Artist Lunch 8x10 oil on board

This may look familiar the sushi painting for DSFDF is now "Lunch."... PS having camera trouble.

Thanks Cathyann for the Lemonade Award

A link to Cathyann's Studio

Fiddling about

Little Art work today I did some work on an etching but as my pictures show I fixed a way to hold small paintings on my large easel with the added benefit of removing the painting without touching it also I put large wheels on my easel with brakes it had tiny elf casters before and since I'm well over 6ft my easels taller now. Where there is a will there is a way.

Notes from my kind

A painting with poor values can account for why a work does not look real. Eighty percent of "realism" comes from choosing the correct value for each shape and not how well you matched the color.{from the new issue on International Artist Magazine }

Sneek Peek

This is a corner of my grid painting that I'm working on today I had to choose to indicate the squares or not in the painting and because this will be a portrait (my second of Michelle} I thought I would let the squares be apparent in a later landscape. This is a large canvas 30x40 so it could take some time to finish. I'm moving into the face now so its time for "steady-steady" instead of free an abstract as in the background.

Bright Dress 8x12 oil on canvas

There will be 2 versions of this painting the other will be with my grid experiment.

Excited

We all know about using a grid to help us with a drawing but I heard of an idea to grid a photo and turn it upside down then paint an abstract of each square one at time on your gridded canvas. I think that because it's upside down and you are focused to see each section abstractly the results could be very interesting. One reason I'm excited is because I found out how to grid my image on my computer making things simple so  I'm am ready and excited ( I think I said that" lol") 

Work in progress

On the easel

This painting I'm working on is a child that is on Mr. Parkers Windows to the Words site as you may be able to make out I now work from photos off the computer no need to print them any more plus I listen to music streaming in from Pandora.com ...Music "Gotan Project"

Oil sketch 7x8

Shop Sticks 8x10 oil on panel

Finished with a couple of days to spare.This is my entry for Karin Jurick's latest Different Strokes for Different Folks painting challenge. My take on the challenge was that I really did'nt want to paint sushi so I was picking at it instead. I had fun with the chopsticks "shop sticks" also.

Just thinking

You know after looking at hundreds of paintings over the last couple of days and I mean really studying them a thought keeps popping in my head and that is it's really amazing how little some differences exist between a good painting and a great painting. There are things that please the eye and they can be subtle maybe even subliminal but knowing what works in pleasing the eye we all can make great art.

b&w 12x12 oil on canvas

I guess I stepped away from color for a bit but I'm studying the paintings of Karin Jurick and started buying some of those radiant paints that she puts on her palette she uses something like 50 colors...amazing!

Bag Man underpainting

I can leave this black and white or let it dry and glaze it anyway its a painting of one thing men were made for; carrying the bags.

DSFDF painting started

Well I started my sushi painting and for some reason I walked in the studio with a crisp white shirt and proceeded to work thereby eliminating its whiteness. I might call this painting Shop Sticks, just a thought.

Artist Blog

Being an artist is not being a member of some outsiders secret group. We are basically people communicating. Even the most awkward, out of shape, lethargic dancer can express in movement some quintessence that is man. We who are less than John Singer Sargent or Picasso still make art. What is important is the oneness of man creating. Sure a somewhat lofty distance exists between a "great master" and a daily painter but we all share the same title "Artist". So in my opinion we are basically made of the same stuff as someone like Degas and for us with hard work and intelligences , genius may be only one year and a painting away.

Wyeth Magazine

I picked this up at a yard sale for 10 cents, Young Andrew Wyeth on cover 1942

The Shallows 10x12 oil on panel

Inspired by all that great art I saw yesterday.

Art Show

Today was the Gaspirilla Art Show here in Tampa . The weather was fantastic and it was a good to be had by all. A few decisions have come to me as a consequence to my attending this show and that is to paint more people...and color...give me color!

In progress

When an artist is having a blaah day they can fight through it facing the easel or go ride their motorcycle and let wind clear the head...where are my keys. This is the piece I was battling before I hit the road.

artist quote

"You should keep on painting no matter how difficult it is, unless it kills you, and then you know you have gone too far." Alice Neel

Topper 8x8 oil on panel

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Tending 8x8 oil on board

A work for the Green Palette site, a little experimenting today on some canvas that was a bit like burlap...not likely to use it again but I muscled through it.

The Dam on the Hillsbourgh 16x20 pastel

I started this pastel a couple of years ago and painted the boy in last night. This river and I have a long history, on this very spot I slipped of a rock into the water when I skipped school in the 4th grade also a friend and I were swept away during a flood and was saved by her brother. The river is in the park where I play tennis on Sunday and its views must hold a 1000 paintings this is probably number 12 for me.

Wigs 16x20 oil on canvas

Check out the new project for the Karin Jurick site ,Different Strokes From Different Folks. A bi-weekly challenge for any artist who would like to join in . Just a little something light hearted from me.

Time and a new brush

Time... I need more of it. Sometimes the ideas I have of things I want to do just flood my head, right now I want to do some paintings where you cover the canvas in color and wipe away your image with rags,brush,qtips and this new brush I got that moves the paint around its made from rubber (pictured) ...anyway much to do, little time to do it....got to go.