Looking Up

"Lines in the Sky"

11" x 14"

oil on canvas

As I stated in my last post, although I have a renewed interest in working in graphite, I am still painting.  One thing that I've always wanted to do is to explore painting cloudscapes. I have a small canon camera that basically goes everywhere I do, and my favorite thing to photography is the ever changing skies here in Arkansas. It's quite possible that I have more cloud reference photos than any other still life artist!

So, I've decided that this is as good a time as any to start painting some cloudscapes. I feel that it will give me a balance of sorts with the graphite still lifes that I am also creating.  Above is one of my first cloud paintings.  For the present, I plan on offering these sky studies on eBay.

Happy New Year

 Winter Gourd

12" x 18"

graphite

Happy New Year! Yes, I am about a week late with the holiday wishes, but considering the fact that I haven't blogged in over a year, I don't think a week late is anything to worry about. Although I wasn't blogging, I was still drawing and painting this past year. Winter Gourd, pictured above, is my favorite drawing from 2013.  I enjoyed capturing the different textures of wood, pottery, gourds, and drapery. This one was accepted into the 2013 International Guild of Realism's juried show which was on exhibit in Tempe, AZ this past fall.

 Westward Shell                 Eastward Shell

Here's two more smaller graphite drawings from this past year.  Each one is 8" x 5".  I started out as a graphite artist and stayed in that medium for a number of years before I ever progressed to colored pencils and then to oil paints. This past year, I have developed an interest in focusing in on graphite and exploring just how far I personally can take this medium within the realms of realism.

With that said, I am still painting as well... More about that in my next post which I promise will be sometime this year!

Grey Matters

 "Mango on Blue Cloth II"

5" x 7"

oil on canvas

Sold

"Pear Duo"

6" x 6"

oil on canvas

Sold

I've been remiss on posting to my blog.  Here are two small oils that I've done recently. I've taken a break from large works for a little while and have been honing my oil painting skills on these smaller canvases.  I normally use palette paper when I oil paint, probably because I'm too lazy to clean a wooden palette.  I have a wooden palette - I just tape my palette paper to it.  A couple of weeks ago I was at Hobby Lobby and noticed that grey palette paper is now available.  It may have been around for awhile - I don't get into an art supply store very often! Anyway, this paper is made by Jack Richeson Co. and is called "Grey Matters".  I like it a lot - I think that my color mixes have improved since I started using it. It just makes it easier to see the real color of your paint when it is on a neutral background instead of on white.  I guess that's my free tip of the week!

A Shot of Cherries

 

"Cherry Shot"

oil on linen panel

7" x 5"

sold

"Still Life with Persimmons"

colored pencil

12" x 8"

Here are a couple of new pieces.  The little shot glass in the first painting was a yard sale find. I haven't painted glass very much, so it was a bit of a challenge to capture the glass pattern and how it refracted the light and distorted the cherries.  For the persimmon drawing, I used some reference photos that I had taken last winter when I found these persimmons at the grocery store. They really were that intense red-orange color. They rather overwhelm the drawing, but I think that the greater quantity of less-intense blue (background and pitcher) balances out the drawing. Or at least that's what I told myself when I finished...

Plein Aire Frames

 "Donut Stack"

oil on canvas

10" x 10"

"Wall Flower IV"

oil on panel

7" x 5"

I forgot that I had promised to show off one of the plein aire style frames that I found on the Jerry's Artarama site. The frames have a width of 3", so they look really nice in this small (5 x 7) size. Above is another donut painting which I finished recently.

More Wall Flowers

 

"Wall Flower IV"

oil on panel

7" x 5"

 

"Wall Flower V"

oil on panel

7" x 5"

I'm excited to be in a show at Greg Thompson Fine Art called "Women in the Arts". The show opens next week and runs through Sept 15th.  I've just finished two more of these little trompe l'oeil pansy paintings for the show.  Several of my large colored pencil works will be on display as well. "Wall Flower IV" pictured at the top is my favorite of the ones that I've painted lately - the wallpaper pattern was certainly a pain to paint, but I really like the purple and yellow on purple color scheme. 

I've also found the perfect frame for these little guys - Jerry's Artarama has these great looking wood frames on sale for a really great price right now. I hate to put mediocre frames on my work, so I usually spend a small fortune getting artwork framed.  I'll try to get a picture posted tomorrow of one of these framed.

I Think I Like Blue

Wall Flower III

oil on linen panel

7" x 5"

Light Post

oil on canvas

6" x 6"
sold

Here are two new small paintings, fresh off the easel this week.  As you can tell from the title, this is my third little "wall flower" painting.  My pansies from this spring are long since dead in this heat, but I have a lot of reference photos of them.  I had fun coming up with a wallpaper pattern to use in this painting. I'm really enjoying the challenge of painting the semi-transparent masking tape. I believe I'll be painting a few more of these in the near future.

The light post painting is one that I've been intending to do for a while. I took the reference photo while stopped at a traffic light one afternoon.  I believe that I may quite possibly have more cloud reference photos than any other still life artist!  This one was fun to do, although a little nerve-racking to paint in the straight wires at the end! All went smoothly though and I was pleased with the result.

I seem to be painting with a lot of blue lately.  I should have some new donut paintings to post next week. I've got two underway and - yep - they both have blue backgrounds.