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.
Wheat Fields at Groveton Farm
by Simon Bland / 26 Jun 2014
Wheat Fields at Groveton Farm. 9x12, oil on linen panel. 2014 After a near sell out weekend with the Western Loudoun Artist Studio Tour I ventured out again on Tuesday with Loudoun Sketch Club to do some painting on location at Dresden Farm in Middleburg. I was excited to find that their hay fields ...
Tuesday's Plein Air at Innisfree Farm
by Simon Bland / 17 Jun 2014
Innisfree III. 8x10 oil on linen. 2014 Plein Air This Tuesday's outing with Loudoun Sketch Club was back to Innisfree Farm in Marshall, VA for the second week. We had a great tour of the farm in the back of a 4x4 and I got the chance to see the inside of some Purple Martin nesting boxes. This ...
Sunday Morning in the Studio
by Simon Bland / 15 Jun 2014
Innisfree Sketching: 8x10 oil on linen. 2014 For the past 6 weeks I've been getting in the studio every day at 6AM. I have 20 paintings ready to go for the WLAST studio tour and one delivered to Cooley Gallery in Leesburg, VA. With some inventory ready for the tour, this morning I felt I could affor...
Painting on Location in Marshall, VA
by Simon Bland / 10 Jun 2014
Innisfree Farm. 9x12 oil on linen. 2014 I spent this morning standing in the middle of a field at Innisfree Farm in Marshall, VA. It started out quite cloudy and overcast but by the time I was half-way through the painting the sun had come out. I laid this one down fairly quickly and did...
Waterford Gardens
by Simon Bland / 08 Jun 2014
Waterford Gardens. 12x16 oil on linen panel. 2014. I've been working on this painting for a the past month and consequently it has a thicker paint layer than usual. My starting point for this painting was a plein air study that I made a few years ago, however, in a more recent photograph I not...
A Few More Sketches and Studies for the Studio Tour
by Simon Bland / 06 Jun 2014
I've been prodigiously busy this week so I'm going to spare the effort of writing a separate post for each painting and, instead, group a few together. All the paintings will be for sale at stop #4 on the WLAST tour. Barry. 8"x6", oil on linen panel. 2014. I painted this small picture of Barr...
Rams Head
by Simon Bland / 03 Jun 2014
Ram's Head. 11x14, oil on linen. 2014 A new sketch portrait which will be for sale at the Western Loudoun Artist's Studio Tour in June. This ram is one of several I found at Willow Hawk Farm in Lovettsville. Like the sheep portrait I painted at the end of last year I decided to paint thi...
A Sketch Portrait of Shakespeare the Cat
by Simon Bland / 29 May 2014
Shakespeare. 8x10, oil on linen. 2014 Last weekend one of the patrons at Upperville Stable Tour asked me if I ever painted portraits of cats. In truth I paint about 30 dogs for every cat I attempt, although I'm not sure why there is such a great imbalance. After dwelling on this for a few days I dec...
Painting on Location in Round Hill, VA
by Simon Bland / 29 May 2014
East Lynn I. 11x14, oil on linen panel. 2014. This year's plein air painting sessions have gone very well so far, with three paintings done in three painting sessions. All of the outdoor paintings I tried at home in March and early April were a failure, so perhaps I was due for a run of better...