Forrest Proper

Just finished- Central Park as the Morning Fog Burns Off. A 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel. A semi-abstract work with a yellow streaky sky coming down over blurry purple buildings in the background, in frony is an intensely layered (like 20 layers of paint), greyt/green Central Park foliage. One of my favorite views of the city looking west from around 60th street.

Just finished- Central Park as the Morning Fog Burns Off.
A 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel.
available.
#art #artist #painting #artyear #landscape

"Overwhelmed". A 12x12 acrylic painting on canvas. The figure of a woman struggles through water against a background of blues and blacks and greys. Painted very loosely with few specific details, a mood piece.

"Overwhelmed".
A 12x12 acrylic painting on canvas.
#art #Artist #painting #portrait

This painting has been through a number of incarnations, here is the latest- The Red House, a 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas. A red stucco-walled country house next to several other old, small houses sits silent at night with a single window showing yellow light. In the background grey-black-blue high-rise buildings loom, all in darkness, except for a single lit window at the top of one.

This painting has been through a number of incarnations, here is the latest- The Red House, a 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas.
#art #artist #painting #artyear

The Wall to Oz. A black stone wall stretches across a field and over the horizon as red and yellow trees poke up in the distance. As the title suggests, a fantasy landscape. A 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel.

The Wall to Oz.
A 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel.
#art #artist #painting #artyear #landscape

This is not finished but it felt like it caught a mood, so I thought I'd share it on a chilly Sunday. An 8x10 [unfinished] acrylic painting on a canvas panel of a loosely-defined pair of seated figures in dark blue on a rock wall under an oreange-red sky.

This is not finished but it felt like it caught a mood, so I thought I'd share it on a chilly Sunday. An 8x10 [unfinished] acrylic painting on a canvas panel.
#art #artist #artyear #painting #landscape

Decided to do some quick small "sketchy" works on 6x6 canvas panels today, here's what came out- a semi-abstract, moody scene of five cloaked figures in black with obscured faces against a yellw-dak background, and a landscape of a woodland and medow, seen from slightly above.

Decided to do some quick small "sketchy" acrylic paintings on 6x6 canvas panels today, here's what came out-
#art #artyear #artist #painting #landscape

Menemsha Harbor Sunset. A 12x16 acrylic painting on canvas of a harbor scene with sailboats and fishing boats seen bow-on across the water, with a red/dark blue sky reflecting in the water in front. Menemsha is a small village in the town of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard, parts of the movie 'Jaws' were filmed there.

Menemsha Harbor Sunset.
12x16 acrylic painting on canvas.
[private collection]
#art #artyear #artist #painting #sailing #ships #CapeCod

Unsettled- A storm looms on the horizon as afternoon clouds scatter. Most of my landscapes are started from a prompt, usually a vintage photo from my own collection, but then go on to become something different. Skies are something I love to paint, and I usually pay no attention whatsoever to the sky in my reference image, I just go to with paint and brushes and swirl clouds and sky colors until it looks “right”. A 9x12 acrylic painting on canvas board.

Unsettled
A 9x12 acrylic painting on canvas board.
#art #artyear #artist #painting #landscape

The Yellow Tree. A 14x14 acrylic painting on canvas. A bright yellow tree stands out amongst a forest of Fall-red trees under a cold blue sky with scudding clouds.

The Yellow Tree.
A 14x14 acrylic painting on canvas.
#art #Artist #artyear #landscape #painting

"Fall Wall", a 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel. A complete revision of yesterday's painting, introducing a stormy sky above the field and red trees, and a stone wall down the middle dividing the field in two.

"Fall Wall", a 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel.

#art #artyear #artist #landscape #painting

Fall Trees - just finished, a 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel. A view up a hill across a golden autumn field to several groups of red trees under a pale blue fall sky. As close as I come to Tonalism.

Fall Trees - just finished, a 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel.
#art #artyear #artist #landscape #painting

Got something new done today- 'Looking for Wolf Kahn Under the Stars'. A 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel. - An early evening landscape with a field and red tree line under a dark blue/purple sky with stars coming out. Over everything is superimposed bare dark blue tree trunks in a style reminiscent of a famous series by artist Wolf Kahn.

