Vanitas

Having been so busy getting ready for my next big project, I didn't have enough time to get anything substantial out. I wanted to keep my hand in the paint, so to speak though. So I put together this little red painting. I wanted to see how warm I could get and still have the cool vase not pop too much. Also a friend had a really cool skull and I wanted to paint it. It all seemed to go together so I had a little fun for a couple of days. I like the symbolism in a Vanitas - life and death - the eternal circle. The white flowers also represent beauty, the skull - the transience of life and the candle snuffer - well, that seems pretty obvious. The colors on my screen are a bit saturated and that doesn't surprise me as reds don't always translate well on the screen. The vase appears a bit blue here too and is, in fact, a little turquoise. I seem to have hit the limits of my Photoshop abilities in working with this one to get the color to read right. 

Some health issues have kept me from the studio on a regular basis. I hope to be in the "pink" soon and my next project is "Sleeping Beauty".  I plan on documenting the entire process of the painting here on this site as well as my teaching blog. Should be fun so stay tuned. 

"Red Riding Hood"
Oil on Paper and Board

Yes, you've seen a smaller version of this one already. But this is the actual painting while the other was the color study. I love allegorical paintings. This is the first of a series I plan on doing. The next one is already in the works and I'm as excited as a kid with a new toy. It's so cool to get my creative freedom back after three years of study. It's not that I felt restricted while at Georgetown Atelier. My teacher, Tenaya Sims gave us an enormous amount of freedom. But there is something about the intensive environment and academic climate in an Atelier that seemed to hold me back. Perhaps it was my self conscious fear of failure or making mistakes. Everything felt stiff and stilted. It feels now though as if I am finally doing the work I'd always wanted to do. I still feel daunted by some tasks and many aspects of painting classically, but overall, I'm more confident and my drawing and rendering skills have improved measurably even since graduation. I want to jump up and click my heals!

A Day at Hurricane Ridge

We've had some of the best weather this summer on the Peninsula than we've had in three years. I recently spent the day up on Hurricane Ridge with some friends painting. It's just a stone's throw from where I live.  The weather was perfect and aside from the birds that were roosting on my easel (and even my hand!), we had only a couple of deer for company. It brought to mind what Kevin Macpherson said: "Just think...this is your job. How cool is that?" 

Red Riding Hood - color study

Some time ago when I was still attending Georgetown Atelier, we had a little red headed model who posed for us. During her breaks she would don this gorgeous red robe that had a huge hood on it. It was an irresistible combination. I asked her if she would model for me after class for a photo session and she agreed. We met one evening and worked together for about two hours. The results were so good that I almost couldn't wait for the end of school so I could get started on a painting. 

While I prefer to work from life, the model lives in Seattle and I, unfortunately, live in Port Angeles - a difficult commute for either myself or the model. Now that school is over, I'm a bit reluctant to spend a lot of time commuting. I had previous done a small portrait from life of her in the class so I was confident that I had her coloring. For working from photos I use a large flat screen monitor in my studio that rotates to vertical. This provides more realistic coloring and I can adjust things as I need to.

There were many photos that came out beautiful and worthy of painting and some I will pursue at another time, but this particular pose (with some changes on my part) worked because of the edgy quality of her gaze. It seemed perfect for the story of Red Riding Hood. Umm...just who is the wolf here?

I spent about a week on the drawing which I did to size and then reduced it for the purpose of doing this color study. The study is only 8" x 11" on "Yes" canvas. The finished piece will be 19" x 27.5" but likely done on board. I'm still working out my preference. This came out so good, I'm going to frame it too. I'm having a great time! School was so intense, I almost forgot how much I love to paint. It's good to be back.

A Day in the Sun

"A Sultry Afternoon"

Summer has finally arrived on the Olympic Peninsula, late albeit. Well it hardly ever gets here before mid July anyway. But it was quite warm at 80 or so here last week so I took off with some friends to do some painting. We found a lovely spot out near Gardner right on the water that had a great view of two areas bordered by salt marshes on one side, forest on the other and Ocean off to the rear. We were able to bring our truck right up to the spot where we rolled out our easels and set up for a glorious evening of painting. My vitamin D got a super charge and I believe I may actually have even turned a little coppery despite a ton of sun block. We went for two days in a row as the weather was holding and we loved the spot so much.

My friend Monika brought along a friend of her's from out of town (Dave) on day two. Dave is still a puppy painter and was having a hard time on his first attempt at painting in the great outdoors. 

I took pity and being the pushy teacher that I am, I jumped in and asked if he would like some help. Dave was more than happy to get some guidance and so I pointed out a few things he could do to improve his approach. For one, he was using too many colors on his palette so I squeezed out just three colors plus black and white to get him started. Then I illustrated on the side of his board how he could block out the major shapes and just jigsaw the simple landscape together. Dave proved an apt pupil and jumped right in following directions carefully. The improvement in his work was startling but I couldn't convince him to let me take a photo of it. He promises though that by next year he'll be good competition for me.  My friend Monika did a great piece - I gave her a lesson also and above is my evening's work.

