A Kodak Moment

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h

L'Impressionnisme

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Am I overdoing this subject? Well, I'm really enjoying these figure studies and have done more, so bear with me. This couple is looking at one of Monet's earlier paintings, "Women in the Garden" (1867) seen in the Musee d'Orsay, Paris. How I wish I could go back there myself and gaze upon these works. I've grown so much as an artist since visiting 8 years ago. I feel I could gain so much more NOW from looking at the masters.

Pontificating Pollack

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Ok, I'm sorry about the title. But it cracked me up.
This couple is looking at Jackson Pollack's painting One: Number 31 in the MOMA. A lot of people rather think Pollack was pulling one over on the public with his artwork, but I really do like it. I like the energy he created. And I imagine it was a very freeing way to paint. Sometime I must try it just for fun.

Meditating Marilyn

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

This young man had a comfy seat in the Harn Museum of Art (Univ. of Florida) to contemplate a wall of Marilyns by Warhol. The red and green version is really quite garish!

I found a neat site that has some info about Warhol's prints and an interactive Marilyn that you can color.

Close Up

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

A young couple scrutinizing Seurat's painting "A Sunday on la Grande Jatte." I have the same need when I get to see masters' paintings in real life. I want to get right up and inspect the brushwork and its all I can do not to touch. I once set off an alarm in a museum in FL because I was too close to a Monet.

I had the happy honor of being chosen a finalist again in the Raymar Fine Art Contest for the month of April. I submitted the painting below, which is now available at Castle Gallery in Fort Wayne.



Happy Memorial Day!

Connection

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

This young woman looked so similar to Wyeth's Christina that I thought they had a connection in some spiritual way. The hair, the clothes, the gaze. Wyeth's painting is so powerful yet so simple. I really admire that.

Sundown

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h

Someone had wanted one of those previous experiment sketches I had done so I did the scene again on my usual gessobord panel. Its the same color scheme but I think I lost some of the looseness. Then again I wasn't rushing through 5-6 of them in 20 minutes.

Cool Light

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Gallery Opening

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Loved this couple checking out the work in a local gallery. I really do like this subject. I think one of the things I like best about it sometimes is the spotlight effects and the multiple shadows that are cast from the overhead lighting. And the poses of the people, absorbed in art.

Note: I've had to go up on my shipping - its increased along with all the other postage/gas pricing. Sorry.

Curious Gaze

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

The lady in the reddish coat here is gazing at the Hopper painting "Chair Car" in which a woman in red is gazing at another passenger in the parlor car. I love Hopper's work. Though his subjects often seem to have a loneliness about them. Its something that has been remarked on and studied at length though by minds superior to mine. I just love his compositions and color and so I chose one of his to complement my subject.

The Bean

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

I have to admit having always wanted to paint this but another artist has done it so well - and our work is often of similar subjects - so I held off. But it was a lot of fun to paint in oils - the reflections and distortion of the city buildings are so unique. And the plaza and Cloud Gate both seem to vibrate with color and light. I imagine the sculpture must change so much too - a cloudy gray day might make it almost blend in with the surroundings; at at night, with the city lights I bet it would seem to glow from within. The whole of Millenium Park is inspirational and I can't wait to visit it again. That trip is probably coming late summer.

Laughing Gull

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

Late afternoon on Siesta Key beach. Another month and I will be there again myself.

Morning Drive

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

This was another scene I witnessed yesterday morning - through my rear view mirror. Done from memory. We sure had a lot of rain last night again and some areas had hail and the chance of tornadoes developing. None did, thank goodness.

Stormy Commute

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

This morning I had to head out early to take my doggie for her haircut and caught sight of 183 South backed up on a rise with the clearing storm clouds giving way to sunshine.
I sketched it while I was stopped at a traffic light and tried to commit it to memory. I liked being able to witness something and then come home and interpret it from memory. Its really good practice. And it was definitely practice in being loose and suggestive.

Cloud Gate

pastel on Wallis sanded paper

This I did quite awhile ago - just playing around with pastels. I like the medium and the surface but there are too many difficulties with framing and conservation.

I haven't experimented too much in my career as artist. My college courses were mostly focused on drawing and design and then post college I studied for several years here in Austin with Elizabeth Locke. She focuses on classical education in value, composition, and color theory. Since then, I've stuck with oils.

A creature of habit.

We're expecting company in the next day or so. And my daughter is heading into her last week of school. So my posts may get more random both in frequency and in subject! Maybe some crayon drawings even.

Adam & Eve

6x6 oil panel
$100 + $11 s/h

I did this yesterday before I began to experiment and play. Another view of people enjoying their lunch on the steps in the downtown plaza.
Today I am going to strip my daughter's room and clean it thoroughly. She is suffering more and more with asthma and allergies. I wish I could make her better. Been a bad week truth be told. Lets hope for better days!

Mood

Today I felt like experimenting a little - I needed to loosen up and try some new things. I think painting from photos and trying to be "representational" often makes me tighter and too real with my color choices. Today I had fun and loosened up. And I can't tell you how much fun I had! I should paint this way all the time! Instead of copying a scene, I created different moods and interpreted.

I chose a photo of two cowboys from a rodeo we stopped at in Bertram. It has a nice contrast of shadow and light with lots of fun highlights. I massed everything together basically and then just added a midtone here and there.
I tried different color schemes and its interesting to see how the mood changes with each.

The first one I wanted to do in 'hot' colors. All warm reds and yellows. A wonderful reference for work that looks like you're in the blazing sun is John Asaro's book "A New Romanticism" (btw - I have his book and didn't realize it was so valuable$ now!)



Next, I approached it with a cool palette and it almost has a feeling of a night scene under moonlight. One regret.... I put his hands in with a red. I got too literal. Painted what was there rather than what should have been there.



Next, I chose to paint the scene with complements. First, purple and yellow. Obviously not direct complements. The yellow turned out more towards the green side.



And red and green. I like this combination a lot for this scene/subject.



Finally - I wanted to try to paint in a higher "key". Everything I do generally has the full value range from 10 (black) to 1 (white). This time I wanted to try something very light. And this is my favorite.



All of these took a short time. They are on linen scraps and I painted them with washes and really massed everything together first, then went back in to model the forms. I can see doing this with cafe scenes very successfully.

What a great exercise. I feel renewed!

Her Section

6x6 - oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

His Section

6x6 oil - on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

Happy the Man...

16x16 - oil on panel

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He, who can call to-day his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
To-morrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
-- John Dryden