound like an out-of-towner doncha know). Just looking at this is setting off the cravings for more deep fried cheese curds.

So what do you like better, the moon or the sun? I'd have to go moon, but I'm an insomniac and days (especially mornings) never agreed too much with me, especially when it's hot.

So I'm looking at a farm, out in Brush Prairie, about 20 minutes on past Vancouver, trying to help my mom find a new home, whereas she works overseas most of the year, I'll set up shop out there myself to take care of it while she's gone. After 6 years in NYC, can't say it's a path I expected to go down, but it's pretty exciting nonetheless! Might get some chickens and shit. Maybe goats. Crazy, right? Kinda hope it works out.

Passage

Acrylic on Canvas. 22" x 19.25".
Image by Ross Wilson, 2010.

I told you more icebergs were coming!

I painted this in a couple hours at Vancouver's First Friday street fair. Which if you haven't been out here, First Friday is Vancouver's answer to Last Thursday in Portland. And of course Last Thursday is NE Portland's answer to SE Portland's First Thursday. Anyways, to sum them up, First Thursday is a lovely, well organized festival with some fantastic artwork and incredibly talented people setting up tables to display their work. Last Thursday is a free-for-all where apparently anyone can go and set up a booth or table or play music or read fortunes or paint or sing or sell pompom dresses or buy Voodoo Donuts or whatever along Alberta Street. Anything goes. And you get this incredible mix of terrible and awesome talent with great food and crowded streets and this wonderful atmosphere of mayhem and talent I can't picture anywhere besides Portland. And then there's First Friday, again an anything goes event, but we got there along with like 12 other booths and what seemed to be just the normal Friday night crowd thinking, "huh . . . looks like something's going on here tonight." Anyways, it's no Last Thursday but maybe word will get out. It was still a lot of fun, and I painted this thing, and managed to sell another painting (I didn't get a picture of it first, but it was in the style of my last postings "Cloud Break" except with more of a red, desert and dunes and sun kinda feel) for 10 bucks, which totally bought me a cold sixer and a bag of Doritos!

Anyways, I like it well enough, and a thick layer of glossy finish totally brought out the oceany and icy feel, and the strong orange against the blue creates a nice, highly contrasted effect. Little off balance, but I guess it works.

Photograph by Susan Strand

Cloud Break

Acrylic on Canvas. 13" x 10".

Image by Ross Wilson, 2010.

Well here is where I start trying to go for a style. . . I don't necessairily want to limit myself to one thing, but I'd love to get a good set of 10 or so pieces in a likeminded style, then maybe they can all go together and be displayed somewhere, and maybe I can sell a painting, and maybe I can pay for rent, and if I'm lucky even pick up a few beers. If I were to pick anyone's style to emulate, hands down it would be Van Gogh. Not that this really approaches that by any means, but the idea of big, strong brush strokes and intelligent color design and manipulations, and a real direction the eye gets pulled in. . . that's what I like. I mean this one is just a little guy, a test run if you will, and also kind of an accident. Swirling colors together for about an hour on this little canvas, suddenly I added some whites and it caused the sky to just open up, giving the effect of an epic cloud break in the middle of a massive storm. I think anyway. Simple with some strong contrasts, if a little lacking in compositional depth. This is the start of where my new style is evolving, just wait and see! (yes, still writing in the future, but I'm almost all caught up!)

Accident

Mixed Paint on Canvas.

36" x 17.5"

What better way to escape the masochistic details of Pastel City than splattering some paint around on a canvas. Especially after discovering how much free paint we can get through the wonders of Craigslist! Put up a post last night, and picked up about 50 cans of all different types of paints and colors and finishes from some lovely lady who couldn't take them with her as she had to move from a house into a little apartment. So this is a small sampling of those free cans, all piled up now in the corner of our studio. Actually, this took quite a while to do. Well, about 5 minutes each visit I guess, but each time I revisited this painting would mean another 2 days to dry. Not a big fan of abstract, but it can be great, I just feel it's much more a matter of luck than skill. Anyways I think maybe I got a little lucky with this one, the colors and shapes seem to work and have some motion to them.

Traffic Jam in Pastel City

Acrylic on Canvas

36" x 20"?

I don't know what I was thinking, but this was quite an undertaking. Definitely needed a break from the detail oriented stuff after this, this was almost a full week at the studio to get done. Not that I mind spending that much time on something, I know that great work takes time. But I'll admit, I don't expect to make any truly great work anytime soon as much as I would love to, and as much as I like this piece and had fun working with the colors and the idea. . . man it was a pain in the ass. It's nice and big though, and the colors are just happy. And it also reminds of a blend of neighborhoods of good old NYC . . . the traffic of midtown, the patch-worked architecture of Alphabet City, the characters and commotion of the village. Anyway, I like that about it. Actually I really do like this one. But damn it was a pain to do. I love playing with cityscapes though, and when I rebuild my patience, I'll revisit the idea for sure.