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River's Edge - An Original 8 x 8 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

River's Edge

 I spent this past weekend in the Hill Country of Texas. The first few days were spent painting in and around Kerrville, and, then on Saturday, it was off to Fredericksburg for the Oil Painters Of America Exhibition for some of the most impressive representational art I've seen. What a wonderful weekend! This painting was done in Kerrville at Louise B. Hayes Park. This is a huge park with lot of access to the river. I found this little spot just a few feet up the river from where the locals swam. Here the water was a little more shallow and full of rocks, which is what attracted me to this spot. I got here just when the sun was starting to set behind me and it gave the scene a very soft light. 

River's Edge © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Wood Duck - A New Original 10 x 8 Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Wood Duck

We had a few days of rain in our forecast, so before the weather turned, I went down to the lake not far from our house to take some reference photos just in case I was stuck in the studio. Normally, this lake is full of ducks, geese and all type of water fowl, but on this trip there was just a hand full of mallards playing in the water. None the less, I began to take a few photographs of them because I was in the mood to paint some ducks anyway. While I was taking my pictures, someone arrived at the lake with a big bag of bread and began to feed the ducks. Well, it didn't take long for all the ducks and birds around the lake to start making their way towards the free lunch. Slowly, but surely, more and more ducks started to appear and that's when I spotted this one wood duck swimming with a small group of mallards. I couldn't believe my luck! I love the distinct markings on this bird and knew I'd want to paint him if I could get a good reference image of him. That proved to be the tricky part. It seems this little duck is camera-shy. It took almost 30 minutes of waiting for him to swim close enough by me so I could get a good image of him, but it was worth the wait. He settled right in front of me for almost 5 minutes! I must have snapped about 50 pictures of him during that time. What a treat!

Wood Duck © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 10x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Cloud Puff - A New Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Cloud Puff

 Last year, while out on a drive, I discovered this little park. There's not really all that much there. Just a few sidewalks, a lot of open fields and trees and a very tiny pond. I remember going there once to paint, but didn't actually produce a painting. Sometimes that happens when plein air painting. I go somewhere, haul my gear in and never find anything to paint. After that, I sort of forgot about this place until I was looking at google maps for potential painting locations. For what ever reason, it showed promise again so I decided to give it another chance. This time I noticed this view of the field around the pond and the sky with just this one tiny puffy cloud. I loved the idea of painting a sky with just this tiny cloud in it and knew I had found something to paint here finally. I actually noticed a few other things that I might want to try at some point too, so it looks like I might be going back again. Lesson learned...sometimes it's good to give places a second look.

Cloud Puff © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Rockwall Revisited - An Original 10 x 8 Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Rockwall Revisited

 This is the painting I did as a demo last night for the Rockwall Art League. I had a great time explaining my process and answering questions, and I hope those watching did too. Somehow in all the conversation, I missed a few things that I wanted to fix in the water and reflections of the rocks before the demo was over. Once I had the painting back in my studio and I was able to look at for a little while, I decided to put it back up on the easel and make a few tweaks to it.  If this looks familiar to you, you are not imagining things. I based this off of a plein air painting I did a few weeks ago. 

Rockwall Revisited © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 10x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Creek Side - An Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Creek Side

  I love painting at the falls in West Worth. It's so quiet and peaceful. There's the occasional passer-by and people walking their dogs, but for the most part it was just me and this slow-moving stream. Oh, and the giant snake I saw on the rocks behind me while I was getting ready to paint, but that's another story. Seriously, he was this big! Anyway, for this painting I chose this view because I really wanted to capture the reflections in the water, with it's many subtle variations of green and blues. A challenge for sure, but a rewarding one to try to capture. 

Creek Side © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Washing Rocks - An Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Washing Rocks

 Today my day started off by discovering a leak in our water heater. Luckily, it turned out to just be a small pin hole leak in the hot water pipe. It must have just started leaking shortly before I found it because while there was some water, it could have been much, much worse. After getting over the initial shock and realizing with relief that I didn't need to buy a new water heater today, I headed out to the hardware store to buy a few parts so I could make the needed repairs. I guess something about rushing water leaked into my subconscious because without realizing it, I picked this scene to paint during the afternoon. We have been fortunate to have had some rain during the last 2 weeks and it shows in this river. Just a few weeks ago when I went to check on this spot, it was almost completely dry, down to just a small trickle. Today it was jus the opposite, with water rushing over the rocks and working its way down the river.

