Deer head

Saw a painting by Justin Gaffrey of this deer head and decided to give it a go.  He uses very thick acrylic paint to build up a 3D effect.  I added texture for the antlers.

First Abstract

Trying something new today, first abstract.  Was fun working with color but the process can be never ending.  You must have an idea in mind before you start, otherwise you can just go and go.  Had color too thick at first and starting wiping down, as I did I liked the effect and then layers on pure color.  My thought process was to show movement from left to right ending with focal point at the red spot that is in the edge of blue area.  I also wanted the contrast do red and green as complimentary colors to add excitement and vibration.  I liked the ethereal cloud like effect and went on to paint a similar painting below of a Hubble inspired nebula in the LCM area of the Milky Way.

Self portrait for contest

Started on this self portrait for an contest that Jerry's Artarama is having this month.   Used a small mirror hanging off the side of my easel.  Not turned it in yet because I have much more to do in the next few days.  Have not had much time to work on it and I work in my garage trying to use natural sunlight but it's been so cold and dreary lately that I've had not had the time I'd like to work on it.  Done in Unison pastels and NuPastels on Canson paper.

Sunflowers Oil Painting + Butterfly

So I decided to go ahead and work on that sunflower painting today!  Got a good start this morning and will start again tomorrow.  My wife and oldest daughter stopped by a field close to a place called the Agricenter here in Memphis and snapped some photos of these beautiful sunflowers when they were in full bloom.  They do this every year and each year I stop by and take a look and some photos.  Just happened to catch a nice butterfly leaving a flower.  Thought it would make a nice painting, so this morning I got to work and knocked it out.  Was fun to paint and have some more to do to it but putting paintings on my blog always makes me want to go back and do some more!  This is a 16x20 oil on canvas.                                                                          
         

Motivation to Paint (Lack of)

I am in one of those non-creative times in my life where I don't feel like starting a painting because I don't think it will be up to my standards, so I just don't start!  Life has been so busy with work and daughters starting to college and driving that I just don't have energy to paint right now.   My dream job would be to have a small art studio/gallery in some resort town and just paint all day and meet like minded people who enjoy art for art.   Who knows, maybe after posting this I will go home and paint tonight!  I have a oil painting started of some sunflowers that my wife and I took photos of a few weeks ago.  I got the background all blocked in but just can't seem to get started on the flowers.

Avenue of Oaks

Commission painting of "Avenue of Oaks", a beautiful place in South Carolina. .  A lot going on in this painting and trying to do justice to the moss that hangs from the branches.  When I first saw the image to paint from I thought of that scene from the movie Forrest Gump where he was running with his leg braces and they started falling off.  This photo of the painting was not the final product.  The painting got delivered before I took one last photo.  At first I thought this would be too busy of a subject to paint but it actually was a lot of fun and I enjoyed working on it.  I started off by blocking in light and dark areas with acrylic paint and just simplified the grass and trees concentrating on the play of light in the tree branches and the road.
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Avenue of the Oaks

    

Portrait of Megan

Working on portrait of my oldest daughter Megan. Trying to soften some edges and correct the placement of eyes and mouth. Teeth are very difficult to get right. I once saw  where a famous painter stated. "A portrait is a painting of someone with something wrong with the mouth". It has been fun to paint but I've tried to stay too tight and causes me not to work with thin paint. I tend to push around small bits of paint instead of laying down good mixed color. Oh well, something to work on.! I may do this same painting in pastel.

Pastel of my Grandmother Addie Wilkins

Pastel on Canson paper approximately 16x20.

I  took a portrait class from Daniel Green at his annual summer workshop in his home in North Salem NY back in 2005.   He demonstrated a pastel portrait one evening from a live model that I was absolutely mesmerized with.  I have been using his techniques of marking off the head into four equal sections, using Nupastels to lay in the drawing and then working from dark to light with softer pastels.  I did this painting 4 or 5 years ago and have learned so much since then.  This was a quick painting to give my mother for Christmas.  My grandmother has since passed away but this painting hangs in my mom's home for her to remember how special and loving my grandmother was.  I also have my grandfather posted in this blog in another post.  We miss you MawMaw!

