January 6 - The Boat Commission Canvas Beginning

Here's the 24 x 36 inch canvas, prepped with white gesso tinted with cadmium orange and burnt umber gesso thrown in. I made some changes to the original sketch as I thought about the relationship of the boats. The larger one in the foreground is the current boat for this recipient. The second boat is further away, in Florida I believe, and sailed into the Caribbean, I don't know if the recipient still owns this one. Now that shape in the upper left is going to become a "ghost ship" in the night sky (a vignette) because it was lost in one of the Florida hurricanes. There will be stars there, and the Southern Cross in the night sky (and the name of the boat).
Mount Ranier will be behind the largest boat as its location is within view of it. I've seen the Southern Cross in my travels, I've been to tropical locations, and also to Seattle. Actually being in a place you're asked to paint certainly helps!
Challenges for me right now are in designing the clouds over Mt. Ranier and transitioning that to the night sky and ghost ship. Ought to be a fun day tomorrow!

January 5 - Three Boat Commission Painting

OK, you overwhelmed me with the comments about donuts and New Year's resolutions! I get it, and won't paint the cruller...well, I'll wait a while. There are three donuts left (the rest, all 20 or so, went to the coyotes tonight). Our power keeps going out with the high winds, so I may not be able to get this to you before midnight. I'll try, though. The winds are incredibly strong, with gusts up to 80 miles per hour. We're sheltered here in the new place a bit, but our neighbors out on the slope below us are really getting hit. And the power lines come up from there.

The commission for the boats came through with the details I needed, and here is the quote from the originator: "My vision of the scene is the Soulmate in a tropical setting (light blue/turquoise water and palm trees) then the scene morphing to the Absolute with a Northwestern type landscape (dark blue water and possibly Mt. Rainier). The Southern Cross I envision in the starry sky - as a 'ghost' ship - sailing away so you see the back of the boat with the outriggers extended. And sailing toward the constellation of the Southern Cross. The Soulmate and Absolute can be facing whatever direction makes sense to you."

I suggested a slight horizontal format (ocean water tending to seek a certain level!) and will have no problem depicting the night view of the lost Southern Cross (she was taken in a hurricane). The images of the boats are adequate, although I'm going to have to really do some drawing to get the Southern Cross in position going away from the viewer, because that source material shows a view looking down toward the stern (back) instead of equal or above the horizon. Just another knot in the anchor rope!

January 4 - Chocolate Donut and the Last One, I Promise!

I sure wish these donuts would get out of my studio, but I've had such fun without even delayed gratification after the painting session. Oh, you see that there's a bite out of this one? No, I didn't do that. It happened before it was placed on the taboret. And you see the model, a chocolate cake donut with peanut sprinkles! This 4 x 6 oil is propped up behind that tasty little model, so you can see the source material, and the finished painting. It is fun to paint from life, even if the wafting odor of warm chocolate permeates the air as I paint, caused by the heat of the lamp. Oh, such will power!! Available for $100 on the Daily Paintings web site

I'm still waiting for input for the next commission--until I hear, I cannot begin that one. It will be a lesson painting, if it comes to fruition. If not, perhaps I'll do a horse painting to fill the time and give more pointers about painting.javascript:void(0)

January 3 - Donuts, or Another Fat Pill

"Another Fat Pill" Oh Dear! This is just awful! That box of donuts is still in the studio, and another one slipped out to show up near my easel. I just had to paint it, because I CANNOT eat it! Goal setting for 2007 includes making better food choices, and you and I both know donuts are nowhere near the list! Yet I have to tell you about glazed donuts. When I was a kid back in Falls Church, Virginia, and went to church, and sang in the junior choir, after the service there was always a time for conversation and socializing. Always there were these oh-so-fresh glazed donuts in boxes for the parish to eat, coffee for the grownups and punch for the children. And they always had a lot of sugary glaze, and droplets on the wax paper. I remember those still-warm donuts to this day, and when I eat one (not this one!), I try to recapture that sense of community and those memories. Original acrylic on gallery wrap canvas, 5 x 7 inches. Available for $105 from my dailypaintings.com web page for January 2007.

January 2 - Jelly Donut, OH MY!!

"New Year's Resolution...Not" This impudent jelly donut sticks its tongue of jelly out at you and me, almost teasing us to break those News Year's resolutions. Jelly donuts with their gooey raspberry centers cannot hold a candle to the holiday goodies just past, but it still makes a wonderful model to the second painting of 2007. I don't buy these things, but bring them home to feed the coyotes instead of having them go to waste (waist!?) in the trash bin. Original acrylic, 4 x 6 inches. $100 from my dailypaintings.com web site for this date.

January 1 - Begining the New Year with a New Dawn Painting

"Beginning with a Dawn" What better way to greet the new year than to paint the rising of the sun as it comes up behind the bluffs in wha is called "the Badlands" of Riverside County? I just love theses really steep hills, with the fields off in the distance. It felt so right to imagine the sujnrise playing on the counds off in the distance, and to think what the new year holds. Optomistically, I think the new year will bring exciting new challenges, a ton of fun, and many new friends. First painting of 2007 - Original oi, 12 x 12 inches. $200 from the January month from my dailypaintings.com web site.