I need a title!

Just finished this 16x20" painting of a beach in Naples, Florida. Please post any title ideas you may have. Funny how in this photo, the sky looks very cerulean, when I only used cobalt with a little bit of ultramarine. 

Commission

Started work on a commission for Christmas. Above is the 2x3" pencil sketch 

based on elements from two photos provided by the client. 

The 6x8" oil study on paper. 

The finished piece, 16x20".

Chrome!

Just finished this yesterday, for a 5 person show in February. Or is it January?

Atlanta

These are the 2 demonstration paintings I did at the Atlanta workshop. I really want to paint that train station again. Bigger! (and without 16 people looking over my shoulder : )

2012 Calendar

Be the first on your block to get the new 2012 Timothy Horn painting calendar now available

http://www.zazzle.com/timothy_horn_paintings_2012_calendar-158128428986537266

If you're local, stop by my studio and save the $5 shipping.

Nags Head, NC

These are photos from a 4-day workshop in Nags Head, and this was our first painting location.

The finished demo painting. (sold)

This was probably my favorite location, but it was pretty windy towards the end -- lots of sand in my paint.

More France

Here are some photos from the France trip. This building was about a block from our hotel. If I had not been teaching, this is the first thing I would have painted.

Our day off bike ride (wine tour).

The Bleau Note -- one of our favorite hangouts just a couple blocks from our hotel.

Lunch in Chateau Neuf(?) an awesome hill top town with a serious castle. I was a little obsessed with that old green car in the background. I waited for hours till it finally had some sun on it, then took maybe 20 photos from all angles. I will definitely be painting it.

More Chateau Neuf views.

Another chateau we stumbled upon during our bike ride.

Painting after lunch in Pommard.

We did some wine tasting in the cellar of this amazing chateau. Definitely a highlight for me. Oh and the wine was pretty good too.

France!!!

Just got back from teaching a 6-day workshop in Burgundy France. We had a small group of 8 students, all from the U.S. We stayed in Beaune and made 3 day trips to nearby towns for painting. We had unbelievably perfect weather. Grapes were harvested about 3 weeks prior to our arrival, but there was still plenty of wine left.

This was the demo I did on the first day, just a couple blocks from our hotel.

Day One 8x10"

We painted in a busy square with lots of tourists walking around, looking over our shoulders.

Cottage with Car 6x8"

While in the little town of Pommard, I found an old blue mini truck like thing that I was so excited to paint. 5 minutes after I sat down and started sketching it out, the owner got in and drove away. So the next day I tried again, getting this car near the church in Volnay.  I like the shape made by the rear window wiper. It seemed like 95% of all the cars on the road were little tiny fuel efficient cars. A nice change from the super-sized American cars.

Red Car  6x8" sold

I did this little painting of an alley on our second morning in Volnay.

6x6" sold

This was a demonstration painting I did in a beautiful small hilltop town (who's name I forget) The flowers were the challenge in this one, and getting the hill to go back. As the group was standing around watching, the guy who's front yard we were standing in, came out with a bottle of wine and glasses for everyone. I think it was about 10:30 in the morning -- a perfect time to start drinking again.

Yellow Flowers  9x12" 

This is the view from the main square in Volnay which many of the students painted. We liked it so much we came back to this town twice to paint. One of our students set up just past those 2 houses and painted the view of a beautiful old church nearby. At the end of the day some local guy came out with a very nice bottle of wine and glasses for us. (that's the beauty of hanging out in small towns!)

Vineyard View 9x12" sold

This was the last painting I did -- also in Volnay. I love the challenge of trying to get the distant blue hills. One of the students bought this painting, but hasn't picked it up yet. I'm thinking of filling in the gap in the big cast shadow, but I'll need to clear it with him first. It's kind of a weird shape and is distracting from the view. I think it would be simpler and stronger without it.

Red Sign 8x10" sold

This was one of my favorites from the week. The group was small enough that i was able to do a little bit of painting while everyone else was painting too, without neglecting them too much. I did this in a total of about 40 minutes, stopping twice to circulate around to everyone's easel. I like the overall simplicity and the negative space of the sky shape.

Volnay Chimney 6x8" NFS 

Workshop demo

Just taught a 3-day workshop in Tomales last weekend. Really good group of 12 students. This is the demonstration painting I did the first day from a photo. (sold)

Airstream with bike

Here are some progress shots of a painting I did last week. It's a bit on the larger side for me at 24x30". Sometimes they come together slowly and with difficulty, this one however came together painlessly and  fairly quickly in just 2 days. It's from a photo I took while in Missoula in July.

After I quickly block in the drawing and shapes with a thin wash of ultramarine, I start laying in the darks, and establishing the shadow areas.

Once the shadows are in, I start blocking in some of the lighter shapes, still using very thin washes of paint. At this stage I work quickly and try to keep things loose while maintaining the sense of light established early on.

I used different blues for the sky and the sky reflected in the trailer. At this point I could see that I had made the front wheel on the bike too small, which is easily corrected when working in thin washes during the early stages. I also saw that I was going to have a problem separating the rider's head from the background. She was wearing a dark brown shirt, had dark brown hair and her head was against a dark grey window. 

I was pretty happy with how things were coming along and started to be a little more careful, not wanting to mess it up. I was also trying to maintain the sense of looseness and energy in the brushwork, something that I find difficult when working larger.

I took one of my wife's hats and put it on a post in the backyard and photographed it being careful to match the light direction in the rest of the painting. The straw colored hat helped not only to separate the figure from the background, but also to add another note of color to the painting.

At this point, I started concentrating on the light, reevaluating value relationships while adding highlights and other lighting details, trying to make it feel like the intensely bright, sunny day it was.

I continued to refine some of the shapes and work on the lighting details, while also applying thicker layers of paint in the sky and pavement.

The final painting does not have quite as much color as some of my other work, but I was pleased with the sense of light. I had been eyeing this trailer for days, getting out of my car several times to take photos, but I just couldn't figure out how to make the scene work as a painting. Then on my 5th visit, while standing there with my camera, scratching my head, I saw a woman approach on a bike. I raised my camera and waited till she was directly in front of me and released the shutter. I wasn't crazy about the house in the background, but decided to leave it, and really just focus on playing up the trailer and cyclist.

Nicasio

I started this painting as a demo in my Friday afternoon class last week. I went back today and finished it. It's a little easier to concentrate when I don't have 8 people watching.

In the just out September issue of Southwest Art, there's an interview with Paula Holtzclaw who mentions that she'd like to own one of my paintings. But what's even more flattering is that she mentions my name in the same sentence with Scott Christensen! (there must be some mistake)

http://www.southwestart.com/articles-interviews/artist-studios/artists-studio-paula-b-holtzclaw

Paint from the past - this is from 2001 I think, about 18x24" maybe. I always liked this scene -- such an unusual combination of elements. I think if I were to paint it now, the water would be a lot looser and softer.

Just finished this commission set at Ocean Beach in San Francisco -- 22x29"

Here's the 6x8" oil study

And here's the original pencil drawing from my sketch book.