Ebook

The Artist's Conundrum: An Oil Painter's Journal eBook is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Safiya Press.

Chuckles

R. I. P.

1992 - 2010

Shelter mutt, studio companion, constant shadow, good friend and a good dog.

-Doug Rugh

New Figure Studies Added to (eBay Style) Store

Anatomy Study - 8.5" x 11" - charcoal/pastel on dark red paper - signed - $39


New sketches are available (eBay style store) here.

-Doug Rugh

Blink and the World Changes

Studio/Gallery since 10/2009

www.OsbornAndRughGallery.com

Excerpt from this posting:

"...One thing I've learned as an artist is that if I'm not inspired I'm wasting paint (also called: priming canvases the sloooow way)...and two months later I'm back at the easel dabbing with familiar brushes. Shades of the world is as you see it (Vijnana Baihriva for those who have time to delve into ancient texts.)..."

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.

Documentary Short

Here is a short film by Kristen Alexander (www.MiddleWayMedia.com) that recently screened at the Woods Hole Film Festival:

-Doug Rugh

Leonardo and Rembrandt Stunned

View a larger image. Nobska in the Fog, 16" x 24" - oil/canvas
View a satellite map of the location.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Go ahead: picture Leonardo and Da Vinci sitting in the corner of your studio unblinking. The art world's version of shock and awe...."

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.

A Morning Chasing Light (It Got Away)

View a larger image. Bike Path Towards Nobska, 24" x 30" - oil/canvas
View a satellite map of the location.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...On the opposite wall was her composition as only she could do it. Artists have a history of consuming their still lifes just before they sour so I had no qualms about, at a minimum, recycling the still life as a subject of my own...."

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.

Other Eyes

View a larger image. Cranberry Bog at Dusk, 30" x 36" - oil/canvas

View the painting location on a satellite map.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...And then you notice that the paintings are all a little cock-eyed and that your host is looking at you...a little sideways too. You're both in sync. Just not with each other unless you're seeing through their eyes..."

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

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?"..."

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.

Tickle Imagination Paintings

Excerpt from this posting:

"Here are some of the search strings that I found amusing...ego massage is a pleasant pastime..."

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.

Hidden Corner at Nobska Beach

Hidden Corner, 11" x 14" - oil/canvas

View a satellite map of the location.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...as long as my palette doesn't get too wet and turn my oils into emulsions. The overcast skies, tent-lighting to photographers, bring out the intensity of colors..."

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

Edward Hopper

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Hopper puts black where he means vague. The variations in surface between lost areas and visible texture, between brushed thin paint and scumbled opaque paint is just enough to make the canvas push into three-dimensional life ahead of it's two-dimensional facsimile..."

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.

Taking the Fork in the Road

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I'm in Paris and he's never left the farm. I had been spending time on the periphery dazzled by the bright lights and I come back and he's just sitting under the tree with Ferdinand smelling the flowers..."

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.

Flying at Night

View a larger image. Inner Harbor, 9" x 12" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...remembering intuitively the spots where there was a gap in the curb and when it had to be jumped..."

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.

There's No There There

View a larger image. Blueberries and Cream, 9" x 12" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...It's impossible to be impressed with oneself..."

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.

Apprentice

Man, 8" x 5" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...The apprentice coddles the sable over raised brushstrokes (cursing away Style's tempts), corrects a skewed perspective and steps aside, humbly, in front of the seamless Illusion. Later he winces at overlooked edges and gasps at unsubtle hues..."

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

De-limbed Statues

Excerpt from this posting:

"...He absent-mindedly used the arborist's vernacular to describe the 15 foot high stumps now standing like monuments in the center of the yard. ..."

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.

Tickle and Hit the Road

View a larger image. Road to the Beach, 18" x 12" - oil/canvas
This road leads to Alfie's beach, a few yards of coast bought with sculpture, and a summer gathering spot where artists sit around bonfires.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Thresholds are places of creativity which liberate the brain from its' rounded walls..."

