Sometimes I have to turn away from a current series and do something completely different. Today it was black and white cityscape day. We have been to London three times in the last two years, renting a flat for a week with friends, then traveling on. Last fall it was a week in the Cotswolds. Loved!
Driving around central Iowa during the early harvest and you often will find a group, a grumble, or a chattering of starlings in the fields.
I recently added the birds to this painting, which was earlier posted as Early Corn. This version is much more desirable to be around.
41×29 oil on Rivas BFK paper
This is a new support and a new process I am experimenting with. MJ Harding non-absorbent primer and paint on Rives BFK paper.
This is fifth in a series of large format corn harvest paintings. This one being 2 miles east of Granger, Iowa. The sky all subtle hues of the three primary and three secondary colors from horizon to zenith. Violet, red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.
Love the Iowa Sky in Fall at harvest time.
24×24
New addition to the ethereal Iowa Harvest Landscape Series.
My 12th painting from the gulf coast area. I’ll soon have representation in the area. Stay tuned!
My painting practice involves attempting to create a rich and prismatic sky of pastels, from horizon to zenith, as often seen in the magical hours of the day both in the morning and at evening time. This, with a knife.
Every now and then I have to paint with a knife to see and feel that very fresh paint. This is the beach on Sanibel.
I continue to be infatuated with my own little happy staycation place, Sanibel, Florida. The Sea Grape tree, plant, bush, shrub really, is of particular interest since the devastating effects of hurricane Ian. Enjoy.
My practice is currently focused on the Ibis, the Seagrape, and the waters edge of the Gulf of Mexico.
My sixth painting in the Southwest Florida Series. This one was so fun, I will be painting more with the Ibis, and in larger formats. Stay tuned!
The fourth in a series of paintings up and down the gulf shore. This one is still on Sanibel, where you can often feel wonderfully alone on the beach. Well, almost alone!
There is a particular ether to the light at Sanibel Island, Florida. If you know the place, you might be familiar with why this is so. Sanibel is shaped like a shrimp, with Captiva being the tail. The apex of its back, which is exactly where the Casa Ybel property is situated, faces straight south towards Key West and beyond to Havana, Cuba. Therefore, like no other beach, the Sun comes up where the beach meets the water in the East, and goes down where the beach meets the water in the West. Very unique, and very easy to get sun burned there. Stay tuned for more!
Here is my second in a series of the Florida Gulf Coast area in and around Sanibel Island. This is often what it looks like early morning Mid April. Stay tuned for more!
I’ve been going to Sanibel, Florida for over twenty years in the spring, vacationing from Iowa. Though as a young man, I romanticized the west and always thought I’d paint there forever. These days find me dreaming of the gulf coast. I’d like to start wintering down there. So here is my first gulf coast painting. Hopefully, I’ll get into a gallery down there, and that will certainly go a long way in justifying the idea of being there for extended periods of time during the season. Stay tuned!
Searching for new Iowa towns to paint. Let me know your ideas!
There is plenty of subject matter in the small towns of Iowa to build a series of paintings reflecting small town charm. this one is turning out pretty well. What do you think?
This piece I deemed finished earlier this year, then decided it needed more foreground. I think the snowy trees turned out pretty well.
I spent some time in early June in Paris and London. this is the first in a series of city scapes. Stay tuned!
Another Steamboat Springs effort from last week’s ski trip.
This is a favorite spot of mine on the mountain. This one I did with brushes, the previous version, with a knife.
The things I love to do. Ski. Ski Paintings.
I did a larger version of the last painting. This one is stunning in person. Though un-stretched at present, it is obviously intended for the Colorado markets.
This was the year I returned to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and started a series of alpine paintings destined to the Rocky Mountain gallery market. Inquires to my contact page.
The new gondola in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The Wild Blue!
While still a work-in-progress, this strange painting has got me dreaming of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The mountain “Sleeping Giant” looms in the distance as the horses frolic in the snow covered hills.
I remain hopeful that I have a major announcement in the days to come!
I usually stay on a subject for a series of takes and sketches. I’ve reached the finish line on this one.
Latest works. Colors are just starting to change.
Because I constructed this large painting straight from the imagination, you can count me out as a realist. From the imagination counts as romanticism, and if it’s considered not ugly, it then falls within Romantic Positivism.
It’s a work in progress, as I see a few things, a few values worth fixing. Maybe some telephone poles. This painting is rather big at 4 feet by 5 feet and, I am getting very comfortable with the larger paintings. Stay tuned!
The early morning bus ride is often in the magical time of day for most kids who live out in the country.
I kind of like how this little series is developing. Time to try it on a larger scale. Be back soon!
This is a larger version of my last painting. It was an hour later, so the pedestrians have changed!
I consider 10th and Locust, in downtown Des Moines, my neighborhood as it is three blocks from my studio. There is a rather decent Italian restaurant in the building you are looking at, along with the Temple Theater venue for live events. Across the street to the west is a Starbucks, also very convenient for coffee and meetings.
The latest in the Iowa Sheep series which has found a home in a private collection.
The rural Iowa land scape continues to inspire this painter to reap the beautiful and true from the simplicity of eternal forms that surround us.
2021 has come to a close with this last plein air study. Here I now stand, after following the rules of classical form for five years of painting, at the precipice of knowing that what lies ahead is toward the abstract. In order to avoid painting another ho-hum landscape, albeit ones with sound harmony and sensibilities, I’ve realized, from recent in-depth studies of the principles of Cezanne, that true art comes from the corruption and violation of nature. One is otherwise making a replica or a copy of her. The picture is the thing. It is its own thing. A two dimensional thing that must be created in its own right. I’m setting out. Wish me luck.
I lived in California for five years in the early 90’s. As a school age kid, I was a California dreamer. Volkswagen beetles and flower power seemed very alluring to me. The entire west did. I eventually discovered it all and, the west and its beauty became my inspiration to paint. The Golden Gate Bridge represented the entire promise of what the west had to offer. Today, it is a vastly different cultural and political climate but, the beauty remains. This painting will most assuredly find a home.
This is the result of a two-hour plein air excursion in Des Moines. Though it is not finished, I am hesitant to paint on it again to guard against altering its freshness.
I have just a few adjustments to make, and then I’ll sign this one. Edit: you are now looking at the updated and final version. Thx!
I’ve been driving around the surrounding farmlands this summer and fall, taking photos of future paintings. I just got around to facing, and finishing this one, after starting it a month ago, and being intimidated by the light in it.
jeff klisares 