A Blog About Oil Painting
Welcome to my blog. Here you'll find me rambling on about all sorts of things related to art in general and oil painting in particular. There's even a recipe for dog cookies hidden away somewhere.
Like the rest of the site, this section is still a work in progress and I will be making it tider and easier to navigate in time. There is a lot of content, so using the buttons below may help you to get around. Newest posts are shown first.
Return to Rock Spring Farm
by Simon Bland / 22 Aug 2015
Rock Spring Pond (plein air). 7x5, oil on linen panel. 2015 This small sketch was done in an impressionistic style with a very compressed value range. It was a humid, overcast day and there was no strong light. To avoid creating a somber mood I keyed the painting off the darks in the trees which I s...
Small Abstract Landscape
by Simon Bland / 14 Aug 2015
Meadow Grove Pond (Abstract). 8x10, oil on linen panel. 2015. This little painting is based on a plein air painting I did at Meadow Grove Farm late in July. Actually, it's painted directly on top of the old painting. The new painting is done in two layers: a fairly dull layer where I created colors ...
Setting Up for an Event
by Simon Bland / 14 Aug 2015
This post is a regurgitated email that I sent to a friend yesterday. If you're thinking of starting to sell your artwork at events, I've tried to provide a list of the things you'll need. To start, here's my display set up (this is from an event I did in May 2014): You can see that I've been lucky ...
Painting at Rock Spring Farm
by Simon Bland / 11 Aug 2015
Rock Spring Farm (plein air). 10x8, oil on linen panel. 2015. Today's paint out was at Rock Spring Farm which is right in the center of Leesburg, VA. It's a great location and there was no shortage of material to paint. so naturally I settled on painting a window on the old house - I thin...
Molly Part 3: The Final Layers
by Simon Bland / 11 Aug 2015
Molly. 14x11, oil on linen panel. 2015 This is the painting of Molly nearly finished. I've taken a break from it for a day or so to rest my eyes and I'll put some finishing touches on it when this layer is dry, although I don't think it needs much. With a nearly full monochromatic block-...
Molly Part 2: The Block In
by Simon Bland / 10 Aug 2015
Molly Block In. 14x11, oil on linen. 2015 This morning I did the block-in for the portrait of Molly. I used a mixture of terra rosa and raw umber applied thinly on an un-toned panel. I will let this dry and then tone the panel before starting the final layers of the painting. I don't usua...
Molly Part 1: Starting With a Low Quality Photograph
by Simon Bland / 07 Aug 2015
Value Design for Molly. Charcoal on a 1/2 sheet of Canson. Artists who take commissions often get asked to work from photos that are a little off and I've seen more than my fair share of cellphone pics taken at night, or prints taken from 50 yards away with a disposable film camera. I'm usually relu...
More Painting at One Trick Farm
by Simon Bland / 04 Aug 2015
Today we returned to One Trick Farm for the second of our two outings there. Fortune smiled on me and I managed to get two small paintings done. White Barn (plein air). 8x10, oil on linen panel. 2015 The first painting I did is of some fields and a barn that were technically on a neighboring ...
Elvis
by Simon Bland / 02 Aug 2015
Elvis. 20x16, oil on linen. 2015. About two weeks ago I thought I was nearly finished with this painting (after a couple of earlier re-starts) when I realized that the overall color scheme wasn't working. I went back and redesigned the whole thing over again. The figure turned out to be mostly...