An Online and Ongoing Gallery of Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture and Photography
I painted a small 8" x 10" portrait of my youngest daughter this last week, testing a limited palette of yellow ochre, titanium white, ivory black, alizarin crimson and burnt umber.
Since I was painting with some of my children, I used acrylics instead of oils. I want to try again in oil, as I can get much nicer transitions.
This was a memorable painting excursion. Though it's called a prairie, the location is often more of a swamp than anything else.
I set up my easel by the edge of the swamp in a small clearing surrounded by brush, then started to paint. After starting to block in the landscape, I heard the grunting of a gator, quite close.
There was a lot of vegetation and water around me and I quickly realized I was not in a safe spot in case a gator felt hungry, so I ended up painting my landscape in a bit of a rush while standing on top of a metal folding chair I had brought.
My sister Stephanie now owns this painting. It's not the most polished work I've ever done but I figured it would be better to have a rougher painting than to be missing a limb.
I believe I painted this picture in 2014 or '15.
I was out in the yard today with Rachel and the baby, sitting on a towel and soaking up some sun. It was in the upper 50s but the sun felt good and I brought my sketchbook along.
This evening I finally finished my portrait of Margaret and will post that as soon as I get a good photo.
Some interesting ideas here:
https://craftwhack.com/watercolor-techniques/
I have always liked the look of watercolors but have never done much with them. This makes me want to experiment.
I had the honor of meeting a friend's wife in person after having only heard of her from afar. When we met, I was struck by her pale complexion, dark eyes and black curly hair. She reminded me of the pretty women often depicted on vintage cigar box labels, so I asked if I could paint her portrait as such.
She graciously sat for me and I am now about half-way through painting her portrait.
As I painted, I took pictures so you can see the image emerging from the canvas.
It's getting there, piece by piece.
I have been busy with my writing lately but am trying to spend a few hours here and there on this portrait. I needed to really push myself to break out of my artistic rut. For too long I have just painted small paintings in short periods of time, rather than pushing my skill by working on something difficult. Seeing what can be accomplished when I push harder over multiple days is encouraging.
