DA Schuster Fine Art

From My Pond

2012-02-24T11:04:00.000-05:00

I'm going through a dry spell for subject matter recently, therefore the posts have slowed down. I've been taking photos, but the hoped for snow just hasn't materialized this winter. We had a dusting last week and I got down to Morgan's Canoe Livery and got some shots that were good... you'll see some paintings from them.

I pulled out this image from the pix I took this last summer of the plants in my little water garden:

Water Hyacinth, 11x14, oil on canvas, 2012_0221

Painting with Ohio Plein Air

2012-01-29T16:42:00.000-05:00

This is the painting I chose to copy on a trip to the Cincinnati Art Museum last Saturday, January 21st, with the Ohio Plein Air group. They have "Paint Ins" each winter in the art museums in the state to avoid bad weather. I worked on: Bougival, Alfred Sisley, 1876.

Here's the original with ID tag.

Me working on my little 8x10. It was tough getting the sense of this painting pared down to such a small size. Photo courtesy of Nancy Achberger.

After four hours work, this is where the canvas was when we packed up for home.

I worked on it again, from the photos I took at the museum, at MAPs group on Monday. This is the completed painting with about an additional three and a half hours.

Last Year's Snow

2012-01-20T12:26:00.000-05:00

We've had a lack of snow to paint, so far, this year. This painting, Turtle Creek Trestle– Winter, 16x20, oil on canvas, is based on photos taken in December of 2010.

A 1920's vintage trestle that is still in use on the Indiana & Ohio Railway line between Mason and Lebanon, Ohio. Originally built by the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railroad during the 1880's, this route was controlled, then acquired by the Pennsylvania RR, until selling it to I&ORY in the 1980's. The Turtle Creek Scenic Railway out of Lebanon currently operates day trips over this line.

Gregory Creek 8– Study

2012-01-13T15:33:00.000-05:00

Just completed study for the eighth in the Gregory Creek Series. Still deciding on sizes for the full scale paintings, but they will probably be 16x20's. I worked on this study over several of the Mason Area Painter's sessions and touched it up yesterday. I now have two of these 8x10's that can be framed as a pair.

Last Post of the Year

2011-12-29T12:13:00.001-05:00

With 2011 drawing to a close, I'm finishing with a painting from the Reserves Park series. This is Evening– Reserves Park 7, 16x20, oil on canvas and the fourth in the series painted this year. Perhaps earlier in the evening than others in this series, this on concentrates on long cast shadows and the warming effects of the setting sun. Warm greens, oranges and golds against the warming horizon line. Even the tree branches and trunks are picking up the warmer tones as the sun goes down.

Seasonal Adjustments 3

2011-12-08T17:04:00.000-05:00

The third and probably last in this series of paintings from photos taken this Fall at Morgan's Canoe Livery, Ft. Ancient: Seasonal Adjustment 3, 16x20, oil on canvas. This is just a small portion, but in this scene you can get some sense of the number of canoes rented from this location during warmer weather.

Morgan's is located on the flood plain some 250 ft. below the bluffs that contain one of the best known prehistoric native american sites in the country. Ft. Ancient is a complex of high earthen embankments ringing what is thought to be a ceremonial space enclosing 100 acres. Constructed during the Hopewell period (1st Century BC-6th Century AD) the walls stretch some 3.5 miles.

House Commission 6

2011-12-03T11:37:00.000-05:00

This is a recently completed house commission of 4909 93rd Street, Lubbock, TX, 12 x 16, oil on canvas.

Figure from Life

2011-11-21T21:16:00.000-05:00

Our painting group had Ellen, a good friend of ours from Gallery 42, in today as a figure model. This was the first time since college (a long time ago) that I painted from life. I've done a fair number of pencil drawings and sketches recently, but no paintings. This was today's effort: MAPs Figure 1, oil on canvas panel, 8x10. Hope we can talk the folks in the group to have more models in the future!

More Seasonal Adjustments

2011-11-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

I couldn't pass up this stack of canoes at Morgan's Ft. Ancient Livery. The dappled sunlight from the thinning trees and masses of intense red, blue and yellow against the fading fall color. They must have more than 200 canoes stacked up for winter at this location, just one of the three the Morgans (www.morganscanoe.com) operate.

Seasonal Adjustments

2011-11-03T12:52:00.000-04:00

I feel winter coming on and the above title applies to this 11" x 14", oil on canvas. The colorful canoes are on the ground and some are as gray as the trees will be in January. The constant rains have kept the grass green and the river too high to be safe, lapping at gravel at the very top of the launch ramp. The parking lot is chained and everyone gone home, hopefully to a warm fireplace.

Yankee Road 5

2011-10-27T08:53:00.000-04:00

Wishing for a warmer, sunny day, here is recently completed Yankee Road 5, 8" x 10", oil on canvas panel. Another view from Yankee Road north of Linn Road in Liberty Township.

Evening– Reserves Park 6

2011-10-14T17:14:00.000-04:00

Evening– Reserves Park 6

16 x 20, oil on canvas, 10/2011

Painted at home, at painting group and at the Performance Lexus Celebrates the Arts event. The latest in the Reserves Park Series, the photo here doesn't do it justice at all. Once uploaded, the image has gone flat, with all the midtones brighter than the original. Oh well, guess you'll have to see it in person the next time I display my work!