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

The Right Brain at Work and Play

Excerpt from this posting:

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

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.

Chiaroscuro

View a larger image. Mending The Sails, 35" x 35" - oil/canvas

Excerpt from this posting:

"...the root words of chiaroscuro -- light lifting the tonal veil of darkness -- are both clear and obscure. Folds become beautiful when a little mystery (and shadow) is added..."

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.

Gone Postal

One day when I was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design I found a confusing card in my mailbox. Fitted through punched holes along the left side were varied thicknesses and lengths of natural looking yarns and neatly hand-written next to each sample was the color name. Words like: alfalfa sprouts, tofu, granola, spirulina, tahini. If something out of the ordinary happens at an art school the first assumption is that an art event is taking place but on the other hand I felt this was a personal message to me. Did I recognize any of the hues as colors that I might wear? The other students had a more current sense of couture and perhaps someone was trying to let me know that I was projecting the not-so-chic tones of the health-food store. It remained a conundrum until months later.

Another time someone was kind enough to leave a note with this advice written in small letters:

I was sitting next to you in class and I couldn't help noticing that your ears needed cleaning. Just thought you'd like to know.

A fresh Q-tip was taped to the card. I say kind because the note was unsigned allowing the Samaritan to give helpful guidance while avoiding the embarrassment of a whispered take-aside. I quietly slipped the Q-tip into my bag and walked out of the busy hall. Maybe it was the guy at the library's front desk who I mistakenly passed unshaven one day who put his hands on his hips and said, "There's such a thing as personal hygiene you know!"

It wasn't until later when I was sitting with some people in the textile department that someone described getting the same note with the Q-tip. The guy we were with said, "I put hundreds of those in people's boxes. I got bored sitting in the mail room all day." I realized instantly that the crunchy-granola color samples were probably just an old weaving project that he had done and rather than discarding his trash he could disseminate it and give it new life. Nobody gets letters anymore.

-Doug Rugh

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.

Neither Then Nor Later

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

Excerpt from this posting:

"...that free the thinking and the doing: a perfect place of art..."

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

Man Overboard

View a larger image. Whispering Pines (Monhegan Island), 8" x 10" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Another visitor, just arriving on the scene, got through to 9-1-1 and they said, "Isn't there anybody there on the island that can help you?"..."

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.

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..."

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.

King of the Nursing Home

Excerpt from this posting:

"...By the time I get there I'm sure to be top dog at the nursing home..."

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.

Hospital Cove

View a larger image. Hospital Cove, 8" x 14" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I sat in the shade of the dock just out of view, following my rule to find a vantage point that was also a place that I would choose if I were stopping to enjoy the day..."

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

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..."

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.

Simple Subject and a Visit with Nature

View a larger image. Cropping of Rocks at Lobster Cover, Monhegan Island, 5" x 7" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...And there they were: two dorsal fins in unison rising and dipping slowly just off the rocks and close enough that I didn't have to get off my seat..."

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.

Peace

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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Time to be Nice

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...It is hours of careful looking with a flourish at the end to make it look effortless...."

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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Brushstrokes in Balance

View a larger image. Airplane House, 5" x 7" - oil/panel

Excerpt from this posting:

"...neither too fussed over nor overly stylized with self-conscious dabbing...."

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.
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.

Embracing Museums

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Luckily, she was amused by my error and, giddy and stunned, I quickly found the right girlfriend still standing in front of the last 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.

Learning When to Pay Attention

Excerpt from this posting:

"...but walk around during the breaks and you'll see more interesting and more complex light effects on the artists as they rest their eyes..."

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

Reverse Stealing

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Another friend, an actor, used to embrace the criminal aspect of shoplifting..."

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.

