One Thing in Life is Free

View a larger image. Sold at the Cape Museum of Fine Arts Gala Auction.


Excerpt from this posting:

"...I visited Robert Frost's grave in Vermont where the inscription reads, "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Loosee Leftee, Tightee Rightee

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...There are two types of people that come in the studio. There is the loose group and the tight group and I distinguish them not by personality but by stylistic preference..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

From Antiquity to Antique

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Excerpt from this posting: "The central figure is the muse among the ruins (though these scalloped columns are pink) and the carved organ pedals are in the shape of her lyre..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Sparking Psyche

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Excerpt from this posting:

"One morning, while I was attending the Schuler School in the mid-eighties, I woke from a dream in which I figured out a new method for drawing with accuracy from the portrait...."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Head in the Clouds

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Excerpt from this posting: "...It happens like this: What should I paint? Wow, look at the light in the clouds. Set up. Work quickly to capture the moving sky remembering what it was moments before and anticipating how it's going to become. Periodically survey the scene for unexpected events. Feel the wind on the left side of the face and then brush in the waves and then back into the clouds. The palette and hands move colors around automatically. Realize the sky is completely changed: stop. Stand back and see what happened. Just as a song or a smell can take me back to a long past memory, this painting will always take me back to that afternoon on the beach..."

-Doug Rugh

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Painting Seasons

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I'm no longer embarrassed when someone asks what I do -- "I just paint little pictures." -- because I've got a good thing going..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Small Heads

Excerpt from this posting:

"Each of these heads is about an inch high and was done in 20 minutes. When the model doesn't show up at one of our local portrait sessions we all take turns posing. It reminds us how hard it is to sit still for even short periods of time. It's also a chance to talk about our friend, now frozen, without them butting in..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

A Slow Slide Sideways

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...There are two types of people. Those whose horizons sink to the right and those whose horizons sink to the left..."

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95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Perpetuating a Might Have Been

Excerpt from this posting:

"...someone was quoted as saying that Degas had said (it may have been another person quoting something a little different from someone else): "Orange lightens, green neutralized and violet darkens." As a young art student I thought I had found the "secret" in an old library book because when I experimented..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

The Temperature of a Painting

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Squint to see basic light or shadow falling on the table but open your eyes to see how temperature changes create the pattern. In this case the pattern reverses..."

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95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Staring so Hard You Can't See

View a larger image of "Magic Mirror."

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Ironically, slogging along in the process artists can be painting blind..."

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26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

By the Light of the Moon

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Just like in the old movies when the heroine gets that dreamy quality (from grease on the lens) the moon is just far enough away and out of focus so that romantics and poets aren't confronted with its geological presence..."

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95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

An Untoward Dalliance

Excerpt from this posting:

"...But there is more. Did you notice that the thumb of his non-dominant arm was tan while the rest of his hand remained closer to pale?" asked the detective.

"I'm afraid I did not," said Watson.

"This is an affliction peculiar to the outdoor landscape painter where only the largest of the digits is exposed to sunlight as the hand holds the palette. This in itself would be enough to confront our "finance" man but there are other clues as well."

"Please," begged Watson.

"After saying good-bye I turned to watch the gentleman leave and noticed another blatant clue."

"Yes?" said Watson..."

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26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

The Color of Color

Excerpt from this posting:

"...our brains are used to subtracting this pervading tint from what we see before us..."

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26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Lord of the Flies

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Soon I had a little girl and boy leaning on the shoulders of both my palette arm and my working arm. They had no idea that I couldn't work like that and the two girls who stood right in front of me -- right in my view -- didn't need their parents to tell them to look at the artist..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Michelangelo at the Coffee Shop

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Without signing the drawing I quickly walked out, leaving it on the table..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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The Glooming

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...I overhear someone outside my door say, "...he's in one of his moods. I wouldn't go in there." But with imperfect hearing I remember that I'm prone to imaginings and just continue along..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Color Mixing Secrets

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I suppose few make the attempt to master color mixing because it seems complicated (aren't there millions of colors?) The subject has come up because someone asked about the colors I would choose for a limited palette. Since I'm on a self-imposed exile from the technical aspect of painting and because I've come to the conclusion that the only way to have a command of color-mixing is to discover it for yourself, I've tried to boil down everything I know about the science in the following principals (at the risk of appearing evasive):

Black and white are blue (I know this is a secret because I've never found it elsewhere.)
Add two and change three
The triad is the key
Light beats dirt
The dull cannot become pure again
A fluted column lacks unnecessary material (this is the response to the limited palette question of which there are many shapes)
The core shares axes
Complexity competes with purity
The vision is changed by the viewer
Switch domains and become contrary
Start with one and the rest follow
All according to the rules of proximity
And bound by the laws of gravity

I'd like to give a small framed oil sketch to the first person who can decipher these clues. Email me privately for confirmation.

