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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
pencil, 2019
available, 8"x10"
I caught Skully in just the right light for a sketch.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
wet graphite, 2019
available, 8"x10"
A portrait of dear Chatterly in graphite wash. Just keeping the macabre alive (undead?) throughout the year.
