Thursday, February 28, 2013

Nocturn

8 x 10 oil on canvas
I have been absent from posting these past few weeks. I have been busy painting some larger pieces (3' x 4') for a gallery. Painting larger is definitely more challenging. There is a lot more paint, mistakes are bigger and finding space to put such a large canvas is difficult. I did enjoy it and will be doing some more larger ones.
As pretty as the snow is, we are all starting to get a little tired of it. Even so, when I woke up to such a pretty sight down the street, I decided to do a little study. I'm looking forward to trying more nocturns in the near future.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Left Over Paint

"Jessah" 11 x 13 Oil on board
Its a good thing my daughter doesn't read my blog because this painting doesn't totally resemble her. Sometimes when I finish a large painting, I want to try something looser with the left over paint on my palette. I used some ultramarin blue, terra rosa, yellow ochre, and white. I put a photo on my computer monitor and I tried to keep it quick and loose while painting, starting with paint mixed with thinner and adding some thicker as I went along.
My daughter loves hats and I don't know where she finds all of the interesting ones that she wears. This photo was taken when she was tree planting in the mountains and had her hair in dreads.