Washing Rocks© 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Stormy Seas - An Original 8 x 10 Seascape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Stormy Seas

 I spent the morning working on a new commission piece and got to a point where I wanted it to dry before continuing. With a few hours left in the day, I thought I'd do one more painting today, just for fun! What could be more fun than trying to paint stormy seas crashing over rocks? I love the challenge of capturing the atmosphere in this piece with the horizon almost totally blending into the sea when they meet. The waves rolling in and the rocks forcing the water to break is also stimulating to paint. The added bonus of doing this piece was I got to work on mixing grey colors, which is one of the areas I really want to work on. Mixing a good grey can be a real challenge. I don't want colorless greys, I want greys that are warm and cool and have some color to them, just not saturated. Is that too much to ask for? I think not, but it does take some work to achieve. 

Stormy Seas © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Slices - An Original 6 x 8 Still Life Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Slices

 With the rain and cold weather continuing outside today, I thought it best to stay inside and paint. It really wasn't a hard decision; it's much warmer in my studio. Since I still had my little still life set up mostly intact, I decided to do another one in this little series I've been working on. I really never had any intention of doing a series like this, but it's been so much fun, I'm going with it. I noticed today that quite accidentally I had made the first two still lives remarkably close in their backgrounds, so for this painting I thought I'd try to do the same thing. I love the way the three of them look together on my drying rack. I even made up this little image of them framed: 

Today's painting is the watermelon one. It was part of our breakfast this morning and I couldn't resist it. I liked that the pieces were a little tattered. This is thanks to my daughter, who's three and who likes to try to help with everything in the kitchen, including cutting up the melon.

Slices © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Once Underwater - An Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Once Underwater

 One of the last times I went out painting, I noticed this scene not far from where I set up for the day.  I had intended to go back and paint it, but then our weather turned cold and cloudy and just like that, it felt like we were back in winter. Luckily, this is Texas and winter weather this late in the year doesn't stand a chance in sticking around. Today we got back on track with spring weather, so I packed up my gear and headed back to the lake. It was a very windy day and the water never settled down, making it a real challenge to paint. Still, it was nice to get our of the studio for a little while and soak up some sunshine! It looks like this weather is here to stay this time, so I'm looking forward to getting out more.

I'm going to have to re-photograph this one in a day or two. This image has a lot of glare on it. 

Once Underwater © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on gessoed wood panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

On The Rocks - An Original 8 x 8 Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

On The Rocks

  It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn when I paint water and rocks. There's something about the abstract patterns in the way the water washes over the rocks that forces me to stretch myself. I think this is because this is one of the few subjects where I don't think about what it is I'm painting and just paint the shapes that I see. Now I try that with everything I paint, but for what ever reason, with water it's easier for me to do this.  I guess that's why this is one of my favorite subjects to paint. 

On The Rocks © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Currently available through my eBay auction. Click here to go the auction.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Weekend Plans - An Original 6 x 8 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Weekend Plans

 While our daughters spent the weekend with Grandma, my wife and I found ourselves with some free time. Having a vague recollection of what free time is, we made plans to go to a near by state park, Cedar Hills State Park, and enjoy a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I mentioned that I'd like to do a little painting and my wife agreed, bringing along a book to read while she enjoyed some sunshine. The parks main attraction is its lake, Joe Pool Lake. We spent some time driving around the lake and doing a little exploring before we came upon the spot in the painting. Normally this location would be well under water, but since the lake still hasn't fully recovered from our drought, views like this are still available to explore and paint. I loved the way the sun was striking the tall grasses surrounding the water and casting long shadows across the sanding shore line.

