Todd Orchard Paintings: small oil paintings

Showing posts with label small oil paintings. Show all posts

Friday, February 7, 2014

Two of the Same.... Fall Benediction

Its not too often that I paint a painting multiple times. I use photographs, locations, and ideas again and again, but rarely do I repeat the same painting. The experience of creating is satisfying, but usually when the painting is done I want to move on to another challenge. I have done these 2 paintings in the past month with a little variation.. mostly just variation that happens in the natural process of the process. One was painted on a 9x12 (rectangle) linen/canvas hardboard, and the other on a round piece of MDF approximatly the same size. I think the rounded top had a dramatic effect on the way the second one was painted.

Fall Benediction (1)

9x12 Oil 2014

$625

This 1st version is in a partially rounded frame, I cannot vouch for the color correction as I took the picture with my iPhone with plain old light-bulbs in the studio... below is the painting without the frame.

I think this second version is more sensitive to the format/support it is painted on. I might do a larger version of this one with a rounded top....


Fall Benediction (2) Oil 2014 $625 (presently unframed)

Monday, February 3, 2014

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....

Thursday, October 3, 2013

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!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

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.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

available paintings

A link to current available paintings HERE.

Summit Gold

Oil 2007

36x72

sold

Monday, October 29, 2012

Paintings from Moab and the Colorado River

Here is a painting I did after the Kickstarter Project was done. I went a little faster and more abstract; against my instincts to slow down and tighten up with details as the painting was finishing.