Robin's Nest

Robin's Nest is the title of this new piece which is 6"w x 6"h, acrylic on canvas, recently delivered to Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN. This lovely little robin is resting in a nest amongst vibrant spring colors of blues, greens, golds and oranges. We hit 59 degrees this weekend and broke a record here in Duluth ... a real tropical heat wave for March around here! Won't be long before the trees leaf out in vibrant green, transforming the barren grey and brown landscape to lush blues and greens of summer.

Prints of this painting are available on my online store: 
http://www.aaronkloss.com/store/c5/Spring_Bird_Prints.html

Many other painting options are always being added to my website: http://www.aaronkloss.com

Feel free to contact me for more information ... and I'm also available for commissions if you'd like a special size or subject. 

Cardinal Nest

"Cardinal Nest"

It's such a gorgeous sunny warm spring day here in Duluth, MN that I don't want to take too much time blogging and make sure I go outside and soak up more Vitamin D. Today's piece is titled Cardinal Nest, and features a female cardinal in her nest ... perhaps enjoying the nice spring weather just like the fella that painted her. This piece was recently delivered to Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN.

Prints of this painting are available on my online store: 
http://www.aaronkloss.com/store/c5/Spring_Bird_Prints.html

Many other painting options are always being added to my website: http://www.aaronkloss.com

Feel free to contact me for more information ... and I'm also available for commissions if you'd like a special size or subject. 

Nesting Cardinals

"Nesting Cardinals"  8"w x 8"h

Spring is in the air early this year and I've been working on a nesting birds theme. It's a subject easy to identify with, and who isn't fascinated by tiny little birds emerging from tiny eggs in a nest? Well, at least I'm fascinated by them. :) Today's piece is titled Nesting Cardinals and is 8"w x 8"h, acrylic on canvas, with a female and male cardinal at a nest. The background is a colorful array of blues, purples, greens, and a few golds .. all the colors of the spring season which will soon be upon us. This piece was delivered to Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN recently. Think spring!

Prints of this painting are available on my online store: 
http://www.aaronkloss.com/store/c5/Spring_Bird_Prints.html

Many other painting options are always being added to my website: http://www.aaronkloss.com

Feel free to contact me for more information ... and I'm also available for commissions if you'd like a special size or subject. 

Red Maples in Memory of Dick

I'm baaaaaack! I just wanted to start the first blog post of 2016 with something cool and I'm baaaaaack! is it. :)  I've taken a blog break as I've been focusing on finishing a list of commissioned paintings the likes of which I haven't ever seen. It's exciting and lots of work all at once, but it's also challenging and has me thinking outside my normal box of artistic inspiration and that's great. Normally this time of year sales are slow and I find myself wallowing in despair wondering if I'll ever paint again until temps warm up and gallery business picks up ... so commissioned work fits well into this time of the year.

Featured today is a painting that was commissioned at the end of 2015, titled Red Maples in Memory of Dick. This piece corresponds to a book I'm reading titled When Maples Turn Red, written by Richard King, here's a link to the book: http://outskirtspress.com/bookstore/details/9781478712282
I enjoyed the reds of this piece as much as I'm enjoying the book. Tomorrow I'll post a corresponding piece to this one ... here's to a new year full of color, inspiration and life.

It's Fun to Stay at the B.W.C.A.

"It's Fun To Stay At The B.W.C.A."  48"w x 24"h

Today's painting is a colorful take on a beautiful place to paddle your canoe ... the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota (B.W.C.A.) The BWCA consists of hundreds of lakes connected by portages. I made several trips to the BWCA as a youngster in Boy Scouts, and I'll never forget the landscapes there in which the shorelines were covered with large boulders, there was wilderness as far as the horizon, the fish were plentiful and we drank water right out of the lake. Bears, moose, deer, eagles and more could be found ... along with the quiet solitude of a paddle slipping in and out of a lake as the canoe glided through glassy waters. I've always wanted to go back to the BWCA, maybe some day I will, but for now the lakes and woods there will live on in my dreams and memories ... and make their way onto canvases such as this one titled It's Fun To Stay At The B.W.C.A. which is a new 48"w x 24"h acrylic on canvas I brought in to Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais.

Changing Leaves

Here's a colorful piece titled Changing Leaves, which is acrylic on 20"w x 16"h canvas, Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN. This fun painting hints at the changing of green to gold in leaf color in the landscape ... kind of like the last greens of summer.