Weekend Plans © 

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

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Lazy River - An Original 10 x 8 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Lazy River

 Last week while painting, a friend of mine he mentioned a new spot he's been wanting to check out and suggested we both go have a look. After finishing up our paintings for the day, we headed over. His spot turned out to be one of the many little rivers that run along the roads leading to Benbrook Lake. After parking on the side of the street, we hiked down a little trail that lead to the river and then along the river rocks lining the river banks. After about a hundred yards we came to this wonderful bend in the river. Bingo! We found a new place to paint. We made plans to return and today was that day. What a perfect day it turned out to be! Clear skies, warm weather and hardly any wind. What more could a plein air painter ask?

Lazy River © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 10x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

West Falls - An Original 8x10 Lanscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

West Falls

 One of my favorite subjects to paint is water, particularly white water rapids and falls. It's something I find myself returning to time and again. The thing is, it's hard to find white water rivers in North Texas. I'm constantly on the search when I'm out and about. Making mental notes of places to explore in more depth and still, the list of places to try is very, very small. Luckily a little over a year ago, I discovered one of the best kept secrets in the DFW area, a water fall! A natural stair stepped waterfall that's full accessible to anyone who wishes to see it (and paint it!). It's located in a little park in West Worth that once belong to the Air Force. The town purchased the land sometime back and turned it into a wonderful little nature area with paved walkways. I've wanted to go and paint there this week, but for one reason or another haven't been able to make it, so today I did this studio painting based on a plein air piece I did there last fall. This is the lowest part of the waterfall, which has a last big step and the tiny drop after it. 

West Worth © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Fresh Rain Water - An Original 8x10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Fresh Rain Water

 We've been fortunate enough to have rain storms for the last day and a half here in North Texas. Since it always seems like we are either in a drought or on the verge of one, the rain is a welcome sight. Amazingly, after raining all morning, the sun came out around noon and the weather warmed up to a wonderful 68 degrees. Perfect weather to go out and paint! I met up with a friend of mine who took me to this amazing little park about 5 minutes from his home. The creek was high with all the recent rain water and I just couldn't resist painting it. 

Fresh Rain Water © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Tall Grass - A New Original 8x6 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Tall Grass

 We're being treated to an early spring here in Texas this year. So far this week, we've had mostly sunny days with temps getting into the 70s all week. That is perfect weather to get out and paint in and today was no exception. While I packed up my gear to head out, I ran through a possible list of locations in my head. One of them included a little lake with a feeder creek running into it not too far from our house. I've gone to this location several times to paint the tall grasses that grow where the creek and lake meet, but for one reason or another have never painted it. Right before the winter, the park district was doing some work on the lake and they had to drain almost all the water out of it. To be honest, it looked like they killed it and most of the wildlife that called this place home. Remarkably, a few short months later the lake is full of water again and the birds, ducks and white egret are all back like nothing every happened. In fact, if I didn't see the story on the news when it happened, I would have never know from my visit today!

Tall Grass © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x6 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Flamingo - A New Original 7x5 Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Flamingo

 At our zoo, one of the first groups of animals you come to are the flamingos. You can smell them from the moment you enter the front gate. If you've ever been around a large flock of these birds, you know the distinct and powerful smell I'm referring to.  One the day I took the reference photo from this painting, most of the flamingos where busy building their nests in the sand for their eggs. This was the first time I've seen this and it was fascinating to watch as they built tall towers of sand to lay their eggs in. Apparently, this one got a little hot and thirsty while working and decided to go for a little swim to cool down. I took a few photos of him (or her) playing in the water before returning to the sandy shore to continue work on the nest. I had hoped we'd be able to return after the eggs had hatched, but I think we missed our chance. I'm sure they hatched some time ago.

Flamingo © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 7x5 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

River Bank - A New Original 6x8 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

River Bank

 This little stream isn't very far from our home. I've painted this area a few times this year alone, and this is the lowest I've seen the water running through here. In fact, those rocks in the foreground are normally well under the normally rushing water, which now down to just a small trickle. While this offers new views of a familiar scene, it also is a stark reminder of just how little rain we've had since September. That's when we officially entered drought conditions again here in north Texas. Not that that's anything new for this area. It seems like we are always either getting out of a drought or going into one, but it still leaves an uneasy feeling in my mind when I see the river this low. Here's hoping we have a very wet winter and new year! 

