"Worth the Price?" Fluid Acrylic Triptych 2' X 6'

Worth the Price? (Mississippi River) by April M Rimpo (Click on the image to see it larger)

Worth the Price? (Mississippi River)
Fluid Acrylic Triptych
24" X 72"

$3800

On exhibit at the Pocono Arts Center April 6 - 28, 2018

Recipient of the
"Ka6 & Girard Lichty Climate Crisis Award"

I remember as a young teen being aware of how badly our environment was suffering from various pollutants: in the water, on the ground, in the air. Our family had a small power boat and would occasionally go on the Connecticut River and my father would pull my brother and I with the boat, while standing on a wide board designed for "surfing". It was great fun, but I remember how badly the water smelled and how I couldn't wait to get home to shower afterwards. 

It was not many years later when new laws required major cleanup of our waterways and reductions of the pollutants spewed into the air. When I was in my late teens the problem of DDT impacting the strength of eagle eggs was in the news along with worries about the fate of our National Bird. DDT was a commonly-used pesticide for insect control in the United States until it was banned in 1972 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Now we see so many EPA regulations being canceled and I worry about the fate of our planet.

A recent trip to New Orleans was a subject of great inspiration. The music, the food, the art were all so beautiful and such a joy to experience. However, we also took a ferry boat cruise on the Mississippi and when it neared the delta we began to see huge refineries along the river. The shift in sceneries from the beauty of the region to these refineries was startling. I had been thinking about doing a painting about protecting our environment for an upcoming juried exhibit, titled Art of Engagement. 

When I saw the refineries I knew what I wanted to paint. For me it brought to mind the question of whether our country was abandoning alternate fuel initiatives and ignoring the problems of too much carbon monoxide emissions. How much will the corporations and states decide to honor our planet and do their best to continue to reduce emissions? So far many States have stood up for the Paris Agreement, so time will tell. 

I found this quote by Edward Abbey and decided it was time for me to create this painting. These words may have been written about 50 years ago, but maybe even more true today.

“It is no longer sufficient to describe the world of nature. The point is to defend it.”  

See more about the creation of this painting here.

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.

"Freight Yard", 24" X 45" gallery wrapped acrylic and watercolor

Freight Yard by April M Rimpo

Freight Yard

acrylic and watercolor
24" X 45" varnished gallery wrapped paper
$2595

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE HERE

I am not sure what draws me to industrial scenes,  but it is probably the colors and the structure of the equipment.  I didn't want the blue crane to blend in with the sky so I decided to use a golden, gray colored sky.  I love to use red and orange with blue to create tension with this red based analog color scheme. By using very dark values I accentuated the structure of the equipment and the train rail. Contrasting the geometric shapes of the freight yard with the soft sky and wet runs at the bottom of the painting provided an interesting balance between industrial and organic.

Freight Yard is included in North Light Books' AcrylicWorks 4: Captivating Color, best of acrylics. Read the press release for the book here. Below is an image of the cover and page 31, where my painting is included.

April's other industrial paintings include:

• Shipping Port
• Port of Call - NYC
• Streetcar

To see a sample of my prints check my store.

Featured Art - "Freight Yard"

This month's featured art on display at RE/MAX Advantage Realty is Freight Yard.  When I first visited RE/MAX to see the space and decide whether to exhibit there I was inspired by the industrial feel of the building with brick walls, tall ceilings, exposed ductwork and I-beams. I immediately knew that my industrial themed paintings would be perfect in this setting.  Freight Yard immediately came to mind and definitely had to shown here.

I learned this week that this painting has also been selected for inclusion in North Light's Best of Acrylics book, AcrylicWorks4: Captivating Color, so I thought this was the perfect painting to highlight from the RE/MAX exhibit.

Freight Yard by April M Rimpo

Freight Yard

24" X 45" fluid acrylic

varnished and gallery wrapped

Original $2595
Giclee Prints also available


AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE HERE

If you would like to see the painting, you can stop by RE/MAX Advantage Realty, 729 East Pratt Street, Suite 100, Baltimore MD 21202, and say you are there to see April Rimpo's artwork. All purchases are made through April, so contact her if you have questions or would like to meet at RE/MAX. 

Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

Copyright April M Rimpo 2014 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution, but all other uses are prohibited.

"Shipping Port", 10.25" X 24" watercolor

Shipping Port by April M Rimpo

Shipping Port

watercolor 

10.25" X 24" image

16" X 30" brushed silver frame

$615

AVAILABLE NOW FOR PURCHASE HERE

Maybe I should have named this painting "Three Cheers for the Little Tugboat" but it was the cranes in the shipping port that really attracted me to this landscape.  My husband and I were traveling across Puget Sound on a ferry when this port became visible across the water.  The large structure of the cranes and the rainbow hues of the crates stacked at the port are what  caught my eye.  I had fun using very wet and soft washes of the background hill and down into the crates at the port.  I left the soft background to provide a sense of distance, arial perspective.

