Video Interview: A Conversation with Painter Todd Orchard

Last week was a huge week for me. Lara and I drove to Rexburg Idaho Thursday morning and arrived for a 1 pm interview at the Spori Gallery. My good friend Kyoung conducted the sit down interview, it took about 2 hours because we keep cracking each other up. The camera, sound and light guys were great, and editing was really fast and professional. So Big thanks to the media guys up there at BYU Idaho.                     

                

not supper happy with the particular frame they used here... I look like I have just been told the buffet is closed. It's about 17 minutes long, hope you have time to watch.

creation in fast motion

I needed one more painting for my big show at the Spori Gallery on BYU Idaho campus in Rexburg Idaho that opens this week...

so I naturally put off starting the painting until the last possible second. I did actually get the painting done, but it is so cold in my studio it won't dry so I can Glaze it! Any way!.. one of the reasons I was able to paint it so fast was that I set my camera up on a tripod with a time lapse timer firing every 45 seconds. the 801 images in the following video add up to roughly 10 hours of work time.

 

 if you can't tell from the video I got a haircut about 1/2 way through... here is the unglazed final painting in the frame.

Russian Olive Tryst, oil 36x36 inches $3800

Sleeping Princess

"Sleeping Princess" 2014 oil sold

I have been working on a series of these paintings from some photos I took a few years ago, trying to squeeze all the goodness out of the subject. I have always loved the Light vs. Dark combinations and have done many paintings with this as a driving element.  This pond once existed on Pioneer crossing in the heart of Utah county. I drove past it every morning on my way to a job I hated and wished I could paint those reflections. I think the hard part of painting reflections is getting the image to really feel like it is a reflection. Most people can see that the upside down image represents the mirrored image of the object above, but a reflection is more than that. The water reflects most of the light from the subject back... but not all so the reflection should be darker. I try to make the reflection less detailed and even slightly blurry to exaggerate the effect of the image in the water.

Pleasant Cloud Shadows

 I take my camera everywhere I go, well I used to anyway until I started carrying a cell phone, then I thought it was easier to take photos with the cell phone. Nothing beats a fully adjustable digital SLR. I digress...

Any whoooo... I took a picture one day while I was in the Costco parking lot in Lehi Utah, looking toward Pleasant Grove to the east. The hills were just starting to turn red and golden, and despite a few clouds in the sky it was a beautiful day. In the photo there are houses and trees in the foreground that are in shadow... I had originally intended for those to be in the composition as a way of grounding it. Maybe that painting will happen in the future.

Here is the first small (4x6) study, its not exactly the same format I was planning on for the final painting, but I mostly wanted to see what some of the colors on the top of the mountain would look like..

I started a number of new paintings at the same time, I started this one first, but it came together last.

At this point in the process it seemed like the painting might make it... the bright bluish purple hills in the background to the right are a nice anchor and a good medium value between the top of the hills and the bottom foreground.

You can see that the color is off a little bit between the image above and this "official" image. There was more I could have done with the clouds, but knowing my tendency to overwork clouds I stopped while it still felt fresh.

This painting is currently at the Dixie Invitational show in ST. George Utah. If it comes back I will post the particulars....

Two rather different pieces

This is a little gem that I did a few years ago that just came back from a gallery up north. I am going to do a few paintings in this vein and thought it might be a good starting point...

Pioneer Pond looking toward American Fork

7x14 inches, Oil $525

 It seems like there are a lot of paintings with shadowed hills and water coming out of the studio lately. this one is rather different than the one above.. lots of reds and purple, black/silver frame...

Red tree

9x12 inches, Oil $625

Near the Lions back

Moab is famous for 4x4 and bike trails, one of the most notable obstacles in days past was the Lions back, a difficult descent and even harder ascent. there are some great videos of vehicles losing control and terrific crashes, this is possibly why they have closed it to traffic.

It has been a cold and windy week, the day I painted this it was humid and rainy. The Scene was all cool purples and violets... about 1/2 way through the sun came out and lit up everything with golden light. I might do more of these, I like the foreground, but it doesn't feel exactly right in this study, it needs a little more depth, in the color and value changes, and the shapes defining the contours of the landscape. Still an OK painting.