Sleeping Daughter

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I think it is very important for artists to work from life instead of photographs and this was brought home again as I painted these studies as my daughter slept. Not only is so much more seen with the eye but I want to be a painter of living things. It's a chance to experience the shifting cool hued light from the window play off her perfect skin. To watch blues and greens tint pale hollows before the forms turn under rosy cheeks. Color drains from her lids as she loses herself in sleep but in an instant she's ruddy-colored again and flipping her head back and forth. I paint the thumb back in again as she settles and, no....the palette knife comes out and I scrape the thumb out again -- oil is a fluid medium where images can easily be pushed around. Painted heads are what is left over from afternoon sessions spent watching perfect forms perfectly alive even in sleep. And now she's in a different pose and it's onto to a new sketch or back to an unfinished one close in posture. Then her eyes are open and I'm the one being watched. Years from now I'll enjoy pouring over photographs but for now I'll enjoy sitting with her when she sleeps -- the paintings an instant reminder.

I recognize hand signals that my infant daughter sends as she sleeps because my two-year-old used the same ones. Clutching and blanket-sucking signal a sensitivity to sound and foreshadow a fitful sleep but when my wife returns to top off the tired baby with a good nursing then she's knocked out flat on her back, hands open and arms stretched wide.

Baby Taco
In a bunting she called a baby taco, our maternity nurse could fold a cotton blanket perfectly around our new daughter. Flailing arms and legs remained tucked in tight, and with her thick black hair and olive skin our Eskimo baby slept contentedly in her cocoon. When we attempted to fold the wiggling limbs into the blanket our version of a human origami was so pitiful that the wrap needed more attention than the infant. As the baby got older, anything within reach was pulled up into her mouth and then we (thought we) had to worry that the blanket wouldn't allow her to breathe. If her bedroom seemed a little too quiet a welcome sight was the little girl out cold and arms up in the surrender posture.

-Doug Rugh

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

Break the Pickle

Creation of Man by Michelangelo

Excerpt from this posting:

"..."Yes, that's right. That's break the pickle." We both stared at the picture, each of us trying to figure out who does the tickling..."

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.

Oeuvre in a Box

View a larger version.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Maybe someone, another painter perhaps, lays out 50 cents for the only two frames that weren't split at the corners, and knocks out the paintings when they get home..."

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

Painting Blind

View a larger image of Blind Justice.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...Da Vinci recommended staring at stains on the walls for inspiration and I just looked for the beginnings of details and pulled the rest from memory banks..."

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

Color Study

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Excerpt from this posting:

"...A whole host of other aspects which can be followed individually like instruments in a symphony become something entirely different as a whole, complicating the matter and insuring that painting remain an art and not a science..."

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.

Cape Cod Parent

Figure studies - 12" x 9" - oil/panel.


Excerpt from this posting:

"...and my wife just shook her head (end of subject.)..."

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.

Cape Cod Artist

Bog at Dusk, 12" x 9", oil/panel.

Excerpt from this posting:

"...I guessed the artist to be in his late twenties and I hadn't seen him around before..."

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

You, Too, Have Asked...

Saint Luke painting the Virgin by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, 1515. Note mahl stick in hand.

Excerpt from this posting:

"You are being handed this card because you are in good company. Like 9 out of 10 men (and most women) who come up to me while I'm painting on location you have just asked, "What is the stick for?"..."

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

Dear Gladys (Not Your Real Name)

Excerpt from this posting:

"...We have a game we play. I say, "Are these your keys?"

And you say, "I've never seen them in my life."

The next Sunday the keys are still on the counter. I say, "Here are your keys."

You say, "Thank you," and put them in your pocket..."

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.

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:

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

More information here.

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..."

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

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..."

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

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:

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

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:

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

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..."

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

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..."

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

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:

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

More information here.

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..."

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

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..."

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

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..."

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

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..."

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

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..."

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 Color of Color

Excerpt from this posting:

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

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

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..."

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

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:

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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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..."

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

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..."

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

Baby Laps

Excerpt from this posting:

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

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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Final Rigging

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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:

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

More information here.

John Singer Sargent's Palette

Excerpt from this posting:

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

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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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..."

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

Turkey Day

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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:

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

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:

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

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:

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

Rose Colored Glasses

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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:
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