Hallelujah Waves - Seth's Birthday Gift

"Hallelujah"

Paint Marker on Canvas
36" x 12"

My son Seth turned 20 this weekend. 20 is the age that I was when he was born and we've been through a lot together. I wanted to give him a piece of my work that I hope is meaningful to him and he might just keep forever. 

Seth is an artist, too. And while I am a visual artist, his talents lie with words and sound. He's a skilled musician and a magnificent writer, prose and poetry. I wanted to blend our talents. We had a long discussion one day about our favorite songs. A musician really can't narrow it down to one, so he ended up with 2 choices. I picked "Hallelujah", the Jeff Buckley version. A co-worker assisted me in getting a visual of the song's soundwaves. (It has a "nice spine", he said) I translated it with paint. 

Mundane Glory - "Flavor"

"Flavor"
6" x 6"
Oil and Gold Leaf on Gessoboard

I recently discovered gold leaf. My idea with this potential series is to shine a little glory on everyday objects. Things you may not pay too much attention to, but deserve their moment. If you want to feel metaphorical, this could be me trying to balance my introverted side with the part of me that can sometimes be an extrovert.

Gilded

Gilded
Oil and Gold Leaf on Gessoboard
6" x 6"

This is the 2nd portrait of my friend Becky. For the first time, ever, I experimented with gold leaf and I am very happy with the results. It adds a depth to the portrait and depending on where the light is, the painting changes. I left the light pretty dramatic in the photo to demonstrate the effect. The 'light spot' changes depending on the source direction.

The palette for this one is raw umber, titanium white with a touch of yellow ocher, ultramarine blue.

Becky

Becky
Oil on Gessoboard
6" x 6"

My friend and co-worker Becky was in my office one day recently and let me shoot her picture. I've painted two paintings from her images and this is the first one.

I used a limited palette of titanium white, yellow ocher, alizarin crimson, napthol red and ultramarine blue. I started using Pthalo Blue at first, but switched it up about half way through when I became frustrated by the results I was getting.

Some Men Are Baptists

Some Men Are Baptists
24" x 24"
Oil on Canvas

I attended a car show with my father over 4th of July weekend this summer. I was blown away by the car and attention given to these classic cars and when I spotted this lovely 1941 Oldsmobile, I knew I would have to paint her.

The title comes from A Christmas Story. Grown-up Ralphie narrates, "Some men are Baptists, others Catholics. My father was an Oldsmobile man."

Seems appropriate.

I Painted All Weekend!

What a productive weekend!

I rarely have a weekend with no big plans. It seems like there's always a race or a game to attend or something going on. This past weekend I had one early appointment on Saturday and the rest of the weekend was wide open. So I decided that I would paint as much as possible.

In my head I imagined that it would go something like this... around noon on Saturday, fed and well caffeinated, the muse would blast into my head and the next 36 hours would be a unfettered painting frenzy! Not quite, BUT I did get a solid 12 hour of painting in before bed on Sunday night. And I am extremely pleased with what came out of it.

The first thing I worked on was this purple pear. I had just bought the paint (Cobalt Violet - Gamblin), I had to use it! So, VALUE STUDY TIME!

Who says a pear can't be purple?

After the value study, I moved on to full color:

Single Pear
5" x 5"
Oil on Gessoboard
Click here to bid in auction

With the pear and the following rose, I worked from still life set up on the coffee table with a desk lamp providing the lighting:

New Rose
6" x 6"
Oil on Gessoboard
Click here to bid in auction - Begins 9/26

That was it for Saturday! Sunday was spent working on this...

This is the 3rd session for this painting. I've spent around 12 hours on this one now. i've been posting progress pics on Facebook.  Check them out!

So there you go. I would love to have a marathon painting weekend, minimal sleep, stopping only for bathroom and food breaks! I've heard of artists that challenge themselves to 12 in 12 hours or 24 in 24 hour challenges. I wonder if I would have what it takes to do that. 

Three Pears

Three Pears
6" x 6"
Oil on Gessoboard
Click to Bid

I'm happy with this one. I began with an ocher ground wash, sketched the shapes in with my brush and raw umber. My goal was to keep from getting overly detailed.

The Baby of the Family

The Baby of the Family
6" x 6"
Oil on Gessoboard
Click to Bid

Jolly Boyz Body Shop

Jolly Boyz

24" x 15"

Oil on Canvas

I've recently discovered how much fun painting vehicles could be! This was the first one I've painted. This fun, older beauty belongs to a family member who let me take pictures and paint her. I'll definitely be doing more in the future! 

Larissa

"Larissa"

16" x 20"

Oil on Canvas

This is my niece Larissa. I shot her picture in one morning while we were having breakfast in a restaurant. She was trying to be interested in the conversation going on around her, but really wanted her pancakes to arrive. 

Brenden

"Brenden"

16" x 20"

Oil on Canvas

I took a photo of Brenden after football practice one night. The field lighting was fantastic and I shot a few pics of both him and my son. I've posted the original image with the background loosely blocked out in Photoshop below.

Original Photo