Thursday, December 26, 2019

Alice - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      Here's something of a fashion portrait/figure of a fashion blogger. She has a lot of great photos that might make some nice paintings.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Wallflowers - watercolor


watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      A little summer as winter hits. I think I was drawn to the shadow of the potted plant in the reference photo. But the red of the flowers is the real focal point of this piece.

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Spare - watercolor

watercolor, 2019,
available, 11"x15"

      Once upon a time, your spare tire was part of the elegance of your car. Painted fairly loosely to begin with, I made this one intentionally looser with a judicious addition of gesso even in unusual areas. I like the result enough that you'll probably see it again. A little white watercolor pencil helped with the spoke reflections.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Communicator - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      Here's what I consider an everyday figure. I think it would be interesting to do some portraits/figures of people (mostly women) going through normal daily activities in keeping with the "art of the ordinary" theme I've tried to keep going since I started painting.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Izzy - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
NFS, 8"x10"

      This is a fairly quick little portrait of my daughter's cat. I've never done a pet portrait, but the reference photo jumped out at me when my daughter posted it somewhere on social media. The lighting, colors and personality of the cat all came together. Maybe I'll try some more. It turned into a nice gift for my daughter's birthday yesterday.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Chief - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      An older Jeep Cherokee Chief. Successfully kept it a little loose. But, I think the photo is a bit dark.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

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.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Delicious - pencil

pencil, 2019
available, 8"x10"

      Happy Halloween! This is a sketch for a painting I haven't had time to get to before the unholy horrorday.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Larissa - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      This figure is one of my favorite paintings of the year. Everything about her turned out exactly as or better than planned. The nearly monochrome color palette draws attention to the highlights and pulls you to the focal point, her face. The obvious raw drawing at the bottom and the seamless bleeding of her skirt into the background create an abstraction that highlights the realism of the rendering of the rest of her form. This one is a culmination of almost everything I've been working on. I really couldn't be happier with this one.

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Skully - pencil

pencil, 2019
available, 8"x10"

     I caught Skully in just the right light for a sketch.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Decoy #4 - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 8"x10"

      It's been a while since my last decoy painting. I experimented with leaving this one a bit looser and more impressionistic. A bit of Holbein's Grey of Grey straight from the tube - a very opaque watercolor - blended along the beak helped to bring out the contour and emphasize some dimensionality. 

      The occasional use of opaque pigments in otherwise "transparent" watercolor allows me to add a little sparkle on top of dry passages without resorting to gouache or gesso. Not that I'm above using gouache or gesso or anything else that works for a particular painting. But some people and many organizations still are quite picky about what you can and cannot use in a transparent watercolor. Some would even disallow the use of any opaque pigment if it's visible on top of a darker hue like this one. I don't want to get into a long, drawn out thing here. I don't like anyone trying to apply "rules" to art (though there's nothing wrong with placing limits on yourself as a self-challenge). But, I do try to start off with every intention of keeping a painting purely transparent even to the point that almost all of the colors on my regular palette are transparent or semi-transparent. Of course, things happen; every piece takes it's own twists and turns. In the end I always do whatever the piece warrants, not what some organization or academic demands.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Bobbie - watercolor, charcoal

mixed, 2019
available, 8"x10"

      This is a quick portrait painted in watercolor on a gouache-tinted sheet. I restated the drawing with charcoal pencil after the paint was dry to emphasize it. Leaving part of the portrait unpainted draws the viewers attention both to the painted focal point and to the abstract nature of a two-dimensional rendering.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Leave The Bottle - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      I went considerably into the impressionist camp with this one. Loose, wet, visible brush strokes -- it's all here. And, there's an open-ended story - the best kind.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Em - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      I guess I'll call this a street portrait or street figure. I brought a lot together in this one. Lightest light against the darkest dark. Dark background against the lit side of the subject and no background against the shadow side. New color mixes for skintone. This one worked out in so many ways I think it's become a new standard for which to aim.

Thursday, September 12, 2019

50 Super 88 - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      In spite of the attempt at looseness, this classic car still looks pretty detailed. It also seems more darkly-toned than most of my car paintings. That wasn't really intentional. But the shadows in the reference photo were a little unusual. Maybe I captured a little atmosphere without knowing it.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Chatterly - graphite wash

wet graphite, 2019
available, 8"x10"

      A portrait of dear Chatterly in graphite wash. Just keeping the macabre alive (undead?) throughout the year.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Eugenia - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 8"x10"

      Here's a little portrait of a model easily found all over the internet.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Beltany - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 8"x10"

      Just a quick little landscape of an Irish standing stone.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Wasteland Buick - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      Just an old Buick left to its own devices on the prairie. I used a little thinned gesso to knock back some of the color intensity in the bottom corners. I like the look of the gesso rather than just lifting with a wet brush. There's also a considerable amount of dry-brush to get the lightest grasses.

Thursday, August 8, 2019

Hell Riders In Heels - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      I love the old exploitation movies of the 60's and 70's - and the pulp novels and magazines that preceded them. I might even love the poster art for those movies (and covers for the books and magazines) even more. So, this sort of moves in that direction. Imagine beautiful-but-evil women terrorizing a city from the backs of motorcycles.

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Belfast 55 - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      This is from a photograph shot in Belfast back in 1955, hence the title. I loved the graphic nature of the monochrome shapes and thought a watercolor version might be fun.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Terry - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      Still swinging away at figures and abstracting backgrounds.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Pumped - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 8"x10"

      Not much to say about this one. Red heels on nice legs.

