KenSwinson.com

Author: Ken

  • Lewis County Plein Air 30 May 2021

    i needed a change of scenery, so i drove a few miles east to our neighbor, lewis county. this scene (especially the garden ready to be planted) would make a great plein air painting.
    here is my sketch. lets start painting!
    the underpainting took a little bit of squeezing to fit everything, but i think im ready for color!
    i have some colors laid down,but there are some challenges. see the pretty blue peeking out at the top of the mountain? that wasn’t there when i started! lol. painting from life (no cameras) if nothing else, makes a painting dynamic
    the light has changed again since taking this picture!!! its a wild day for painting!! would be so much easier to just work from a photo, but the painting is alive when i work like this. going to try and wrap it up in the next session. stay tuned!

  • Poppies With Betsy – Plein Air 13 May 2021

    This morning we are painting poppies in my yard. Here’s my sketch
    My artist friend from Ripley Ohio joined me…a peek at her sketch.
    my underpainting…
    betsy is working in pastel…laying down her darks and getting color on her panel.
    the panel is covered with some color…next building up more colors and details
    betsy building up darks for her pastel
    Poppies are popping…down to the last details
    The poppies are coming!!!
    I think i’m finished! The camera did a weird light balance thing…let me take a better photo for you all.
    Betsy works a lot slower than me. She cropped her panel, and is building up the poppies!
    poppies plein air 13 May 2021 – Oil on Hardboard 7×14″
    Poppies – Pastel by Betsy Adams
    “Friends Are Flowers In The Garden Of Life! -thank you Betsy for visiting my garden, and making art with me…what a fun morning! — with Betsy Adams.

  • Poppies plein Air – 11 May 2021

    hello everybody!
    these poppies are popping in my yard. lets paint them!
    here’s my sketch. today, im going to paint a big one (12×24”).
    lets start painting!
    here is the underpainting. i love this composition…now for the fun part…color!
    oh, wow! these colors are wild!! its a mess right now, but i’ll keep building colors and details, hopefully settle on some kind of color harmony.
    its starting to come together….some more details, and ill be finished!!
    These poppies are finished!!! This color combination is NOT what I set out to do, but I love it, and how it highlights the poppies.

    This original oil painting is AVAILABLE to purchase. Click below for a better look, and more information on how to order for your art collection.

    Thanks for painting with me today!!

  • Dottie’s Irises – Plein air 11 May 2021

    My neighbor, Dottie, has the prettiest irises right now. I thought they would make a good model for today’s painting…
    Here is the rough sketch… after making the sketch, i realized i was out of panels with that proportion. I’m going to paint it on an 8×10 instead…stay tuned!
    i was getting so excited with the underpainting, i almost got started on the color, without sharing the step before that.
    …ok, now it’s COLOR TIME!!!
    I have the panel covered with color…now time to refine the colors, and develop the details
    almost finished…just a few more details.
    Dottie’s Irises
    Oil on panel 8×10″

    thank you Dottie, for letting my paint your pretty flowers…and supporting my work, by giving this painting a home!!!

    Thanks all for painting with me today!

  • Plein Air in Old Washington 8 May 2021

    I’ve been trying to paint without sharing, so I can have a collection to show you all at once. But I can’t resist showing off, and it’s a rainy Mother’s day here in Kentucky, so I thought I’d share some good weather plein air sunshine with you!

    I’m working on a series of iris paintings, and thought these pretty purple irises would make a good painting. Here’s my sketch…stay tuned to see how it works out!
    Here’s the messy underpainting. I have the darks and lights worked out…and composition. Now time for the colors!!!
    I’m not sure this one is going to work out…Everything has been in shadow, and these colors are a mess…thinking about calling it a loss, and wiping the board clean.
    Never easy, but sometimes an artist has to ‘kill their darlings’ I went ahead and wiped all the paint from the board. I’m going to try to use the rest of the day to paint the church (in light) contrast with the flowers (in shadow)
    ok, let’s try again…here’s my sketch, lets paint!
    Here’s the second try underpainting for today’s painting.
    I am already in LOVE with this painting. It has good light/dark contrast and should work! Can’t wait to start adding COLOR!!!
    I have the base colors down. The sun hitting the church and green grass are so warm, I almost need sunglasses. Now it’s time to build up the details and colors…stay tuned!
    I think i’m done!!! it’s funny how sometimes the best paintings come right after a failure. I’ve joked before how: yo have to push through the breakdown if you want to have the breakthrough!!! This was one of those days!!! I’m thrilled with it, AND this painting already has a home!! Thank you so much for experiencing this with me!

  • Plein air old washinton- the barn on old main street 6 may 2021

    The wildflowers in front of this barn would make an interesting painting.

    Here’s my preliminary sketch…time to paint!!!
    I think this wants to be horizontal instead of vertical.
    The underpainting
    Laying in some colors…I’m getting nervous because they are cutting grass all around the building. I don’t want to delay work, but hopefully they hold off until I paint the wildflowers
    Im at the stage of painting where I am calling it a “hot mess”. The sun played some tricks on me(went behind clouds) , and i really don’t know where I’m going with it…I’ve learned to just push through…sometimes these messes transform into masterpieces. Other times they become lessons.
    i was able to pull it all together…whew!!! The wildflowers were what attracted me to the scene, and they make the painting!
    Thanks everyone for joining me on this afternoon of painting!