 River Bank © 

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.

Turtle Pond - A New Original 8x10 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Turtle Pond

 When I first noticed this scene at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, I was initially drawn to the reflections in the water. I loved the way the ripples in the pond all seemed to be running in little half circles with just a few fall leaves floating along on them. For this reason, I set the rocks and trees very high on the canvas in order to give myself enough room to explore the colors and reflections in the water. I did add that rock sitting out in the water (that wasn't there), but it was something I felt the painting needed. If this scene looks somewhat familiar, it should. One of my last paintings, Weeping Willow, is almost this same view except, in that painting, I choose not to show was much water and show more of the landscape surrounding it. If you have been to the botanical garden the title is pretty self-evident. For those of you who haven't, this lake is the home to a rather large turtle family. I'm not sure how many live in these waters, but if you get there when they are sunning themselves you will see those rocks lined with turtles. Maybe it's all the food everyone throws to the Koi fish living in the lake that attracts them!

Turtle Pond © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x10 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Available

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Rocks Around The Lake - A New Original 9x12 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Rocks Around The Lake

 I first noticed this view last year while exploring the lake at Mineral Wells State Park. It was at the end of a day of painting and having spent the morning painting a different picture, I choose to keep this spot in the back of my mind for the next time. Well, it turns out it took over a year to get back to this place and finally get to paint these rocks.  Well, actually, that's a little misleading. You see I went back several times over the last year to paint this view and it just didn't work out for one reason or another. Once, I went back and the sun just refused to shine on this part of the lake. Another time, the camp sites that I need to use to get this view where all occupied. Yet another time, the only access road to this scene was washed out. Still I kept trying, even if I didn't get to paint this view I always found something else to paint, so it always worked out. Then, the other day, it seems like everything worked out in my favor. The sun was shining, the road was open, the camp sites were noticeable unoccupied, and even the weather was rather pleasant. If I was going to paint it, the time was now!

Rocks Around The Lake © 

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

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Koi - A New Original 6x6 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Koi

I learned a lot about Koi fish during this painting. For example, I learned that it's very difficult to convince them to stay still long enough to paint them. I also learned that they tend to swim in similar enough patterns that it's possible to watch them enough to paint them from life. Finally, I learned that when they stick their mouth out of the water they make a rather unpleasant sucking sound. It took a little while as I was painting to figure out what on earth was making those sounds, then I noticed one of the larger fish trying to suck the moss or algae from one of the near by rocks and realized he was the one making that noise. I didn't realize they could stick their whole mouth out of the water. It's a very odd sight.

 Koi © 

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.

White Rock Lake Boat Houses - A New Original 9x12 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

White Rock Lake Boat Houses

A few weeks ago, I was in Dallas dropping off my paintings for the Artist of Texas show at the Dutch Gallery. Since the gallery isn't very far from White Rock Lake, I brought along my painting gear with the hopes of getting in some painting. As luck would have it, we had  a beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze. After I dropped off my paintings, I scouted out a few different locations around the lake and felt this view would make the best painting for what I was after. In this case, I really wanted to include some buildings and lots of water. What a perfect fit! I found a quiet place to set up and painted undisturbed for a few hours. I had completed the painting and started to pack up my gear when I decided that I didn't like the way the water and foreground had turned out. It just lacked any design and added very little to the overall painting so I wiped it off. The problem was I wasn't sure how to fix these issues, so I headed home put the painting up in a place in the studio where I could see it easily and spent the next few weeks thinking about how to handle the water. This is what the painting looked like at that time:

In my mind I tried out several different ideas for the water. I thought about adding a few boats to the foreground, which was something that was originally in the scene. I thought about making the water very reflective and using the cloud pattern to creat interest. I thought about many different way to handle this, then finally I had the idea to use the reflection of the sky in wake of a passing boat to lead the eye back into the painting. Something akin to the country drive way leading you to the barn, but,in this case, on water. So in the end, this painting became a hybrid, about half of it was done plein air and the other half in the studio, but really in the end the important thing is I came away with a painting I'm happy with. 