 Here's Monika at work. You can see the marsh off to the right with the ocean beyond on the left (well, sort of). Here's one of Dave getting a lesson from your's truly. 

Dave getting a lesson

Me - looks like I'm talking to someone there - or catching flies.
 Hmm. Think it's time for Weight Watchers again. This
was on Day 1 when I painted the above piece. 

Master Copy of Rembrandt's "Man in Armour"

Well school is finally over. Hooray, Yay! We had our graduation on June 30th. "Man in Armour" was the master copy I chose to do for one of my final projects. I'm quite happy with the way it came out but I plan to do quite a few more. I learned a lot from this painting and it taught me how much I can learn from doing copies. 

I'll post a couple of other pieces I did during the final months of Georgetown Atelier but then I'm on to my own projects and I'll be posting those here. I plan on doing some weekly (if not daily) paintings again that I'll be posting for sale as well. Stay tuned and thanks for sticking with me through the long drought.

In Balance

I was going to call this painting "Ode to David Gray" as it was his style and palette that inspired this piece. But I  changed my mind and it became "In Balance" instead. 

I enjoyed the challenge of rendering the muted colors and edges in this piece. The color temperature was very challenging but I think I did a pretty good job overall. Fun. 

Portrait, Oil on Board

"Thoughts of Spring"

Every artist has a favorite model and Amber is without a doubt, mine. She has beautiful bone structure and at the same time a certain softness about her that makes her a pleasure to draw and paint. I did this portrait from a photo that was taken some time back when Amber was pregnant with her son Joshua. It was a rainy, cold day and Amber was standing at the window on a short break. It was the perfect shot so I asked her to hold still while I adjusted the camera. I took hundreds of photos that day but this one was the best. I prefer to work from life, but often my budget or time do not make that possible. Photos can sometimes lead to a stiff or an unnatural looking portrait. This is because when you work from life, the model moves. So the work tends to be a composite of many poses which come together to lend the portrait a certain sense of life. Photos, on the other hand, don't move and this can cause the eye to focus on each portion of the photo separately making for a hard lined and fragmented painting.  I think, however, that I managed to retain Amber's special qualities as well as her quiet moment of hopefulness in this portrait.

Portrait, Oil on Linen

Portrait of Jenna

This small portrait was originally meant to be a two or three day study. The model was sitting for a three or four week pose and my intentions were to do a couple of different studies from different positions. For this reason, the lay in was done in paint rather than taking the time for a careful drawing. However the block in came out so well that my teacher suggested I follow through with it and make it a three week full portrait. I can see changes I'd like to make on it now, but over all it came out pretty well. I love working from life but the reality is that it's hard to do unless you have several people willing to help pay for the pose. Three to four weeks is a long time. I suppose as I improve, it will take less time.

Nude Figure Painting, Oil on Linen

"Morning Thoughts"

This piece was one of the last ones done at school before the summer break. A limited palette of only a few colors was used here. I was quite happy with this piece although I think I still have a long way to go.

Male Nude

This piece was done during the school year and was one of my first limited palette paintings. The model is "Hoagie", a gentleman who poses for most of the schools and ateliers in the Seattle area. While I still have a ways to go here, I felt that I was beginning to turn the corner with this piece.

Venus de Milo

One of the projects we had to do at school before starting on Limited Palette, was a cast study of warm and cool light. At first glance, this appears to be a black and white painting, but if you look closer, you will see warm orangy tones in it. Done with an extremely limited palette of burnt sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Naples Yellow and flake white (no black), my job was to paint as accurately as I could, the values and the relative temperature changes I saw in the cast. The project took about a month or two and marked the end of my mostly monochromatic months at the atelier.

Still Life Study of Chinese Tea Pot and Rose Hips, 12" x 11"

It's been a very busy and hectic year. While I've been a full time artist for years, sometimes working 60 hour weeks, I never dreamed that the top item on my bucket list could be more stressful than that. Attending an atelier is both an exhillerating and exhausting journey. I attend four days a week (day five I have to teach at my own studio so I have enough money to attend school the other four). Because I live so far from Seattle where Georgetown Atelier is located, I have to spend those three nights with a friend and a relative. Then I drive the three hours home late on Thursday after class.

I'm on a brief vacation now and I have quite a few pieces I'll be posting over the coming weeks to show off a bit. This small piece which is only about 11" x 12" is a small color study for a larger still life I'm still working on at school. We generally do these as they help to iron out problems which occur during the painting process before we actually get to them. Some areas didn't come out well in the photo. Another student took them at the atelier during the past two weeks and forwarded this to me so I can't account for the the faded area in the lower right hand corner. But otherwise, it's a good representation. The edges need a bit of work and you can tell it's not a finished painting in and of itself, but over all, I'm pretty happy with it. The large piece is proving to be quite a challenge. I'll post it when it's done and perhaps share some of it's development along the way.