  • Plein air painting/meet up Ripley ohio

    Greetings from the river village of Ripley, Ohio! There’s no rain, but today’s forecast is cloudy. Still lots of pretty scenes to choose from. Stay tuned!

    I decided to paint some of the flowers in Roses memorial garden. Joined by Northern Ky and Ohio artists, Ivanka lempitskiy, Jackie Braden and Margie lakeberg
    I really like the sign at the entrance to the garden. It got cropped from our group photo, but it really set the vibe for the day!
    These flowers caught my eye…maybe they will be in today’s painting?
    I also like the house with Pickett fence…
    a rough sketch…still trying to decide: house, or nah?
    The underpainting
    laying down some colors…
    my new painting buddy!!! Refuses to model unless I have tuna. I left my tuna at home–next time!
    more color and details…
    the finished painting!
    a time lapse of the finished painting

  • Downtown Maysville, plein air 25 April 2021

    I’m spending the next couple of days working with an artist friend who is JUST getting started with plein air painting. I don’t have step by step progress photos to share, because i wanted to be able to give them my full attention. This is the scene they chose for our first lesson/demo. We almost delayed the session because of fog, but i’m glad we didn’t! The scene was perfect for a paninting! Stay tuned!

    Here is my finished ‘demo’ plein air painting. For our session, we only used 3 colors 2 earth tones (yellow ochre and burnt sienna) and ultramarine blue –and then Titanium white.

    this is a big (to me) canvas panel (18×14) I was supposed to be the ‘teacher’ but I think i learned more than the ‘student’. I really enjoyed the bigger surface…and using only 3 colors really pushed my color mixing.

    sorry the painting is out of focus, ill share a close up so you can better see the details next

    Here is my finished ‘demo’ plein air painting. For our session, we only used 3 colors 2 earth tones (yellow ochre and burnt sienna) and ultramarine blue –and then Titanium white.

    this is a big (to me) canvas panel (18×14) I was supposed to be the ‘teacher’ but I think i learned more than the ‘student’. I really enjoyed the bigger surface…and using only 3 colors really pushed my color mixing.

    sorry the painting is out of focus, ill share a close up so you can better see the details next

    here’s the finished ‘demo’ plein air painting.

    This one is big (18×14″) -out of my comfort zone–but was a lot of fun to make.

    It was created with only 3 colors (burnt sienna, yellow ochre and ultramine blue) — and titanium white.

  • Plein air painting Augusta, ky 22 April 2021

    Today I’m in Augusta, ky. A little river village very close to my heart. It’s been difficult picking a spot to paint, but I decided on this scene on 4th street.

    I’m interested in the porch with rocking chair, flowering trees, hill in the distance while looking into the morning light.

    There’s a lot here, and I’ll have to use my artist eye to edit the scene and put it all together into a painting. This will serve as a great example of how painting from life lets you do things a photo can’t

    I have a rough rough sketch…this scene is going to be tricky, but I can do it!!! Let’s start painting!!!
    I used a muddy mix of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and cadmium yellow to work out the composition and values. Now it’s time to start laying in the color. I’ll have to work fast, because as the sun rises, all the colors change.
    I’ve laid some morning colors on the panel…time for details, and building up more colors
    I got lost in painting, and forgot to give you all an update. Even with editing, there is so much in this scene…busy little 4th Street. Time to pull it all together and get some lunch!
    This site was really close to my artist friends, Deb and Brad’s house. Lucky me, ran into them, and got to catch up, and got some tips on how to finish the painting.

    It’s nice to see friends again…especially other artists. what a treat to get a nice photo of ME while at work on a painting?!!!!

    photo by Brad Wooldridge
    Here it is! Spring morning on 4th street – Augusta, KY
    This was one of the trickiest paintings I have made. It was such a busy scene, and I had to make a lot of choices about what to keep and what to ignore. Unfortunately, the rocking chair on the porch (that initially made me want to paint this view) did not make it into the final scene.

    Click above to see close up photo with more deatails- and more information about the painting!
    Thanks for watching!

  • red tulips – plein air painting – 22 April 2021

    it’s a grey day…might even get some rain. For today’s painting, i decided to try to capture these red tulips. They are bright and cheerful, and aren’t going to last much longer. From an artist perspective, I like the way the stems are starting to droop.
    here’s my sketch…to work out the composition–now time to set up and paint!!!
    I’m blocking in the shapes with a muddy mix of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. also working out the dark and light relationships in the composition..
    See the white specks in front of the black car and red truck? I’m painting flowers in SNOW FLURRIES. I’m not cutting my ear off, but I do want some acknowledgment for my dedication to my craft 🙂
    #kentuckyWeather
    I never know what will pop up in my flower garden!!! Chuck and Mary Lou Keller 🙂
    slowly but surely building up colors to capture the moment…
    It’s still cold out there…had to come inside to warm my hands up. A good opportunity for an update! We are close to the finish line.
    tulips take a bow – oil on panel 8×10″

    Art and beauty are everywhere you look. Even on cold, cloudy snow flurry days. Get out there and enjoy!