Curiosity

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I can't remember where I got this picture, but if it's in my files it's probably from one of those copyright free sites like Morgue File. Mostly, if I'm painting from a photo, I like to use my own, but every once in a while I find a gem!

Tree Shadow

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PAINTING ON BLACK GESSO, some thoughts
This is my second success on black gesso, and I thought I'd write down a few things I've learned so far. First of all, compared to painting on white, it is much easier to judge dark values, since I'm putting them all straight on the darkest dark, black. Also, it is much more fun to put on bright colors, because they really pop against the black, especially if I leave little bits of black showing through.

I do have to be careful to go light enough with my values! Because the colors look so bright against the black, it's easy to misjudge them. I had to alter this one after it was dry because I realized I didn't go light enough with the orange wall. Also I had to find a different color to draw my scene with first. Normally I use burnt umber, which doesn't really show up on black. It worked to mix a little bit of yellow and red in with the umber.

I HIGHLY recommend trying it! If nothing else, it gives one a different perspective on values. I will definitely do more.

Sold Out

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Here's another horizontal scene. This one is from a market in Germany. I love how the light from red umbrella filters down onto the tiny, little food van.

Saturday

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Big thanks to everyone who has ordered my books! I have just a few volume 4's left, and then they will be no more.

As for the painting, after I finished it (an urban scene from Seattle) I realized I had already done a cropped version, about 2 years before. It's interesting to me to see the different choices I made, after the fact. My favorite part in this one was all the different colors in the "white" trim.

Behind a Ford

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A fabulous artist, and good friend, Cathleen Rehfeld, sometimes paints on black gessoed boards. I was so inspired by a recent painting of hers that I decided to try it myself! I will admit I've had as many failures with it so far as successes, but this one worked. At least I think so. : )

NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! I didn't put out a new book at the end of last year (like I usually do) because of my surgery and recovery. But I had plenty of paintings, so I decided to go ahead and do it a little late. I just picked up a big box of volume 9's from the printer!! -->

I only like to carry five volumes at a time, so I am phasing out volume 4, which I have put on sale until they are gone.

Get books here.

Welcome Home

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I've been digging deep into some old reference files lately. This is pretty normal for me in the dead of winter. This one is from Seattle a couple of summers ago. Soon I'll need to go off and collect more material. Soon it will be spring! And so it goes.

Cold and Windy

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I spotted these two lovely ladies in downtown San Francisco last year. The white socks make the outfit, don't ya think?!

Girls

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This image says so much to me about girls. The tall skinny girl in her skimpy outfit. The mom of that girl trying to keep it together. The little girl looking on at what she thinks she has to be. The mom of that girl completely oblivious. That might not be what you see, but ok.

Counting Change

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Hats and bags - perfect subjects!

Part of the Crowd

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Here's another scene from France, specifically the Sunday market at Isle sur la Sorgue.

Sniff Test

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I have a couple other people scenes to show you, but I made some adjustments to them the day after I started them, and for some reason that always leads to the darks drying funny. So now I've got to wait until they dry and varnish them before I can take good pictures.

Meanwhile, here is a still life experiment I did using brushes and more palette knife than usual. Actually, I recently found out it's called a "painting knife." A palette knife is only used for mixing...

Shopping by the Lake

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And now, a swerve back to people. This scene is another one from Überlingen, a town next to a huge lake in Germany that I visited last summer. You can see a little sliver of  lake and sky beyond the end of the alley. I thought the colors were really great.

Pinky Purples

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Last but certainly not least (in my one color series) is purple, of which I did not have enough items, so I added pink. And a spoon. What I really enjoyed about this series is that it inspired me to put together objects that I wouldn't have otherwise. And in ways I wouldn't have. A vase in a cup? That doesn't make sense, but it looks cool!

Yellow Orgy

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It took me a few tries with yellow. I finally realized that it's such a light value - it needs a dark background! Duh.

I just created a NEW FREE ARTBYTE about shipping small art. I've gotten a lot of requests for ArtBytes on different subjects, and I have them all in a list! And I will get to them, I promise.

Stacks of Red

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For some reason this is the only one so far (of my one color series) that came somewhat easily. And it's my favorite. I painted yellow today too, but I think I'm going to give it another try tomorrow. What sucks is that often, the paintings that are the most painful, are also not very good. You'd think it would be the other way around - that the hard work would pay off in the end. Alas.

Not Affiliated

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Here's my second version of orange.  Really, I just wanted a second chance at the pig, AND I thought these two just went so well together. What I discovered is - paint is limited when it comes to shades of orange!!! Oh, and the title is a reference to a line in a Pixar movie, The Incredibles. "I'm not affiliated with you!" Does anyone else know it?

Orange Crew

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Coincidentally, I painted two orange versions for this series too (along with 2 blue's). This is the first one. Painting this one was quite a challenge, and it was the lighting that was hard. You might notice that some things are in a direct light, but the sailor is less so. You'll see in tomorrow's painting that the value of the yellow coat is actually lighter than the orange pig, but because of where they are in the light, the coat had to be a little darker. Honestly, there are so many objects in this, I should have painted it larger than 6x6. But you know ... habit.

I'm Blue One & Two

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Continuing my series of still lifes that each focus on one color, here I tackled blue. Twice. In between paintings I read a few pages of Richard Schmid's book, Alla Prima II, where he talks about doing a block-in. I wanted to try it, so I decided to paint the same (general) scene again. Sometimes I like to paint the same thing again in a different WAY rather than a whole new thing.

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On the first painting I added some palette knife work, and on the second I decided a brush was enough. Someone asked me today to show a picture of the new tools I've been experimenting with, so here that is.

The green thing on the left is a bowl scraper that I got from Amazon. Then a Catalyst squeegee (this and all the rest are from Dick Blick). Next two rollers/brayers, large and small. Next a small Catalyst squeegee thingie on a stick. Then two Blick palette knives. Maybe someday I'll be able to say HOW to use these tools. But at this rate it might take me many years to really figure it out!!

The Greenies

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For a while now I've been keeping a list of painting ideas. And mostly ignoring it. But one of my ideas (that I actually kind of did once a long time ago), is to do a series of paintings, each focusing on a particular color. And I decided to tackle it (again)! My friend Pat gave me the green glass cup the other day, so I figured green was a good place to start.

Three Amigos

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I heard a quote the other day by Edgar Degas. He said, "Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do." I love it.