New Painting - Watertank Blues

Watertank Blues, acrylic on canvas, 36x48, 2008

After a month, I finally finished Watertank Blues. This is part of my ongoing City by the Lake series of paintings. I'm creating a mix of architecture and lakefront scenes - two things that strongly influence my art.

For this particular painting, I used a photograph of the Finkl Steel watertank -- that I took one afternoon in April -- for reference. As you can see, I improvised a little and added the telephone pole, missing from the original photograph.

Finkl Steel Watertank, photograph, 2008

Sunday in the studio

The studio had a nice breeze coming through this afternoon. Lots of light and the occasional plane buzzing the neighborhood from the Chicago Air and Water Show. The squeaky, adjacent El trains were quiet in comparison.

My newly finished painting, Watertank Blues, dries against my easel.

Watertank Blues in August

Watertank Blues, acrylic on canvas, 2008 (work in progress)

It's been about a month since I last posted. Spent some time on vacation in Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. Also been out enjoying the Chicago summer weather as much as possible. But, I still have been working on the Watertank Blues painting a several hours each week. I've added a telephone pole and wires to the composition along with some more layers of color. I'd say it's about 80% finished. Some more work to do on the buildings and I'd like to change some things on the watertank. If you look closely, you can see the original photograph taped to my window which I'm using for reference.

Paintings in Progress: Watertank Blues

Several months ago I found myself on an afternoon photo shoot of old watertanks around the north side of Chicago. The watertanks have been figuring prominently in my both my paintings and photographs over the past few years. More recently, due to the decline of these structures, I've been making it a point to photograph them when I see them. Some of these are then used for reference in my cityscape paintings or as the main focal point. I'm also working on assembling the best for a series of photographs.

This 36" x 48" painting in progress is of the Finkl & Sons blue watertank which I discovered while wandering through the grounds of this near north side steel processing plant one spring afternoon.

Watertank Blues, acrylic on canvas, 2008 (work in progress)

Paintings in Progress: watertank and portrait

weed st watertank, acrylic on wood panel, 2008 (work in progress)

I've been working on a couple new pieces recently. One is part of my watertanks - city by the lake series and the other is a portrait of my wife. The watertank is on wood panel and the portrait is on canvas. I'm using photos as reference for both of these. For the portrait, I'm trying to make it more realistic than what I normally do for portraits, but also applying my usual style and color scheme. It's been a fun experiment so far...

portrait of mare, acrylic on canvas, 2008 (work in progress)