Saturday, February 23, 2008

Please note that "Peonies and Pears" will be on auction for five days instead of my usual 10. Thanks for looking.

Floral Oil Painting of Pink Peonies and Pears, 11" x 14" on Canvas Panel

"Peonies and Pears"
SOLD




I was in the mood yesterday for something a bit more complex, so I chose to do a full bouquet of Peonies in a pretty detailed vase. I wanted to give a good painting lesson and demo on my other
blog and this seemed a good way to do it. The flowers have some great thick paint on them and were glazed to bring them to life. I was really happy with the way they came out. The satin cloth came to life here as well. As complex as the design on the vase appears, it really only took a few minutes to get it in with a glaze. The overall effect is quite convincing though. Hope you enjoy it. Check out my other blog to see how this painting was done.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

"The Filigree Stone Vase" 



I've had this Asian stone filigree vase for a very long time. It was my mother's. Because I grew up with it, I was accustomed to seeing it on the shelf but never took the time to examine it. Until I tried to paint it. It's amazing the amount of detail the artist who carved this vase was able to achieve. But what is really amazing is that it is made of stone and yet appears so willowy and light. I couldn't get all the detail this deserved but did manage to capture most of what was obvious to the eye.

I know that the audience for classical realism is not as extensive as that for abstract and contemporary pieces. But this vase taught me something important. My work, like the vase, takes patient observation and a quiet soul to appreciate.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Still Life Oil painting of a teapot and poppies, 11" x 14" on canvas panel

"The Crystalline Teapot"SOLD








I love crystalline glazed pottery but can hardly afford to own much. This teapot was a gift from some friends and I treasure it. It's quite difficult to paint in an ala prima session, so I took a little extra time with it and applied the glaze and design on a second session the following day. This allowed me to get the more subtle changes in light and temperature on the delicate finish. The flowers were painted pretty much ala prima on day one with only a touch up on day two. Enjoy.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Floral Oil Painting of Roses in Cut Glass Vase with Nectarines, 8" x 10" on Canvas Panel

"Roses and Nectarines"
Click here to bid.





Felt like roses today. After my students left, the light was sweet and cool coming in from the north windows of my studio, so I set this up. Oh...and look at that! I found Nectarines at the market! So in they went for a little color. The painting looks a lot brighter in life. I don't seem to be able to get my server to make them appear as lively as they are in person. It looks perfect on photoshop and then just doesn't cut it once I upload them. Well...I hope they look good on your screen. Here's a little detail.




Monday, February 11, 2008

Flora Oil Painting of Magnolias and Asian Jar, 11" x 14" on Canvas Panel

"Asian Floral"Click here to bid.



Had some fun here and took a little extra time. I had to split my "daily painting into two short sessions due to schedule overload. I taught two classes back to back today and worked on this little pretty in the morning so I'm pretty whipped about now. This one has a little more detail than most of my pieces. That's probably because I came back the second day for another look. The flowers have lots of thick paint on them and the jar is pretty true to the actual jar without losing the painterly look I'm stiving for. Hope you like it. See the detail below. Now I gotta go cook dinner. Sigh.



Sunday, February 10, 2008

Some changes to "Morning Dreams", Oil Painting of a Nude Reclining, 11" x 14" on Canvas Panel

"Morning Dreams"Click here to bid.

"Morning Dreams" indeed. More like morning light! I went into the studio to look at last night's painting and saw all kinds of things that needed correcting. So out came the brushes and palette. Here's the much improved piece.

The core shadows on the figure around her hips appeared at first to be too dark. I softened the core shadow line and increased and smoothed out the shadow to the left of the core. Now the rest of her needed some adjustment so I darkened and glazed into the other core shadows on her along her legs and arm. This improved things dramatically. I also extended her fingers which are bent and in shadow, but looked odd in the first painting. A little scumbling to the highlights fixed things up just fine. The finished piece is much better. Thank goodness for second chances. The photo of the improved painting has been revised in EBay as well. Phew.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Oil Painting of Nude reclining, 11" x 14" Oil on Canvas Panel

"Morning Dreams"
Click here to bid.






My favorite model helped me out on this project. This painting is actually a small study for a larger piece I've just started. I thought it would be fun to do a small study of it first and I'm glad I did. I learned quite a bit from the process. While this is an "Ala Prima" done in a short session, the finished piece with be quite large and will be done in many layers of glazing and scumbling. But this one is still lovely and I hope you enjoy it. You can click here to see how it was painted.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Pastel Still Life

"Millard Sheets Demo"


I had a bunch of computer/technical stuff to catch up on today so, sigh, no studio for me. So, just for entertainment, here's a piece I did some time back as a demonstration at the Millard Sheets Gallery in Pomona, CA. They ended up purchasing one of my pieces for their permanent collection - but not this one. It was, however, sold so it's not available. I thought it would be fun to show this piece as it is a pastel. It's a lot different than my work as of late. My specialty for a long time was transparencies and reflections. I'm currently working on a "how to" book for pastel artists on this type of rendering. Enjoy.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Oil Painting of Pink Peonies and Asian Bell, 11" x 14" on Canvas Panel

"Peonies and Asian Bell"
Click here to bid.



I've been experimenting with doing another blog where I show a little about how each piece was painted. I also talk a bit from time to time about the whole business of painting. It's just started so there isn't a lot there yet. But you can see how this one was painted by clicking here.
I get a lot of requests for Peonies. They seem to be the favorite bloom for a lot of people. I'm happy to do them because I like Peonies. They brighten things up a bit for me. In Washington, we don't have a lot of bright days in the winter and colorful blooms add go a long way toward cheering me up. Hope these add a bit of sunshine to your day. Thanks for dropping by.