Daily Painting - In Need of Ade
In Need of Ade
I've been trying to figure out how to work this bowl in almost every still life I've set up since I bought it a few weeks ago. I finally thought it might look good with some lemons and limes. I really enjoyed painting the details in the bowl, the little dark red rim around the outside, the slightly raised edge along the rim before the bowl dips down, and, of course, the painted details in the bottom of the bowl. I was trying to do a lot with transparent washes with this one, especially with the surface the lemons and bowl are on. I did have to use thicker and more opaque paint here and there, but that's okay. I like the effect of thick over thin paint.
This painting will also be in an upcoming show with the Artists Of Texas at the Dutch Art Gallery in Dallas. I'll post more information in the next few days as I get more solid details.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 11 inch x 14 inches on canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Available
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Room For One
Room For One
I've been dying to paint this vase since I bought it a few weeks ago. It has such interesting color to it when the light shines through it. I also have a taller, skinner one that I can't wait to use in a set up one day. While I was painting this, I kept thinking to myself that the one apple stuck in the vase had turned to the other apples who where hoping to get in and said "There's only room for one, fellas." Of course, the next thought in my head was, how can I make that into a shorter title.
This painting will be in an upcoming show with the Artists Of Texas at the Dutch Art Gallery in Dallas. I'll post more information in the next few days. It should be an exciting event. This is the first year I'll be showing with this group.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8 inch x 10 inches on canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Available
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Waiting For The Vase
Waiting for the Vase
Believe it or not, I did paint every night this week. The problem was all of them where stinkers until tonight. I'm not sure I've ever had a week where I wiped off so many paintings; I just couldn't find my groove. Well, I suppose that happens from time to time. When my wife brought home these carnations, I thought they might be a nice change of pace from all of the fruit and vegetables I've been painting lately. They also gave me a chance to use one of the new plates I picked up last week at the thrift store. I really enjoy painting these types of plates with the decorative border on them. It's such a great design element. I can't quite put my finger on why that is, other then they usually have some great colors in them and they bring a certain level of detail to the painting that I really like.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inches on canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Some Weather, Huh?
Some Weather, Huh?
The weather here in Texas has been so brutally hot these last few weeks, I couldn't help but think of the beach. Today topped out to 115 degrees, according to my car's thermometer and I think this has been the 22nd out of 23 days that we've topped 100. The breeziness of the coast would be very welcome now. That reminded me of the awesome shorebird sanctuary close to the Texas A&M Corpus Christi campus my wife and I visited over our anniversary. It was a hot, quiet place teeming with brown and white pelicans, egrets, and, more excitingly,Roseate spoonbills. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good reference photo of the spoonbills because they were just too far away. These seagulls were much more bold and I think they knew they were safe there enjoying that hot day at the beach. There they were, just sitting in the water without a care in the world About half way through painting this I thought, these seagulls must occasionally say to each "Some weather we're having, huh?", which is were the title came from.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8 inch x 10 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting +Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Apricots with Plum
Apricots with Plum
When I noticed that my wife had purchased some apricots at the store, I thought to myself "I've never painted those before" and so I set up this still life. Originally I had included some black grapes, but as I was painting, I thought the whole thing looked a little busy, so I took them out. Although I had a lot of fun with the reflections I had to really spend some time working them out. I only wish I could have included more of the bowl so I could have had even more reflection, but I didn't want the fruit to get too small. When I was done with this painting I asked my wife what she thought. After a minute of looking at it and thinking, she finally said "I like it, but I ready to see something other then orange for a while". I guess she has a point, it seems like every painting this week had orange colored objects in it, except one (Garden Peppers).
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Clementine's Tea Party
Clementine's Tea Party
A week after setting up this still life, I finally got around to making the final painting . After examining the set up and making some adjustments over the week, I painted some smaller studies (see previous 3 posts). Since I had tried this same set up before and wiped it off, I knew where the trouble areas where going to be, namely the doll's head and some of the patterns in the material. I had a feeling if I could get the head to a pretty good point, the rest of the painting would fall into place for me. Seeing no reason to put off the challenge, that's where I started. It was a little touch and go for a while, but I finally figured out how to paint this doll's head. Satisfied, from there I painted pretty much from right to left, top to bottom. What did I learn from this painting? Well, painting patterns on fabric can be a real challenge and this still life I had a lot of those challenges. With a plaid background and all of the fabric patterns on the doll, I felt a bit overwhelmed at times and decided to try and keep the patterns fairly simple, using the details where I thought they would help and skipping them when I could.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 11 inch x 14 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Hot Tomato
Hot Tomato
I'm not sure why I put these things together other than I liked the way the shapes worked with each other. I wasn't really thinking about what they are as much as how the red of the tomato compliments the green of the peppers. It wasn't until after I was done painting when my wife walked into the studio and said "Who has peppers and tomatoes with their tea?" that I thought about what the real world relationship between peppers, tomatoes, and a nice cup of steaming hot tea. Before I could come up with an answer, she added, "You can call this one hot tomato" and walked out again. I was originally thinking that this is still part of a larger still life set up that I've been working on this week (see previous posts). I'm not sure if I'll use all of these elements in the final set up or not yet, like I said early I wasn't thinking about the larger picture when I set up this up and I'm not sure how it fits with some of the other elements I want in the final set up. Stay tuned to find out...