Redo of Abby

 Redo of the portrait of Abby. Spent a long time on this one!

Pastel of Don

Started this pastel of my step father. Haven't done a pastel in awhile. Was really fun getting back into it.

Pastel of Abby

Pastel on canson: Work in progress of my youngest daughter Abby. Doing the pastel as a study for an oil painting to come later.  Plan to paint all three daughters again. I have been studying with a very talented artist here in Memphis named Frank Morris who does astounding work.

http://www.frankmorrisportraits.com

My current goal is to become better at judging values and edges.

Cotton bolls

Oil 14x18: It "cotton pickin" time here in the south (Memphis area) and you find cotton everywhere. My wife decided to pick some cotton bolls branches and make an arrangement in a vase. This is my composition of the arrangement.  I couldn't pass up a chance to paint something that you just take for granted around here.  My mom has worked in the cotton business for about 50
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years.

Red Flowers (picked)

11x14 (canvas)  Reworked:  I just didn't like the last post of the red flowers on a summer day. Never got them to look like i wanted so I just (picked) them out and made it a field of smaller flowers!  I may try using the palette knife in the future for looser flowers as suggested on WetCanvas in the landscape forum.

Red flowers

11x14 oil on canvas: Just tried a small flower/landscape of some red flowers in a field. Enjoyed just putting all that color in there. Thought I'd paint a end of summer picture.

Barn commission

This is a painting from a photo a friend of ours ask me to paint of a barn where she grew up.  The photo was almost a sepia color due to its age so I had to put in my own interpretation of color.  The painting is 8x10 on panel and I'm going to paint a larger 16x20 for her as well.  This small one will go into a frame that is made from the actual barn wood.   SOLD

Finding time to paint

I seem to go through times when I'm all fired up to paint and create something new and other times when busy schedules, work stress or just plain being tired keeps me from painting.  I think about sometimes of all the paintings that are being missed out on by my laziness!   Some of my reluctance to paint is from the fear of "not being able to paint a masterpiece" each time I step up to the easel.   I guess my masterpiece will always be my "next" painting.  I read that somewhere and thought it was so true.  I think in the end that the process of painting is just that.  It's just a process and a journey to be enjoyed along the way.  Maybe I can inspire myself here to pick up that brush tonight when I get home from work!

Demo for Rita Crocker Art Conservatory class

This is a demonstration painting I did for an art class I taught at the Rita Crocker Art Conservatory at Trinity Baptist church a few years ago.  I had a small class that had never painted before and had a great time teaching.  All of the work in the class came out great and I was very proud of my students.  This was painted quickly for the class using whatever I could find laying around our kitchen beforehand.

Jenna in pencil

Portrait of Jenna my middle daughter in pencil and charcoal 11x14.  Jenna was valedictorian of her class this year,won an art contest for the school which puts her painting on the Shelby County school calendar for this next year.  She also won a school essay contest which earned her a lunch with an author from a book her class read and the school art contest to have her drawing on T-Shirts that the whole school wore on the end of year picnic.  She is a very talented piano player and loves to read.

This was the first of three pencil portraits I tried of each of my daughters.  I used Arches paper and was very pleased with the results.  It is a very forgiving paper and took a lot of abuse.  I've only used three of the sheets so far and I think there are 40 in the binding, so I need to get busy.

I did this picture free hand after using the grid methods for so long.  I always felt like I was cheating using the grid method and found it to be very tedious and frustrating.  I took a class by Daniel Green, a very well know portrait artist a few years ago and was fascinated by how he could capture a likeness using proportions and angles.  I began trying it out and really liked the results.  I found it much easier to get a likeness by just drawing rather than looking for shortcuts to drawing.  I even used to use a projector many years ago but it always had a rather odd look to it in the end and put it away in the attic about 10 years ago!