-Doug Rugh

Fog Induced

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Streetlights behind trees cast their limbs across thick fog like projected holograms and remind me of warm summer nights walking around a Woods Hole (add boat and fog horns for effect) transformed into an overblended monochromatic underpainting..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Baby Laps

Excerpt from this posting:

"...until her counter-clockwise circles cross my path again and it’s the same thing all over again..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Final Rigging

View the larger painting.

An excerpt from a chapter by the artist in Still-Life in Oils, edited by Theodora Philcox:

Excerpt from this posting:

"...The movement ends with a quiet crescendo of the wave, not noticed at first, in part of a painting by Winslow Homer called 'Weatherbeaten' on the wall behind. Light bounces against the shiny surface of the bow as it slides through the 'water' and the silhouette of the raincoat on the chair continues the movement of the trailing wake that follows behind..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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John Singer Sargent's Palette

Excerpt from this posting:

"...The perfect palette is an improvement on the arm..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Complexity of Quiet

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...art satisfies a need. For most art collectors -- with their complicated and busy lives -- there seems to be an appeal in..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Turkey Day

View a larger image. 9" x 6" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"This is the tree where we had a secret marriage ceremony and it's the same spot where she asked the justice of the peace if the word "obey" was still in the vows. A short time later I remembered that I had done this painting...."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Camera Obscura: Light in a Dark Room

View a larger image.
"Girl in a Red Hat" by Vermeer

Excerpt from this posting:

"...A friend who is an engineer that sends laser light to the moon visited the studio the other day and we got to talking about the camera obscura (a projected image box that Vermeer had access to.) Now, every few days he calls me into his office so can see the improvements on a rig he set up in his window..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Keen Sense of the Obvious

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...It is a simple formula: the more one looks and studies art the more one sees..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Rose Colored Glasses

View a larger image. 5" x 7" oil/panel.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I lost my glow back in the studio when I looked at my colorless panel. The pink light of the setting sun no longer tinting my drab colors..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Cape Cod Idyll

"Saturday there was a Eurasian Widgeon feeding happily with the other balkdpates and gadwalls in Mill Pond, Marston Mills."

-from Cape Cod Birds

Center of the Universe

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...But what struck me that night was the run of light, beginning with the single spot on the horizon and it's hundreds of reflections pointing in a line straight towards me..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Eye Contact

This is the plein air sketch used for a larger painting.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...when that presence behind me starts speaking I respond but continue painting without meeting its eye. It is an unusual sensation meeting someone for the first time, this way in the dark. But my eyes are busy..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Heat in the Firehouse

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Photographs can capture one or the other but because of limitations in value range aren't able to portray what the eye can see. Pigments have similar limitations but the artist must use optical tricks to simulate the illusion..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Talented Eye

View web page.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...It's always the most enthusiastic collectors, too, and the ones who are most affected by a painting. Absolutely first-rate human beings..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Pallid and Pretty

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I now have doubts about the use of arsenic for bathing and have always had them about the use for beauty. Regretfully, I let by a few apple seeds as a child and that may be the source of a slight tinge..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Painting with Two Colors

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Still Life Elements

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From an interview with Doug in Still-Life in Oils by Theodora Philcox:


Excerpt from this posting:

"...I started with a very saturated pthalo green underpainting because I wanted the underlying feeling of that pure but mysterious sea colour to predominate..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Morning Light

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I return to the laptop and the glowing blue light in the room -- the modern day hearth -- and wait for the next "Daddy?"..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Standing in Front of a Painting

View the whole painting and an excerpt from a book about the technique used in creating this work.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...artwork done with the eye doesn't get a fair viewing. We're missing the transparent layers, the brushwork and impastos, the warm and cool nuances staining the canvas or obliterating it, the carefully worked passages contrasting the broad washes. In short: we're missing a sensitivity to medium..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Hey, That's My View

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...It was a photographer. He said, "I hope you don't mind." and stood right in front of me and shot my view!..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Extra Fresh

Sketch of the sculptor Alfie Glover

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Someone, an older woman, will come into my studio and say, "You wouldn't want to paint me, would you?" I'm conflicted because there are two ways I can go with this..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Oh Sienna

If J. Peterman sold paint pigments:

Excerpt from this posting:

"...The ancients called it Italian earth. The blessed dirt from Siena’s hills, full of iron and a spot of manganese, is roasted red and hand mulled with drops each of Tuscan sweat and oil of flax. Unintentionally beautiful, it’s the painter’s mortar..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Phtalo Blue and Impuissance

If J. Peterman started selling paint pigments:

I've watched as you grabbed at strange blues from the bottom of your paint box. I've seen you stab at ultramarine and cobalt on the palette, too. Couldn't find it there either because, let's face it, we all have a need for more. At the risk of being brash, then, let me offer you an insight: start from a position of confidence and leave humility for the acceptance speech.