Got something new done today- 'Looking for Wolf Kahn Under the Stars'.
A 9x12 acrylic painting on a canvas panel.
#art #artist #painting #artyear #landscape

Just a quick sketch to be able to say i have done **something** today. I have to get myself a new daily schedule, if I wait to long to get to work i get bogged down in the news and lose all ability to concentrate. Shown: a colored pencil sketch of four sailboats, bow-on, emphasizing their uniformity but also their slight differences. Something of a quick study in form and repitition.

Just a quick sketch to be able to say i have done **something** today. I have to get myself a new daily schedule, if I wait to long to get to work i get bogged down in the news and lose all ability to concentrate.
#art #artist #maritime #sketch #drawing

Summer Storm - purple storm clouds with ominous red and yellow highlights loom over a landscape of field and trees. This is a great example of layering & glazing- there are about 15-20 layers of paint on both the sky and the ground. One secret for glazing is to use what we often think of as the poorer paints; I won’t mention names, but there are some brands which offer great opacity, and some which do not. Usually working with brands that refuse to cover adequately is a real pain, but they are perfect for layering and glazing. Want to make the ground look a bit more uniform without making it all green? I have a nice Winsor & Newton green for that (oops, just mentioned a name, my bad). Spread a layer of green on there and brush it over and it won’t cover anything, it will just add a green tint and blend the colors that are already there together. A 16×20 acrylic painting on canvas, framed and ready to hang.

Summer Storm
A 16×20 acrylic painting on canvas, framed and ready to hang.
#art #artist #painting #landscape #artyear

That Moment When: you sit back and realise that you were so "in the Zone" that you just spent the last 15 minutes applying paint to the canvas with your fingers. - A 16x20 very loose acrylic painting on canvas of a field and tree line under a sky of dark rolling clouds punctuated by lighter clouds and sunshine.

That Moment When: you sit back and realise that you were so "in the Zone" that you just spent the last 15 minutes applying paint to the canvas with your fingers.
#art #artist #landscape #painting

Ducks Gathering for the Ides of June. A 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas. A late afternoon scene with a marsh in the foreground, lines of trees in the background, and dramatic sunlit cloudy skies. $475 Marshes, whether salt or fresh water, are wonderful places, full of plant and animal life, and the salt marshes of Cape Cod have always held a special appeal to me. This image takes a lot of liberties- frankly, by the time I finished I'm not even sure it's a salt marsh, but an artist I respect very much told me that reality is only a starting point for vision- and this final image fits my vision. And I love ducks, so I added them, because what is a waterway without ducks?

Ducks Gathering for the Ides of June.
A 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas. [available]
#art #painting #landscape #artyear #artist

For the first time in months I've been able to get some solid work done this morning. This isn't done, but it's probably mostly where it wants to be and I'm pleased with it so far. 12x12 acrylic painting on canvas, untitled. A semi-abstract scene of five figures, four facing front, one facing away, in black/blue robes against a red-fading to dirty yellow backdrop. Faces are blurred, and the scene is meant to be enigmatic.

For the first time in months I've been able to get some solid work done this morning. This isn't done, but it's probably mostly where it wants to be and I'm pleased with it so far.
12x12 acrylic painting on canvas, untitled.
#art #painting #artist #abstract

Fourth of July at the Lake - a 12x16 acrylic painting on canvas. A very loose, semi-abstract view of a nighttime lake scene in blues, purples, reds, and dark greens, with yellow and red flashes, streaks, and explosions on the ground and in the air. A somewhat out of control view of a slightly out of control scene.

Fourth of July at the Lake - a 12x16 acrylic painting on canvas.

#art #landscapepainting #landscape #painting

Hillside Path - a 12x12 acrylic painting on canvas. $250 A dusty path leads up a hillside in fall colors of reds, yellows, and browns under a partly-hazy blue sky. This started as an exercise in blocking colors and then using broad color washes to flatten the details until something interesting emerged, in this case the hillside with a high horizon line. A few days worth of adding details and washing them out later, and here we are-

Hillside Path - a 12x12 acrylic painting on canvas.
available
#art #painting #landscape

Fall Meadow Afternoon. A 12x16 acrylic painting on canvas of a green & brown meadow under a stormy, cool blue & white sky and a row of red & yellow trees. $325, available.