Selling my work

Spent yesterday at the Arlington Open Market with my wife in a booth we shared for our art and her jewelry. This is a once a month event and is usually followed by a night of music and food on the square. Some shows are better than others as far as how much we sell. My wife tends to sell more of her floral paintings that are unusual in that she uses stucco spread over canvas and then uses a tool to sketch a flower like a daisy and then paints with bright acrylic paint. My work tends to be more representative in nature leaning toward realism. Sometimes I may sell one or two paintings but it is always frustrating to not sell more. I will get commissions sometimes which are stressful at times because you are trying to fit a mold that someone has in mind instead of selling something that is already complete. We always get very good comments but would like to be more successful. I try to read all I can and enjoy forums like WetCanvas to get feedback and ideas. Anyone have comments on the best way to show and sell your artwork?

Pear using chiaroscuro effect

Oil 11x14 on canvas: An oil still life study from a book by Gregg Kruetz of a pear. I like the chiaroscuro effect in a lot of his work and thought I'd give it a try. First attempt at a chiaroscuro style painting (contrast of dark and light) and I did this one quickly in about and hour. I enjoy trying different techniques and subjects and hope to do more of these with fruit.  I need to darken some of the shadows and diffuse some of the edges but just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Used a palette knife to rough up the paint on the table edge and it came out pretty cool.  I've always admired great still life paintings and the way they capture the atmosphere around and behind the subject matter.

Sunflower painting in oil

Oil 11x14 on canvas: Always wanted to try a sunflower painting and enjoyed painting this one. Will probably paint more as I like the bright colors and the complementary of the blue and orange. This is my second flower painting and florals are much more challenging than I thought they would be. My first floral was the large gardenia. Took this painting to a open air market for sale yesterday but had a lot of lookers but no buyers. I enjoy meeting folks at these kind of events. My wife does floral paintings using a stucco base on top of canvas and uses bright colors.

Large Gardenia

Oil 40x36 Painted a large version of the gardenia that I did a study of a few weeks ago and posted here. Learned a lot from the study and tried to take advice from the forum. This is a commission for someone who had all their artwork stolen from their home a few months ago. I also painted a large landscape scene for them as well.
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Big Tree

Oil on canvas 18x24. This is a large tree in my neighborhood that the developer left on a lot by itself and put a nice brick fence around it. It must be 150-200 years old. I improvised the surroundings but it's not far off from the landscape around Arlington.  There are several of these large oak trees around the town and I always wonder what all they've seen over the years!  I have this picture on Etsy for sale!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/48348154/country-roads

Peaceful Road

Oil 40x32 canvas: Commission painting for someone who had a similar painting stolen from their home. Had fun painting on such a large canvas.

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S.Y. Wilson

Worked on getting more color in the shadows and lights. Owner is going to pick it up tomorrow.
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Papa

My grandfather loved to sell watermelons and decided to paint this portrait with the green and white shirt just like the mellons he used to sell. He was a share cropper in Medon Tn. and sold watermelons to make money on the side. I signed the picture and put a watermelon with my signature. He is greatly missed and was a very good man.

Mountain stream

Found this picture and decided to give it a go. I love the mountains and especially streams like this one.

Jenna portrait

This is Jenna even younger. I snapped this picture of her playing in the back yard. I loved the expression on her face and had to paint her. The quality of the photo is bad for now. Had to take without a flash since it is under glass and the glare kills the picture.

Cotton field

This is an old picture I did many years ago of the area that I grew up. This is around Medon Tn, a very small town.  I did this picture that I painted in a small community college class with Norma Dennison as my teacher.  She was a great teacher and I learned so much from her.  I learned all of the basics of oil painting from her and am very grateful.

Abby portrait

This is my youngest daughter Abby when she was much younger. Very smart and talented dancer. She has so many friends and loves her IPOD.

Jenna portrait

This is Jenna my middle daughter when she was younger. Also very talented in art and piano. She recently won valedictorian of her middle school.

Megan portrait

This is my oldest daughter Megan. She is a very talented artist and guitar player and a wonderful person.

My Dad

Oil 16x20 on canvas: Did a portrait of my dad not long after he passed away. His name was James Gearld Mosier and he is missed. He came by the house one day and snapped this picture of him on my porch swing.