Approaching Autumn

"Approaching Autumn"  20"w x 10"h

This piece titled Approaching Autumn is 20"w x 10"h and is one of 18 acrylic on canvas paintings available at Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais. Last weekend of summer before autumn approaches and fills the landscape with color. Can't wait! :)

Chick a Dee Dee Dee Dee Dees

Here's a fun piece titled Chick A Dee Dee Dee Dee Dees (24"w x 12"h) which is currently at Siiviis Gallery in Duluth, MN. The call the chickadee makes inspired the titled of this new acrylic on canvas which is filled with summer's bountiful color and seven happy little chickadees. I love walking in the woods and hearing the call of the chickadee. It's the first bird I was able to identify as a child, and like many people, I find them the friendliest bird in the forest. They're hardy too ... spending the winters here in the great northland. Many birds migrate through the forests and regions, but the chickadee is always there, like an old friend that greets you with a smile when you meet.

The Great Northland (Commission)

"The Great Northland"  48"w x 30"h

Today's painting is a commissioned painting for a special customer. This piece, titled The Great Northland, is based off a painting from July 2013 titled Somewhere North of Here. I adjusted the size of this new piece to fit the space the painting was going to be displayed in, and even included a photo of the finished piece installed at left. What I enjoyed about this painting, and the first one, is the colorful trees and mysterious feeling you get from the bright moonlight reflecting off the lake. Compositionally, the foreground and the bottom and birch leaves at the top keep the eye moving around the piece, and the intensity of the color keeps the whole painting as the subject, vs. having only one object as the subject. The land I live in draws people from around the world annually, and it's not to visit one location, but to take in all the sights, sounds, and experiences this part of the world has to offer. This is the great northland. My work can be found in the fine galleries that represent me, and I'm also available for commissions, shoot me an email for more information. -Aaron

Changing Seasons

"Changing Seasons" 24"w x 18"h

Featured today is a piece, titled Changing Seasons, from my upcoming solo show at The Red Mug in Superior, WI during March 2015. This piece, like all work in the show, is full of bright spring color. This particular piece is very compelling with it's long foreground shadows, and bright yellows in the sky, distant lake and foreground. Just when you think winter will never end, spring comes, and the seasons change. This show will feature several new mid sized paintings, along with framed prints, and will fill the space with color, and hopefully soon the landscape will be filled with the colors of spring.

This piece is part of my 'Changing Seasons' show which may be viewed during business hours at The Red Mug in Superior, WI.

Autumn in Northern Minnesota

"Autumn in Northern Minnesota", 8"w x 24"h NFS

Here is a piece inspired by the season it was painted in. This was for some friends who reside in Washington D.C. who are originally from northern Minnesota, and I thought this piece would remind them of home. We left Minnesota in upper 30 degree temps, as was pleasantly surprised by summer in D.C. I wasn't reminded of home as we arrived and felt the mid seventy degree temps and pouring rain, coupled with humidity, we must have looked like tourists in our cold weather gear. :)

More ironic today is the 10 plus inches of blowing snow currently outside. Sometimes I imagine the autumn season lasting six months, with summer lasting four, and winter and spring taking one month each. (Can't skip Christmas and Easter!) What would it be like to live in a landscape that is in perpetual warm vibrant color? Each year, we get to experience this season of harvest for a couple short weeks where I live before we get blasted with six months of winter ... I can't live in autumn color indefinately but I can capture it on canvas and make it last forever.

Walk With Me A While

"Walk With Me A While"  36"w x 24"h

Today's piece is a take on a familiar theme of mine which harkens back to my earliest work. While I was pondering what to paint as an aspiring landscape painter, I took frequent hikes with my family in the wilderness around my home in Duluth, MN and came across some breathtaking vistas that would would guide me on my artistic path for years to come. I was drawn to the warm colors of fall and especially to the shadows cast across the forest floor from the setting sun. The rich warm colors and complementary deep blue skies have frequently found their way onto my canvases, and this piece, titled Walk With Me A While, which is 36"w x 24"h beckons you to visually walk through the maple and birch forests and get awestruck by the color and beauty ... who knows, maybe it will inspire you to paint too!

Please contact Lizzards Gallery in Duluth, MN for more information on this piece which is part of my Landscapes show Sept. 25 - Nov. 8, 2014

Where it all began

 

Here is a new piece titled Where It All Began, 7"w x 5"h,  which is part of a large group of smaller work brought in to Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais recently. This piece features maples and the color gold, along with a blue sky. This color combination is what really caught my eye as I began painting years ago, and whenever I paint in this palette I have fond memories of the good old days, hence the title of this piece. Please contact Sivertson Gallery for more information on this piece and many others.

Summer in the Forest

"Summer in the Forest"  12"w x 6"h

"Tiny Trees"  4"w x 4"h

Here are two pieces painting simultaneously titled Summer in the Forest and Tiny Trees. 'Tis the season for blue and green. The landscape is covered in thousands of shades of green, and I've managed to paint a few shades of green into these pieces. If only I could make summer longer, I would .. but I can enjoy the season now and capture it on canvas in the meantime. Please contact Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN for more information on these pieces.

