Stewart Jones Art

This is one of my recent commissions. The photo reference was sent by a patron on one of his recent trips to Seattle. He previously owned his own farmers market business so I guess he was amazed at how large the Produce & Vegetable market was in Seattle. He also sent me a photo of a Seafood Market in Seattle so I will do that painting at a later date. I usually paint from my own photos but occasionally I will paint from someone else's photo if there is no way for me to take photos. When I work from my photos I usually take multiple photos at different angles and I can also take close up details of different sections. Then when I get into the studio I can spread out all the photos and take a little information from each photo to compose the painting. Sometimes I might take multiple photos and make a composition on the computer before I proceed to create the painting. I feel like I can taste the produce in this painting of Pike's Place, don't you?  SOLD

I enjoy painting buildings, especially churches. Over the years I have painted many churches as wedding gifts, anniversaries and for other reasons. It is easy to connect with a church you belong to or one that you may have been married in. This week I was asked to paint the All Souls Catholic Church in Sanford. It is to be the wedding gift for the husband from the bride. I went on Tuesday morning to see when the lighting would be the best to photograph and paint the church. When I got there I realized the best time to do a painting of the church was right then. It was late morning and I wanted to get in the shadows before the sun was behind the front of the church. I immediately found my favorite angle and began drawing the church. The base color of the front of the subject and the shadows were one of the first things I painted. I found that there was a nice selection of flowers and crape myrtles in bloom in the landscaping for me to add into the painting. I came back the next morning...

I have always enjoyed painting barns, especially barns from the Northern United States. I did this painting as a demonstration for my Introduction to Watercolor class. The painting has a lot in it for the beginning student so it was a great learning demo. We learned a lot that day. Skies, trees in the distance as well as close up, a pasture and a simple barn to complete the composition. This scene came from a trip I took to Wisconsin one year. Often; when I travel, I drive off into the country with a camera and take photos of scenes I would like to paint when I get back home. It only took me six years to finally get around to painting this scene. Don't you sometimes feel the need to get back to the country?