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Dutch Barns - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Dutch Barns

As I have mentioned before, The Dutch Art Gallery in Dallas is having their annual Artists of Texas show.  They have asked artist represented in the show to paint a demo in the gallery,  so on Saturday, I took that opportunity. The painting below is the result of the day. 

To get this painting, I actually used two different reference photos that I took somewhere in the Midwest many years ago. I liked the landscape in one of the images and the building structures in the other. That is one of the few advantages to working from photographs. If I had painted this from life I would have had to choose between the barns or the landscape I liked, but probably wouldn't have been able to use both. I took a lot of photo reference over the years, and, for all I know, the two I used could have been hundreds of miles away from each other. I can't remember exactly where these barns are located any longer, but I think they are along the Illinois/Wisconsin border.

Dutch Barns © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 9x12 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Guard Duty - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Guard Duty

 About a year or so before I actually starting painting still lifes, I started to collect things that caught my eye as something I might want to one day include in my paintings. As any still life painter will tell you, we all love our "stuff" and usually have it stashed all over the studio. You never know when you will need just that perfect thing to complete your still life. You'll find us hunting through the thrift stores for that must have tea-cup or bowl or even the odd knickknack. I've noticed that sometimes I use what I buy very quickly; other times, things that looked good when I bought them seem to lose their appeal once back in the studio and are doomed to sit and collect dust until I notice their charm once again. Well, that little statue in this painting was one of the first things I ever bought for my still life collection. I actually have two of them, along with a few other little figures that I got for $2 at an estate auction almost 3 years ago. Then, there it sat on the shelf in the window collecting dust. I tried it in a few other set ups over the years, but it never really worked out so I always removed it and put it back in its place. Well, I'm happy to report after three years, I finally used this little guy in a painting! Hopefully another three years don't pass before I use it again. 

Here's how this painting came to life:

I took this image at the end of my rough block-in. At this stage there's very little paint on my canvas. I mostly just thinned my paint down with a little turpentine and used a paper towel to wipe out lighter areas, like the vase in the upper left and the statue in the lower right.   The reason I like this approach is because it very quickly gives me idea of the overall colors of my painting and a fairly accurate layout of all the objects in it. From here, I can concentrate on each section of the painting and know that I'm not going to run out of room for everything in the painting.

I let the rough block-in dry for a few minutes. Once the turpentine evaporates, it's more or less dry. Then I start painting. Since I'm fairly confident that the placement of all my objects is correct I can bring the objects I'm painting to an almost complete state. I do go back and make some small adjustments as needed while I finish, but most of these areas are done now. I started with the statue since it's my center of interest and I want to judge the rest of the painting against it. It's also one of the more difficult things to paint, so I figured I'd get it our of the way first. This way if I need to wipe if off and start over I don't risk messing up areas I already painted. Notice how many other objects the statue leads to just to get it painted correctly. Most of the foreground is done in front of it and a large part of the background needed to be done to complete the statue.

In this image, I continued working on the background, almost in a counter-clockwise order. The reason I did this is I like to rest my hand on the canvas when I paint and by leaving the foreground till the very end I'm able to do this without smudging the paint. One thing that doesn't show in these pictures is one important step I did so I could paint that blue ribbon in. First, I drew the edges of it with a little bit of paint so I knew where it went. Then I took my palette knife and scraped off any paint that's under the ribbon. I even used a paper towel to wipe off some of the it. Then, I could paint the ribbon cleanly without having to layer on the paint. I don't have anything against thick paint, but I want to use that effect where I want it and not just to cover up the paint under it.

Guard Duty © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 9x12 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Contact me to purchase ($230)

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Partly Sunny - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Partly Sunny

 One of the unexpected outcomes of the drought we had this year in Texas is views like this one. Normally the spot I stood to paint from would have been underwater, along with most of this scene. I was standing about 20 feet from where the shore line is normally. When I pick this spot for my painting the sun was shining though the rain clouds that threatened the day. After about 10 minutes of painting, the sun ducked behind a cloud and never came out again. Well, that's not totally true. Almost on cue when I stopped painting, the sun came back out for rest of the day. With any luck we'll have a very wet winter and spring to fill our lakes back up again.  

