Unfinished work gets public attention

Last winter I found aid from the Pennsylvannia Impressionists regarding the handling of snow and shadows. The scenes I found reminded me of my surroundings here in north central Missouri. Late Afternoon Reflections - Bucks County (right) and Sunny Brook Easter Morning - Bucks County (below it) by Edward Willis Redfield got me thinking about the creek beds that wind through my city. The Stanley Branch has the same year round green vines gracing its banks.



If I can view it with my eyes, qualities I admire can be synthesized to my own taste. To help me study, I put a smaller color copy of the work, along with its artist and its Internet address, in a journal I keep.
Here is what that journal looks like. I took an old art catalog and pasted works I liked on top of the printed pages. Then I drew black marker margins around the pieces I wanted to think on - stare at - contemplate on.


This study culminated in Eastside Creek 24 x 30 (right), a transformation of the Stanley Branch.


Both Redfield and Walter Emerson Baum depict the large bluffs along the Delaware River in Bucks County.
The Narrows by Baum (right) and an unfinished work I began in Autumn of 2007 opened up a path, which would lead to many paintings in the Missouri Views show.
The untitled panel (right) 40 x 20 has tall trees on a steep bank with a deep blue sky above. That height from the ground up motivated me to
investigated the bluffs closest to me, on the Waverly side of the Missouri River. My photo file grew and the painted studies Pair Of Trees and Moss Hill came forth.


I was learning about the Hudson River artists from a marvelous catalog of the same show when it was exhibited in St. Louis, Missouri of 2006. Asher Durand was said to have made many studies of tree and rock clusters which later were incorporated in his larger canvases. Albert Bierstadt followed the same discipline, and would combine several scenes into one composite landscape. I studied pictures in the catalog, worked from my photo references, took a scene I liked, and rearrange it as I painted. Morning Study 16 x 18 acrylic on panel (above right) and Tree Over River 23.75 x 23.75 acrylic on panel (above) are two examples of that.



Following Bierstadt, I composed a winding river with Missouri banks, and distant hills from my reference material. Drawing from seven locations I worked out a vertical, then a horizontal rendition (above right) in my 11 x 14 sketch book. The latter version was then roughed in on a larger canvas. Composition Landscape #1, 30 x 40, acrylic on canvas (right).

Study led to further study which led me to look at landscapes with rivers in them. Which led me to do Afternoon on the Missouri River, Carroll County. A composition worked out on a 30 x 24 panel - that could be found anywhere along the Missouri River - which was synthesized from four separate locations, and adjusted to my taste. Asher Durand was right. Bierstadt was right. It is "the studies" that raise one's confidence to try something you could not achieve on your own - left to your own - fumbling along.


Sunday afternoon, August 31st, Seward residents came out in my home town to look at a smaller version of the Missouri Views exhibit. Sponsored by the Seward Arts Council, the Langworthy Gallery is located about 30 miles west between Lincoln and York, Nebraska.
Just a note here for my collectors: "Seven works are being retained by the Burkholder Project for its own September group show. These include Afternoon-Wakenda Creek, Leaning Tree-No.18, Tree Study I, Skinny Dip Grove, Sunset On Levee, Glade, and Tenth Street Creek. To purchase any of these one needs to go through that gallery. Thanks."

Photos from the opening.


Sharing my reference journal with attendees during "Meet The Artist."







My father both admiring the lavender leaves in Trunk Study III, later telling me how hard purples are to work with.





Seward Independent art review