Valley Farm

Valley Farm 14x11 Oil on RayMar Panel - 

Earlier in the summer fellow artist Don Kolstad and I took a drive from Anchorage out to the Palmer area.  In the Mat-Su valley we have quite a few farms.  Don and I found a spot between two farms and set up our painting gear we both did between 4 to 5 paintings that day.  We brought our lunches and spent the day enjoying the weather and plein air painting.

This painting comes from that adventure.  I had done a smaller plein air piece with out the horses.  I decided to do a larger painting and add the horses to the painting.  Took lots of photos that day so had the plein air piece and reference photos to create this painting.  It is for sale and available on my website: www.kurtjacobson.com

Underpaintings: Symbols: The Thyrsus

Underpaintings: Symbols: The Thyrsus: The Honourable John Maler Collier The Priestess of Bacchus oil on canvas 58 X 44¼ in. Common to many Classicist paintings of...

Very Interesting and enlightening post.

Watering The Flowers

Watering The Flowers - 9x12 Oil on Panel- Earlier this summer a friend hosted the Alaska Plein Air Painters for a paint out and picnic lunch at her home and garden.  Did a little 6x6 painting of one of her statues and also took a photo of this statue that was in a different section of her gardens.   This weekend I ran across the photo and decided to use the fairy statue, but move it to the woods, change the lighting and make it a fantasy/mystery piece.  Lots of fun.

Internet copyright violations

http://alaskalockerhooking.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/copyrights/

Sad but this not only happend to my wife.  But in the past I found my fantasy pen and ink drawings used many different websites, used in online stories with out my permission and even credited to other artists!

Bike Path At Pt. Worznoff

Epxanded a Plein Air Color Study

BIKE PATH AT POINT WORZNOFF - 8" X 16" Oil on RayMar Panel

Earlier this summer I painted with the Alaska Plein Air Painters on a Friday morning at Point Worznoff Park.  It is situated at the end of one Anchorage International Airports Runways, looking out over Cook Inlet.  In the past I have painted Mt Susitna from the park the view is breathtaking.  On this day though the shadows and dappled light coming through the trees and brush caught my eye.  I love the different patterns created.  The focal point is the Lighted area around the sign in the distance.  The foreground is subdued and works as a good counter point to the highlighted area.  My Plein Air color sketch was very rough, but captured the essence of the scene.  I new that I would eventually expand on the piece and create a more complete painting.  Keeping the foreground edges soft and counter point it with hard edges in the distance pulls the eye to the focal point.  Lots of fun painting the different sections of this painting.

Web Article by Plein Air Magazine

http://www.outdoorpainter.com/news/painting-parks-in-alaska.html

Need to "Ground Myself"

I find myself in need of "time away" from the busy world for awhile.  I use to call it my tine to get lost in the woods for a while.   This has been an incredibly busy summer for my wife and I.   I find I have misplaced my inner self.    A good example is I have not been posting here on my blog hardly at all.  Just kind of caught up in the whirlwind of our life.   We have had family reunions, graduations, art shows, a daughter getting married and a weekend out in the woods at Denali State Park with the first State sponsored Art in Alaska's State Parks.  Not to mention some unexpected home repairs.   So what I am saying I need to get my "Muse" back.  So one area I can walk away from is the internet for a week or more.  I will be checking email for the correspondence that I will be needing to reply to, but everything else is going to the wayside.  I treasure all of you, but I need to rediscover "my fire, my muse" right now.   See you all soon.  Off to the studio for a 3 day painting therapy session.