White Rock Lake Boat Houses © 

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

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Weeping Willow - A New Original 8x6 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Weeping Willow

 When I noticed this weeping willow at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, I knew I had found what I'd be painting for the next few hours. I was struck by the reflection in the water and how some of the branches barely kissed the surface below. I think this is the first time I've tried to paint a weeping willow. It's not that I have anything against them. We just don't see a lot of them here in Texas. Kind of makes me wish we had a little pond that I could plant one by. They seem to go great with water. 

Weeping Willow © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x6 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: SOLD

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Foggy Morning - A New Original 6x8 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Foggy Morning

 One of the things I like best about fall are the foggy mornings we sometimes get. As much as I enjoy painting out doors on a nice sunny day, nothing beats being able to paint in some sort of atmospheric condition, like fog. Rain is nice if I can find a dry place to paint from and snow offers a new look at the landscape, but, let's be honest, it's cold. Besides, anything more than a dusting of snow in Texas is rare. Fog, on the other hand, is usually fairly pleasant weather to paint in and offers a wonderful variety of colors and edges. I've been waiting for a good foggy day to paint in for a while. It seems like the last few we had I wasn't able to go out painting for one reason or another, but on this day all the stars lined up and out I went! This is from a little pond just down the road from where we live. I tend to go to this location a lot when I don't have a lot of time to paint before I think the conditions will change, like in fog or at sunset. I'm sure the commuters don't agree with me, but I hope we have a lot more foggy days soon!

 Foggy Morning © 

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.

Just Above The Falls - A New Original 12x9 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Just Above The Falls

 Every now and then I go out painting and notice something that I think might make a better painting than what I set out to capture, but for one reason or another I choose not to paint it. Usually, it's just me being stubborn. I set out to paint "X" so that's what I'm going to work on. Still, in the back of my mind while I'm painting I notice that my thoughts often drift back to the other scene. I find myself wondering what a painting of it might look like, and then working out different compositions in my mind. Of course, all of this is very bad for the current painting I'm working on. It always suffers during these times. How could it not with this lack of focus? Such was the case when I first noticed this scene, just up the river from where I was stubbornly painting something else. I loved the pattern of light the rocks caused and the slight curve to the stream. After finally calling it quits on the painting, I wasn't concentrating on I made plans to return the next day and paint this scene.

Just Above The Falls © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 12x9 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Available

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Little Falls - An original 5x7 landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

Little Falls

 A few days ago, I went to one of my favorite spots to paint, which is the falls in West Worth.  We had a few inches of rain the day before I went, so I knew the falls would have plenty of water flowing over them. After picking out a place to paint from I set up my easel and got to work.  Try as I might, I just couldn't quite get the painting to the stage I wanted. Something wasn't jibing, but I couldn't put my finger on it, so I finished up what I could and brought the painting home for further thought on what to do. As an exercise to work out some of the things I think I need to correct on the painting, I decided to do this smaller painting first. In this case, I'm trying to work out how I'm going to handle the drop off and rocks in the foreground. I took a few progress pictures as I worked on this to share with you.

Here is how I started this painting. This is just a little wash of color thinned down with turpentine. I then used a paper towel to wipe out some of the lighter areas and went back with a slightly less thinned down mixture of paint to place a few darks. Nothing too fancy here, but I have my original plein air sketch to refer to while I'm doing this.

In this image, I'm about half way through the painting. I've worked mostly from the top down. I started by laying in the darks first and working toward the lighter values. I'm trying to work on keeping my darks transparent, which is something easier said then done. Below is the final image. While I still don't think I've worked out what I want to do with the lower rocks and water, I do like this solution.

