'Beauty and the Beast' 14x18" oil/canvas

I still have some minor changes that I want to make - however, I am basically pleased with this piece, and I am ready to move on to the next. The name: 'Beauty and the Beast' and the figure pose I wanted to invoke (lead) the topic to - well for me a 'King Kong' type pose along with the theme of that story. Not exactly new, but it works for me. What maybe you expected symbols such as horses or apples or ...? Maybe I could name or sub-title this 'extraordinary lengths to acquire perceived beauty'. I think I will leave it as is. 

'Beauty and the Beast' preliminary drawing

Here is a preliminary drawing that I have had in the back of my mind for awhile now. It is what I might refer to as a content piece as it is not quite representational as many of my daily painting projects are. I don't mean to say that I am completing a painting a day - no - those people are amazing in their dedication, diligence and abilities. I mean that I paint every day and then other times less. I like the idea of adding language and other symbols to my paintings, sort of updating the symbols to a current collection. Certainly there are many symbolic additions to paintings throughout history - so I'm doing nothing particularly radical here. Just my attempt at exploring the place of these visuals in my current paintings as I observe; reflect, explore.
It's a lousy drawing - but the idea was what I was after.

brush maintenance

Well I didn't wait for the new years in order to clean up my studio. What a mess - even for me. No pictures please, too gross. But I did it. In addition in my housekeeping I organized my oil paints - man, but I have a lot of paint. Especially as I was 'resupplied' over Christmas. I put them in piles organized initially as reds, blues, yellows, browns, grays/whites/black, greens. I put them in separate drawers in order to keep integrity and as I need one for painting I go to the drawer and pick out the one that I feel I need to use up first. Great plan - see how it works out in practice.

Next is a tip I picked up for brush maintenance - this for my flats, filberts, brights in order to keep a shape and edge on them. 

I wash them and shape them in an expected manner, then I use a piece of clean (no printing on the side touching the brush hairs) cardboard. I would use most any kind paper as long as it is clean. I fold the paper over into a wedge, place the brush hairs in the fold and secure the two, and apply pressure with a paper clip. Nice. Shapes the hairs nicely, with a good to excellent quality brush I now have a well tapered and shaped brush ready for my next painting.

'frog left' 10 x 8" oil/canvas

Continuing with my 'Florida landscapes' series of paintings is this wetlands painting of a frog in his natural setting. 

(SOLD)

'Mr. Gill' 8 x 10" oil/canvas

I did this rather quick portrait of my brother-in-law from a photo taken while they were at the house. It was more fun than work to do. The first background bothered me, so I went back and changed it. This painting really occurred rather fast, maybe three total hours to work it out. Pretty straight forward - get the likeness correct in a profile, and done.

(SOLD)

'under the Spanish moss' 8x10" oil/canvas

I tend to do paintings in a series - paper bags, animals, Florida landscapes. What next? Certainly there are many possibilities waiting for me in any of the previous series.

Here is another of the Florida series, a live oak draped with Spanish Moss in an atypical sub-tropical 'wooded' setting. Again I like the sun light streaming through the thickets onto selected spots dappling the open ground. 

I have been experimenting with the overall tint(s) that I use prior to starting a a painting. With this one I used a tint of cadmium red light overall with little variation to the basic tone of this red, allowing the raw color to show through in selected places in order to lend a warming feel to the vegetation versus cool bright sunlit areas. I was tempted to cover further the areas that shown through strongly, however, I think the admonition so often offered of 'just enough, and no more' prevailed. The temptation passed, I took a break only to come back and declare this picture finished. This painting stands or falls on it's own from now on. 

Sabal Palmetto Palms 8 x 10" oil/canvas

"Sabal Palmetto Palms" 8 x 10" Oil/canvas

I have started another set of related paintings - this time around is a series of Florida, well, mostly landscapes. I have been painting some animals of Florida and I haven't decided whether that would be part of the landscape series or if they will stand as there own set. I just paint - it would be fine with me to have someone else group them, if possible. 

I like these landscapes as they do remind me of the outdoors when I look at them. I drawn the settings that I like and usually paint them in my studio referring to my drawings and sometimes photos that I have taken. These are from winter and it does get relatively cold, making colors more muted than in warmer times of the year. Also, it is dryer and so the grasses tend to be more toward orange. I warmed it up by using cadmium red throughout the deep shadow areas and then various shades of olive drab for the foliage. Olive drab actually has surprised me with the range of foliage green that it supports. Add a yellow and you have a bright live green, add white and the background color is set. Oh, and I ussually add some violet to the clouds as I want the 'shaded' side away from the sun to be darker and warmer than the cool side facing toward the sun.