Fall Meadow Afternoon.
A 12x16 acrylic painting on canvas, available.
#art #painting #landscape

Having some fun in the studio today, taking some extra pictures showing canvases in a room setting (more or less). And, you know, as long as one has props, why not use them? This image shows a 14x14 framed acrylic painting canvas of Menemsha Harbor on Martha's Vineyard which ia currently for sale, photographed against wood paneling, being presented by a wooden articulated artist's form figurine.

Having some fun in the studio today, taking some extra pictures showing canvases in a room setting (more or less). And, you know, as long as one has props, why not use them?
#art #artists

I haven't been able to get much painting done the last few weeks, I can't seem to hold concentration long enough to get to work, but here's something I did a few months ago that seems somewhat appropriate to the times. Untitled, 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas. A red ground gives way to a blue/green ocean beach in the top right corner, faint crosses dot the red surface of the sand.

I haven't been able to get much painting done the last few weeks, I can't seem to hold concentration long enough to get to work, but here's something I did a few months ago that seems somewhat appropriate to the times.
Untitled, 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas.
#art

Fall Field, a 14x14 acrylic painting on canvas. Autumn finds the fields in western Massachusetts awash in colors and textures. Here the browns and golds, and the last fading greens, contrast with the dancing purples of late-summer field flowers and the background of red and orange trees under scudding white clouds in a cold fall sky. Available, inquiries welcome.

Just finished- Fall Field
A 14x14 acrylic painting on canvas.
-
#art #artist #painting

Leo the Cat "hangs out" on top of the fish tank.

According to Leo, he was just "hanging out, why?".
#Caturday #Cats

Memories of Fall in New Hampshire. A 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas. A fully-colored tree lines appears in reds and yellows against a backdrop of looming mountains in orangey-green, deep-red, blue, and grey. I grew up in southern New Hampshire, near Mount Monadnock, and have many memories of the mountains in the Fall. Framed and ready for hanging, inquiries always welcome.

#FebruArty ( aka #FebuArty )
Memories of Fall in New Hampshire.
A 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas.

#Art #Painting

Audrey Cat sits quietly- balanced perfectly on the top edge of the Morning Room door.

#Caturday ? Audrey thinks that is a great idea!

To finish the month, a just-finished piece, "Fall on the Mountain". Bare birch trees stand in front of subdued gold and red fall colors on a woodland hillside. White/yellow afternoon clouds scud across a cold-looking pale blue sky. 16x20 acrylic painting on canvas.

#JanuArty Day 31
To finish the month, a just-finished piece, "Fall on the Mountain".
16x20 acrylic painting on canvas.

There are days when I just want to climb into a treehouse, pull up the rope ladder and lose myself in the green and the quiet. There will be a room in my treehouse labeled “deep breathing”, but all the other rooms will be unlabeled,
 because sometimes the labels are just too much. I’ll go to my treehouse every day, but I won’t bring anything with me, because if I brought anything with me then it would be just like everyplace else. My treehouse will have a balcony where I can sit and peer out on the world, and breath deeply, close my eyes, and cry. “Treehouse”, c. 2017 Forrest Proper

Au bord de la Mer, Juli 1914 (At the seaside, July, 1914), a 12x16 acrylic painting on canvas. A large field of sand with a triangle of blue ocean at the top right corner and small figures playing on the beach, while in the lower portion of the painting faint white crosses appear. It is said that the Summer of 1914 was one of the most beautiful in living memory in Europe, and a seaside holiday in France would have been enjoyed by thousands. In July, 1914 few would have been paying much attention to the growing storm in Europe which would explode into The Guns of August and 4 years of horrific war.

#JanuArty Day 30- Au bord de la Mer, Juli 1914.
A 12x16 acrylic painting on canvas.

Dissension. A 14x14 acrylic painting on canvas of three pine trees and lots of blue & white as clouds and snow and who-knows what else frothing and swirling up and down and around. As I sometimes say- this started out as something completely different. Three trees against a coastal cliff; sunset lake; golden field; mountain range & cliff edge... but it never seemed right. Then one day while working the sky I got into one of those mind-states where I'm not really thinking about it, just working with the brush and the colors and everything goes where it wants to without my conscious direction and- we ended up here. I think this is where it wants to be, for better or worse.

#JanuArty Day 27 -Dissension.
A 14x14 acrylic painting on canvas.