Rising Clouds Over the Everglades

Here is my second large painting. This time I stretched my limits, but I had so much fun! It measures 24" x 36", yes almost Salon size! It is also done with a brush, and I have some yummy impasto here and there.

Today I will try to stretch a canvas for my next one, 30" x 36" ! I just hope it fits on my easel!

WOW! Summer is almost over!

Well, I guess I am changing my Blog title to "Almost a painting a month"! I didn't anticipate that during summer vacation my kids would be so demanding, and I zero time for painting.

Amazingly enough I managed to paint this one and another two weeks ago! My 4 year old now won't let me get close to my studio! I think I may need to wait till they all go to school and I can finally start painting on a regular basis.

I haven't titled this painting yet but it is a 24" x 24", oil on claessen linen. I did it with the brush.

I attended a WSLP paint out today. I am member of this prestigious club exclusive to 40 members and very hard to get in. I believe I was juried in 10 years ago, maybe more. It's been around since the early 20th century. One of the oldest plein air organizations in the US. Check the website out if you like. www.wslp.org. There are some awesome members.

I didn't have much time this morning since Tristan was with me, I think an hour or so, but this is what I managed to do by pushing some paint around. First time out in plein air since last spring, I think. It was crazy cold for May, windy and threatening to rain at any time, but me and 6 others managed to endure the weather and painted some of the scenes around Green Spring Gardens. I used a brush, and it was a nice change. I think I'll stick to it for a while. This is an 8 x 8 and I started with a number 8 flat brush and didn't use anything smaller till the very end.

Studies

Here are a two of the studies I accomplished in Rob Liberace's class in December. The one on left is a 10 minute and the one below is a 30 minute. We did at least 15, many I had no choice but to wipe off as I only had about 10 canvasses. We did a male and a female portrait. I never painted the figure or portrait before here. There are obvious mistakes, I cringe looking at them now but I had fun! None of them are completed pieces. We had only 10 to 30 minutes poses.

Guess who?

Recognize this guy! First time I actually decide to paint a portrait for more then 20 minutes! Not totally convincing, but it does look somewhat like Gavin so I figured that must be some talent. He was looking down and reading a book, although it looks more like he was sleeping! I tweeked with it a few days later and I think I messed up a few passages. Oh well!

I took a 3 day workshop with Liberace in December. It was a humbling experience to say the least. We rally only focused on quick 10 to 20 minutes studies, dark and lights. More important it was an honor to be able to watch and listen to Robert Liberace. I'll post next some of the work I did during those classes. It was the first time I ever attempted to paint people, and actually the last time till this one.

here you can see all the different reds I have on the left! Hmmm. What else can I paint after tomatoes?

YOU FIRST!

It's been a while since my last post but I am back in the painting zone. Yesterday I went to Whole Foods and bought a bunch of fruits and veggies so I could do some small fun stillifes. The strawberries were the first victims as they go bad pretty fast. I used a brush for this one and decided that the yellow cloth background was a good companion to the red fruit. I have a palette full of great red colors, so this afternoon I will start a painting of tomatoes. Oil on gesso panel, 8 " x 8". I have the perfect frames for these guys, a rustic black painted 2 3/4" with gold lip. Yummy!

Last Light

Just finished this. I love doing this time of day. It's amazing how many colors there are in the sky when the sun is about to set. Greens, blues, purples, pinks, reds, yellows, they are all there in some variation or another. Next time you witness a sunset such as this, all clear, no clouds, look down on the ground then up and the first image you see it will tell you the color! Sometimes greens, sometimes yellows, sometimes purples, you will be surprised how many different colors there are up in the sky!

Across the Waters

It has been a few days since my last post.  Everyone in my family, including myself, was sick, well we are still sick but today I felt already better and wanted to finish this painting which I started on Monday.  The photo is not the best as it is raining and had to take it on the easel. I'll change it once I take one outside when the sun shines! I already send the image to one of my galleries and they can't wait to get it. I would like to do two more of this composition, one early foggy morning, the other an early sunset. It will make a nice grouping.

The composition is from sketches I did on the Intercoastal north of Vero Beach. The scene is looking west.

"Across the Waters", oil on gesso panel, 8 x 8.

Spinone

I did some pen drawings this morning so I have ideas on a composition. I plan to donate a couple of my dog portraits, oils, to the Spinone Italiano Annual Auction during their Specialty show at the end of April. Hopefully I'll start on something this afternoon.

Here are a couple of pages from the sketchbook, I am pleased with a few...my boy is the model on some :-)

Blessed Land

I really enjoyed painting this little one. Lot's of great passages that can only be appreciated in person. One thing that I really enjoy about using a knife is the way you can come so close to abstracting the landscape and yet still representational. I am certain that I will do a larger version of this one! Maybe a sailboat somewhere in the distance?

Oil on gesso panel, 6 x 6.

Last Light

This is another painting for my Florida series. I love doing sunsets, especially the ones that have almost ended. The colors are so much fun. Very few values but lots of changes of temperature throughout the sky and land. This is from a study I did years ago on my way through Jacksonville. My Macbook died officially last night, we are very sad, and now I can only refer to my drawings. I"ll take a picture of one of the pages out of my sketch book so you can see what it is like.

I did this on a gesso panel, as you can see from the first image I layered lots of color with a knife, never used a brush for the first notes. This makes it more challenging because the paint just slides around, but when you get it it gives a wonderful result. Basically all the passages are "accidents", the trick is to now which ones are the keepers. There is no second chances when you have some much paint! Forgive my photo skills. It is raining today so I can't take pictures outside. This is just on the easel, not a lot of light. I will post the final image on my website with the prices when ready.

Oil on gesso panel, 8 x 6.

Heading Out

This is the second painting I finished this week. Both I will donate to My son's school for their annual fundraiser. It was a challenge using all the grays. I tried to leave the sky very soft with little knife work (impasto) so it would give it a ethereal feeling. The water highlights instead I loaded up the knife quite a bit. I think I would like to do a similar piece with this early morning misty light but instead of a boat I will use flying geese. Let's see how that will look.

Rising Above

Here steps I take on building my paintings up. I tend to start with strong warm colors, sometimes laying it down thick with a knife or just painting it quickly with a brush. Then as I lay the cooler colors (always with a knife), or local colors, the first notes often blend or just show through here and there depending how I feel about that particular passage. This method I try to do wet on wet, although larger paintings require many days to complete, and often I would need to take a passage at the time like a Fresco's "giornata", sky, foreground, trees really no particular order. In the first image are alrready started to lay in the blue sky.

I am ready!

I've painted all week and I am very excited to finally start creating new pieces. This is the first one, oil 12 x 12.

I did this all with a palette knife which is what I have used for the last few years. I love using a knife for several reasons such as being able to lay down pure color and mixing it directly on the canvas. It feels as if I am part of a 3 dimensional landscape, layering color upon color, almost like sculpting, although the knife work in many areas is hardly discernable.