Steelman's Art

Trying my hand in other media

2010-06-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

Been playin' around with some pastel and acrylic work lately. Here's the result:

Loosen Up!!!

2010-01-31T12:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple pieces that I recently did with my adult watercolor class. The goal was to try and loosen up and experiment with abstractions. It was a lot of fun!

Last Post of 2009

2009-12-31T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well its been an artful year and I am thankful for my opportunities to produce and teach art nearly every day. These pieces are works that I've worked on in the past few months. I continue to produce art with the thought that at some point I will begin to market it...really not a priority at this point.

Been a while...2.0

2009-10-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

Started this blog to keep up with my artsy activites. I guess the good news is that my artsy activites have kept me really busy! Here's a few I've worked on recently. My teaching duties have kept me from painting quite as much as I would like to, but it has its own rewards, so I am happy!

Here's a few recent ones:

Been a while...

2009-08-13T18:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to post in a while, but I have been painting. The painting of the kids means a lot to me as it is a picture that has great emotional impact (to me). The other painting is a plein air piece that I painted outside the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Long Time Coming!

2009-06-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

Boy have I been ready for Summer Break! I love teaching and I'll be ready to go come August, but ending a school year is tough stuff. I have missed posting my work, but at least I have still been working. Here are a couple of pieces I've been working on. These vary wildly in style and scope, but they all accomplish a common goal; to help me grow as an artist.

Watercolor Journal

2009-03-23T04:09:00.001-07:00

I have been working out of a journal and feel very pleased with the process. The great thing about a journal is that it is a personal forum for experimentation and reflection. Sometimes process itself needs some reflection and writing about it as well as painting it out seems to be helpful. Visual art, by definition, is something produced with the purpose of being viewed by others so maybe that is why I am more reticent to expand our creative parameters on regular paper (someones going to see this mess). In my journal I am freed from this constraint, by the very nature of a journal, I can share it sure, but I can also keep it to myself! Either way, I'm having fun with it and I hope I stick to it. Here's a couple that fall into the share section; they are both of Monet.

Landscapes...hmmmm

2009-02-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

Painted this one as a demo in class last week. I do not often choose to paint landscapes so this was a bit of a challenge for me. It is my goal to introduce a lot of different things to my students and allow them to discover what they enjoy working on. It was a challenge and I almost sent it to the scrap heap a couple of times but I suppose it turned out okay; it was, at least, educational sorting out all the midvalue green that muddled me up for a while!

Grounded

2009-02-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

This painting was from a stunning reference photo on the WetCanvas Image Library (kudos to the photographer were given on WC, can't find the artist name at present). I had been looking at the work of Winslow Homer, in particular his watercolors from his time in the Bahamas and Florida, and the beachscapes of Charles Reid and began to look for a beach scene. This one really caught my eye and I gave it my best shot. This one is 12x16 on Arches cold-pressed paper. Hope you enjoy, it was a fun change of pace for me.

Garden Stroll

2009-02-09T03:26:00.000-08:00

This piece is the last of many attempts to take the ideas I've been developing based on Judy Morris' work and incorporate them into my own painting. While doing a couple of her demo's with relative success, I had been unable to work that great sense of light into my own work without it looking contrived. In "Garden Stroll" I feel that I have finally achieved a level of success that I can be pleased with. The reference photo itself was taken by Canyon Road from Wet Canvas. What caught my eye was the little gato strolling out of the courtyard like he owned the place. Almost left him out but I'm glad I decided to paint him. This is painted on 90lb Fabraino cp paper with various professional grade paints.

A Few Exercises

2009-02-03T03:02:00.000-08:00

After enjoying an unexpected Winter Break last week, I am finally able to post some new work. This work finds me in the role of a student. After reading Judy Morris' book, "Watercolor Basics; Light", I found a real connection with what this artist is trying to do. I always liked watching Bruce Neville lay down some very intentional highlights and shadows and that's one of the things that drew me to him as an instructor, so it shouldn't be suprising (to me) that Judy's work resonated with me in a similar way. What I am posting here is a result of following two of the demonstrations that Judy does in her book. I followed here method quite a bit, but still managed to infuse some of my color sensibilites into these. The bird houses are on 14 x 20 fabriano cp paper and the flower box is done of 12x16 arches cp.

Sunflowers

2009-01-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

In preparing for my class I thought it would be fun to demonstrate the same subject on different types of paper to show the different effects that papers have on a work. I chose to use the two most contrary papers in the privacy of my own studio (so no one except the cats got to hear me groan) and after much struggle I came out with two pieces that I am rather pleased with.

The bottom one is on Yupo paper, which is a synthetic paper that has no tooth and allows the paint to pool around on the surface. It is really a fun paper, but can only be used to achieve freer flowing, more abstract paintings. The top piece is on hot pressed paper which is also smooth but it absorbs the water and shows nearly every brushstroke. It is good for fine, detailed work but allows for very little "on the paper" mixing of the pigments. Hope you enjoy them.

