Morphing: III

I decided that I wanted to paint a “traditional” portrait. A bust of a woman with a strong profile. I chose a book of portraits by Rembrandt as my reference. Mostly for ideas for background colors and composition. I am using a limited palette of Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White. I used this palette with my first Morphing painting and I had a lot of positive feedback, so I’m trying it again.

I’m posting my final value thumbnail, the layout, and a detail of it now. Hopefully, I’ll be posting the final painting in the next few days.

MBH 2

Janelle and I went to the Frist Museum yesterday. Fairy Tales, Monsters, and the Genetic Imagination Exhibit was absolutely fascinating. It definitely inspired me to take another look and even make slight changes in the conceptual direction of my latest painting.

I’m 99.9% sure I just finished this piece. I had a lot of fun working on it and can’t wait to start the third in the series.

Great Horned Owl

I started the owl painting some time ago(7months) with the help of Janelle and we lost interest in it pretty quickly. I think it might have been because I started working on the detail way to early. I didn’t see a way it could be resolved at that stage of the game, so naturally I got bored, turned the painting around, and moved on to something else.

Well, lately I’ve been creatively amped up. I’m drawing and painting all of the time, throwing acrylic on canvas even working on more than one piece at a time. At some point this past week, I pulled the canvas out from behind the easel and decided to finish the owl painting. All I needed to do was wash out all of the detail and add a few minimal touches here and there and voilà.

morphing bird heads with figures

I started a larger painting this weekend. The concept has been floating around in my head and on a few pages in my sketchbooks, but has yet to evolve into a painting until now. Several people have encouraged me to continue and develop this idea of morphing bird heads with figures for some time.

I’m attaching the sketch, the canvas drawing, and the start of the under-painting. I’m excited to work through this piece.

Here’s an update of the progress on this painting. I look forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks.

Landscape at Cheekwood

For those of you who have been lucky enough to visit Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum you will know that this is one of the most beautiful and peaceful location in Tennessee. For the artists out there, each direction you look there is another vision waiting to be photographed, drawn, or painted.

This past Father’s Day I had the opportunity to set up my easel, paints, and palette knives and start a painting in the Herb Garden. It wasn’t long after I set up, children and entire families came up to me to see what I was doing. It was a fun experience talking with the kids and parents about painting and art. A couple hours later I finished my painting, packed up and headed home with a piece of art that captures a small glimpse of what Cheekwood has to offer. I’m sure to be back again and again.

Arrington Vineyard Landscape

A couple of weeks ago my fiance and several friends of ours visited a vineyard outside of Nashville, TN called Arrington. We enjoyed a few bottles of wine, several games of dominoes, and beautiful weather. Here is a picture and a painting of that occasion.

Backyards First Snow

I began a painting on this canvas that was ugly and getting rapidly worse. I started what I thought was a majestic rolling hillside with the colors of a sunrise, or a sunset, or a midday on Saturn. Either way I did not have a clear vision of what I was going to do plus color is a challenge for me do to being colorblind. If I go past using three colors on my palette I end up with shades that never existed before and for good reason. After asking what Janelle thought of my work so far, she winced then quickly said she thought she heard the timer for the oven going off and hurried out of my studio. It was bad and I needed a break.

The next morning I woke up and looked out my bedroom window to see two or three inches of snow covering my back yard. The picture that I am posting below is the revised version of my original landscape. I tossed my brushes to the side and pulled out the trusty palette knives. I threw away the old palette and began fresh with Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Natural Gray Warm, and Titanium White. You can still see some of the colors coming through but other than that I painted completely over everything. I’m very happy with this piece. Keep it simple and good things will happen.

one year ago

This painting that I started over a year ago has been sitting against my studio wall collecting dust just waiting to be finished. And now that it is, I feel a sense of relief and would like to share the completed version with you.

SmugTurtle

This painting of the Smug Turtle started out as just something fun to do while passing the time between shows and commissions. I learned a lot through the process of creating this piece. I wish now that I took progress photos of all that came and gone to show you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Two Owls

Over the last few days my fiance’ Janelle and I have been working a painting for our friends Megan and J0hn. Yesterday they had their engagement party and we gave them an R and J painting of two owls snuggling up against each other. They loved it. The painting turned out better than I thought it would and it maybe the first of many collaborations to come.