Saturday, February 28, 2009

Never mind! - Large acrylic modern landscape painting on canvas

"Blinded by the Light"
SOLD
18x36 Large acrylic modern landscape painting on canvas
By artist Derek T Collins
I'm really tired and don't feel like writing. So, I'm going to leave some space for you to imagine what I would have wrote , if I had been in the mood. --------------------------------! ------------------------------------,------------------------------------,-----------------,---------(run on sentence). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------.


Friday, February 27, 2009

I dare myself ! Large acrylic modern landscape painting on canvas


"Time and Space"

24x36 Large acrylic modern landscape painting on canvas

By artist Derek T Collins

I am starting to experiment with some bolder colors. I want to paint some landscapes that have a little more contemporary feel.


Thursday, February 26, 2009

Tap,Tap,Tapping - Original Acrylic landscape Painting on canvas

"Sunset to Remember"
18x24 Modern Impressionism original Acrylic painting on canvas
By artist Derek T Collins

And I nodded, nearly napping, and there gently came a tapping.
Tap,tap, tapping,at my computer cabinets door.
My son lost his History notebook, so I'm sitting at the computer scanning and re-copying 65 pages of notes for him, so that he'll have something to study. It's been 1 1/2 hours and I'm still going strong. I figure while I'm here, why not tell you so that you can feel sorry for me. Why isn't he doing it you ask! He's studying for 2 other tests. My last 2 paintings ended up having a sun in them, go figure. The digital photos never do them justice. The darks are a little darker and have a little purple in them. This one is really lit up.



Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Melancholy - Large acrylic landscape on canvas

"Colorful Forest"
18x36 on canvas large acrylic landscape painting
By artist Derek T. Collins
This is my latest painting. I loaded all of my stuff up and went to paint with some other artist. I was the only one who showed up. This is the painting that I painted there. It was enjoyable none the less. I got a Penn Station sub and a cup of coffee. I was kinda, almost like a normal person,(I'll never be normal) actually being out in public and seeing other people. I don't have any shows in the winter and since my oldest son started driving, I can go for many days and really have no reason to go anywhere. Sometimes I have to go to town just to get away. The isolation sometimes can be a little maddening.
I've been thinking about the summer shows that are coming up.
The economy being as it is, I'm not sure if I looking forward to them, or dreading them. So, it has been one of those tortured artist melancholy days.


Monday, February 23, 2009

How to create depth in a landscape painting!

How to create depth in a landscape painting!
I think you are asking the wrong question. When I first started painting, I had that kind of mind set. It is the way most people are taught. The way that I learned, was to have your background colors paler, and to use a blue, gray, or a purple. Muted these colors will recede. Then, as you come forward in the painting you add more intensity to the colors, and add more detail. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t totally discarded this principle. The problem with most beginners is that they are afraid of dark values (dark colors). When a beginning artist paints in this manner, they tend to end up with a pale and washed out painting. I was a beginner once. I remember not being able to paint green trees. I would start painting the leaves with a green, after all trees look green. Grass is also green, so I would paint the grass a different green. Before you know it, the whole painting was green and totally hideous, because there weren’t any darks.
I have an old friend who doesn’t know anything about art. Years ago, when I wasn’t yet making a living with my paintings, I showed him some of my latest paintings. He said , “They are nice, but why would I want them“. That is the question you should be asking yourself. What can I do to this painting to make somebody want it? Drama! You need drama, not depth. You need the painting to pop. You do this with dark against light. Without a dark, dark, the light isn’t very bright. The brighter you want the light to be, the darker you have to make the dark. If you concentrate on lights against darks, I promise you, your paintings will have depth. You are going to have to use your imagination here. First, think of a painting as a group of objects or planes. Imagine cutting each object or plane out ,and then stacking them from front to back, to make a 3D image. In the back you have the sky, then the clouds on top of the sky. then the distant mountain, the, distant yellow field, the closer green field, etc. Now lets go from the back to the front, and paint this painting in layers of light against dark


.

"Rural Drama"


An original watercolor landscape painting of a Barn at sunset!


If you focus on the lights and the darks, I promise you will improve your paintings. If one plane is light the next plane has to be dark and visa versa. If the plane or object is a middle value, you can go either way. Make it a lot lighter or a lot darker. You choose!


Here is the painting without the lines.



Sunday, February 22, 2009

Can make up my mind! Large Canvas Abstract


large,acrylic,landscape,abstract,original,painting,on canvas,closeup "Time and Space"
24x36 Large Acrylic Landscape abstract painting on canvas

24x36 Large Acrylic Landscape abstract painting on canvas closeup

A lot of the texture was painted with a palette knife
By artist Derek T Collins

If you look at what I've been painting, you can see that I tend to bounce around alot. I keep thinking that I want do some abstracts. I am getting half way done with the painting and I see it as a landscape, and so I make it a landscape.. You can see in todays painting, that the landscapes are becoming more abstract. So, I am slowly moving in that direction.


Saturday, February 21, 2009

Back to the knife! Large seascape on canvas

"Tumultuous Sea"
18x36 large acrylic seascape on canvas, with palette knife
By Artist Derek T Collins
Link to follow, it will be listed in my Ebay store late tonight

Closeup of a large acrylic seascape on canvas


Painting the last painting, got me in the mood to paint with a palette knife. The sky was painted with a brush, but the ocean was painted with a knife.
And now, I will wax poetic!
By Artist Derek T. Collins

"Crashing Waves"
From a distant shore, in an unknown place.
An unseen wave, over rock did break.
And the reef did sway, in the current below.
The seaweed churned, in the tumultuous flow.
The water raised as a giant hand.
To thrust itself on the rock and sand.
With it's quest fulfilled, it returned once more.
To the deep dark depths of the ocean floor.


Friday, February 20, 2009

Forget it!

I've been painting all day. I am too tired to blog anything but gibberish, so there!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Perseverence! Large Canvas Acrylic Landscape

large,original,acrylic,landscape,canvas,"Cloud Movement"
18x36 original acrylic
SOLD


BY ARTIST DEREK COLLINS
This is my latest painting. I have been painting, frantically today to finish it, so that I could get it on this blog. This is my first entry. It is a painting that I struggled with. It started out looking pretty shabby. It seemed that I just kept correcting things. Then all of a sudden it just started coming together and it turned out really well. Sometime the ones that I struggle with the most, turn out to be the best. Sometimes not! There is a point at which I decide to keep going or to throw it away and start over. I'm glad I kept going.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Nothing like a late birthday!

I went to claim my birthday present early this morning. So I spent the afternoon sacked out on the couch. If you don't know what I talking about, maybe you don't want to know (See previous Blogs) . I had to fast yesterday, to get ready for the glorious event. So, my son decides to make Brownies. That's just cruel! The snow storm from Hell should be melted in a couple days as the temperature is going up to around 50 degrees. I hope to do some painting tomorrow.