Maples Dressed in Green

"Maples Dressed in Green Triptych" 30"w x 10"h

Blue and green are two colors that are just so soothing to the eyes. After working with a yellow or red color on a canvas, it's always a treat to paint with the blues and greens of the summer landscape. Perhaps I like to stare at these colors, or I like to observe landscapes such as this one titled Maples Dressed in Green. Or both. Either way, someday I'd like to move to a place that's green and summery all year round. Such a place doesn't exist here in Minnesota, oh but maybe it does .. when captured on canvas. Please contact Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN for more information on this piece and many other works in all shapes and sizes ... and colors ... like blue and green ...

Early Spring Robin Nest

"Early Spring Robin Nest" 10"w x 10"h

"Worm Wrangler" Private Collection

Today's painting, titled Early Spring Robin Nest, features a robin's nest with four eggs on a matching blue background. This piece, like yesterday's, is based on memory. The robins built their nests this year amongst leafless trees due to the late spring we had here in Duluth. It probably wasn't the best situation for the birds as the nests aren't sheltered very well from predators, but it was a good situation for watching the nest building birds. The cold, damp spring had a plus for the robins, though, as they had all the worms they could gobble down crawling around on the pavement. Whenever I see a robin pulling a worm out of the ground I'm filled with amazement and disgust all at once. The thought of eating a worm isn't a problem for these birds, though, as they hop around on the lawn, somehow always knowing where the worms are crawling just below the grass. With this piece, I enjoyed playing with the composition, working the branches of the tree to reflect the swirling motion of the nest. The background is plain and simple, focusing the attention on the eggs in the center of the piece. The tree and the eggs have one thing in common, they are both on the verge of breaking forth into new life ... budding and breaking to signal the new season of spring greens and summer breezes. Please contact Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais, MN for more information on this piece and many other works in all shapes and sizes.

Minnetonka's Majestic Maples

"Minnetonka's Majestic Maples" 72"w x 36"h

From early childhood memories and on up to high school days there is a stretch of road I enjoyed traveling on. The road went up and down hills and around tight curves like an old road would do. With new roads, they just flatten everything and you just can't beat an old road for a Sunday drive. I remember the road being named Shoreline drive, and there was also a road numbered 101 that had a nice bridge. Anyways, these roads would get really close to the water, almost like you're getting as close to the lake as you're driving without plunging into the water. The builders of these roads must have had a real love of lake Minnetonka, and endeavored to make traveling around the lake as pleasurable as possible. With the fond memories of these roads and lake in mind, I created a triptych painting from memory titled Minnetonka's Majestic Maples. Working from memory is often challenging as I have several images in mind and I try to get the images as close to the memory as possible. I remembered vividly looking through the trees as I traveled around the lake, the season was late Autumn, and the leaves of the trees were almost done with their fall color and had begun to turn shades of brown. This piece uses brown, or burnt sienna as the paint is called, as an underpainting that really gives the piece a sense of time, almost as if it was painted long ago. I think it's the golds of the leaves and browns underneath playing off eachother that gives that feeling of time. And the memories may be thirty years old, but I can remember them like they were yesterday, almost like I was riding around the lake as a child, staring out the window at the lake through the maples ...

Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN for more information on this piece.

A Peaceful Place

"A Peaceful Place" 36"w x 12"h

I just couldn't resist giving this painting the title of how I felt when it was finished and I sat back in my chair with the thought that comes to mind when I add the last brush stroke. 'What to title this one?' Well, this is the thought that came to mine ... a peaceful place ... and so the painting was officially finished. The title for each piece just comes to mind as I work, although every so often I set out to paint something with the title in mind, and that is usually with the larger works. This painting features textural birches with gold maples and underbrush against a summer sky. While it has a unique depth of color with the burnt sienna underpainting and distinct brush strokes, for me, it's just a peaceful place. Please contact Your Art's Desire Gallery in Minnetonka, MN for more information on this piece.

Spring Maple Forest

"Spring Maple Forest" 20"w x 16"h

It won't be long until the maples are budding, there's warm southerly breezes and the songbirds are singing ... I kept telling myself today as I shoveled the last of the snow off the deck this afternoon on a cold gray 40 degree day. Please contact Lizzard's Gallery for more information on this painting.

Quiet Solitude

"Quiet Solitude" Diptych, 72"w x 24"h

Here is piece that endeavors to capture the feeling of a quiet birch and maple forest during the last light of the day. The foreground gold and burnt sienna underbrush fade to a deep rich black and so does the cobalt sky in the distance. The maple leaves sparkle on the trees as the sun dances off them, and the birch hide in plain sight in the foreground. Some of my favorite comments have come from people who don't notice the birch trees right way as they focus on the background ... neither of which is the focus of this work, in a busy, noisy, hectic world, the quiet solitude of the birch forest beckons to be seen and experienced. Nuff said.