Reclining Nude, Oil on Linen

"Imaginings" Although I've been turning out a lot of studies and small pieces for school, I haven't produced anything I deemed worthy of posting. I liked this piece though. It's the last monochromatic piece I produced before heading into a limited palette and warm/cool temperature studies. It was four weeks in the making and I hope you like it. I'll be making some changes later based on suggestions by my instructor and I'll post them once I do. I have 12 weeks left until the sumnmer break and I'm feeling a lot like a horse headed home to the stable. I'll be glad when the summer comes.

Painting of Sea Cliffs, 24" x 36", Oil on Canvas

"The Bluffs at Dungeness"

Well, OK. I never seem to find the time to do this anymore. But I do have a really crazy schedule. I'm attending Georgetown Atelier in Seattle three days a week, teaching all day Friday, doing homework Saturday and Sunday and Monday I run a life drawing group so I can get some more practice in. Phew.

The Blue Whole Gallery in Sequim, where I show, is having a gala auction event as a fund raiser next Saturday. I managed to squeeze this out toward the end of my summer vacation and frame it just in time. It was accepted for live auction so I'm pretty happy. The interesting thing about this piece is that it was painted using just three colors and white. A very limited palette. But it goes to show how nicely this technique lends itself to a cohesive painting with good color harmony. It's a donation and I truly hope it raises some money for the event.

Charcoal and White Chalk Nude Figure, 10" x 14" on Paper

"Veronica"nfs

We had our student show at Georgetown Atelier just a week or two ago. It was a grand success and I'm proud to say that we're getting some notice now at places like Gage Academy where Juliette Aristedies teaches and some of the finest instructors and students turn out notable work. For a brand new atelier just starting up, we already have a good number of applications for the fall. I'm happy to report that I'm planning on attending three days a week instead of just two next year. I feel that the additional time spent in life drawing can only lead to improvement.

"Veronica" was one of the pieces I turned out this year. There's a lot more going on in the half tones than appears here. I've had some difficulty in picking them up with the camera.

I've had little time to paint this year with all the time spent at school and teaching my own classes. I hope with the summer break to be able to get some easel time in.

I just attended a three day workshop led by John Clarke from the American Society of Aviation Painters. It was on perspective. Coupled with some evening lectures by Michael Grimaldi on Human Anatomy for the Artist, I feel like I have some pretty good tools for my tool box. I intend to spend some time this summer brushing up on color and doing some plein aire painting. The weather here has finally started to warm a bit. Can you believe I'm still wearing a wind breaker in the mornings when I walk? And it's flannel lined! This is the last week of classes at the atelier so I'm getting in gear for the upcoming Studio Tour. Hope you can drop by for a visit during the weekend of July 16, 17 and 18th. I'll be painting in the studio and I'd love to see you!
Click here to find out more.

Sunset Landscape Painting, ll" x 14", Oil on Board

"The Way Home"

I love that time of day when the light is low and shadows are long. The violets and reds in the landscape are especially prevalent and the shadows warm. This piece was done largely from imagination. It's really one of many places I have built in my head and where I go when I need a litle peace. Hope you like it.

Currently NFS because I need to build up some images for this year's studio tour in July. Giclee prints are available in sizes to order. Email me if you're interested.

Impressionist Painting of Dogwood Flowers, 8" x 10", Oil on Canvas

"Dazzle"




It's really been a long while since I have found the time to indulge in a small floral. I'm a little rusty but once things got moving, the flowers flowed off my brush. I chose these Dogwoods because I enjoy the crisp white blooms that stand out against a darker background. I put in the yellow tablecloth to brighten things up a bit. With the Seqim Arts Studio Tour coming up in July, I have to start getting things framed and some new work complted. I've targeted Saturday afternoon for that task and hope to put out some new landscapes as well before the awaited date. I'm keeping to small formats for these, but framing them with wide mats and thin gold frames. They look spiffy.

As we get closer to the date, I'll start posting work that will be exclusive to the show and also links to maps and guides for the tour. The studio tour is being held during the Sequim Lavendar Festival. It's a huge event and we have all kinds of wonderful things happening from wine tasting to Jazz in the Alley scheduled for the long weekend. Anyone interested should contact the Sequim Chamber of Commerce.

Charcoal Drawing of Male Nude, 11" x 15" on Paper

"Sleep"

School has had me so busy, I've not had much easel time for pursuing my own desires. However, it did finally occur to me that I could be posting some of the academic work that I have been doing. So here's one of a charcoal drawing I completed recently. The stuff is so fragile, I lost quite a bit of the rendering in just getting it home from Seattle, however, enough remains that I was able to photograph it for you. Hope you like it. At least you know I haven't been making all this school stuff up.

Landscape Painting of Santa Ynez River and Oaks, 11" x 14", Pastel on Board

"Evening on the Santa Ynez"
NFS

This winter has been flying by. Between school and teaching, I've been busy working with a committee to create a brochure and advertisements for the upcoming Fourth Annual Sequim Arts Open Studio Tour. As a result, it finally dawned on me that I had better start squeezing some time out of the easel in preparation for this event which is only five months away. Here's a little landscape I worked on last week. I have yet to scan and make prints available, but at least the original is done.