Sunday, April 13, 2008

landscapes

Some recent landscapes.  All are started outdoors and finished in the studio.  Critiques are very welcome.  Oil on canvas on board.

"fenced"
12 x 20"


"division"
20 x 18"


"the ancients"
17.5 x 22"


"watchers"
16 x 20"


14 comments:

Geary Day said...

yep this is what im talkin about..really nice stuff..i didn't think it was possible for you to get any better at these, you've really pushed it..are they all plein air? well the color and mood in all of them are pretty incredible and the compositions of course..i need to see these in person..keep painting man..always eager to see more

danny robbins said...

Thanks Geary. All of them are started en plein air and finished in the studio later. I take a picture when I'm out painting and use it as a black and white reference when I'm in the studio. At that point the color is done entirely from memory.

Andrew R. Wright said...

There is nothing better than a good landscape in my book... and these fit the bill! Judging from the size you said they are, I would love to see these in person. Paintings always seem to lose something when shrunk down and made digital. I can only imagine what they look like in person with these being so strong on here.

I do see two VERY nit-picky things. I emphasize the nit-picky-ness (if thats even a word).

On the first painting the tree branches in the background seem to be painted a little heavy handed. They could possibly be either softened or have a thinner softer line, which you are doing in the third painting, and in my opinion, makes it a stronger painting. There is more variation in the type of stroke in the third painting, yet in the first painting all of the strokes seem very similar.

The second of the nit-picks is the color. Do not get me wrong, I truly admire the color in all of these, a: because of the atmosphere the color harmony creates (especially in the second one! Damn, I really feel like I can walk into that space.) and b: the mood they create, which I feel is that gloomy period in between winter and spring. With that being said, it looks like you can push the color further, taking what is given and then really bringing it to its limits. Take the third painting for instance. It seems like the perfect opportunity to really push the warm to cool effect that distance and atmosphere gives a landscape. I can see it happening a little bit in the far trees but I kind of wish it would be even more severe so the landscape would just dissapear into the sky.

Again man, I really dig these paintings! Hopefully that feedback made some sense. I tend to ramble. Seeing these gets me stoked to get back to plein air. Thesis has been cutting into painting time and Florida landscapes get incredibly boring after awhile. New York will hopefully solve that problem...

Can't wait to see more!!

Staffan said...

This is just so wonderful, first of all your paintings are exeptional, very strong colors and you've got such a delicate scence of form and mood. Lovley. Second - I luurve it that you post pencil sketches and drawings too, man I thought I'd never see any of those again. Your old sketchbook thread at CA is definitely one of the very reasons I started pursuing art so I'm thrilled to see some new sketchbook work. Thanks for starting this blog. As for the crits - I'm a total noob next to you which makes it hard for me to see anything wrong in these. I had one question though. When you studied anatomy on your own a couple of years back; where did you find all the reference? I mean for the muscles and bones. Please feel free to give away some of your sorces. ,)
Anyways, take care! I'll be checking in regularely.
/tigermilk

asdf said...

ah great stuff danny. i really like the third one that you started at maymont that day. the palette is really nice.

Jeffrey Alan Love said...

Your stuff always gives me a kick in the ass. Inspirational, coach.

Vikki Chu said...

wow, these are amazing. There is so much atmosphere in these. they seem a lot bigger than the actual dimensions.

Leslie Herman said...

Awesome work man, it's always inspiring to see some new pieces from you. I like how your finishing them practically from memory, that will give them a little more of a personal touch. Give me a call one time when you're going out painting, I've been yearning to get back into doing these and I really need to try and go a couple of times before I head to the Academy in the summer. I'll be looking forward to seeing some more work...Talk to you soon.

Kali Ciesemier said...

Wow, it's awesome to hear that you paint the color from memory...that seems like a really interesting process! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your art, it's enjoyable to see a more fine-art approach to things, and i'm anticipating this drawing/painting hybrid you mentioned on my blog. Good luck with it, great work! (and I updated! ha!)

Robogabo said...

Hey Daniel, all these are great, the brushwork and flow is very good, and also i can see they are key with the color light, for critique, there is an area on the painting "division", the middle left area at the end of a branch it has a dark circle on top of a light circle, and is all surrounded by dark color, it grabs attention that is unnecesary, and is too symetrycal, grabs my eyes even on the thumbnail preview, that's all :-)

Great play of temperatures also, and your sketchbook pages always as impressive as i remember.

Looking forward to new updates, and the best wishes.

danny robbins said...

Thanks for the comments guys (and girl).

andrew - I agree with both critiques. Lately I've been trying to separate myself more from the natural colors I see when I'm out painting; both to create paintings with a more personal color palette and to enhance the mood I'm trying to convey in each piece. You're going to have so much to paint when you get back to upstate NY. I'm jealous.

staffan - great to have you stop by. The anatomy books I studied were "Anatomy for the Artist" by Jeno Barcsay and "Artistic Anatomy" by Robert Hale (the better of the 2 books).

Leslie - totally.

gabo - hey dude! Critique noted, and I'm glad to see you stopping by.

Richie Pope said...

About time you get a blog man! Yeah, the cropping of the trees is really nice in these paintings. It makes it more visually interesting than if you included the whole tree. Keeps the eye moving. Good work maaaaaaan...I need to start painting more.

Anonymous said...

i was on my porch and i saw these two trees that totally reminded me of your painting -division- than it hit me. drawing the leaves would have been impractical. especially assuming your drawings are studies for painting, and i am finding the more detail does not necessarily = better painting
I definitely agree with Mr. wright, the different use of brush strokes in my ("noob")opinion makes the paintings more interesting leads you in and around. in fenced i just feel led back, but at the same time... it is a fence. so maybe its intentional?
ok im done rambling, thank you again for your help! cant wait to see what summertime looks like!

sonja moser said...

Daniel, how splendid to have stumbled across your blog. truly glorious landscape pieces, eliciting a strong emotional response. i love your sense of space and the generous freedom in your compositions. beautiful work. look forward to be continuously enthralled. sonja