Bud and Blossom

"Bud and Blossom"

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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On A Pedestal

 "On A Pedestal"

16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas

$700

Available here

Instead of taking a photograph, I painted these blossoms in first - and quickly. They opened fast! Once I got those down, I had plenty of time to work on the rest of the painting. The white blocks weren't going anywhere. Though the sphere did manage to roll off the table overnight....I blame a mischievous kitty.

 

Here's an on-the-wall shot:

It's my Blogiversary!

 "Big Reds"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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More red Camellias! I have a larger painting in the works with this setup, but in that one the blossoms are still mostly closed. I thought they looked lovely the next morning as they opened, so I started a second painting. 

Eight years ago, on February 21st, 2008, I wrote my first blog post - and it wasn't much! Looking back at my work over the years is fun, and I see some subjects I'd like to revisit...

Beacon

 "Beacon"

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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Yep, more with the white objects! And looking around the studio at what I've got in-progress, I can say with confidence that you still haven't seen the last of them. 

Here's how this one got started:

And here's how it really got started...just another random morning sketch:

For more sketchbook stuff, check out my new board on Pinterest. Daily sketches....here!

Fleeting Blooms

 "Fleeting Blooms (Camellias)"

12 x 24 inches, oil on canvas

Available here

I will not rub it in that it's the second week of February, and I picked these outside, growing in a very springlike manner. It never ceases to amaze me, though - even nine years after leaving the Midwest - how early things bloom here in Oregon!

Here's a time-lapse video of this piece. I wasn't painting quite THAT fast, but I did have to hustle on this one. The flowers were opening and dropping off faster than I could paint them - literally! I'm glad I had a grisaille sketch to work from - it helped a lot. 

"Fleeting Blooms (sketch)"

6 x 12 inches, oil on Arches oil paper

My Favorite Pair of Complements

 "Lemons on Purple"

8 x 8" oil on canvas

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One of my favorite workshop exercises is painting an all-white still life using NO white paint. Instead, we mix a chromatic scale from yellow to purple and paint with that. It works! And it's amazing how much you can do, in a painting, with how little white paint.

I'll be doing that exercise again soon, during my "Mindful Mixing" workshop, here in Eugene, February 20th and 21st. Spaces are still available, and all the info is here.

My painting process of late has included an oil sketch in black and white - but this time, I broke out my no.2 pencil! I do a lot of pencil sketching, actually. And I started a new Pinterest board to showcase my daily drawings!

Painting Grays in Color

 "Token"

16 x 16 inches, oil on canvas

$500

Available here

I use these white geometric objects in some of my workshop exercises, and lately they've infiltrated my home studio as well. Though I'm usually painting them in black and white while teaching, I also love exploring the spectrum of grays that occur when white objects are surrounded by colorful light. 

When approaching a gray - or the modeling of an object whose local color is white - I ask myself a series of questions. What's the value of the gray? What's its temperature? What colors in the environment are influencing its color? Often, to arrive at the gray I need, I'll start with one of these surrounding colors (like the purple in this painting), and neutralize it until it works on the white object.

Another way to "see" color in ambiguous areas, like grays, is to use a color isolator. Sometimes I'll just squint through a half-closed fist. 

 And here is the preparatory sketch for this painting, on canvas instead of the oil paper this time:

 "Flame (Black and White)"

12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

Alla Prima Portrait Painting

 "Fond Memory"

12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas

Available Here

Painted from a live model, alla prima, using the Sean Cheetham mud palette. Incidentally, the same palette I used for my recent self-portrait!

Self-Portrait Time Machine, and Subconscious Artistic Influences

 "Self-Portrait at 36"

24 x 18 inches, oil on canvas

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Suddenly, it's been two years since my last large self-portrait.

Although I'd really like to avoid as many cliches as possible here, I'll allow myself one: it feels like only yesterday....

 

In looking at these side-by-side, I notice a strangely similar thing happening around the neckline of both shirts. They aren't the same shirt (though I do still wear the sweater from the first portrait), but my undershirt is peeking out in both. 

After wondering about it for a while, I noticed this print on my wall....which I've been looking at, on one wall and another, since about the age of twelve.

Thank you, Modigliani, for invading my subconscious.

And here are my works-in-progress. First the head gets bigger, then the body grows to match it!

Parts of the Process

 "Lemon on a Painted Dish"

9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas

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There was some collateral artwork created while I was working on my last painting. :)

"White Object, Lemons (sketch)"

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