That's right, you aren't worthy--but nab it anyway. Pure unadulterated blue. (Granted, as crisp as chemistry will allow.) Azure with a glance of turquoise, saturated and potent. Translucent, it is ether with a tint that is altitudinous. You've seen weak succumb to it, hear now of the mighty who neutralize it. This could be your blue. A shade in search of a master. Don't shrink from its power. Harness it!

Watch and learn from phtalo and give up the blues. The dingy ones, that is.

Phtalo Blue. One shade and you're ready: $165
-Doug Rugh

Tea for Three

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Each surface reveals the cool square daylight/warm round spotlight relationship in its own way..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Eye Candy

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...A photograph would most likely represent these nuances as a single and colorless light tone..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

A Knife, A Face and a Bit of Color

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...it is the chance to revel in pure color. Trowel on the thick paint and when it is just right, like a Polaroid developing, the truth kicks in..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Starting Trouble

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Cars kept pulling in next to me and the occupants would look over my shoulder..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Ferry to the Vineyard

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I hesitate to finesse it, as I normally would, because it captures the feeling of the day..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

An Audience of One

This is a detail of a larger painting.

View a satelite map of the location.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Like the time when a big black crow landed on Hillary's straw hat. They both looked at each other at the same time and in the scuffle the bird flew off..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Diffusion and Halation

This is a detail from a larger painting.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...This is an effect that is around us everywhere in our daily lives but we trick ourselves into not seeing it (few artists are aware of it partly because many work from photographs) but it's obvious when you look for it..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

The Sound of Painting

Brrrrrmmmm. (silence) Click. Step - step - step. Click. Pop. Glug - glug - glug. Click.
[Car pulls up. Engine turns off. Man steps out and opens trunk. Grolsh beer bottle is unhinged and solvent is poured from the bottle into a smaller container. Portable stool strap is placed over shoulder and French easel is placed on ground. Mahl stick in hand, the trunk closes.]

Step - tap - step - step - tap...
[Artist walks carrying French easel in hand, using mahl stick as walking stick.]

(silence)
[Artist scans the surrounding scenery.]

(silence)
[Artist holds hands up like a movie director, cropping scene.]

Plop. Slide - pop. Slide - pop. Slide - pop. Slide - pop. Cough. Metallic twisting. Click. (silence) Scrape, scrape-scrape. (silence) Glug. (silence).
[Gear is set on ground. Portable stool legs are telescoped out. Artist coughs. French easel legs are untwisted, set out and rescrewed and the canvas lid is raised. Old paint is scraped off palette. New paint is squeezed on. Solvent is poured into palette cup. Artist studies the scene.]

(silence)
[Artist paints.]

(silence) "Woops."
[Passerbys look over shoulder. Artist drops brush.]

(silence)
[Artist paints.]

(First bars of Fur Elise by Beethoven.) "Okay, I'm just wrapping up here."
[Cell phone rings. Artist speaks.]

Swish - swish. Click. Metallic twisting. Step - step - tap - step - step - tap. Click. Plop. Click. Brrrrrmmmm.
[Brushes are rinsed in solvent. French easel is closed up. Artist walks to car and places gear in trunk. Drives away.]

(silence)



-Doug Rugh

Scribbling on the Tabula Rasa

Excerpt from this posting:

"...More recently she's started in on portraits. She'll say a name of someone in the family and draw a little blob. Then another name and another little amoeba. You can almost hear the cells dividing..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Pushing and Pulling

Excerpt from this posting:

"...only came to life as I pushed the paint around. I've found that there are two ways to make something up..."

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Look, I'm an Airplane. Wheeee!

View a larger image.

