A Diversion

Little Canvases

After completion of 'Big Flowered Euphorbia'

Big Flowered Euphorbia

48" x 30"

 I needed to create a few small canvases.  

Hot Red with Mexican Kitchen Tiles

Red Hot with Mexican Tiles

6" x 8"

Five Pie Apples

5" x 7"

Not only for a break from spending hours and hours in front of one painting, but because Ryrie's Art & Home, in Reno, Nevada has requested a new shipment.

http://www.ryriesartandhome.com/

Three Star Fruit

5" x 7"

These alla prima paintings are quick and fun to paint.  They can sit on a counter or table in a small easel, or they fit into a standard frame.

Click HERE to contact me.

Big Flowered Euphorbia

Big Flowered Euphorbia

48" x 30"

I am asked, over and over how an artist knows when they have finished a painting.  I cannot answer for others, but for me it becomes obvious.  It is visual and intuitive.  There is nothing more to be added to the canvas.

So now, after what seems like months of working on this painting, it is finally complete.  At least I think it is.  I will live with it, walking past, looking, absorbing.  I might make a small correction or addition here and there, but I think it is done, and I have signed it....a sure sign of completion.  This is the way I handle the visual, intuitive decision that the work is done.

Big Flowered Euphorbia
48" x 30"

To contact me, click HERE

Current Exhibition

Long Beach Museum of Art

Art Auction XIV

Where Imagination Takes Flight

Big Flowered Barrel

Beginning today, this painting will be on exhibit at the Long Beach Museum of Art.

Accepted into this juried invitational, my painting will be shown April 21 through May 21.  On May 22, the museum will host an auction where all the works will be available for purchase.  

More information: http://www.lbma.org/exhibits.html 

To contact me, click HERE

99 Bucks Painting

Fence Posts

Six Fence Posts

7" x 5"

This is it.  The painting I submitted to 

99 Bucks.

It was a successful event.  If you missed it this year, it will happen again next April.  There were approximately 400 canvases,  and a crowd of over 800 people.  Sales were brisk, it was a frenzy.  What a great opportunity to purchase wonderful little original paintings at a very reasonable price.


A quote from the woman who purchased my canvas: " I love this painting!"

Click HERE to contact me.

Great Event

99 BUCKS

It's that time again. 

Great fund raising event for the Artists' Council of the Palm Springs Art Museum.

5"x7" canvases, each available for $99.

Saturday, April 16

Hotel Zozo

Palm Springs, CA

4:30 - 7:30

I will be working Gallery #9, so stop by to see the art, make a purchase and say hello.

Who knows, you might even purchase my painting.

All work must remain anonymous until after the sales, so I will show my painting here next week.

Additional information:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=176988802351092

Click HERE to contact me.

The Easel

A Necessary Tool

Work continues on this painting.

An easel is most often used to hold up a painter's canvas or large sketchbook while the artist is working. The simplest form of an artist's easel, a tripod, consists of three vertical posts joined at one end. A pivoting mechanism allows the centremost post to pivot away from the other two, forming a tripod. The two non-pivoting posts have a horizontal cross member on which the canvas is placed.   An easel can be full-height, designed for standing by itself on the floor. Shorter easels can also be designed for use on a table. Easels are typically made from wood, aluminum or steel.

Canvas on the easel.  Completed the flowers.  Will add in the thorns next.

There are three common usages for easels:

• Studio easels are meant for use in the artist's studio with limited need for the easel to be portable. Studio easels may be simple in design or very complex including winches, multiple masts and casters.  I have both but use my wooden, double masted easel almost exclusively when I am working.  It is like the one on the right in this photo:

• Field easels are meant to be portable and for the creation of plein air work. These easels are usually mid-sized or small, have telescopic or collapsible legs and are based on the tripod design. 
• Display easels are meant for the display of finished works. These easels tend to be very simple in design with less concern for the stability needed by a working artist and can vary in size and sturdiness depending upon the weight and size of the object to be placed on them.
• Mini easels are similar in design to display easels but scaled down to accommodate smaller paintings such as my canvas boards like this Star Fruit Painting:

Three Star Fruit in a Blue Bowl

5"x7"

Acrylic on Canvas Board

Upcoming Events Where My Work Will Be Shown:

99 Bucks takes place this coming Saturday!

More about this event in my blog later this week.

Long Beach Museum of Art 

Art Auction XIV, Where Imagination Takes Flight

April 21-May 21

More on this in another blog entry.

http://www.artauctionlbma.org/

click HERE to contact me.

Pigments and Paints

What's the Difference

Additional paint has been applied to the canvas.

The background has been color corrected.

Back into the studio for more painting.

Pigments are used for coloring paint. Most pigments used in  the visual arts are dry and usually ground into a fine powder. This powder is added to a vehicle (or binder), a relatively neutral or colorless material that suspends the pigment and gives the paint its adhesion.  For the paintings I have been showing here on my blog, the vehicle is acrylic medium.  Pigment plus the vehicle equals paint.


Acrylic Paint is liquid and/or liquefiable and after application to a substrate  is converted to an opaque film.   I use acrylic paint  to add color and/or texture to canvas, to create paintings. 


Ok, so I refer to the use of pigments and paint interchangeably.  I talk about the pigments on my palette, applying the pigment to the canvas.  I also mention the paint on my palette and applying the paint to the canvas.  Technically,   I should be saying paint, but the word becomes redundant, and I like the word pigment, so even though there is a difference between the definitions of these two words I use them interchangeably.