Partly Sunny © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Last Light - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Last Light

Mondays are busy days.  I take care of our baby daughter until my wife gets in from teaching and then I have to pack up to get my painting in for the day.  Between feedings and tummy time, I figure out where I am going to catch the last light of the day.  It can't be too far from the house because the sun sets awfully early these days, so I am grateful that we live in an area that has so many parks with leaves that are changing in color.  Last night, I got lucky and stumbled upon this scene just before sunset. There where just a few rays of sunlight reaching the tops of these trees and in the back of the field. I had to paint fast to capture this scene before the sun was gone and it disappeared. Adding to that, even in November, Texas has mosquitoes and they tried to carry me away as I worked.  As for the painting itself, the biggest challenge was capturing the large foreground. I loved the cool colors of the grass and path and thought I could use these to give the foreground some interest.

Last Light © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5x7 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Lake Como - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Lake Como

 It's been a few days since I've been able to update my website. I've had some technical issues that seem to be worked out now and it looks like I'm up and running again! I painted this on Friday afternoon at Lake Como in Fort Worth. This wasn't the area I set out to paint. I originally had two other locations in mind, but I wasn't able to find either one of them because of a GPS malfunction. Well, it may not have been entirely the GPS's fault. I forgot to get the addresses of the places I wanted to go. Instead, I just had the names of the parks, which I thought would have been good enough, but alas, it was not. So after an hour or so of driving around in the area, I thought the park I was looking for was in I finally gave up and went to this park that the GPS was able to find. I had never been to this park and lake before, but wasn't disappointed at all becaue this is a beautiful little lake. The changing fall color was a very nice addition to the scene.

Lake Como © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Fall At Trinity Hills - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Fall At Trinity Hills

 We are just starting to get our fall color here in Texas. I'm not sure how much we are going to get this year since we just experienced one of the worst droughts in recent history, but we are slowly getting some. A painting friend of mine suggested painting at Trinity Hill Park, but had to cancel at the last minute. I decided to go anyway and paint. Trinity Hills Park has been described as "the best place to stand in Fort Worth". While I'm not sure about that, it is a very neat place. First off, it's huge! You can hike for hours along the meandering trails. It also has some unique views of the city skyline with rolling hills in the foreground. I was lucky to come across this scene late in the day when those great cast shadows where going across the hillside. I really liked the pattern of light and dark that they created along with the little pops of fall color.

Fall At Trinity Hills © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Winter Tracks - An original oil painting be George De Chiara

Winter Tracks

 This painting started off as a demo painting for the Ellis County Art Association last night. I had a great time painting and talking with the artists there, but, despite my best efforts to paint as fast as I could, I didn't have enough time to finish this painting. In fact, I would say in the hour I painted last night I made it to only about the block-in stage. Nothing had any detail to it and a few areas had some drawing mistakes that would need to be corrected. Since I was happy with the start I had made, I decided today I would take the painting into the studio and finished it off. Here's what the painting looked like at the end of the demo:

You can see at this stage most of the painting is still pretty rough. When I started working on the painting again today, the first thing I did was take my palette knife and scrape off any of the thick paint on the roof of the taller barn since this was one area I wanted to work on the most and I didn't want the old paint interfering. I also scraped off a bit of the thicker paint on the snow for the same reason.

Winter Tracks © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 9x12 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Tea Rose - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Tea Rose

Believe it or not, the Botanical Garden in Fort Worth is still in full bloom this late into November. In fact, in some places it looks more like spring than fall as flowers bloom and reach for the sky. The Rose Garden is no exception with every rose bush full of fragrant full blooms that are all popping with amazing color! This morning I met a group of fellow painters out there and it seemed like almost everyone fixated on the flowers today. I chose to paint these Tea Roses between the fountain and the lake. These are just a few of the many flowers blooming on a very large bush. The whole time I was painting this I could smell the roses, even over the oil paints! What a lovely surprise.

