Tag Archives: costa rica

09/12/11

New Work About Costa Rica

This is so new it was just finished on Saturday. It’s a view of Punta Uva, considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, and I was there last November. It is like another world. Nearly free of litter and tourists too, but not quite! I have hundreds of photos of Costa Rica and I’m sure I could spend years painting scenes from Central America.  It’s a gorgeous place and I hope it’s not ruined by development.  Keep it wild!

This is an acrylic painting, 28″ x 22″ and I intend to get it up on Artspan soon.

 

 

08/10/11

San Jose Shoppers

This is a downtown, San Jose street scene, from a photo taken in November 2010.  I would love to go back to Costa Rica. It’s an amazing country and incredibly beautiful. The people are wonderful and friendly and I have to say, though you can’t tell it from this painting, they are very style-conscious and into fashion.  Probably more so than Americans.

By the way, don’t skip the city if you go to Costa Rica, like so many websites recommend.  San Jose a beautiful city full of parks and museums and great pedestrian traffic, with lots of gorgeous architecture.  The one drawback of walking around in San Jose is the auto and bus traffic. There is too much of it, and everyone drives super fast, and the congestion makes for some serious air pollution. 

As soon as you get out of the city, the traffic is sparse and the countryside, with its many coffee farms, farms in general, and rain forests,  is amazingly beautiful. I mean to do several watercolors of downtown, but I can say for sure there will be two more at least.

07/24/11

Recent Artwork and In Progress Things

One reason that going to work in a studio is very good for me is that it keeps me away from the internet, which for people like me can be a huge time hogger. It’s a major distraction. So, I have to find time when I’m home to post things online, which is a very good situation for me. If I had the internet at work I’m not sure I’d get half as much done as I manage to do.

Pictured in this extra-large post are things I’m either currently working on or have finished recently (in the last 3 weeks). (There are at least two things I’m working on that are not included here.)

First of all, my trip last year to Costa Rica and the 500+ resulting photos are going to be the source of a lot of paintings this year. I’ve been meaning to get to work on them — and now I am!
Continue reading “Recent Artwork and In Progress Things” »

06/30/11

Costa Rica Sentinels

This painting was done using several photos I took in Costa Rica last November. It’s meant to evoke the beauty and exotic mood of the location. This river, which originates with a beautiful waterfall, was overseen by these mysterious rock “sculptures” that were just sitting on large rocks, like sentinels of the river. This particular location is near the volcano Arenal in northern Costa Rica.

I don’t usually paint scenic/river scenes, but I find myself doing more of this type of work lately because I have so many photos of Central America. I’ve gone there a few times since 2005 and hope to go next year with my DSLR, so I’ll have even more photos to paint from.

This painting was just accepted into the Rivers show in St. Cloud, Minnesota, juried by artist Ron Merchant. The reception will be July 11th from 6-8pm, upstairs in the Paramount lobby.

Original NFS, but prints are available at Artspan. I’m starting to like doing paintings like this more and more so I’ll be doing more of them.

01/28/11

The Experiment

The Experiment is this:  to paint frequently, every day if possible, and document progress on this blog.  I have a fancier website at Leitworks Studio and various other pages where I sell things, but this will be a working blog with more frequent updates. This will include photography, digital artwork, sketches, and paintings, as often as I can.

This is a recent painting called “Pumpkin Beach” that I finished in September, and then finished it again in December (made an improvement or two) and now it is finally complete. I went to Costa Rica in November and came back with ideas, and basically added the rock and the splash to the water. It was a good addition. You can buy prints of this or the original on my Artspan site.