Cloud Study VIII

6"x6"

nfs

We never see to have clouds like this around here, but some came through today! I am a huge, huge fan of Ambera Wellman, and I just had to try this painting :)

#942

Sheep

6"x6"

sold

A portrait of a sheep at the Museum of Life and Science- Naomi and I have started going every week, and she really loves the farm animals. And, for that matter, the baby play space and the butterfly house and the sparkly rocks and the drums and the bells...

#941

Jack

6"x6"

sold

My mother suggested jacks as a logical compliment to my marbles, and so I thought I'd try out a study of one... way fun! I like reflective surfaces anyways, and this one was so complex... another one of those things that always feels nice and rounded on the canvas, you know?

#940

Eggplant VII

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

available

Does anyone know why Dioxine Purple gives me such glare issues? Carbon Black does the same thing... gr.

But isn't this so cool?!? It looks great hanging on the diagonal like that, different enough to really 'pop' and the eggplant itself came out nice and rounded- the ultramarine detailing around the highlights really helped with that. And the fact that there's a cool reflected light on one side and a warm one on the other. I don't know why it happened that way, it must be because of the direction of the light, but it's a really cool effect.

#939

Wine

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

#937

Fireflies

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

I'm so sorry about the delay on these! I was having camera-loading issues... it turned out to be the cord that connects the camera to the computer, so now that's all figured out and we ought to be good again :)

This one is a little too subtle for the camera to manage right.... it's a painting I keep wanting to do, but it never turns out quite right. This is the closest I've ever managed, and I really do like it. It's just the idea of fireflies on a summer evening, peaceful and flickery and dancing at the edge of the tress. Maybe someday I'll be working in a more abstract style and then I'll be able to really bring it to life?

#938

Halved Avacado II

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

#936

Skyscape

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

This feels alarmingly spacious for being such a small skecth- I don't usually do landscapes, I just can't process them into paint, but I'm going to have to try something like this on a more involved level.

#935

Lemon in the Shadows

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

This is more of a lost and found edges sort of piece, trying to get the lemon to really jump out at you but in a realistic, convincing way. What do you think?

#934

Glass of Water

6x8 acrylic on canvsboard

nfs

I was looking through some old paintings of Duane Keiser's and saw a wonderful piece he did, all about the reflection in the surface of this small thing of water... so I wanted to try something similar :) I really like how this came out, especially with the ghosting of the white paint really bringing the glass forward.

#933

Japanese Eggplant

6"x8" acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

Essentially a portrait of one of the eggplants... the fact that the cap was that rich purple really fascinated me, and the graceful curve coupled with the natural blemishes and the wonderful pale area there by the cap... couldn't resist :)

#932

Snapshot

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

This is kind of a funny one, I guess- the idea was to paint the two eggplants like two people, head and shoulders only, smiling and leaning against one another. Silly, but I really like the way it came out :)

#931

Eggplant IV

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

I really wanted to think up a clever title for this one, but failed utterly. Maybe it's the whole 2 a.m. thing? Well, I'll try again tomorrow- I think I'm going to do a few more eggplant dailies, I enjoyed this one so much :)

#930

Garlic and Reflection

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

'nother garlic on blue. And yet it doesn't feel old, you know? Maybe because I left more of the paper on this one, it changes the shape, or maybe because of the reflection.... always growing.

#929

Cherry Reflection

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

What was I saying about reflections, again?

Just kidding :) But that was fun, and the halo of white around the cherry itself really ended up looking pretty cool- it's an effect I've been interested in, but wasn't entirely aure about trying, you know?

#928

Tomato Reflections

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

More tomatoes, more restricted palette stuff... and my new light-colored reflective surface. I'm enjoying the reflections thing entirely too much!

#927

Perky

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

This little one was so cute I just had to play around a bit, find the angle that made it look the most upbeat, you know? Also, I'm back to the primary colors and white thing again. Just for a few paintings :) This one is brighter than it seems here- I didn't get a chance to photograph it before the sun went down :(

#926

Mango on Blue

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Same mango, different colors, different day. So much fun! I really love how the mango itself jumps out because it's painted with all these transparent glazes while the background is that nice opaque blue.

