Never Trust A Painter

Really?

Work on Domino Rocks Continues with the addition of underwater color and highlights.

A painter with a brush in hand, that is. 

Seems to me, a painter will paint almost anything.  I think it has to do with loving the process, watching a subject grow under the brush, working with the material.

I had an old camel back sofa once that needed to be placed in the middle of a room.  The back was faded.  Solution:  paint the back.  After a coat or two of gesso, that is exactly what I did.

The Top of the Table

I needed bed side tables and couldn't find anything I liked.  Solution:  nude furniture and a little imagination with some paint.

That old washer and dryer set that was baby puke yellow?  Solution:  get out the paint and brushes.  It became a work of art and fun to use.

And just the other day I received a commission to paint eight dinner plates.  Now this will be something different for me and loads of fun.

We painters just love to paint.

So don't stand still for too long next to a painter with brush in hand.  You just might be the next canvas.

To contact me click HERE

Painting in The Studio

Domino Rocks

After spending time in and among the massive boulders on Lake Tahoe sketching and gathering inspiration,

I have focused on this particular rock group.

I call them Domino Rocks since they remind me of those little rectangle tiles also known as bones, cards, tickets, spinners and stones.  Stones!  These boulders are certainly not little ( I guess each one is several tons in weight), certainly not stones, but I like the idea of calling them stones.

These particular stones (actually very big rocks) also remind me of mah jongg tiles.  And since I am heading out the door later to play my Tuesday game of mah jongg, what better subject to be painting than these Domino Rocks.

This is the beginning of my newest painting, Domino Rocks,

which is not finished.  It is also about the third or fourth time I have painted these particular boulders. 

Come back to watch the 

progress and see the completed work.

To contact me with questions or comments, click HERE.

or

Leave a comment on this page....

Inspiration and More Egyptian History

Kayaking and Rowing Among and About the Rocks

The weather has turned and the lake calls.   

These massive boulders inspire thoughts and sketches.

I have under painted a horizontal canvas.

It's time to paint rocks.

And Speaking of Cleopatra...oh, I wasn't?

If you read my blog, you recall I mentioned, a few posts back,  the tome I have been reading about Cleopatra and how the Egyptian and Roman information has overwhelmed me.  So now here is more....

The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, NV has just opened an exhibition of Egyptian artifacts:

To Live Forever

Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum
http://www.nevadaart.org/exhibitions/index

This is definitely an exhibition to visit.
What additional inspiration will be found there?

To contact me click HERE

It's That Limited Palette Again

More of the Same?

This painting was inspired by the aspen trees next to my deck that are so very slowly getting their leaves.  

Hurry Up Spring

48" x 30"

Acrylic on Canvas

It is the restricted palette I have been using, influenced by the drippy, grey, cool weather.  Hence the title of this painting, though a friend did point out that spring is almost over even though the plants don't seem to know that, or didn't until yesterday.   Yesterday the sky was blue and the sun did shine!  Has Summer arrived?
  

Seven Pie Apples

10" x 30"

Seven Pie Apples is a bit of the same palette with the addition of a blue.

Spring Pears
6" x 8"

And these pears are definitely the same palette.


But with the arrival of summer weather I was out on the lake in my rowing shell, working in the garden, and planning paintings with a new and different palette.  Check back soon to see how weather and the change of seasons can influence a painter.

To contact me click HERE

Continuing with the Limited Palette

Different Subject, Same Palette

Spring Pears

6" x 8"

While in the market the other day I spied a juicy looking pile of pears.  Not sure why I associate pears with Fall, but here they were in June.  There are over 3000 different varieties of pears, and they are grown all over the world, so why wouldn't they be available now?  

I have been reading a tome about Cleopatra in which the descriptions of banquets include pears, always cooked, never eaten raw, by the Romans anyway.  And due to this on going reading, it seems like months of it,  I find Egyptian and Roman factoids swimming in my mind, almost constantly, thus I was drawn to the pears in the market.

Since I like to paint produce with the actual fruit in front of me, these two luscious beauties ended up in my basket, in my studio and then on the canvas. Because I still have the limited palette used on the aspen trees, I dashed out this little painting using that palette.

Spring Pears is currently being shown at Village Interiors in Incline Village, NV.

To contact me click HERE

Restricted Palette

Using a Restricted Palette

Where I live we are still dealing with cool to cold temps, sun-rain-snow.  The plants are trying to send out their spring growth but it is a slow process this year.  Finally little, brilliant green leaves are showing themselves.  Daily I check my plants and have been inspired by this new growth.

   After sketching, it was into the studio to select a palette and begin a painting.  I wanted to give warmth to the composition so I selected cadmium yellow, then an opposing color garbazole violet, which is a cool color though it is a combination of red (warm) and blue (cool).  For the fresh spring shade I used chromium green oxide and titanium white for light and highlights.  This was my restricted palette.  

Spring Sunset

30" x 10"

Acrylic 

I find that limiting the palette creates a visually interesting, harmonic painting.  This particular work almost shimmers and gives the visual effect of the longer daylight hours or sunset in Spring.

To contact me, click HERE