Tea Rose © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Homestead - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Homestead

 I have a few demos coming up this month. On Monday night, I'll be doing a painting for the Ellis County Art Association and while thinking about what types of subjects I wanted to paint, a scene like this one came to mind. Since the time frame is relatively short, about an hour to an hour and half, I wanted to do this little piece for a number of reasons. First, it gives me a chance to work out how I might approach a subject like this without the pressure of a crowd watching. I could also time how long it takes to paint and make a few mental notes about how far I should be in the painting at a few given time intervals. Normally, when I'm not under any time constraints, I may take a few hours to complete a painting like this, so trying to complete it in a relatively short period was a real challenge. Luckily, I made it with a few minutes to spare. With any luck I'll be able to do the same on Monday night. If you're a member of the Ellis County Art Association be sure to come by and watch my demo. It should start around 7PM.

Homestead ©

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5x7 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Purple Basil - Original oil painting by George De Chiara

Purple Basil

 My wife and I have been experimenting with our green thumbs for the last few years. Slowly, but surely, they are getting greener, and, every now and again, we hit one out of the park. We are lucky that in Texas, we can garden almost year round and try to make the most of that by re-planting after we pull up the old crops. This year we had one whole bed of onions that we harvested early in the summer. Afterwards, we planted a bunch of plant seeds we had for a while. We weren't sure if they would still be good or not, but we figured we take the chance and see what happens. Almost everything we planted sprouted up, some faded fast or never produced fruit. Others, like this purple basil, took off beyond our dreams. I'm not sure how much for sure we harvested, but below is a picture of the plants pulled up and placed in a bucket so I could get them all in the house. Tomorrow we'll make basil ice cubes for the winter. If you're a gardener and haven't tried this for your herbs, it's totally worth it. They are very simple to make. Just chop up your basil or any other herb. We've done parsley and oregano, in addition to basil. Once you have it chopped up, mix in either a little olive oil or water and fill up an ice-cube tray. Once they are frozen, you can pop them out and put them in plastic bags to store. Then when ever you need some just throw a few ice cubes in what ever you are cooking. I think it tastes much better then dried herbs.

 I had intended to take step-by-step pictures of the painting process, and I did take a few, but the painting changed so much as I painted it that these images will be more confusing than useful. I can show you where I was when I thought I had finished this painting.

At this point, I thought I was done with this painting. However, when I placed it on the shelf to dry and really stood back from it I felt it didn't read very well. When I showed it to my wife, it was one of the first things she commented on. At that point, I made the decision to change the background. While I was at it, I also wanted to address the glass. I didn't like the way it sat on the edge of the canvas and really wanted to get rid of it altogether. So I took the painting back into the studio and put it back up on the easel. Here's what it looks like after the changes.

Purple Basil ©

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Fruit Stack - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Fruit Stack

 Back in the studio today. It's been a few days since I've painted indoors. My last few paintings were done outdoors, but I had set this still life up a couple of days ago and really wanted to paint it once and for all. I actually attempted this one right after I set it up, but about half way through that painting, I wasn't happy with what I had. Today I started over with a new approach. Okay, that's not totally true. I tried this new approach the last time I attempted to paint this still life. Like I said, it didn't go well, but with the knowledge of where I went wrong last time I approached my easel once again hoping to get a little further this time.

Here' s a photograph of what I'm looking at while painting. I use to paint from photographs a lot and now I'm amazed every time I look at one like this. There's so much the camera doesn't capture. That's why it's important that I work from life as much as possible. It's the only way I know of to learn to really see what your subject looks like, and, more importantly, how to compensate for a photograph when I have to work from them. Things like the shadows are much darker and void of color compared to what I was looking at.

I took this photo at the end of my rough block-in. My goals are a little different for the block-in today. I wanted to try to keep it very loose and just have rough, clean color. My hope was to try to keep some of this as I refine the painting. In the end, I wasn't able to do this, but it's an approach I want to keep working at to see if I can make it work.

Well, you can see it didn't take long to cover up some of my rough block-in with more opaque or thicker paint, but that's okay. New approaches take a while to work out and I learned a few things that I'll try to apply on the next painting. Now my goal is to try to complete the painting as best I can.

At this point, I have most of the fruit blocked in and mostly finished. Now I'll get ready to complete the wooden box on the left side of the painting and then I'll finish up the foreground. Once that's done, I added in the blue berries.

Fruit Stack ©

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5x7 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.