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.
Rain Over Winslow
by Simon Bland / 14 Dec 2016
Rain Over Winslow. 6x10, oil on linen panel. 2016. As the pile of sketches in my studio can attest, trying to paint the Puget Sound in winter is a recipe for failure. Studio or plein air, it's especially hard to do because there's so little to actually build a painting around. The only thing that br...
Embracing Tonal Impressionism
by Simon Bland / 13 Dec 2016
In this blog post I discuss a painting done in a tonal impressionism style to see where it could be improved and compare it with a similar painting by Charles Warren Eaton. ...
A Light Display Over The Kitsap Peninsula
by Simon Bland / 13 Dec 2016
Dancing With the Light. 6x10, oil on linen panel. 2016 There is something particularly special about the light in winter in the Pacific Northwest. There are many days when the sky is completely overcast and the day is totally gray, yet sometimes the air is clear and the clouds race across th...
Painting Experiences Rather Than Things
by Simon Bland / 05 Dec 2016
Impressions of the Sunset. 5x7, oil on linen panel. 2016 Despite the obvious challenges, I really enjoy painting from less-than-perfect references. Having to bring something extra to the easel makes the result feel more like a personal statement than a slavish copy of an image. Here, I filled in the...
How Can I Make My Own Oil Painting Mediums?
by Simon Bland / 29 Nov 2016
Some recipes and methods for making your own oil painting mediums....
Some Fall Studies - Exploring Color in the Fall Landscape
by Simon Bland / 03 Nov 2016
Fall Study I. 5x10, oil on linen panel. 2016 Fall Study 2. 5x10, oil on linen panel. 2016 These are a couple of studies I've done to explore some ideas for a new painting. I'm trying to create something that will fit a frame that's currently on an older, unsold work. Since I had some opportunity to...
How Do I Paint a Fishing Boat?
by Simon Bland / 01 Nov 2016
Blue Pacific (study). about 6x10, oil on linen. 2016 The Fisherman's Terminal in Seattle is potential goldmine of artistic opportunity but the imagery is hard to capture when working on location. A painting partner described it as "the black diamond slope of plein air painting". The problem is...
Lupine Meadow From a Study
by Simon Bland / 27 Oct 2016
Lupine Meadow. 9x12, oil on linen panel. 2016 This is another painting that I've done from one of the "sketch marathon" set of studies. I put this one off for a while as I wanted to work on something larger that I thought would be more interesting. However, that one turned out to be a scraper while ...
North Bluff From a Study
by Simon Bland / 23 Oct 2016
North Bluff. 9x12, oil on linen. 2016 In the early summer I worked on a series of sketches and studies, trying to complete one or two small paintings every day over the course of a month. In addition to using them as a learning exercise, my original goal was to eventually turn some of them into larg...