S.Y. Wilson commission

Oil 14x18 on canvas. Just finished a commission of the old S.Y. Wilson antique store in the town of Arlington Tn. Loved painting this old building again and learned a lot from the first one.
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April in Arlington

Had a great day at the April in Arlington festival. It was moved to Sunday because of the bad weather we had here in the mid-south on Friday night into Sat. There was a great turnout and my wife and I both sold several paintings. I painted a picture of the old general store (now antique shop) called S.Y. Wilson and sold it in the first few minutes after setting up the booth to the mayor of Arlington Russel Wiseman. He and his wife are really nice folks! This is a picture I snapped with my cell phone. My wife sold several of her paintings that she does with stucco on canvas and acrylic. She is well known in Arlington since she has her work in several of the shops there. Arlington is such a great place to live and we are really enjoying it there. I love the old red rocking chairs out in front of the store.   SOLD

Portrait of Megan

16x20 pencil charcoal on Arches paper: Portrait of my oldest daughter Megan. She loves wolves and always wears the necklace seen in the picture. All of my daughters are so talented and beautiful!

Portrait of Jenna

16x20 pastel: Here's a portrait of Jenna another one of my daughters. Have done several of this same picture in pastel and oil. I have all three pencil portraits hanging in my office at work.

Portrait of Abby

16x2o pencil, charcoal: Tried out a nice paper from Arches that I really liked. Had not done any serious portrait work in pencil before ( not that I've done any serious work) but had fun doing this one.

Peaceful Place!

16x20 Oil on canvas. This was a picture in an old art instruction book I had and liked the colors so I gave it a shot. I liked the cool shadows and water feature in the picture.

Logan Pass Glacier National Park Montana

Oil 8x10 on panel. Got to visit my wife's sister and brother-in-law just outside Glacier National Park in Montana last summer. Did a quick study of the view just out back from the Logan Pass visitors center. Would like to do a larger studio version sometime.

Mitzy

8x10 charcoal. This is our newest dog named Mitzy. What a terror! Did a quick pencil sketch of her while it was cold and she had on her new sweater. She is like one of those tasmanian devils! Our other dog is named Katy and she is much more calm. I don't know how she puts up with this one! I'll eventually get around to doing Katy's portrait.

Portrait of my Mom

18x24 pastel on sanded board: Did this portrait of my mom last year for her Christmas present. Came out very nice but she didn't like that I left a few wrinkles! Almost a disaster as when she opened the wrapping the picture as smeared with dark pastel dust from her hair. The long ride to her house had vibrated the pastel dust over her face. Luckily was able to fix and all was fine. This was the first time I had worked with sanded board and found that I could not erase the same way I did on canson paper.

Sedona

Found a photograph in a book we purchased in Sedona a few years ago and thought it would be fun to paint. We really love Sedona and would like to go back some day. I'd love to take my paints and do some plein air pictures there. We stayed in the Junipine Resort in Oak Creek Canyon and had a great time.

Large landscape for my fireplace

My wife encouraged me to paint a large colorful oil to go over our fireplace in the new house. I have not done a large painting in a long time but this one was a real joy to paint. My sister-in-law liked it so much that she got one for Christmas this year (bottom). This is a reproduction of a painting I saw in a book by Bob Rohm. I have been using a three color palette lately and it really keeps my colors clean. This scene reminds me of several trips that my family has taken out west.

Backyard plein air

I've struggled to capture the scene that I look out over from my back porch. The light changes so quick during the day, especially if there are a lot of clouds moving thru. I've just tried a few quick paintings of the field and the light playing on the grass and trees. Hope to get some more of these done this spring. This painting was done last summer.

Post office in Pastel

Also did the same old post office in pastel just to try out a new medium. Have used pastels to do portrait work in the past and love how you can get such bright color and much less mess to clean up after. It's harder to get the clean lines that you can with an oil brush but it gives a much more painterly effect. Again I just made up the background in that I don't know where the building was originally located. I'll post if I find out!

Historic Post Office in Arlington Tn

Just finished an oil painting of the old historic Post Office located in the square in Arlington Tn. Have lived here about a year and drive by the old building everyday. I love to paint and used to paint old barns and cotton fields when I was younger. This building just begged to be painted. Took some snapshots with the camera and improvised the background as I imagined what it must have looked like many years ago before it was moved to the square. Arlington is a great little town and reminds me of where I grew up as a kid.