Baby Bear

2008-12-27T09:52:00.000-08:00

This one is a fun little wc sketch of our crazy little kitten, Osito. The name means "baby bear" in Spanish and seems to be a perfect fit, as demonstrated by his tree climbing abilities. Kaily caught him in the act with a wonderful reference photo which I used to paint this one. Hope you get a good chuckle out of this one...we did.

Olga's Window

2008-12-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

This was one of about three or four ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for the last few weeks. I have not been able to lay brush to paper near as often as I would like to, so this is the only piece that made it's way out of that jumbled mess commonly referred to as my mind! It is about 14x18" painted on Fabriano cp 140lb paper. I have been testing out some new colors that were recommended to me by Char from WetCanvas, and this is my first effort with some of the new paints. Hope you like it.

Village Farm

2008-12-09T18:09:00.000-08:00

This is a piece I started last week, that I really kind of gave up on. I went ahead and posted it on WetCanvas and asked for a "no holds barred" critique and received some excellent feedback. I decided to post both the "before" and "after" pictures. Hopefully, you can tell which is which!

As I was painting this, I was thinking about my upcoming class that I will begin to teach in January. I had one of those, "do what I say and not what I do" moments. I had laid down a nice wash in the sky and it was drying nicely when I got this hair-brained idea to drop another color in. Well, that is a watercolor 101 NO-NO, but for some reason, I couldn't help myself! Oops! Of course, it had disastrous results, but overall, I feel I pulled it out rather nicely. Hope you enjoy, it is painted on Farbiano cp 140lb paper and is about 9.5" x 20". It is taken from a lovely reference photo from watercolorbill at WetCanvas.

Doorway with branches

2008-11-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

This one is based on a reference photo from "TrishaFitz2" at WetCanvas. Doug ("Yorky" from wc ) thinks I have the makings for a good series with these doorways and windows. I think I may agree, but I never really planned it that way; I guess the series found me! The painting is approximately 11X15" on 140lb Arches cp paper. Hope you enjoy.

Garden Window and more...

2008-11-18T03:54:00.001-08:00

Several things going on artistically for me these days...

Teaching is a pleasure, the kids are entertaining and love to create art, so that is going very well.

For the first time in my illustrious career, I am going to give introductory watercolor lessons to adults! This is very exciting and a bit scary at the same time. I knew this was a direction that I wanted to go, just wasn't sure when it was going to happen. Going to start this up in January, so I have been doing some research and preparation to get off to a great start!

Been doing some painting, never seems to be as much as I would like during the school year, but I am certainly not complaining. Completed a Winter scene that I am yet to post and here is a scene from warmer days, that I have titled, Garden Window. It is about 16x18" on Fabriano cp paper. Hope you enjoy; and perhaps it will warm you up a bit! ; )

Venetian Door

2008-10-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Been working on this one for a while. This is taking from a photo in the reference library of Wet Canvas by Sue Galos. I would love to say that I took the photo on my recent vacation...

...sorry, I'm back from my mental excursion. Anyway, this painting gave me a chance to brush up on painting textures which is always a nice exercise. What I am most excited about is the "negative painting" technique I used in the window grating of the window and arch above the door. I laid in all my colors that I wanted the metal to be in the entire area of the window and arch. I then painted in the dark color of the negative space (the area behind the bars) to get my "effect". Usually I lose the shape when I paint "negative shapes" because it is the opposite way of doing it. It would be like you trying to write your name by shading in all the area around the letters in your name rather than writing the actual letters. Sounds complicated...it's not, really, but it is a bit tricky. Hope you enjoy it. Painted on 12"x16" cp arches paper using mostly windsor newton paints.

Blaze of Glory or Learning From Children

2008-10-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

This painting marks the end of the paints in my butcher tray---but what a way to go!!! It was fun! I might be feeling a touch philosophical tonight, I KNOW I'm feeling blessed because I work with children; gloriously whimsical, unabashedly blunt and often downright pain in the backside children!!! Since I have been working with lower primary children I have lost all hope that I will ever make it through a day without being palmed, patted on the tummy, or shown the contents of someones nose, but hey it's a livin ! But seriously, I am sorry for the rest of humanity, who grow up, get real jobs and make real money; they often forget way too much! But then again so do I... ...Just the other day I was feeling all proud of myself for teaching a masterly lesson on primary/secondary/intermediate colors and what do I find---a group of kids tossing gobs of every color on their palette into the water bucket! I was attracted by all the "oohhhhs" and "ahhhhhhs" they were making. So of course I get mad, the little twerps were not following procedures! Hmmmm....I forgot...the magic of exploration...the wonder of childhood!Tonight I remembered! I saw all those gooey colors in the tray and thought they needed to get out of there and play around! If these little guys have taught me anything, they have taught me the value of PLAY and looking at things with fresh eyes. I want to encourage all of you to recapture some of that wonder...check out the waterbucket the first time your loaded brush hits it...see if it can make you "ohhh" and "ahhh" and play around...enjoy yourself!This was painted on who cares what size paper with doesn't matter brand paints...ENJOY

One for the lovely lady!

