Walking On Sunshine - watercolor

watercolor, 2019

available, 11"x15"

      A still life of another pair of my wife's shoes. She buys shoes about as often as I buy brushes or paint and many of them are pretty sexy, visually appealing and worthy of paintings. The problem is I rarely take the time to shoot reference photos of them. And, before you know it she's worn them out or gotten tired of them and tossed them without me getting a chance to shoot them. So, last December when I was given a mandatory vacation from my job of 22 years I took the opportunity to shoot a bunch of her shoes for future paintings. I think this is the first pair I've painted, but there are more to come.

Pearl Earrings #9 - watercolor

watercolor, 2019

nfs, 11"x15"

      Another portrait of my beautiful bride, toying with abstracting the unimportant parts of the subject. Only the focal point really needs detail and realism. Everything else can be loose and suggestive.

Pearl Earrings #8 - watercolor

watercolor, 2018

nfs, 8"x10"

      This is another portrait using a reference photo I shot of my wife years ago. In spite of my constant nagging, this is one of only a very few times she posed for me and I've painted every photo in this series several times.

Angie #42 - watercolor

watercolor, 2017

nfs, 9"x12"

      I haven't posted a portrait of my beauty queen in a while. This one was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was going to be trash almost immediately after starting it on Fabriano Studio paper, which I have complained about a couple times before. But, a few adjustments to my normal painting method, a fair amount of loosening and I pulled out a portrait with which I'm very happy. It's loose and painterly, but realistic and accurate at the same time. It seems the unforgiving nature of this paper forced me to be more careful and purposeful in my strokes and paint application.

Angie #35 - watercolor

watercolor, 2016

nfs, 7"x11"

      Another portrait of my beautiful bride. I've very happy with how the shadows on her face and reflections on her sunglasses worked. The reference photo was taken by her BFF several years ago on a girls outing to the Grove Winery in Gibsonville NC, a one-time favorite haunt of theirs.

Pearl Earrings #2 - watercolor

watercolor, 2016

nfs, 7"x11"

      Those pearl earrings make another appearance in this much looser portrait of my wife. The reference photo for this one was taken when my wife was in a friend's wedding just a few weeks after finding out she was pregnant with our first child. She truly was glowing. I just wish I could capture how beautiful she really was that night - and still is.

Angie #32 - watercolor

watercolor, 2016

nfs, 7"x11"

      Here's another small one that was supposed to be a color test that drew me in and I couldn't help myself. Like so many photos of my wife, I've drawn or attempted to paint this one several times. This is the best attempt at this one to date.
      Here's what my daughter posted on Facebook when she shared this image on her page:

               I just want y'all to know that my house is absolutely covered in portraits of 
               my mother and my brother and I that my dad has created. The evidence of 
               his love literally surrounds us. This is what I strive for. He has found his own 
               way of showing us how much he loves us and to walk into that house is a truly 
               remarkable thing.

      What could I possibly add to that?

Angie #31 sketch 2 - pencil

pencil, 2016

nfs, 8"x11"

      This is just another sketch for a painting based on a particular reference photo. I've been putting off starting the painting while doing some color testing as referenced a couple weeks ago. I'll get to the painting eventually.

Pearl Earrings #1 - watercolor

watercolor, 2016

nfs, 7"x11"

      My favorite model again in what were her favorite earrings and one of my favorite outfits ;) This one is small because it was meant to be a color test to check a particular color combination for flesh tones. It worked so well - and I got so caught up in painting my wife - I ended up with a very polished, finished portrait. Not a bad couple hours.

Angie #31 sketch - watercolor

watercolor, 2016

nfs, 9"x12"

      I'm trying a new technique that I've admired for years but never spent much time trying to figure out. It involves layering colors in what on the surface seems abstract. But each layer and each color adds to the development of the image. In a way, you could say that description is accurate for a lot of watercolor. But this method is different. If you isolated just the yellow ochre in this piece, it wouldn't look anything like a portrait; that follows for most of the other colors. I'll consider this one fairly successful, though it's obvious I used cheap paper. But it is a sketchy experiment.

Angie On The Couch - watercolor

watercolor, 2016

nfs, 11"x15"

      I'm especially happy with this one. It's from a photo I took of my wife years ago.I'm very happy with the looseness, paint handling and lost/found edges here. This one probably will end up on a wall in the house somewhere.

Angie #12 - acrylics

acrylics, 2006

NFS

      Here's a very old (for me) portrait I did of my wife in honor of our 25th anniversary today. Yes, there are lots of problems with the painting, but it's one of her favorites. She's also wearing a green that she loved and wore so much we named it Angie Green.
      So, happy anniversary to my Red Queen and happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone else.

Angie #30 - graphite

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