August 13 - Maine Light, 12 x 9 Acrylic

Ah, such nice memories I have of the fog and coastal ocean, especially when I exist here in 100 degree dry heat of August in California, sun baking the ground. However, deep in the cool depths of the inner studio, I'm painting away. I'm in oils again working on the three-dog commission again. It is going well. The scene to your right is one I did while thinking about all I'd seen and experienced while on Mt. Desert Island, and it is in acrylics with sand texture under it, and layers of the blue/orange complementary colors I so love. It is also backlit, which adds another dimension to the experience.
I'll be putting this one on my ebay store within the next day or so. It will be available for $275 unframed, plus $5 shipping within the United States.


For folks who have attended a "Color Boot Camp" with me, there's a new Yahoo Group set up to talk about the System and to ask and post questions. Kathy Sweeney is the owner, and welcomes all artists who have or are learning the Color System. You can find out more about it by clicking here.
You can see the entire blog here.

If you need to email me directly, please click here.

February 19 - Finding Solutions to Problems--Sunset Painting

I was out among 'em today, about sunset, and saw a wonderfully colorful sunset unfold as I headed up the hill to the UPS store to drop off a painting going to a new collector. The sunset presented the solution to a problem I'd been trying to solve for quite a while, and I had one of those "AHA!" moments as I was driving (fortunately traffic wasn't heavy!). I made a discovery about lighting in such wonderful skies, and had to come back and duplicate the solution so I would have it in my repertoire of skills whenever I wanted it. Doing it, after mentally solving the problem, was just as exciting as the "AHA!" moment back there on the road! So now I have this little 6 x 8 oil to remind me of the obvious knowledge that had been obscure before. This view is from the hillsides above Riverside. $200 from the web site.

The question for you is, Do you know what the "Aha" moment was all about? Hint: you ought to have been in a workshop or have a copy of the Colorful Oil Painting DVDs to get it right. And think values, too! Artists usually love to solve puzzles, so now you have one! Another hint: it is definitely in the sky.

And in other news, I have a three-day workshop featuring color, acrylics and plein air in Shakertown Kentucky, June 3-6. I made my flight reservations today, and will hope to meet some of you there! Here is more information:
HERE
Fantastic opportunity to work with acrylics and do on-location painting, too!

January 27 - Sunset Color Study

A quick color study to capture the light of an evening's sunset, reinforcing the arrangement of values to make a believable scene in two dimensions. The sunset tonight wasn't as spectacular, but we do have gray skies--hopefully some rain in the forecast. And I woke up this morning discovering some muscles I hadn't used in a while being quite sore from yesterday's ride. The mare was mighty quiet today, too! 5 x 5 Acrylic for $100

December 19 - Painting Another with Similar Subject

I'm not sure if it was a senior moment, a mischievous cat, a moving box problem, or just general disorganization, but I lost a painting. I lost one that had sold, and I distinctly remember removing it from the shelves, and saying to myself, "This needs a varnish before I ship it out." Then it somehow ran away--went missing--for lack of a better explanation. I have turned the studio inside out, and it isn't here. Perhaps it went a-missing in a shipping box to some lucky person who received an extra. Maybe it slipped down behind the bookcases. Or perhaps I toted it outside to get a shovel and set it up on a shelf in the tool shed. Yeah, that's possible around here, too. Who knows, but it is gone. So what to do? Well, ethically I need to provide the buyer a painting, but cannot duplicate the same thing in the same size, because that compromises the originality for the second or subsequent one. Many artists have done paintings of similar imagery, and have called them a series, or painted them different sizes. Since the buyer loved the scene, it was the choice to make a larger painting and hope for a gracious positive reply to my email revealing the foibles of having so much going on, and having drunk a large glass of senior stupid.
So out came the brushes, and I painted the second image, which I attach for your perusal. This is an 8 x 10 acrylic, and is called "Pasture Light #2". Back to the portrait tomorrow.