Oil Painting by John Kelley, Daily Paintings by John Kelley

6″x14″ Oil on Panel SOLD

After you have done five or six “dune” paintings what is an appropriate title? “Sandy” seemed better than “grassy”. These dunes really lend themselves toward an elongated size so I have hand made my own panel to fit the subject. They took much longer than I thought they would (why is it always this way?) but I’m very pleased with the result. This painting will most likely go to one of my galleries but it will be available until it dries and I ship it back to where it belongs… the beach.

8″ x 8″ Oil on Panel

This is one of the paintings I will have on display at the Kentuck Festival in October. The Festival is a local arts festival in Northport Alabama that specializes in folk art. It is only 20 minutes from my home and is the only outdoor show I do. You can find out more about the festival here.

14″ x 16″ Oil on Canvas

This painting is still in progress but I thought I would give you a peek at what I’ve been working on today. The clouds are still a little too blue and some of the grass elements need to be dealt with.  I have only painted a few sunrises and I always discover the same thing.  This motif always seems to be about an extreme change in values but really it’s more about accurate subtle changes in color. When this painting is done it will most likely go to one of my galleries.

6″x8″ Oil on Panel - SOLD

I remember reading an article, when I first began to paint full time, that was written by a professional artist who was bemoaning the amount of time he spent doing things other than painting. At the time I couldn’t imagine what an artist HAD to do that would conflict with his painting… Needless to say, I now understand. But the business side of painting just makes painting all that more enjoyable when you get back to it!

This is another study from the Grayton Beach series. I’m hoping that when I go back down there I will be able to take one of these dunes and do an early morning, mid afternoon and late afternoon view. You could hang them together on a wall and enjoy an entire day at the beach without being there!

Here is a sneak peak at the still life oil painting I have been working on.  There is a good chance this one is headed for the closet for the time being.  The paint has begun to dry and I can’t stand working on sticky paint.  so I’ll give it a couple of weeks to fully dry and then will work on it again. I’ve spent a good portion of the week building my own panels to do some more beach paintings on.  Hopefully I’ll knock out several of those tomorrow.

6″x8″ Oil on Panel SOLD

After a couple of days off I have jumped back into these small dune paintings. As you can see below this painting was done with the help of a reference painting I did on location and a photograph that I took while in Grayton Beach. Other than the area of “drawing” the photo was not much help. It is amazing how much the camera misses.

The photo shows my digital photo on the left (not much help), my on site study (a lot of help) and the final painting (done with the help of the other two and the memory of walking on the beach at 7:00 in the morning). I have not made any of these paintings available for sale because they are already spoken for.

Over the years, several home school families have asked me for recommendations for art education. I have always appreciated their desire to ensure that their children have a well rounded education that includes a basic knowledge and understanding of the skills needed to create top quality art. I am hoping that sometime this year I will be able to do a weeklong workshop covering the basics. This of course sometimes becomes difficult due to the wide variety of ages that an average family has. So until I figure that out I have provided a category on my “On The Easel Store” that provides some solid suggestions of books that would be helpful in home schooling. Due to issues of modesty, I have only included titles that would be non-offensive to all ages. There are books at the “On The Easel Store” that are more in depth but must be used with more discernment. I have not listed these in the home school section. I hope you find this helpful.

6″x8″ OIl on Panel

It’s stunning how difficult colors are in the studio! Even with color corrected lights the blues tend to get swallowed up my the yellow portion of the spectrum. So then you take the painting outside and it’s like WOW where did all that blue come from. O.K. I just sounded way too much like my fifteen year old. In any case I am loving getting away from the still life paintings and hanging out at the beach!

6″x8″ Oil on Panel

I was able to fit in one more painting before we left Grayton Beach on Thursday. I was very interested in trying to portray the layers that there were in the early morning sky. Rendering the dunes from this distance on such a small canvas turned out to be quite a challenge. Squint and paint the big shapes is the general rule when you get overwhelmed like this. After some temperature touch ups here at the studio the painting turned out to my liking.

On day 3 of my painting trip to Grayton Beach it rained. I did get several photographs early in the day before the clouds rolled in. So hopefully I will be able to do some paintings at home from these shots. The best part of the day was hanging out with my friend Chris shouting the breeze and eating good food.

Today I had enough time before we packed up to do one more painting. I wasn’t very pleased with it so it will most likely get painted over if I can not improve it here at home. Sorry there have not been more paintings to post but as with most painting trips you just have to roll with the weather punches!