I layered washes over that soft pastel area to the right of the cranes to add structure to the crates.  Although the ship was in the foreground I simplified shapes on the ship so the lines and structure of the cranes could be the stars of the painting.

"Port of Call" 12.5" X 28.5" watercolor

Port of Call by April M. Rimpo

Port of Call

watercolor

12.5" X 28.5" image

19" X 35" brushed silver frame

$1400

Available for purchase now

Port of Call depicts the hustle and bustle of New York, but this time at the port.  Like my painting Morning in NYC this painting was derived from a photograph I had taken from the Empire State Building. It’s amazing all you can see from the Empire State Building.  The port of call in NYC is across Manhattan Island, but the ships are so large they stand out from the rest of the view.  The bright red ship and the white ship made a natural composition.  All I needed to do was eliminate some of the smaller ships and boats and reduce some of the clutter on the docks to make the scene easier to understand.  After a recent trip to NYC I noticed a train yard with a large number of shipping crates.  I had photographed the crates, so the shipping crate photo was a color reference for crates that are stacked on the dock.

Since the red ship is the star of this painting I wanted most of the scene to be neutral in color to help emphasize the ship, but it was important to have a few additional spots of red to make the ship fit in with the rest of the painting.  There is an adage you hear when you study art that it is important to repeat colors, shapes and line 3 times but to have the repetition be different sizes to make it interesting.  It is often referred to as the Momma, Poppa, Baby Bear rule.   I think I first heard it in a workshop with Chen-khee Chee nearly 15 years ago.  If you look around the painting you will find different spots of red in different sizes where the ship is the Poppa-sized  red.  I think you'll find the Momma red easily, but you may have to work a little more to identify the Baby Bear shapes.

When you read my bio you hear me talk about how I love watercolor because I can work more loosely and freely, letting the paint run and reacting to what is happening.  Even though that is true I also find occasionally doing a painting like this one is very relaxing for me.  Instead of being constantly on my toes deciding what to do based on what is happening with the paint, I work in a very controlled manner allowing me to get the lines in the city correct.  The challenge, however, is to make sure the focal point stands out and is not lost.  My decisions when designing and painting are which details to make clear and which to subdue so they don't detract from the star.

To see other city-scape paintings by April see these other blog posts:

• Morning in NYC
• Street Car
• The Conservatory
• City Reflections I
• Fire Escape
• Department Store

I have limited edition archival prints available of many of these paintings.

• Contant April here

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.


Interested in learning more about April's art inspirations, tips about her painting process, or art business tidbits? Want to know when her art is in exhibits? Consider joining her friends and collectors by signing up for her twice-monthly email.

"Streetcar", 14" X 22" watercolor

Streetcar by April M. Rimpo

Streetcar

watercolor

12"X20" image

in brushed silver frame

$720 within the United State*

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE HERE

Sometimes you just know exactly how you want a painting to look even before the event has occurred.  As I stood in my hotel room poised at the window looking at the street scene below a transit street car had stopped to pickup passengers.  I knew quite a few taxi cabs traveled the street perpendicular to the street car that I had only a small glimpse of from my window.  I knew the orange of the street car and the orange-yellow of the taxi would make a great composition, enforcing the interesting angles of the streets and buildings. I  patiently started to snap pictures hoping to catch a taxi in the frame before the street car moved on its way.  Finally a taxi drove by and I caught its picture.

Since I had seen this painting in my head and was able to catch it live, there was not much to do once I got home to compose the painting.  My primary job was to retain the repeated oranges (street car, taxi, and the reflection of the street car in the windows), simplify shapes, and adjust colors slightly in the windows to make the color theme work as I envisioned it.  Had the taxi arrived after the cable car left I could have taken a picture of the taxi then combined the two photographs in my painting; but catching it live had become almost a game of chase to see whether I could get it before the street car departed.

I liked how other buildings between my vantage point and the street car had created a natural frame on the sides of my composition, but I didn't want the details of the brick building on the right or the stripes of the building on the left to detract so I only hinted at the brick and essentially eliminated the vertical stripes. The angle of the wall in the foreground helped to accentuate the angle at the corner, so I retained a portion of the wall where I could repeat the angle formed by the street car and the taxi.  

http://www.spreesy.com/aprilrimpo/102

Designing this painting in the moment was exciting and rewarding.  Let me know what you think of the final result.

* Contact April regarding purchase 

Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.