Excerpt from this posting:

"Scarecrows prove the point that gesture reveals much about character..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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-Doug Rugh

Plein Air Appurtenances1

Pochade box or half French easel ²
Mahlstick ³
Clam gauge cropping rectangle ⁴
Dirt and powders mulled with oil of flaxseed: Thalos, quinacridones, dioxazine, ochres and umbers -- from Naples and Sienna, burnt and otherwise -- titanium and cadmiums, manganese, ultramarine and Prussian all crimped tight in tubes. ⁵
Viva towels ⁶
Sable filberts and liners, badger and hog bristle implements ⁷
Brass matching cups fixed up with white spirits ⁸
Tilley hat ⁹
Dipteran spray ¹⁰
Steel Italian painting knives ¹¹
Scraper Blade ¹²
Post cards ¹³
Dog biscuits <sup>14

1</sup>Alternate title: Fun with Footnotes. It's also fun to use French. When my wife asks what I'm going to do today I like to say, "I'm painting en plein air." It captures the spirit better than "painting outside."
²I have different sized pochade boxes and portable easels. I'm always trying to find a lighter one that holds more stuff.
³By far and away the number one question I get is, "What is that stick for?" Maybe 9 out of 10 men ask it. Look for an answer in an upcoming post.
⁴On Cape Cod an artist can go into any hardware store and buy this small aluminum rectangle that has a 1" x 2" window that can be covered with the thumb (I make hash marks at standard proportions) to turn it into a cropping tool that fits on a keychain.
⁵The synthetic colors and their Latin names show their beginnings in a laboratory. Highly chromatic and with powerful tints they overwhelm the old faithful earth colors named after hometowns where they were sifted from the dirt. "Burnt" colors are just that, turning reddish in the process.
⁶Forget these and pack up and go home; no other brands compare. Soft and absorbent enough for an infant's spittle.
⁷The hairs of these brushes mimic the personalities of the various animals.
⁸Apparently 100% petroleum distillates paint solvent is less toxic than the traditional natural turpentine from the larch tree. After a couple hours it becomes apparent where the term "spirits" came from.
⁹The other day a tourist said to his wife, "Look at that funny hat." It can be amusing when others think you can't hear them. The Tilley hat is a stiff white cotton safari hat and its rim snaps up on either side. There is a secret panel for a $20 bill.
¹⁰I don't need it very often here on the Cape where the sea breeze keeps the mosquitos away.
¹¹There are cheap knives and there are good ones. The former a stiff trowel the latter a thin flexible blade that makes a "ping" when plucked.
¹²A sharp, flat-sided blade for leveling excessively flamboyant dried brushtstrokes from a painted surface.
¹³Of my work of course. I count on word of mouth and it's surprising the interest I'll get from onlookers on location. If someone says, "That's good. Maybe you'll be in a gallery one day." I can pull out a card and show that I really can do better than this piece of experimentation that you see before you.
¹⁴Carry a few biscuits and you can be the St. Francis for dogs wherever you go.

-Doug Rugh

Part of the Scenery, Woods Hole

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...I overheard one of the crew joking, "Offer him $400 for the painting." and another one said, "He probably wants $600, to get a week's wage out of it." When they asked about the price I was too embarrassed to tell them that it would be quite a bit more than that..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Taste in Gnats

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Look closely and you'll see why. Those aren't birds flocking in the sky but gnats swimming in the paint. I had forgotten about these little critters that seem to spring out of the shoreline in the late afternoon..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Roses and a Stone Wall

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...Like many things that are handmade there is a charm in the way that the artisan's hand is revealed.
..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Frodo's Pergola

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...I framed it up and put it on exhibition. Someone said to me, "Is that a garage?"
..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

How Many Dabs is a Man?

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Specifications:
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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Channeling Angela

Excerpt from this posting:

"...It's channeling and at the end you wake up and watch the film...."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Is Somebody Trying to Tell Me Something?

Excerpt from this posting:

"...This way I'm following the movement of the horses and always painting...."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Traffic Obstacle

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Or as a car slows down I turn, expecting a rebuke from a concerned citizen but instead it's, "Can we see?"..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
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102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

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Opening Doors, Outdoors

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...the process itself becomes the attraction and the end result is a still movie of the artist's mind and hand at work..."

This journal entry is now available as part of a compilation in ebook form:

Specifications:
Epub and PDF formats
102 Entries
26,700+ Words
95 Full-Color Illustrations (Oil paintings by the author.)
2006 - 2010

More information here.

Welcome

My wife and I are fortunate enough to be full-time oil painters based on Cape Cod. Fortunate because we are able to spend our days painting from nature -- essentially spending our hours looking for beauty -- and fortunate because a prerequisite for our summer "work" is hanging out in nice spot by the sea.

October days are cooling down and before the balmy days of painting sunbathers on the beach totally disappear from my memory I hope to recount some of my summer painting experiences here in this journal. Admittedly, much of the experience flips between the sense of selflessness fed by absorption in the painting process and the internal dialogue fueled by brief encounters with onlookers. One a solitary, and paradoxically selfish process, and the other a direct response to the work (and the artist and his equipment etc.) at hand. A boy touches the painting to see if the paint is wet while I study the colors of the clouds. Something for everyone.

-Doug Rugh