Little Falls © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 5x7 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Last Light - An original 8x6 plein air landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

Last Light

A few nights ago, I went out to paint the sunset at out local park. My wife and kids came, too. While I painted at the lake, the girls played in the park. I had promised my oldest daughter, who's turning three this weekend, that she could do a painting when I was finished. Sure enough just as I was finishing up, she came by wanting to do her painting. I packed my work away and got her a fresh canvas to paint on. She picked out her brush and dove right into painting. Somehow, she managed to use most of the paint left on my palette starting with the most expensive colors first. How is it she always knows how to do this? She only had a few minutes before the sun completely set and it became too dark to continue. Of course that's when she looked at me and said "Daddy, I need more light". If you know how to explain to a three-year old that Daddy can't turn the sun back on, please let me know.

Here's my painting:

Last Light © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x6 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Here's the painting my daughter did. Sha had a much different interpretation of the sunset. Now if I can just teach her to sign her name!

Feels Like Rain - An original 6x8 landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

Feels Like Rain

We had rain all weekend this last week. It was much needed rain and, thankfully, there was a lot of it. Naturally though, I had made plans to go out painting well before the rain forecast became such a certainty. After waking up Saturday to a heavy downpour, our plans got put on hold till Sunday. Well, Sunday came and the rain was still rather heavy, and things are starting to look a little muddy so.... Plans cancelled! All of the weekend's anticipation started to wear on me and  I was just itching to get some painting done. I'm looking at all my painting gear, which is packed up, and, then suddenly it hits me. I can go to the lake and paint under the large picnic pavilion, which has a nice view of the water. With such heavy rains the normally reserved area will surely have no one using it. Eureka! I got to the lake and, sure enough, no one was there. Still, even the large roof of the pavilion couldn't stop the driving wind from blowing rain inside, but it was better than being out in the elements and it kept me dry enough to paint all morning. 

Feels Like Rain © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Days End - An original 8x8 landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

Days End

This painting is another one that I did based off an older plein air study. I've had a great time revisiting some of these subjects this week. In the time that's passed since I first painted the study I've learned a lot about painting, color, and edges. It sometimes doesn't feel that way, since most of the time these improvements come in very small increments over a long period of time, but, looking back at something I painted last year or two years ago and repainting it today has really shown me where I've grown. More importantly, it's shown me where I still need to grow, directions to push myself, and areas to study that need more study. This what I enjoy and embrace most as an artist. The learning is never done, which is makes being a painter a lifetime effort.

Here is an image of how I started this painting. I'm using a little transparent oxide red (for the most part) to work out the placement of the larger shapes. The original painting was a 5x7 inch study and this painting is on an 8x8 inch panel so there are a few things to work out first. I spent some time getting everything where I wanted it. With just a few lines of thin paint, it's very easy to change my mind and move something at this stage. Believe me, I'd rather do it now then later when I have a lot of paint on the canvas and a lot of time invested in it. Once I was happy with the placement of all the larger shapes, I knew I could move onto the color and detail.

Well, I guess that this point I'm about half way through  the painting. I'm playing around a little bit with what to do with the foreground, because I don't want it to be all water, like the original sketch was. I feel I need something to stop the eye from running off the bottom of the canvas. Usually, placing something a little darker across the bottom will stop this and let the eye move back up through the painting easily. You can also see very faintly where I wiped off my first attempt at the sky in what will be the water when I'm done. The first sky I painted wasn't satisfactory, and, before I got too far down the road with the painting, I wiped it off and re-painted it. This time, I kept my paint mixtures a little thinner on the canvas and my colors a little cleaner when mixing them.

Below it the finished painting. You can see I finally settled on having several patches of land and grass in the foreground to help break it up and stop the eye. I felt this fit with what was going on with the background grass and land very well.

Days End © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Available 

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

This Is My Good Side - An original 6x6 landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

This Is My Good Side

 Just down the road from our house, we have a wonderful little lake that plays host to more ducks, geese and water fowl than I can count. In the winter months, the whole lake is covered with birds. In the summer, the flock thins down to about 50 to 100 animals. I'm not sure what it is about this particular lake that they like so much, but my guess is it's the endless buffet of bread and seed that people bring them that keeps them coming back year after year. This also makes them very friendly. There are several ducks and geese that will eat the bread right out of your hand if you let them. It's one of our daughters favorite things to do. She squeals with delight as the birds flock to her for the bread. I'll often take my camera with us to take a few photographs of the birds. It seems like this Chinese goose was determined to have me photograph this side of him since every picture I took, he had his head turned. After noticing this, the title for this painting seemed pretty straight forward.

