Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

7” x 5” (17.8cm x 12.7cm) acrylic on gessoed board $120 unframed with free shipping within the USA.
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I’ve been seeing more of these birds recently. I know they are around most of the year, but for some reason there have been a lot of them in the back yard this week, so I got some shots with my wife’s new telephoto lens. There is a pond behind our house that has been flooded this week so that may be why they are coming in.

© Copyright by Paul Wolber

The Spirit of Christmas

5” x 7” (12.7cm x 17.8cm) acrylic on gessoed board unframed with free shipping in USA.
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More than any other time the Christmas/Hanukah season brings us all together. There is clarity of purpose and yet a background of emotional feeling that comes to us during this time. That’s why I wanted this painting to have both clarity and mystery intermingling in the composition. I hope I captured that idea.
© Copyright by Paul Wolber

Fall Planting

5” x 7” (12.7cm x 17.8cm) acrylic on gessoed board
$125 with free shipping in USA
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The two most common fall plantings are alfalfa for an early hay crop in summer and winter wheat, which survives the winter as young seedlings, and mature in early summer the following year. In this painting the young plants in late October are a vivid green and create a unique pattern against the late afternoon sky.

This painting required a bit tighter detail than many of my paintings because of the subject. I'm including a close up detail of part of the painting (on my blog) to show a surprise element of the roof of a house just over the hill barely noticeable in the overall view. I didn't see it until I started to paint. There is another building in the background peeking out behind the trees, which may take some searching to find as well.

From an artist's perspective, the color scheme here is a triple complement. The sky has a blue/orange tone created by the setting sun, while the earth and trees create a red/green and yellow/violet shift in color. The dark shadows in the foreground are viridian green with flecks of red and brown from the still exposed soil. These elements of color as well as the crisscross textures in the foliage are what attracted me to do this painting.

© Copyright by Paul Wolber

The Beauty of Aging: Composition with Barn Door

7” x 5” (17.8cm x 12.7cm) acrylic on gessoed board
unframed with free shipping in USA.
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Weathered wood on seems to get more beautiful as it ages. I suppose this gives hope to all of us. On first glance this door is securely locked, but a closer look will reveal the padlock is not fastened giving us access to enter if we wish. Imagine yourself entering and exploring all the wonderful antiques stored here.

The vertical and horizontal planes in this composition attracted me and reminded me of Piet Mondrian's compositions. Even though you may not recognize this as an abstract painting, Mondrian was right in his contention that shifting a line or a shape a fraction one way or another can balance or unbalance the composition. I worked carefully for some time to get the highlights just right to balance the horizontal and vertical movement, so from my artist's eye this was an abstract design.

© Copyright by Paul Wolber

Amish Country

5” x 7” (12.7cm x 17.8cm) acrylic on gessoed board

$125 unframed with free shipping in USA.
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Sometimes there are those images I just have to paint. My sister and brother-in-law are building an authentic log house from old cabin logs in Amish country, so when we went to see it in progress this summer (see inset photo on my blog) I had the chance to snap a photo of an Amish team of horses on our way back home.

It wasn’t until later when I cropped it down and looked at the detail that it got my attention. I fell in love with the color and light. I couldn’t get the image out of my mind so once I started painting I couldn’t stop until I was satisfied with the mood and feeling. I probably spent more time than I usually do on a small-scale daily painting, but painting is sometimes like an addiction. You can’t stop until you are completely sated.

That’s how it was with this image. I hope some of that feeling comes through to the viewer. It made me want to do a similar large-scale image sometime in the future but I’ll need to think about that some more before I’m ready to commit to this image again. It’s one of those images that scale or size doesn’t make a difference. I remember once seeing a photo of one of Aristide Maillol’s sculptures and thought it was a life sized sculpture but later was surprised to find it was actually only six inched high. Scale was almost irrelevant. It could be six inches or six feet and it would still read very well.

© Copyright by Paul Wolber

Fall Colors near Grayling Michigan

6” x 6” (15.2cm x 15.2cm) acrylic on gessoed Masonite®. unframed with free shipping in USA.
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Traveling in north Michigan we saw lots of colors. Colors were about 80% this weekend. The beauty of creation in nature never ceases to inspire and awe. I don’t claim to paint exclusively plein-air, however this kind of beauty calls for a lot of direct observation. I’ll hope to post a few more of these works soon.
© Copyright by Paul Wolber

White Solo Rose

6” x 6” (15.2cm x 15.2cm) acrylic on gessoed Masonite®.

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I needed a new challenge, so decided to paint a white rose. I cannot remember painting rose petals before, at least not in close up detail as in this painting. So this was my first rose painting. Actually it’s my second start, since about half way through the first beginning I realized the feeling wasn’t what I wanted so I made some adjustments to the way I was working and started over. Here you can see the results. It surprised even me to realize after painting for so many years this was my first painting of this subject. There is always something new to learn.

© Copyright by Paul Wolber