painting landscapes

I've been creating abstract collage expressionist paintings so much lately...that many people forget or don't even know that I paint impressionistic landscapes in oil too. 

After traveling to Europe twice this year I have a tons a inspiration to paint from and have now begun to put paint to canvas to capture some of those moments abroad. 

I spent a month on the Emerald Isle of Ireland in May and then a week in Artistic Paris and a week in Beautiful Germany in September/October. 

Here is one of the paintings I just finished. It's a 16x20 oil on canvas. It's of a tree and rock wall that I stood by in Tipperary, Ireland. 

When I paint my oil landscapes, I exclusively use Winsor & Newton Oil Bars and Sennelier Oil Sticks. I layer the colors (dark to light) so I can create depth. I use my fingers to mix, blend, and paint right there on the canvas. This technique creates a very impressionistic style and is a lot of fun for me (as I am a very tactile kind of person: so to get my fingers right into the paint and to feel the texture of the canvas as I move the paint around is really cool for me!)

I like to paint scenes that I've actually been to...so I can create emotion into the painting as I remember how it felt to be there. 

I utilize photos that I take when I travel on my trips as a reference for what I paint. And actually when I was in Ireland and also Paris/Germany I knew that I would be using the photos to paint by later on...so I did my best to set up a scene (composition, lighting, mood, subject of interest, etc.) to make it easier on myself once back home and in my studio.

When I paint landscapes I listen to music that either is representative of the place (ex. Irish music for Ireland) or music that I might've been listening to on my iPod when I was visiting the place (ex. soundtrack to the movie "Once" set in Dublin). 

If you're interested in seeing some of the impressionistic oil landscapes I've done in the past...there are 2 short slideshows of some of my paintings on this blogsite (one that you can click on a link to go to: located on the right hand sidebar. and the other was a previous post labeled "slideshow of my paintings": just scroll down the page).