Above Mt. Adams

2011-10-07T11:05:00.000-04:00

I finally got back out with the Southwest Ohio Plein Air group again yesterday afternoon and evening. You couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. We were painting in Mt. Adams in Cincinnati and I was looking at all the elevation it afforded. The fall color is just starting to come in the trees. I hope it will hang around long enough to allow some painting time. We had such a dry spell this summer, I don't know if it will...

This is a 9" x 12" oil on canvas panel of The Church of the Immaculata. One of the prominent landmarks of Mt. Adams.

Across From Paxton's

2011-10-06T12:02:00.000-04:00

This little 8 x 10 painting has been hanging in Paxton's Restaurant in Loveland since the wet paint sale at the end of the Loveland Paintout in June. It didn't sell, so it's been on display with other paintings that suffered the same fate. I just picked it up from there this week and finally got a photo I could post.

The One That Started It All

2011-10-01T11:34:00.000-04:00

Looking through my inventory records and comparing them to my postings, I found that I've never shown this painting here. It's Beckett Ponds 1, a 24" x 36" oil on canvas painted in August of 2008. I guess I really can't say I haven't shown it, the header for this blog is a cropped portion of the painting.

I hope to have some new work to put up soon. I have the Hyde Park Art Show on Sunday and a painting demo event on Thursday at a local Lexus dealer. If the painting from there works out, it will be the next up.

Plein Air Loveland

2011-09-21T15:43:00.001-04:00

It's been a hectic month so far in September, with Featured Artist at the Pendleton, Mason Arts festival and starting a part-time job. The hours for my job are landing on my regular paint group days, so that knocks out the work I usually get done there...

I went out with Barb Pask (http://wwwlovetopaint.blogspot.com/) to Lovland and we painted between the raindrops two weeks ago. This is a little cottage along the bike path that was built on the railroad right-away through the town. Appropriately enough, it's on Railroad Avenue.

Findlay Market

2011-09-11T16:00:00.000-04:00

This is a 9 x 12 plein air painting I started while out with the SWOPA group in early August and didn't quite finish. I hoped to get back down to Findlay Market to complete it, but my schedule didn't allow. I completed it last week at Mason Area Painters.

The last remaining of the nine public market buildings in Cincinnati, this facility was originally built in 1852 and remodeled over the years. You can find more information about Findlay Market and Cincinnati's other market buildings at: http://www.findlaymarket.org/market-history/

Yankee Road 4

2011-08-31T22:19:00.000-04:00

If you're taking Yankee Road up to Middletown for the First Friday/Second Look Saturday, look for these trees on the edge of a farm field, on the left just past Lynn Road. Two old maples that might not last too much longer.

SWOPA at Hyde Park

2011-08-26T15:52:00.000-04:00

This Thursday was the second time I've painted "en plein air" at Hyde Park Square in Cincinnati this summer. Less people in the square this time (not a Sunday Farmer's Market) and the weather was cooperating. See my previous post on June 12 for my rendition with some of the folks enjoying the Kilgore Fountain.

SWOPA Thursday

2011-08-20T20:20:00.000-04:00

This "View from Fernbank" (9x12, oil on canvas panel) is of the Northern Kentucky shore. Fernbank Riverside Park is in Saylor Park, Ohio and was the site of one of the "Great Steps." A series of dams as aids to navigation, started in the early 1900's and finished in 1929. Most all, including Fernbank, were destroyed by the great 1937 flood.

Gregory Creek 7– Study

2011-08-19T10:57:00.000-04:00

This 8x10, oil on canvas panel started as a demo on blocking in darks, background trees and sky for a art lesson. I completed it Monday at the Mason Area Painters group. I'll probably work this up on a larger canvas in the future and with this painted on a lesser quality canvas panel, showing some "holidays" (unpainted canvas showing through), I consider it a study.

Trumpet Flowers 4

2011-08-12T21:22:00.000-04:00

The next small painting in the Trumpet Flower Series, this 8x10 is oil on canvas to match Trumpet Flowers 3.

Milford Paint Out

2011-08-07T16:24:00.000-04:00

I spent the day on Saturday at Ohio Plein Air Society's Milford, Ohio Paint Out. Painters from all over Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky come out for this event and there were about 25 artists. I didn't paint in town this year. Instead, I went out to farmstead within the city limits and painted this c. 1820s house.

What really drew my attention was the large tree stump in the foreground of the painting. It was about 7-8 feet in diameter and 10-15 feet tall. This Maple must have been 100-125 feet tall, when standing. What looks like re-growth of the same tree, is really a different species growing from seed in a hollow of the stump.

I was lucky enough to find someone else that also liked this scene. A kind lady from Milford purchased this painting at the wet paint sale that concluded the day.

Plein Air Alms Park

2011-08-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

Continuing SWOPA's tour of regional parks, this is a painting of "Pavilion– Alms Park", 9x12, oil on canvas panel.

Overlooking the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood in eastern Cincinnati, this park sits on the hill's brow with views up and down the Ohio River and Lunken Airport. The pavilion is built from local limestone and is very appropriately Tuscan in flavor.

Trumpet Flowers 3

2011-08-04T12:30:00.000-04:00

I'm going out to paint with the SWOPA group this afternoon at Alms Park in Cincinnati, but before I do that, I wanted to finish this 8x10, oil on canvas.

The Trumpet Flower Series is a group of paintings that are like close-ups from the Fence Row Series. I started painting these trumpet flowers just after doing some research for one of my stained glass windows. They are a native species to this region and can be found climbing over fence rows and up telephone poles out in the rural areas around here. The humming birds love them and they bloom for an extended period, from about mid-June till the end of August.