Monet Teaches How to Hunt

Sunset out my Window, Oil by C.t. Rasmuss  10x8".

     Last night I finished up watching an original BBC miniseries on The Impressionists, it was told through the account of Claude Monet, 'the leader' of the movement; something I gained from the 177 minute partial account of this monumental art movement was: his 'hunting for the moment' (capturing the moment).
     And where the painting above is stem from, I have lived with such a view out my window for 1 year and almost 6 months; never once have I painted this beautiful and generous view.  What a shame, as I've thought about it many times, but never able to pull the trigger so to speak.  And this is why I read, buy many books, visit museum after museum, and watch many films about the masters.

On top of Mt. Bradbury enpleinair  Oil by C.t. Rasmuss  10x8"

    On top of Mt. Bradbury is my 3rd painting out of a series of 11: where I'm recuperating the $55 park fee I paid for 2018(at $5 per entry); funny thing, the entrance to Mt Bradbury State Park was free the day I went there, so technically I've still got 9 to go lol!  Interesting side note: this was the 1st official mountain I'd ever climbed (elevation of only 407 ft. but still..), and I tell you what I'm really out of shape much more than I thought!!

This next oil was on the Eastern Promenade, where I do almost 50% of my work out of doors lately:

Eastern Promenade  Oil by C.t. Rasmuss 10x8"

The next two series of works are: 1.of a still life in which I bought some fresh cut flowers, I intended to do more work from the still life but ran out of time:

Modernist Still Life  Pastels on Paper by C.t. Rasmuss 16x20"

  2.The chess board study is from my recent museum trip to Bates College Art Museum; 1st time there, the drawing is from an exhibit on Maine legend, Dahlov Ipcar, who passed away last year at age of 99(same age as Georgia O'Keefe):

Study of Dahlov Ipcar 1976 Painting Graphite on paper by C.t.Rasmuss 14x11"

Just for fun, this last one was from a coloring exercise of a Dahlov Ipcar composition at the Bates:

The Flower Bowl - Fresh from Rasmuss' Garden.

Flower Bowl 1  C.T. Rasmuss, Ink Print/acrylic (June 2014).

                               
I've been growing flowers and a garden for the last two years, and from last year to this year I've learned a lot, I've become more efficient and knowledgeable in the whole thing; as I have more types of flowers and volume, due to perennials that return each year and knowing better as to which annuals to buy.

Even though I don't plan on staying where I live more than just a few years, I can take what flowers I have planted with me, where I will be ahead of the game when I start fresh in a new place.  The day I find a more permanent living situation, and when I do, I plan on going all out like the great Impressionist leader, Claude Monet, where he was able to take much inspiration from world famous garden, which included his most famous Water Lilies!

Here you can see the beginnings of my flower collection for this year, at least from a month ago, it takes a bit of time to get a good amount of flowers blooming all at the same time- I'm finding out; since it was a sparse amount, I took a really neat ceramic bowl with an interesting pattern on it and placed what I had in the bowl, and rather than do a painting I figured a drawing would better do the trick! 

I was so pleased with results of the 1st drawing, I went for a second composition which I'm well pleased with also!  The two shown below are in order of creation, and the main picture up at the top of the post with a dash of some color, is a photo copy of the 1st drawing(which I also made plenty for my students to do the same, as this was a quick example of what they could do to theirs).

Flower Bowl 1 C.T. Rasmuss, Graphite (June 2014).

Flower Bowl 2  C.T. Rasmuss, Graphite (June 2014).

My advice to you is: if you would like to get more in touch with nature and have some beautiful things to paint, draw or just learn from, go plant some flowers:)

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Scribble of Monet's 'Rouen Cathedral'

Scribble of Monet's 'Rowen Cathedral' C.T. Rasmuss, paint pen/markers (2011).

Another rendering back in 2011 of a painting by a master of Impressionism; I learned here how to transfer the palette to the contemporary medium of paint pens, in which I applied my 'Scribble' technique.  Quite a challenge to create a mess by way of scribble and to then bring it back into focus, also a good way to learn more about the importance of layers in a painting I'd have to say...

Rouen Cathedral, West Facade  Claude Monet, oil (1894).