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Garden Peppers
Garden Peppers
Still messing around with my set up from Friday. I added a plate to one side of it and then put these peppers from the garden in there. In keeping with my idea to paint little sub-sections of this larger still life set up, I did this close up of the peppers. The subtle shades of green in the peppers were challenging to paint. At one point I mixed up a color for the peppers and actually had to hold my brush right next to it to see if the color was correct. I'm sure this seems really obvious to do, but it just struck me. It's a real eye opener to how off my color mixtures where until I did this. It reminds me that I must make sure to pay attention to what I am actually seeing and not what I think I'm seeing. Ah, one of the biggest struggles in painting...seeing!
Oh and yes, I grew these peppers in my garden this year. They taste great!
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 3 inch x 5 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Orange Bowl
Orange Bowl
I've been playing around setting up a still life that I wanted to paint on a larger canvas. I actually set it up on Friday, but didn't like the painting, so I wiped it off. Sometimes there just comes a point where nothing I do can save the painting and I'm better off just cleaning off my canvas. I really liked some of the parts of the set up though, so I decided to paint this one of just one side, which was the orange clementines against the blue dress of a rag doll. I guess that was the compliment side of what I arranged. I might try a few more of these little close ups before I either take it down or paint the whole thing again.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - Senior, Junior and the Third
Senior, Junior and the Third
I was visiting with my parents over the weekend looking for something to paint when I stepped out onto the deck, where my mother was cutting up a cantaloupe. As soon as I saw the pieces on the cutting board I asked her to stop so I could paint it. We were expecting my sister and her girls for lunch, so reluctantly, she stopped what she was doing, only after I promised I would finish cutting them before company came. That convinced her to put down the knife and let me paint. The arrangement of the melon was almost perfect, so I left things mostly how she had them on the table. I just cut the first piece into thirds.
While painting this, I realized I really need to get one of those large painting umbrellas. The whole time I was in direct sun, making it very difficult to judge any subtle value changes and color temperature. I've read that when presented with this problem to make sure both the palette and the painting are in the same light with nothing casting a shadow over either one. This helped a bit, but one thing I would tell other painters is to make sure both are not in direct light, if possible. About halfway through the painting I moved my easel and pallet so they where in indirect light, and, suddenly, I could see what I was doing so much better.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Paintings - Anthony's Flowers
Anthony's Flowers
Last night severe storms rolled in, making painting outdoors a doubtful pursuit today. Ever hopeful, I played with the baby and worked on my newsletter. The sun teased all day long, darting in and out of the clouds, but finally my patience won out. There was finally enough steady light to paint these shade-loving anemone flowers. I had to work fast since there was another storm rolling in from the west. My wife came out and asked if she was imagining things, or was it thundering. In fact, it was thundering. But I worked quickly and the painting took shape beautifully. I finished just as the first few drops started to fall. Relieved, I thought I just made it. Of course, when it was over, I could count the drops on the sidewalk and the sun was shining again.
Well, the nice thing is that the threat of rain made me finish up the painting before I had a chance to overwork it. I've noticed that my approach on the last few paintings I've done has changed a bit from the way I normally work. I'm not sure why but lately I've skipped drawing with pencil and jumped straight into painting, blocking out my composition with my brush. I'll have to experiment a bit more before I can decide which I like better. One thing I noticed with the blocking technique is I need to really pay careful attention to not only what I paint but where it is in the picture, constantly checking my composition. Otherwise, it tends to get away from me.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Paintings - Summer Blooms
Summer Blooms
Yesterday's experiment of using natural light really got me in the mood to paint outside, so I went out and found these day lilies blooming in the back yard. Painting outdoors presents a few addition problems that I don't encounter in the studio, such as the mosquitoes, the wind, and the sun beating down on my neck. I must admit painting indoors has really spoiled me, but this was a fun exercise nonetheless and something I can't wait to do more of. I learned I need to pack a few more items next time, including a pair of pliers, in case the wing nuts on my french easel get stuck again. Luckily this time, I was close enough to the house to just go get a pair.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 3 inch x 5 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to buy it now on ebay.
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
Daily Painting - By The Pound
By The Pound
This old scale with a potted plant sitting on it caught my eye at my parent's house. The arrangement was perfect as it was, and to shake things up a bit, I tried something a little different. Rather then using my set up box with it's controlled lighting, I set this up by the window and used the sun light. Although I really liked the quality of the sun light coming through the window, it moved very quickly and my scene changed rapidly in front of me. I had to be careful to not chase the light around my scene and just paint it as close to the original light as I could. I'm going to try painting in the natural light a few more times this week with a few adjustments. Tomorrow I'm going to make sure I set up in north light since it's more constant and shouldn't change as fast.
Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5 inch x 7 inch canvas panel.
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD
Initialed on front. Signed and dated on back.
