Stewart Jones Art

At the last paint out I participated in, I saw this scene that I found very dramatic. I have liked the idea of painting vertical subjects and I find alleys interesting. The strong vertical lines of the buildings and the one point perspective brings the viewer into the frame and takes you right to the vanishing point on the horizon. In the front of the composition, the bright red flowers also lead you down to the vanishing point, which in this painting is the center of interest. Most of the buildings are in shade except the building on the left so I painted a cool shadow color on them and mixed a little warm color into the shadow color. A few strokes of shadow across the road at the bottom help to tie together the buildings and the road. Don't you think flowers make a great painting subject when tied in with architecture?

A few leaves have fallen off the trees and lay amongst the rocks. The is one of my paintings which shows the hard textures of rocks and the delicate leaves that have fallen from the trees. This painting was a study of how to paint rounded rocks that lay in a stream bed. Also a study of painting leaves. I liked how the differences in shapes and colors made the leaves appear to be on a different plane. The rocks were painted with sprinkles of salt, spritzes of water and a little touch of a natural sponge. I think this is a pretty interesting composition and the subject is a little different than a typical landscape. let me know what you think about this painting.

Before I traveled to Jacksonville for my recent paintout I stopped over in New Smyrna, FL. I will be doing a paintout there in November called the Canaveral Seashore Paintout . I have always wanted to visit a place called Spruce Creek that is just north of New Smyrna so I stopped there along the way. I found my best vantage point was from the top of a bird watching tower. It was pretty quiet there. Only a few other visitors found the tower as it is about a 1/4 mile walk from the parking lot. I carried my gear up the stairs (about 50 feet high) From there I could see all around. This is the view I found I liked the most with the winding creek to push you back into the painting. The marsh contains many colors in the grasses and weeds. I enjoyed watching the birds from the top of the tower as I painted.