A Blog About Oil Painting

A Cold Morning on Lake Union

by Simon Bland / Feb 1, 2016

Lake Union (plein air). 8x10, oil and cold wax medium. 2016 On my way to the studio this morning I stopped off at Lake Union Park in Seattle to do a small study of the view across to University District. It was cool to watch the seaplanes landing in front of me while I worked. Although I am very par...

Capitol Hill Seattle

by Simon Bland / Jan 1, 2016

Capitol Hill, Seattle. 9x12, oil on linen panel. 2015 This is the view from one of the windows in our apartment in Seattle, painted on a re-used linen panel that had been worn smooth by the sanding and re-priming. The abstract idea is a cityscape as a landscape: the field of buildings in place of a ...

Sunset

by Simon Bland / Dec 30, 2015

Sunset (cell phone pic of the painting). 5x7, oil on linen panel. 2015 A cloudless sky at sunset seems to dwarf the land and I am always drawn to the continuum of the color changes in the sky. The contrast of the warm sky against a flat landscape feels like something worth trying to capture. I came ...

Paint Out at Bronze Hill Farm

by Simon Bland / Sep 15, 2015

Today's paint out was at Bronze Hill Farm in Middleburg, VA. It was a near-perfect day for working outside. As usual I started with a small 5x7 to get myself in the mood. I ghosted-in the image with raw umber (applied with a paper towel) then troweled on the paint and finished by working the edges w...

Back to Meadow Grove Farm

by Simon Bland / Jul 21, 2015

Front Field (plein air). 5x7, oil on linen panel. 2015 It was back to Meadow Grove Farm today for a second paint-out. I started with a small sketch to try capturing the cloudy sky and experiment with alternative mixes of green. The grass in front is mixed with Holbein violet gray (like King's Blue) ...

Short Hill Sketch

by Simon Bland / May 31, 2015

Short Hill Sketch. 6x8, oil on linen panel. 2015. The most enjoyable paintings are those that can be painted with abandon. It's difficult to mess up a small sketch because anything wrong can be easily fixed (the tough part is admitting there is a problem). And since they require little time and effo...