Please note that the auction for this painting will be on Daily Paint Works. Click the link below to go to the auction.

This Is My Good Side © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Cool Breeze - An original 7x5 landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

Cool Breese

 Whenever I start a painting, I try to not repeat myself. That is, I try to approach each painting with a fresh approach and forget any previous attempts at painting a similar subject. By doing this, or rather by trying to do this, I hope to be able to honestly respond to the subject I am painting, whether it's a still life or landscape or any other subject matter. Sometimes, when I'm very lucky, I'm actually able to achieve this and paint something entirely new to me. This is what happened today, when I really let go of all previous ways I would usually begin and just started painting. I did do the faintest of layout lines just to work out the composition, but after that I tried to make every brush stroke one that would be visible in the final painting. Laying down thick, juicy brush strokes of color, one on top of the other while building up form and texture as I went along, I let my brush strokes be more visible and added in lots of broken color. In short, I had a blast! Time whizzed by and before I knew it I had completed this little painting. I only wish I had thought to stop long enough to take a few progress pictures. I guess that will have to wait till next time.

Cool Breeze © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 7x5 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Reflecting on Summer - An original 8x6 landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

Reflecting on Summer

Right down the road from our house is a wonderful little lake and park area. Since we discovered this area, it's become one of our daughter's favorite places. The lake hosts a tremendous number of ducks, geese, and grebes all of which love to eat bread practically out of your hands, if you let them. The park has a great slide and jungle gym. Because of this, when I want to go and paint there, my family usually comes along, which is fine with me. I love having them around. My wife will take them to the park while I paint and when I'm done we all get some time to play together. Well, on this day, my 3-year-old just couldn't wait for me to finish so she came over to watch and chat. She then declared that she wanted to paint. I had gotten everything I needed to be able to complete the painting back in my studio so I packed it up and gave her a canvas to paint on. What a thrill it was to watch her plunge the brush into a pile of color and then smear it across her canvas. I hope this is something we get to a lot of in the future! Anyway, here is my result for the day:

Reflecting on Summer © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x6 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

A Day At El Tesoro - An Original 6x8 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

A Day At El Tesoro

 A few weeks ago, I went to Camp El Tesoro to paint with some friends for the day. We had a wonderful time painting along the river and enjoying the mild spring weather. The water is crystal clear at this spot in the river and I was able to watch the fish swimming as I painted. Most of the rocks that make up the falls seem to be sand stone or lime stone, which reflect some really amazing colors in the river. I had a great time trying to capture them. 

 This is the first of two paintings I did this day. You can see the other painting here.

A Day At El Tesoro © 

 Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

"El Tesoro Falls" - An original 8x6 inch landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

El Tesoro Falls

 This area is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to paint. Camp El Tesoro is a wonderful kid's camp that's kind enough to let us in occasionally to paint. The camp has a great river running though it that is complete with waterfall, which is what this painting depicts. The water is very clear; in fact, not only could we see the many fish in the river, we could actually see the whiskers on the catfish as they swam around. After last year's drought it was very encouraging to see so much life in the river. There had to be easily 100 fish swimming around the 40-50 foot stretch we explored looking for places to paint the falls from. Of course, we where also warned that they spotted two copperheads and a rattler in the last few days along the river and that we should "keep an eye out".  Ha! I kept them both out, just in case. 

El Tesoro Falls © 

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 8x6 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: Framing available through gallery.
Availability: Available through The Dutch Art Gallery. ($100)

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Running Strong - An original 6x8 landscape oil painting by George De Chiara

Running Strong

 Have I mentioned that this is one of my favorite subjects to paint? I never seem to tire of painting rivers and running water. This little river is in Arlington's Interlochen area. There's a sidewalk that crosses the river just upstream from this spot that causes the water to build up and run faster as it passes through the small pipes running under it. When the water gets through the pipes, it goes over a rock washboard, causing this scene to unfold. I painted this early in the morning when the rocks where still a little wet and colorful. Once the sun heated up towards the end of my painting time, it dried out the rocks and completely changed the colors in them. I had to really be on my toes to not continually change my painting as this was happening. 

