Labyrinth

I'm leaving tomorrow for Germany with my family. We'll be gone the entire month of November, so I won't be able to ship any paintings from now until December. My stepdaughter, Maddie, will remain here, and ship books for me.

sold. (8x10in.)

This is a scene from California, up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I've had lots of practice up there painting from life, but this one is from a photo I took a couple of years ago. You can see how I approached it from my process shots below. I ended up having to repaint the foreground a couple of times. Little tufts of grass are hard to paint!

Rocks in the River

Click Here to Buy (10x10in. - $600 - won't be able to ship until December)

While I was in Colorado, my friend and I did a lot of driving around looking for the perfect spot. After about three days we realized - there wasn't one! So we just started painting, not wherever, but in what I would consider semi-perfect spots. What I got out of it, mostly, were notes. Notes on color and value. I also took a lot of photos. And between my notes and the photos, I will be able to do some finished pieces. Like this one, which I am quite proud of.

Colorado Color

sold. (6x12in. - click image to enlarge)

This is another one from Colorado. It was right at the beginning of fall, when tree colors were just starting to change, but the grass was already golden.

Across the Pond

sold. (6x12in.)

I painted this on a recent trip to Colorado.  My friend Penny and I had driven out to her friend's farm, and found this lovely pond at the back of the property. I had just learned about galkyd, and so experimented with this painting. I love galkyd! I actually painted the house and yellow bushes first, just to make sure I got those in before the light changed, but then I painted in the trees. And then all the pond stuff. So by the time I put in the distant mountains and sky, the paint on the trees was tacky enough not to make mud where they touched. This is a solution to a problem I've had forever with landscape painting!!

Also, here are all my kids (and me, and 2 of our illustrious hosts) from my San Antonio, Texas workshop last week. You guys were awesome!!

At Attention

sold. (6x6in.)

I am home from my San Antonio workshop and slowly catching up with things here. It took me a couple of days to recover emotionally. These kiddos (to the right) may not look rowdy, but they definitely kept me on my toes. The great food and wine helped keep my strength up, but by the end I was a puddle on the floor. I'm hoping they didn't notice. Oh shoot, did I just admit that?!

Here are a couple of my demos from the class, and a couple of partial demos too. I was especially happy with the bacon, and plan to paint it again. Not the actual bacon - I ate that.

I'll post the group photo soon. Meanwhile, I need to let you know that I'll be heading to Germany at the end of the week, and we'll be there a month! I'm hoping to get some new reference photos, and maybe paint some of them too.

Standing Room Only

sold. (6x6in.)

Tomorrow morning (far too early) I'm flying to Texas! I'll spend a few days visiting family, and then teach my last workshop of the year, in San Antonio. I'll be back late Sunday the 23rd, and will ship any paintings that have sold, then (I apologize in advance for the delay). Toodles!

Take Your Pick

sold. (6x6in.)

I can't believe I forgot this, but a major milestone has passed. Ten years and four days ago is when I started this blog! Wow. What a journey this has been, and continues to be. To the right is the first painting I posted here, on October 6th, 2006.

No Personal Space

sold. (6x6in.)

Recently I experimented for the first time with Galkyd. It makes paint dry a little faster, which I found is especially useful for landscape block-ins. Specifically I have used it to block in the dark masses of trees, so that when it comes time to put in the light sky the colors don't mush together at the margins and make so much mud! This has been quite enlightening! So I've been experimenting with Galkyd in still lifes too, and blocking-in there as well. I don't have answers yet, still just lots of questions. But I'm having fun.

Overprotective

sold. (6x6in.)

Here's another one from eye-level. Someone told me once, long ago, never to paint a still life looking down because it looks like it's going to slide right off the table. Obviously I ignored them! But what do you guys think? Just curious...

Little Red

sold. (6x6in.)

I used just my soft, white light for this one. At some point I'd like to do an experiment where I paint the same composition over and over, each with a different light.

Sea of Saucers

sold. (6x6in.)

This may seem like a simple scene. But it was HARD to paint! It was like a puzzle of never-ending little bits of color, that all had to work together, especially in the cups. Lots of reflected light. Oh man.

Cups for Company

sold. (6x6in.)

For this one I used two lights: a warm halogen, and a cooler florescent, hence the double shadows. I also like how shiny it made the cups look!

Speaking of lights, after a post of mine a week or two ago, a gal (Linda) wrote in about some lights she bought that she thought some of you might be interested in. They come as a pair (she shared one with a friend) and you can get them on Amazon. She uses them to light her painting and her setup (though she paints from a photo of her setup at night). Happy to share.

Don't Leave a Tomato Behind

Click Here to Buy - $70 (6x6in.)

I actually painted these twice before I ate them, so here's the second go.

In other news, I was interviewed yesterday by a very sweet gal from Toronto. Her podcast is called "Art Pro Podcast," and if you haven't tired of my story yet, you can listen here. Thanks!