Day at the Beach

Painted over my last post of the "Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Showers" with this one.  Just never liked the way the clouds came out.   Oil on canvas 16x20.  This canvas now has three paintings on it,  first was a Grand Tetons type scene, then the clouds and now the beach!

Partly Cloudy with Chance of Showers

Snapped a picture of the sky yesterday and put to canvas today.  Quick study oil on canvas 16x20.

Another Sky Painting

I love painting these sunsets, sunrises, whatever you see in there!

Evening Sky

Had a fun day outside on the patio painting this sky picture.

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.
SOLD

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.