This is my first auction on Daily Paint Works. For those of you not familiar with Daily Paint Works (DPW), it's a website dedicated to just art sales and auctions. I'm excited to try this site because of this reason. I'll be listing a few more paintings with them over the next week so be sure to check back often for updates. 

Running Strong © 

 Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Heavy Runoff - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Heavy Runoff

  A few days after we had a good rain storm, I painted this scene. I had figured that what is normally a little creek with a nice trickle of water would be moving pretty good, but I never expected there to be so much runoff. Almost all the rocks had water flowing over them, with just the tallest peaks staying dry. In fact, the spot I normally paint from when I go there was completely underwater as well, so I had to stand on the rocks on the edge of the river and balance my easel and myself very carefully, making sure neither one fell into the water. This made for quite the challenge when painting. For those of you curious where this is, it's at Bob Findlay Linear Park in Arlington's Interlochen subdivision.

Heavy Runoff © 

 Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Fall Creek - An original painting by George De Chiara

Fall Creek

 Yesterday, despite the cold, I managed to get out and paint for a little while at Camp El Tesoro in Granbury (Texas). Most of the time, it spends it's life as a neat little Boy Scout camp; however, it is also open to the public once a month. It was either go yesterday or wait another month to see what's there. The few pictures on their website got me curious enough to brave the cold weather. I was rewarded with one of my favorite scenes to paint, running water. I can't wait to go back next month to paint some more. It seemed like everywhere I looked there was another scene just waiting to be painted.

Fall Creek © 

 Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Wash Day - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Wash Day

 I'm always on the look out for running water. It's by far one of my favorite subjects to paint so I very excited to discover a new little river just a few miles from our house. After spending a few minutes looking at different compositions of the running water and rocks, I choose this view, which, of course, turned out to be one of the more difficult locations to paint from. I had to set my easel up on top of a pile of rocks laying on the river bank and balance on one of the rocks to paint. Whenever I wanted to step back and see my progress, I had to carefully step down the pile of rocks to a little clearing so I could study my painting and then climb back up and make my adjustments. It's things like this that make painting outdoors interesting and a lot of fun.

Wash Day © 

 Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x8 inches on canvas panel.  
Medium: Original Oil Painting 
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid on this painting.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

Westworth Falls - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Westworth Falls

 I did this painting a few days after Christmas, between groups of company stopping by the house for the holidays. We had a few good days of some much-needed rain, and, on the first sunny day afterwards, I headed out to one of the best kept secrets in the DFW area, The Falls at Westworth Village. This is a wonderful little area that was once owned by the Naval Air Station. This is the second time I've painted at these falls. The first time was in the fall when they had a lot less water running through them. This time, though, there was plenty of water running over them along with unseasonably warm weather made for a great day of painting.

Westworth Falls © 

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.

Fountain at the Botanical Gardens - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Fountain At The Botanical Garden

 I painted this over the weekend at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. This is the fountain that's at the end of the trellis in the Rose Garden. I was struck by the sharp contrast of the fountain water shooting through the air against the background that's mostly in shadow. Plus, there's the added benefit of the wonderful color of the fountain pool water. At first I passed this scene by, thinking it wouldn't make a good painting, or, rather, that I wouldn't be able to make a good painting out of it. I was worried about having the shooting water be such a dominant element in the composition. I knew if I didn't handle that correctly, it would take over the painting and possible divide my canvas. After looking around at a few other possible locations, I finally decided to just go for it and paint the scene that I really wanted to paint, which is the fountain. I noticed I painted a little slower and more deliberate than I normally do to make sure I had enough in the scene to support the shooting water when I painted it in. In fact, the shooting water was the last thing I painted after I had everything else worked out. In the end, I was happy I pushed myself to try something I wasn't sure would work and came out with a painting that I'm proud of. It's good to stretch, which is something I need to keep in mind more often.

Fountain at the Botanical Garden ©

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.