#925

Mango on Green

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

And a mango, admiring its own reflection :D I was complaining to myself that I don't much like eating the fruits that I most love to paint, and that the ones I love to eat... but I was wrong. I already knew I was generalizing, but I was just regular old wrong :) I can't really cut a mango in half and paint it that way, theres the stupid pit to consider, but I realized that the outside of a mango is every bit as expressive and personable as a pear!

This one was fun to paint, once I figured out the color change- I actually had to paint it back to white and let it dry once, so I could start over with new glazes of color on the actual mango part, but it was worth it...

And this is the little Nugget- nine months old today! She's walking now, and of course is still the most beautiful, perfect little girl in the whole wide world. Not that I'm biased or anything :)

Egg XVIII

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

My eighteenth egg... and the first one with a reflection like this. I used the same dark reflective surface as with "Three and One" and "Mirroring".... still in love with the effect. And I want to do a hunormous egg, like 30"x30", maybe with a similar composition? Need to go out and get some more black paint, first... it amazes me how fast I go through black and white.

#923

Pomegranate III

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Pretty, pretty.... wish I had the nerve to try and paint it once it's cracked open, though! I will one of these days.

#922

Pear on Blue

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

... or at least the purchasing part ought to work- I think etsy may be on the fritz at the moment, but I can't tell for sure. Silly computers :)

#921

Yellow Tulip

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

Yellow again, but set against brown instead of blue this time... and with some glass thrown in for good measure. Tulips are such a graceful flower, don't you think?

#920

Yellow Onion

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

I believe this is my first ever painting of an onion, and I am totally digging it, especially against that ambiguous blue background.... it's a very different sort of surface, very interesting. Maybe I ought to try one cut in half at some point?

#919

from the Festival for the Eno

markers on vellum

nfs

and Naomi watching the crowds. She was there all three days with me, and did wonderful! She liked the music, of course, and all of the great people who came by to see her, and the mist tent, and the parade...

http://enoriver.org/festival

Here she is again, all tired out :)

#918

chalk and colored pencil on toned paper

nfs

and one of the boys. the light that made it past his hat and into his beard was just irresistible!

#917

charcoal, chalk, and colored pencil on toned paper

nfs

the Eno during the Festival is a bit of a sketchers paradise- strong lighting, obviously, and interesting hairdos, big sunglasses, and all different amounts of clothing...

#916

graphite on vellum

nfs

I loved the way the sunlight struck her hair, and the wonderful way her open mouth and long, graceful nose came together with the arch of her eyebrows, somehow....

#915

marker on vellum

nfs

because of her interesting hair- doesn't it make the most beautiful shapes?

#914

Egg XVII

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Wow, I can't believe it's July already! Madness.... supposed to be absolutely gorgeous weather this weekend, too, you guys have to make sure to come out and see me at the Festival for the Eno on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday!

#913

Wildflowers

6x6 acrylic on panel

sold

Here I just splashed the Phthalo Blue around abstractly, and then kind of designed a subject to fit it... beautiful :)

#912

Blue Marble

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Ok, now it's new stuff! This is a study for a larger painting I'm doing, absolutely gorgeous so far, but I need to make sure I've got one marble right that is majorly tricky.... the solution? Do it entirely in transparent layers of Phthalo Blue! It's one of those pigments that is unremarkable when mixed with white, but when glazed.... and it contrasts great with the dense brushy sort of background I gave it, too :)

#911

White Anenomes II

5x7 acrylic on panel

nfs

Um.... I was wrong. I was flipping through some old dailies, and this one was so intriguing I just had to bring it out for another go. Isn't the light just wonderful?

#910

Evening Coffee

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

This might be the last of my repaintings for a little while.... we'll see. I definitely want to have some raw egg dailies to take to the Festival for the Eno (provided they don't get snapped up off of Etsy, of course, that would be just as lovely), so I need to tackle that soon. I can't wait! I'm planning on setting up Thursaday night, so it is coming up very soon.

