bnagel

here is my most recent painting entitled Natural History.  The title might not seem to make much sense but it’s intended to be just one in a series of paintings.  The series, called Human Nature, explores the relationship between people and nature in their everyday lives and at their homes.  Many times people only view nature as the pristine wilderness untouched by humans.  As soon as we touch it, it becomes tainted and unnatural.   I think this view is dangerous and leads to a disregard of the nature around us.

In school (architecture school at the UofM) we studies the history of suburbs and how it was basically a desire to get away from the dirty cities and get back into nature.     And, while nature had been viewed as a dangerous and savage place before, it soon became romanticized during suburbanization.  In the past, people built walls to keep out nature, now they build walls to keep out the city, and the traffic.  Anyway, I should stop now because I could ramble on for hours.

This painting is essentially about technology and nature.  We try to escape the city and civilization but we still need to be connected.

Natural History – 20×16 – Acrylic on canvas

Here is another quick 5×7 study painting.  much like in my illustrations, in this painting I  experimented with blocks of texture and blocks without texture. In my illustrations I usually do large portions of white mixed in with strands of textured or detailed elements.  For this painting I used the fence to divide the painting into three parts. I also like how the flatness of the fence makes it almost seem proud of the painting.   I like the concept of this and I think I’ll try to work it out on a larger scale.  Probably not with this image though.

Fence – 5×7 – Acrylic on canvas

My most recent painting.  I’ve been working on compositions so I thought I’d experiment with some smaller paintings.

yellow house 5×7 acrylic on canvas

8×10 acrylic on cavas

My latest painting is quick one I did of a house near one of the large sound barriers around freeways.  I wanted to make this one a little moody and drab. The Detail work is not the best but I like the composition.  I may try a more abstract version in the future.

Here is my latest painting.  I tried to go a little more painterly on this one and I really like the results.  I’m going to have to try this again.  8×10 acrylic on canvas

This is my latest painting.  Its 16×20 acrylic on canvas.

I would like to go back and tone down the color on the house, lighten up the sky and tone down the building in the background.  But I need to stop and move on.  perhaps I will do it later.  Oh, I also want to remove the two rocks in the front.   When I’m done it should look like this photoshopped version.  Its a subtle difference but I think it would look better.

I just finished my latest house paiting for a friend that lives in St. Michael. You can tell by the snow on the ground that I am a little behind on my painting. I guess having a second child will do that.

I have been craving the opportunity to do some Plein Air painting but I never seem to get around to it. I guess I just have to make it a priority to do it sometime this summer.

here is my latest painting. I decided to try something with a little more detail so I just picked a random house on Summit Ave in Saint Paul. It was fun and quite challenging. The hardest part was trying not to make the more detailed areas look overworked.

My latest painting. Its a of a house just down the road from me. I used to walk by it every Saturday morning back when Alex was still in a stroller. I always like the simplicity of the design.