Boat Yard

Working on a painting and nearly finished.  :)

Nonrepresentational

I don't normally do nonrepresentational pieces, but this one is a result of leftover paint and a need to practice painting with a palette knife.  :)

I finally got around to framing this older piece of artwork.  I made this set of pears before I even left for Orlando to go to art school.  It's a larger piece so the framing was going to be costly.  But luckily, I have been gifted a large mat cutter that's easier to use than my handheld one.  I found this very large frame at Ikea and removed the mat that came with it since it was made for showing off small family photos.  So for those of you who are artists, don't be afraid to get thrifty with your frame solutions!  :)

More art for myself! :)

Orange and blossoms

Japanese Teapot

Pulled out the paints after a long break. Was genuinely surprised by this one, not that it's perfect (far from it) but I thought I would be a lot more rusty. I'll be painting much more often from now on.

Still Life with Mango and Kiwi

This painting was done as an exploration into a very tight, realistic style. I painted it with medium, mostly liquin, which is somewhat discouraged now, but was recommended by my instructor at the time. I have taken some classes over at Crealde here in Orlando, and I can't really say enough about the instructors there. They are just superb. If you live in Orlando, and you want to learn how to paint, Crealde is the way to go.

Still life with pears

This painting is still in the works.. there are a couple of areas that need touching up on but I thought I'd share what I am working on at home! I am gearing up to do an especially intimidating painting of Michael Jackson for a friend of mine.

WIP Celebration painting

Closeup of the trees:
This painting is taking an incredible amount of time.. and that's one of my weak spots. One of my goals is to improve my speed, reduce mistakes and paint it right the first time. These things will help me build a body of work and enable me to show more in a single show.

Portrait of a homeless man

This painting is part of a series of portraits of a homeless man that I interviewed on the street.

This was a painting I did of riders in Central Park, New York City. I painted this on location and from photos in 2005-2006.

Test using very intense hues

Ok, so I did a *very* quick painting to study the new medium mix I am using. It's an 11:1 mixture of Galkyd/Refined linseed oil. The paint doesn't dry too quickly for me, and it is nicely and easily spread around the canvas. I didn't think the painting would stay as wet as long as it did, but it is now almost three days later and there is still wet paint around the edges, though I am too chicken to test anywhere on the painting for fear of screwing it up.

I chose very intense hues (bright colors) to compose the painting, because I wanted to test the capacity of the medium to really allow the color of the paint to shine through the surface. Many of my paintings appear somewhat dull compared to the bright fruits I selected to paint, and it was always a struggle to get the painting to be true to the still life I'd set up. I knew that it was due to the surface properties of the paint, and light reflecting off those surfaces, obscuring the viewer from the true color of the paint.

To escape that, around five years ago, I'd painted with Liquin as a medium. I had a teacher recommend it, but it has fallen out of popularity with painters and professionals because it is not easily removed (cleaned) from the canvas once its been dried. Also, it dries a little too quickly for my taste. After I stopped using Liquin, I used.. nothing. I took classes with Don Sondag at Crealde in Winter Park, and he used nothing, so I used nothing. To increase the flow of the paint, I just thinned it with odorless mineral spirits (OMS). Don's paintings looked great! Mine looked flat.

Here is the painting:

Four Apples

Ignoring the rules of composition. Just for fun. Painted in oil on 8x10 canvas.