Sabino Canyon Oil Painting

Sabino Canyon in Tucson is an amazing landscape that is filled with  huge boulders and lots of running water at various times of the year.  It is a rugged place and a favorite spot for day hikers in Tucson.

I painted this oil painting from a photograph that I took while on a paint out with the Tucson Plein Air Painters Society.  I like how the palette knife gives these rocks a lot of dimension.  I paint a lot of paintings with a palette knife and really like the expressive qualities that it lends a painting. Purchase this painting here.

      

 

 

  

Fall Cottonwoods

Welcome to my Daily Painting project. During the next 100 days, I'll be posting 100 oil paintings to my website and blog. These paintings are 6x8 inches in size and can be securely purchased through PayPal through my website for 125.00 with free shipping in the United States.

"Fall Cottonwoods" is the first painting of this series. This painting was done plein air with a palette knife in the Tanque Verde Wash in Tucson, AZ. I work with a palette knife and brush. Sometimes together. Sometimes separately. I just do what works at the time. Purchase "Fall Cottonwoods" here http://rogeralderman.com/works/377563

I like to work large outdoors so this will be quite a challenge for me paint in these smaller sizes. I may paint a larger painting and then do a 6x8 of a slightly different composition. If I do, I'll post both of these paintings to this blog.

I'll be doing a lot these paintings plein air with weather and time permitting. I'll also be working from photographs from my travels and posting studies of larger gallery paintings.

I'll be keeping my newletter subscribers informed of these paintings as they post on a regular basis. Please join my Newsletter Group to receive these updates. Join Newletter Group here
http://rogeralderman.com/email-newsletter

Contemporary Impressionism by Roger Alderman


Dear Family, Friends, and Collectors,

I am happy to send you my first newsletter from Roger Alderman Fine Art. This newsletter is published on a quarterly basis and will bring you new pictures, insights and career milestones.

I am pleased to announce that Jane Hamilton Fine Art now represents my work in Tucson, AZ. Jane has a great gallery and is carrying my contemporary landscapes. Jane and I are both happy that my new work has been well received and she has sold two paintings in my first thirty days at the gallery. OK, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Here are a couple of examples of the work she is carrying. These are also the two paintings she has sold. You can check out her gallery and my other available work at Jane Hamilton Fine Art Gallery.















Many of you who know me and have followed my career know that I have a history of painting outdoors en plein air (fancy French term for painting outside in the open air) in an impressionistic style and then exhibiting that type of work in art galleries and show venues.


What many of you don’t know is that in the past few years, I have added a new dimension to my plein air work and I am now producing in my studio a large scale, contemporary impressionistic style of work, that sometimes borders on abstraction. I do these paintings on gallery wrap canvas. This is a canvas that is 1 ½ inches thick and the painting continues around the edge of the canvas and is ready to hang unframed.
















These paintings are bright, colorful and are done in a more modern style. I paint them with a palette knife in lieu of brushes and they are heavily textured. I tend to work in a series and right now I am focused on aspen trees. I began to take a serious approach to painting aspen trees while living in Northern Nevada in the 90’s. The Ruby Mountain Range was a great source of inspiration and the subject of many plein air landscapes. Many of the paintings that I am producing today come from those days in the Ruby Mountains and also trips to Nevada’s Great Basin National Park.

Also, I would like to announce that I am exhibiting work in the Pima Arts Council Open Studio Tour on November 8th and 9th. This is an annual event where artists living in the city limits of Tucson are opening their studios for a weekend. It is a great tour with food, entertainment and lots of great art. You can log onto their website for more details at Tucson Pima Arts Council. I’ll be exhibiting work at Acacia Alder’s studio (my sister whose is also an artist). Every family needs at least two artists, or was it a doctor and a lawyer?

If I have your postal address, you will receive and invitation to the studio tour in the mail. I will also send out an email reminder as the time approaches. However, if you would like to receive an invitation and to be sure that I have your address, please go to my website and sign up for the newsletter, or send me an email with your address.

If you received this newsletter in “snail mail” it is because I do not have your email address. If you have an email address it would be helpful to me if you would go to my website at Roger Alderman Fine Art and sign up for the newsletter. Should you not wish to receive these updates on Roger Alderman Fine Art, please go to my contact page on my website and check the box to be unlisted.

I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter. I am trying to build a larger audience for my work. My success in this adventure will be helped if you would please forward this newsletter to family and friends on your mailing list. I would greatly appreciate it and thank you for your interest and support.

Roger Alderman

Painting Large Outdoors Demonstration

This is the completed painting " Fall in Canelo", 24x30, oil painting with a few studio corrections. Most of this painting was completed outdoors. I did a few minor touchups to the buildings in the background. The less you can do in the studio the fresher your painting will look. When you paint outdoors you are painting with your emotions. When you are correcting in the studio you are painting with your intellect. It is possible to paint the life out of a painting very quickly. Less is always more.

At this stage, I am painting with a small sable brush to paint in the dark accent colors and refine the drawing. I continue to paint the sky so I can paint the tree over the sky to keep the color clean. It is very difficult to paint the sky around a tree. I am also developing my center of interest with highlights, strong accents and color.

I work in the beginning with a loose middle tone block in emphazing color and brushwork. I separate the dark shadow areas from the light areas.

I work on a white untoned canvas and do a minimal color sketch. I like the canvas to show through in small areas. Toning a canvas tends to dull down color and can lead to a lot of too dark colors. Most of the time, I begin with just a pencil sketch and go right to the block in with thick paint and skip any transparent washes.

This is my setup on location. I recently purchased a Gloucester style easel made popular by Emile Gruppe and now manufactured by http://www.takeiteasel.com/. I built a 16x20 paint box with a plexiglass palette to have a larger working surface. This easel will handle a canvas 48" on a side.