Capturing an Audience

Excerpt from this posting:

"...A little later a girl came up to me in a rare quiet moment and said, "If I sit out there will you paint me?"..."

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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 Right Brain at Work and Play

Excerpt from this posting:

"...The studio works start with this reportage and turn them into pictures..."

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

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Louise Don't Look At This

View a larger image. Plein Air Painter Indoors, 18" x 24" - oil/canvas panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...so I poured a little poppy oil in a palette cup to speed up the paint and leaned into the canvas..."

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

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Just Undo It

Lemon Twist (detail) - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...as I carved a flourish a little too long my fingers searched for command + z to undo my last action. Instead, as in all things handmade the path is forward and a better state of the art becomes history. The flourish by necessity becomes even longer and more decorative; a mistake requiring a creative answer..."

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

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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...."

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

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..."

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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Michelangelo at the Coffee Shop

Excerpt from this posting:

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

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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Camera Obscura: Light in a Dark Room

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"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

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:

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

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:

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

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..."

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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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:

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

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

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..."

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

Part of the Scenery, Woods Hole

View a satelite map of the location.

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

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

Taste in Gnats

View a larger finished image.

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

More information here.

-Doug Rugh

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:

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

More information here.