"First Light"

18" x 24" Acrylic on Canvas
Available for purchase
$250.00

I always start with my title. I know that many others go the opposite direction in this, but for me, this is what works best. I thought about it for a day or two and came up with the title...

"First Light"



Once I had the title, I began thinking about what elements I would like to add. 

The challenge called for something astronomical (stars, planets etc) and since I have always loved pictures of space, I immediately thought of the Milky Way as viewed from Earth, which I should add, I have never lived or even been somewhere where this is visible to the naked eye. I have however seen pictures of this thousands of times and I knew what it looked like. I also love the look of the full moon so I figured both should be included.

Initial sketch

The second thing was something that swims, and my first thought was sharks, but that seemed to aggressive for what I was seeing in my minds eye. I gave it some more thought and eventually settled on dolphins and/or whales.

The third thing was something that flies. Since my title was first light, I first thought of something that would glow, but then pondered the idea of the phoenix and its inherent concept of rebirth. This is what lead me to the concept of the moon as the egg the phoenix was breaking free of.

I had been contemplating the idea of painting Undulatus asperatus clouds (clouds that look like the underside of ocean waves) and this I thought could add a new dimension to the painting. I could have the dolphins and whales swimming in these clouds.

Now since I am mainly a landscape artist I knew I wanted elements of a landscape in it and a mountain could also be a choppy wave so those two concepts merged.

Playing off the light concept in my title is what lead me to the thought of the mountain ridge silhouette. I played with the idea of having a small boy or girl pointing up at the moon and phoenix but it seemed a bit too much. So I scrapped that idea entirely.

So now I had my pieces and all my ideas on a pad so it was time to sketch something up.

"Autumn Twins"

"Autumn Twins"

TIME LAPSE VIDEO

     This is a timelapse video I made of the crafting of this painting. I hope you enjoy seeing the process I use in my paintings and can appreciate the time it takes to make something like this.

My New Studio Space

 Every now and then you have to make a change in your artistic endeavors. My most recent change was to my studio set up, mostly the color of the walls. The walls of the room I use as my studio space were Yellow (2 walls) and Purple (2 walls) as it used to be a nursery for children,

Having yellow and purple walls would reflect those colors into the rest of the room. When painting I would notice that certain colors were not coming out as they should. While mixing the paints on my palette, that reflected color was corrupting the colors I was mixing.

So I decided that it was time to make a change. I emptied the room and painted the walls a nice neutral grey. This is the best thing I have done to my studio to date and having emptied it and refilled it afterwards has allowed me to make the room more organized and set up in a fashion that allows me to have more of my materials at hand when needed.

What I would like to know, is how have you changed your artistic endeavors in a way that has either impacted you in a positive or in a negative way? Have you become more or less inspired by these changes you have made and or has this change impacted your art in anyway?

Spring Cherry Blossoms

"Spring Cherry Blossoms"

This is one of my newest works.

"Spring Cherry Blossoms"

11" x 14" Ink, Watercolor, and acrylic on 140 lb. watercolor paper

Available for purchase $175.00

Prints will be made available at a later date.

Painting is a Japanese style cherry blossom tree. It was first hand drawn with a bamboo brush in ink, and then colored in watercolor, the final step was a splatter / splashing technique done in very thin acrylic paints in various shades of pinks and white to get the desired effect.

Some loose petals were then painted again with a brush to show the free floating petals as they would appear in the real world, as cherry blossoms never stop shedding from the moment they bloom until all petals are gone.

I was really trying to capture the delicate form of a bonsai tree in this piece and I think it came out splendidly.

Work In Progress

"Rolling" with the failed background.

This is a "Work in Progress" post. I had started this painting almost three years ago and was never quite satisfied with the way the daylight side’s background was coming out. As I started painting the rolling hills in the foreground, it just (to me) made the background look far worse and it wasn't coming together quite right.

I eventually put it aside and moved on to another project, always with the hope that someday I would eventually come back to it and get the painting I wanted out of this attempt. That didn't happen... until now.

"Rolling" with the reworked backgrounds first layer.

I finally decided what I wanted to do with it and have started to rework the failed background. I have decided to go with a much brighter and warmer background and this is the first layer of color that will go over this old background, one more should cover all the old background and really add some more dimension and overall appeal to the entire thing.

Keep an eye out for further WIP images of this one. I think it is going to be a beauty.

"Humming Dolphin"

"Humming Dolphin"
11 x 15" Watercolor


Having joined a group over on Facebook for artists, I have been having some really great conversations and getting lots of ideas

This group also does a monthly challenge. This months challenge was to combine two things into one, to make an amalgamation.

Mine is a Humming Dolphin, half hummingbird, and half Dolphin. But I couldn't stop there, I also combined a sea anemone and a flower, as well as the sky and the water. Three amalgamations in one watercolor painting

I hope you like it.

A new Website appears.

I have been building a new website for my artwork and such,

Working on getting some stuff sorted out, but it is coming along nicely.

Hope you all find it enjoyable.

http://artofjosephfinchum.weebly.com/