#909

Red Apple and Shadow

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Didn't the colors come out wild on this one? Happy! It's more work with the loose/splashy/painterly backgrounds and the wonderful rounded colorful subject.... and in this case, the thin dark glaze for a shadow that really helps bring it together. That's why I love this daily painting thing- you just learn so darn much :)

And just a reminder- the Festival for the Eno is coming up! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Durham, North Carolina. Great music, beautiful artwork, lots of awesome junk food- what more could you ask for for the Fourth of July weekend?

#908

Golden Pear VII

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Continuing with the reworking, and still really enjoying it :) And realizing that, yet again, my post will show up as being tomorrow when for me it is still today, what with it being 1:30 and all.... Baby Girl is such a night owl! Speaking of, she just turned a huge cardboard box full of markers upside down on her head.... gotta go!

#907

Lemon on Blue

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Fun :) I really enjoyed painting this one the first time but it felt a little.... flat. So I went through the whole thing again, layered the colors and played with the texture and added more dimension to the lemon, and I love the result!

#906

Highway at Night

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

collection of Natasha Marcuard

This on is way, way out of my comfort zone, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. This one, that it. The one I did before, which should never, ever be posted, I layered color over black and it just turned out ugly and chalky. This one it's very thin washes of color, and then blacks and blues and purples went over it, and it comes out all fun and glowy :)

#905

Summer Peach IV

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

I realized I hadn't done any peaches this summer, and that's practically tradition at this point :) I'm so proud of the way I treated the background! Loose, plenty of interest, but it doesn't detract from the subject or refuse to "read" as background...

#904

Tricolor Marble

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

Pretty, pretty marble. It's a subject I love anyways, but I really had fun playing up the feeling of light in this one :D

#903

Single Iris

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Continuing with the looser, drippy, splashy backgrounds, obviously, and also continuing with the strong shadow pattern. The idea..... I know I've seen other artists do a flower or bouquet in a vase all small on the canvas like this, and I like the feeling that it gives. I mean, it's probably just a site-size thing to some extent, but there's something very fragile about the end result, and something very much like you're looking into the artists studio, more so that when you really zoom in on the subject.

#902

Skeleton Key

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

I have decided that the single most important factor in making an image feel really three dimensional is to have a strong shadow pattern. I know- it surprised me too! But this one just jumps right off the canvas, it's the darndest thing, and I don't know if it's too tricky or gimmicky or whatever, something I should feel bad or inauthentic for using, or what. I guess no more than for following any other compositional rule :)

#901

Pink Carnations

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

Dude. Post number 900.

So I'm painting some pretty flowers to celebrate! And let me tell you, carnations are monsters to paint.... but after several tries I finally got so I really love how these turned out :)

You may have noticed that the background is different, too. I've been thinking off and on for a while that my backgrounds sometimes fall flat, I just wasn't sure how best to change that. But the color wash pieces inspired me, and so I painted the background all fun and drippy, flat enough to recede but not so flat that it feels uninteresting, you know? And I really like it!

Happy Friday, everyone!

#900

Full Moon on the Pond

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

nfs

Ok, last view of the pond for a while, I promise, I just couldn't resist this one :) All about the halo, and the reflections.

#899

Breaking Through

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

sold

The same pond, the same palette, different light situation :)

Sun Over the Pond

6"x8" acrylic on canvas board

sold

This limited palette thing is kind of fun! I mean, it's not a permanent thing- I love being able to dig through just piles of paint tubes to find the most perfect, most exciting colors for a subject- but still.... it inteesting, something I learn a lot on. Especially with a subject like this, one I find challenging anyways.

White Calla

6x8 acrylic on canvasboard

I got some callas at the farmers market this past weekend, and they have been keeping me company in the studio. This afternoon, just before the clouds rolled in, the light was just right and this one flower had almost a religious feeling to it.

I worked with the same primaries-only palette, mostly in thin washes of soft greys, with the bright whites added at the very end with my fingers for added impact :)

#896

Iron Mountain Marble

6x6 acrylic on canvasboard

Same restrictions as yesterday, but today's subject is a beatiful marble made by Iron Mountain Glass- somehow or another they vaporize precious metals, in this case gold and some silver, and capture them in the glass. It's a really unearthly beauty that I've tried to capture.

#895