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Harrison - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
nfs, 8"x10"

      A portrait of my great-nephew. I painted his older sister a couple years ago so I had to get him on paper. I painted her from a reference photo taken at the beach. So, it's only fitting that I get him in a winter sweater in spite of the current season.

Thursday, July 4, 2019

J20 - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      I'm very happy with this Jeep J20. I was able to get it loose-but-detailed and the colors complement nicely. It's probably one of my better car paintings of the last few months.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Kinbane - watercolor

watercolor, 2019
available, 11"x15"

      On the Irish coast. There's a lot of dry brush on this one for everything from highlights to rock and sand shapes.

Thursday, June 20, 2019

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.

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Desert Blue - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Nice value contrast. Nice foreshortening. I like how the color contrast worked out between the manganese and phthalo blues and the burnt sienna/umber reds. My favoritest part is that highlight just behind the headlight. I don't know if I could do that again on purpose if I had to.

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Lily B - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 8"x10"

      A little portrait/figure with a fade/paper-doll effect. I also played with some softer edges to a nice effect.

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Packard - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      A rusty old Packard. Not much more to say about this one.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

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.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Window Seat - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      When I saw this reference photo I knew it would make a great painting. But I didn't know if I could pull it off. A lot of patience and paying attention to everything gave me one of the best paintings of last year.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Cherokee - watercolor

watercolor,2018
available, 11"x15"

      So far, my favorite vehicle that I've ever owned. I'm still holding out for a Wrangler, though.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Cosbin - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 8"x10"

      Just a quick, layered portrait of a Reddit user. I'm pretty happy with how most of this worked. The eye might have gone a little too soft, though. And, of course, the photograph isn't exactly what I want.

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Venus - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 8"x10"

      Another little portrait with just the right amount of looseness, though I think I might have softened a few too many edges.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Peterson's Farmall - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 15"x22"

      I took a slightly different approach with this one and made the simplification of details easier on myself. Doesn't hurt that I'm finally trying a half-sheet again. Since I've started photographing my paintings, I can go bigger again for better effect. I haven't done anything larger than 11"x15" in several years.

      This one turned out just about as perfect as I can probably hope to get. There's only one thing I would change. That's pretty good for me.

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Birte - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      A loose portrait that goes directly to the style I've been chasing for a long time.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Chrysler Farm - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Milton's rusty old Chrysler hasn't run in 50 years.

      There's a fair amount of dry-brush on this one. I also used some thin acrylic gesso to wash out corners.

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Peterson - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 8"x10"

      I've never seen Peterson without a pipe in his mouth. Sometimes in the summer he would wear his overalls to church because he'd already put in a few hours of work and had to get right back at it after lunch.

      The reference photo for this is actually from a photograph taken as part of the Federal Art Project, which was sponsored by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s and 40s. I believe the photo is of a New England farmer taken in the early 1940s.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Castle Roche - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Castle Roche is a 13th century castle in County Louth, Ireland. 

      Painting so many landscapes - especially of Ireland - has forced me to come to terms with my issues with green. I think I'm getting somewhere; at least, I'm seeing more natural greens. I'm especially happy with how the modeling worked out here showing the undulations of the ground. 

      The tree and some of the rocks are done with a technique often called dry-brush using paint almost directly from the tube with little or no water on the brush. This allows the normally transparent paint to be opaque so I can paint light over dark and build texture.

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Bessie - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Bessie is the car used primarily by the third incarnation of the BBC's Doctor Who played by Jon Pertwee in the early 1970s. The original car used in filming was a kit car built on a British Ford chassis and is in an automotive museum in England. The car in the reference photo I used for this painting is either another kit car or an original Ford modified to honor the original Bessie. While filming the license plate read WHO 1 or some variation depending on which Doctor was using it. But the car couldn't be registered under that number officially because it already was in use by a private citizen. I left it as it appears in the photo because I just didn't feel like struggling with the problems of perspective and lettering. 

      I initially set up this post in late December since you can schedule blog posts and I like to know I'm covered for a while and all the information above already was set two months ago. And I included that information about the original car because I was afraid (and rightly so) that someone would have an issue with this painting and it's subject matter. Sure enough, some idiot on a gallery site this week spent several hours (by his own admission) researching information about the original car used in filming to try to one-up me on calling this "Bessie" while it was "so obvious" that it wasn't the original on-screen car. Sometimes - even in art - you just want to slap some people.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Tybee #2 - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Another painting from reference photos I took last summer on Tybee Island, Georgia. The three stair-stepped trees aren't inventions of mine. They're actually there. I just eliminated some of the background clutter behind the lighthouse.

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Marathon - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      A Marathon cab in a dark garage. Yellows are always a struggle for me. There were times when I didn't think this one was going to make it. Then I had to deal with that black background with the backlighting. The license plate isn't misspelled; it includes my kids' initials as most of my paintings do.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

Piper - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      I've been toying with portraits for a long time, trying to get to a looser, more open style. I'm very happy with this one of a minor internet celeb.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

70 GTO - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Convertible red muscle cars are always popular. I've started experimenting with shooting my paintings with my dslr instead of scanning them. The gradients and color are better. But, I'm still struggling with even lighting and getting the paper as white as it should be.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Canned - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Just a little still life. I really like how the can surface and reflections turned out.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Late Night, Early Morning - watercolor

watercolor, 2018
available, 11"x15"

      Just a little figure with a bit of a backstory. That's a little dry watercolor crayon adding texture to the wall.