European Sculpture Court

24x18 oil on cradled panel

Ask DK Gallery about this painting

How about a little break from the big city to visit the cool and quiet interior of the Met? This view played into two of my favorites - the museum and an overhead view. This is a beautiful space at the Met. All that glass with natural light pouring in and a view to the greenery of Central park. I got there at the right time on this day!

Summer Hours

What to share? What to talk about? Well, I am painting some. Trying to work a little larger mostly. So those take more time. Its nice to live with things a little while too so I can be sure they are right before sending them out. 

We're enjoying our summer vacation. But its not all play - well - with painting it really is (or should be).
I've teamed up with V....Vaughan to lead some sketching workshops on Saturdays in June. If you are nearby do come and join us. We can talk about and teach what YOU like about sketching for painting purposes. Either  making preliminary paint sketches or value studies or mapping out your composition. You can work out many things with sketches before starting on your canvas.

Join us at Joel's Coffee House in Austin. We get amped up on delicious gourmet chocolates, excellent coffees and teas or frozen drinks first and then work for a few hours.
 

On Saturday, June 15 and June 22 we'll do it again! You can join us with your sketch supplies, or USE OURS! We will each do a short demo. Cost is $20

 

On its way to Carmel this week is this fun painting featuring a rather stern man painted by Cezanne - "Antoine Dominique Sauveur Aubert, The Artist's Uncle, as a monk" 1866 (from The Met)

 Hoodies

18x20 oil on linen

Ask Edward Montgomery Fine Art about this painting.

With the Wyndhams

14x14 oil on linen

Been in a museum mood lately. It seems a good subject to paint a little larger. I keep hearing I should paint bigger but I worry that my subjects are rather intimate sorts of settings that won't lend themselves to large works. Who wants a giant chef in a busy kitchen on their wall? But I am scaling up to give several of my galleries more options. I do think I have a contemporary feel at least, and want to push that more so I can maybe hang these larger pieces on cradled panels and not frame them.

In this piece, I painted over a bad start that I had scraped and I used some palette knife just to add a little texture and move color around the background especially. I used my fingers some too.

I sometimes wonder if its cheating to use famous pieces of art in my own art. If people like the artist featured, for example, John Singer Sargent, then they have to like my painting. But, what I most like is to paint people admiring the masters, and doing what I love to do myself.

Portrait Society

10x12 oil on panel
Available at Tidewater Gallery

I've been working on some commissions lately which I can share with you soon. For now, we'll keep looking at the new works available at Tidewater until the end of my show July 14th.

L'Arlesienne Lady

12x16 oil on panel

Ask Edward Montgomery Fine Art about this painting.

Just shipped this piece off to Carmel. I haven't been doing much but preparing for my upcoming show. This week I am framing the last, boxing and going to ship. Then I can breathe a sigh of relief that my part is done and I can slow down for summer. Its heating up in Texas. A little weekend on the coast of NC will be a lovely break - opening June 15th. If you're in the area of Swansboro, I'd love to meet you in person!

The people above are reading about the Van Gogh painting of Marie Ginoux which is at the Met in NYC. I didn't make it into the museum on my recent trip. Our days were so full of painting that we were exhausted by the late afternoon and not good for much more than a delicious dinner and a glass of wine. One of these days, I need to make a trip with my family and be a real tourist in the city. Really, there is so much to do and see, its difficult to do it even in a long weekend.

The Grand Salon

24x36 oil on linen

Available in Dallas at the upcoming Russell Collection Presents... show.

Definitely large for me! Scaling up is hard, but overall I am pretty pleased with this painting. I did enjoy the process after all and by working in sections, the brushwork remained loose and interesting. The scene shows one of the large galleries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. Its one of the loveliest places to view fine art. And the collections, like this roomful of Manet, are amazing.

Wishing you and yours a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving.

A Day with Degas

12x12 oil on panel

Available next month at Loretta Goodwin Gallery.

Feeling a little, I don't know, ennui? Maybe I just like that word. Anyway, I turned to something contemplative today. I am pleased with the looseness, the variety of color and brush stoke I worked in here. Its not perfect, but my goal isn't realism, right? I was listening to a Dan McCaw interview this morning on Artists Helping Artists and he talked about painting "past the likeness" and other ideas for expressing your individuality. His book is wonderful, by the way.

This photo is too light, the painting is a little more muted and a shade more cozy than this appears - but when I try to adjust the photo, the red becomes too vibrant.

The scene might be one of my favorite rooms in The Met. Full of Degas' paintings and his beautiful little dancer proudly taking center stage. When you enter it from the main gallery, its really quite striking.

Touring The Met

18x14 oil on linen

So here is the same corner of the Met - painted a bit more true to life. The paintings are by Toulouse-Lautrec. A portrait and a nude before the mirror. I think I posted this on my Facebook page when it was in progress "on my easel". I really like the depth that the second figure adds to the scene.
This will be available in Vermont next month.

Two for Toulouse

14x11 oil on panel

Ask Studio 47 about this painting.

I'm not sure if others will like this as well as I do. But I needed to loosen up the other day after working on (and failing to complete) my triptych.

I get a little bored painting the gallery scenes when so many are white on white. So I converted this photo to grayscale and made up my own color scheme. I really tried to push the color and brush work. It felt really good.
I painted this corner of the Met more realistically too a week or so ago. I will post that one tomorrow. But I think I will do more paintings from black and white photos - I enjoyed my own interpretation, creating a more colorful, yet cohesive scene while I focused on values. Something I can always use practice with.

Boating Party

11x14 oil on panel

Ask Edward Montgomery Fine Art about this painting.

I sent some new works to California last week. This painting, featuring Manet's "Boating" was among them. The scene is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art - I wish I had weekly access to it. What amazing work - and architecture - to inspire there.

I'm still working away on gallery paintings but holding back sharing the show pieces until closer to the opening in July. Since I am not painting small "daily painter" works with any regularity, I've decided to drop off the Daily Painter's Gallery. It was a hard decision - I've been with them since I began blogging in 2006! If you find my work on there on occasion and want to follow me regularly, sign up!

Admiring Monet

18x18 oil on linen

This will be available in Carmel at Edward Montgomery Fine Art in a week or so.

Closer Look

12x9 oil on panel

This painting is going to Edward Montgomery Fine Art in Carmel next week.

I wanted to really punch up the lights on this to create a spotlight feel. The woman is in one of the halls in the Met.

I wish I was better at naming paintings... I am sure someone clever could come up with something fun to play off the heads or something. Give me your best shot.

Dead on His Feet

7x5 oil on panel
$100 + $6.50 s/h

We visited the Met on one of the days they are open late. This guard looks like he had a long day and was ready to call it quits. I imagine it could get pretty dull watching tourists exclaim over the same paintings for hours. I hope its more interesting work than that though.

Pick Up Artist

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $6.50 s/h - sold

Back to the easel today and I wanted to get back to these smaller works too. School has begun and I have my days to devote to painting again. I have to say though that the longish break was good for me. I think that when one focuses too much on artwork, you lose focus of what is important in art work. I.e. - the joy. So once again I am vowing to not take myself too seriously.

The above image is from the Met and features a Toulouse Lautrec painting - The Englishman (William Tom Warrener) at the Moulin Rouge, 1892.