 

small paintings

I painted these 2 small paintings for the MARC (Moab Art and Recreation Center). The MARC uses them to raise funds and promotional things; but in reality it is because Laurie and Sandi (from the MARC) asked me too, and I would do anything for those two! They are little 5x7s, I spent a couple of hours on them. I think they turned out OK for quick, fun studies.

Plein Air Provo

This week has been really busy; I have two Plein Air competitions in this week, and I have been working on frames to supply them.

Plein Air Provo is running Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (paintings due Friday before 1pm), So I have been in Provo painting the cool old houses in the Maeser and Joaquin Neighborhoods.

Update 10/4/13- this painting was awarded 3rd place in the show!
Update #2 (later) it was also awarded People choice!

Spring City Plein Air

The Spring City Plein Air event happened the last week of August; I am just getting around to adding some picture from the event... My bad.

 

 You can't help but be inspired around this place, the combination of old houses, farm land, and mountains makes for magnificent scenes.. pictures and paintings rarely portray the full beauty; you have to be there sucking it up to really get it.

 This was my first painting, felt sorta choppy, but I like the variety of textures not only in the garden but the home that was an amalgamation of many eras.

 Holly Hock with Shadow, I might paint this sometime....

 

Using the back of the Maxima for my studio, it has been a good car studio with 230K miles on it...

When I wasn't painting I took the time to go explore and find photos to work from later. I like these trucks, so retro, I bet I could get this green truck up and running again...

The mountain range in the back ground always seems to be an Ultramarine or cobalt blue that subtly changes throughout the day and into the evening...

 

I asked some very nice folks if I could paint this rock wall from the inside, as I could not see very much from the road








In the end this painting did not need the big red barn in the middle...



 

Here are the 4 paintings I completed for the main competition. Saturday was a tad rainy but the 3 hour paint-out stayed 99% dry. I was painting this old granary that was next to Randal Lake's Studio, about 1/2 way through the painting, just as I was feeling nervous about my composition and time left, Randal came out to talk to me and inspect my painting. He's a nice guy, but it was a little intimidating painting while he watched. (I have always admired his work, but only met him that day)

Progress shot.....and then I forgot to take more progress shots.....

 

My new collectors that bought both this painting, and the garden house at the top of this post. I went to their house before I left Spring City and got more acquainted, great people.

Every Tree with a Golden Lining

I know it is sorta a cheesy title, its a play on the the cloud/silver lining saying, and it seems appropriate in my life right now.

The frame is one of my own creations, a molding I have been building and a finish I have learned from my frame building guru buddy Rett Ashby.

here are a few of my favorite "moments" in this painting. I was sad to see it go, it was a commission.

Tetons

This is a painting I am working on. If the Tetons don't look quite right that is because they are painted from the west side of the mountain range (or as the locals say "the Drigg's side"). I am going to try and figure out how to make a movie of all the progress shots I have been taking along the way.

Update: I was not diligent in my recording of the steps of this painting.... sorry. here is the final image and some of my favorite "moments". Enjoy!

ZIONS Bank show in Provo

I was excited about being invited to participate in the annual Zions bank show for the first time this year. I really wanted to have more work ready for the show, but alas only so much work can fit on a 8'x 8' wire backing. I was great to meet new artists, talk to old friends, and greet people who came to the show to check out the Art and have a bite from the awesome catering that Zion's had brought in. 5 floors of artists (over 60 of us). I didn't sell any work that night but it was a good time regardless.

available paintings

A link to current available paintings HERE.

Summit Gold

Oil 2007

36x72

sold

Lapping all the way to the River Bank

I have been very productive the past month but have not been very good posting new paintings here! Sorry about that. Here are two paintings I finished before my family and I went on family vacation, I submitted them to the Spring Salon in Springville, but they were not accepted...Drat!

I think they are some of my best work.

"Lapping all the way to the river bank"

20x40 inches Oil

sold

This is a painting I have done before on a smaller scale, you can see it below, I called it " a running start" I called this one "Rock Curtain". It has some great things happening in it. I love the dark foreground. This is longer than a double square... I like the long format too.

"Rock Curtain"

16x36 inches Oil

$4200