2008-10-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

These are for my wife. We went to a gallery opening some time back and an artist there liked to make triptychs and whatever you call four linked paintings (quadtychs !?!?!) of the same images in different seasons or views. She loved the idea and thought I might be able to do something like that. She doesn't asked for much and is very supportive of my work so I told her I could do it no problem!--I was kind of ashamed of me when I realized that it was over a year ago that she had asked--ahhhhh!) So after much delay here we are. These are small, 4"x5", just the way she wanted them---she even purchased a tiny little easel to display them (one season at a time) Didn't think I would like to work this small, but when you're pressed for time it is nice to be able to work through a piece in a short amount of time, I think I'll try more of these. This is from a reference photo that we had found in RIL but I could not find it again to credit the photographer sorry bout that!

Fall Break Paintfest

2008-10-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

We have been so blessed with an amazing Fall. It has also been "Fall Break" at school which means that we had a four day weekend to enjoy. I was able to get out a couple times to paint and I also did a little studio painting. The studio painting was fun and kind of wild---I sketched with melted crayon and laid the paint on fast and free. Here's what I came up with---hope you enjoy!

Plein Aire Paintings

2008-10-05T12:12:00.001-07:00

Had a great time this past Saturday. I attended the American Watercolor Society's traveling exhibit at the Middletown Art Center. After an inspirational browsing drove over to meet the family at King's Island. With some time on my hands, I was happy to find this wonderful old farm house sitting up on a hill begging to be painted. Hope you enjoy viewing them half as much as I enjoyed painting them.

Will Paint for Food!!!

2008-10-03T17:15:00.001-07:00

I guess this takes starving artist to the next level. Well anyone who knows me won't believe the starving part anyway! I made a deal with my sister-in-law to paint one of her favorite places in the Smoky Mtns for a nice Thai recipe book that she as been perfecting. It was give and take on the final details of the barter, but I sold out at cookbook+food!!! What a bargain! Here's the painting that sealed the deal!

SOLD!!!

2008-09-26T15:22:00.001-07:00

A few of you asked why I had not posted another blog. That's simple, really;though really, really dumb---alas, I had forgotten my user name, password, what I put as a secondary password and about everything else there is to forget! But with a breakthrough this afternoon, I am back on-line!

This has been an exciting week artistically speaking. First, I had did a demo during an event at Baker Hunt Art and Cultural Center where I took classes this summer. It was a thrill to be painting live with my instructor and talking with people about art (who actually wanted to hear me talk about art!) Then a few days later I get a call from a patron who had seen my work at the demo but had been unable to meet me. After our meeting I discovered that not only were they excited about my art, which is thrilling enough for me, but that they were in the market for some of my work as well. So here I am celebrating the first multi-painting sale of my illustrious career. So if you will allow me a, "WaHOOOOO!"

Thank you---I feel better.

Here are the four pieces they purchased:

Well, I am really not very good at this blog stuff! The pictures I planned to post here are actually at the very top part of this "blog-type-thing"

Anyway, it was really awesome to sell these and also kind of grievous to say goodbye to so many at once but the "YAY!" definitely overcomes the "AWWWWW..."

First blog

2008-08-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! I am posting my first blog. In fact, I have never even posted on anyone else's blog either---so this is quite a step for me. Why would I blog then, since I have no idea what I'm doing?
Here is the deal. After ten enjoyable years of teaching fifth grade, the art position at my school became available. My principal was kind enough to let me spread my wings and fly back to my original calling in education; art! It had been twelve years since I had been an art teacher so the move was both exciting and a little nerve rattlling!
I knew within a week that I had made the right call; it felt great to be back in the visual arts. One of the reasons I chose art education was because I have been fasinated with the artisitic habits and works of young children. It is so inspiring to hear twenty-something kindergarten students tell you that they are artists. Yeah! and besides that they can sing, dance, leap tall building in a single bound, and anything else you put in front of them. The flip side of that is that by the time these same creative daredevils hit middle school they do not feel like they can do anything!
What happens?
Where does it go?
I am working on the answers (and hopefully some solutions) to those questions, but we'll have to get back to that later.
The reason that I am pointing all this out is because I spend a great deal of time impressing upon these impressionable minds that if they are creating something---anything--then, in a very real way, they ARE artist's! So I am spending all this time talking them up as artist and it dawns on me that if I claim to be an artist then I should also be creating something. Thus, almost twenty years sincle my last prolific artistic endeavors, I pick up my brushes and watercolor pencils and renew my namesake; artist!
Now I had painted a couple commisioned pieces, worked on a couple murals with my brother, and created some work for vacation bible school, but nothing just for art's sake. Without fail, after completing one of these works I would think to myself, "Man! This is fun, I have got to get back into this gig!" but I never did. Until now...
Here is that first piece that got the ball rolling: