Commission

I have a commission to paint a portrait of this house for a local family. It's a beautiful 1920's craftsman with lovely details and interesting angles. The sketch is a thumbnail to determine the viewpoint and map out shadows etc. Now I'm working on a large scale drawing which will be transfered onto the canvas.

Almost there...

The backlit pears were definitely a challenge! They feel a bit overly dramatic, so I'm waiting to take a look at it after a break.

The red painting is a tribute to Alice in Wonderland. I found the door nob on a treasure hunt with my friends Rhonda and Christy. It had to go in a painting about Alice! The white patches will be cards, the king and queen of hearts. Then a little tweaking in details.

this painting is getting closer but there is still aways to go on the background. It is requiring a lot of patience to keep coming back to the blue and white pattern.

Work in progress

Painting patterned drapery... Let's just say, I found the hardest way to approach the drapery in this painting, which was putting in the pattern then painting around it. Later of course I realized the best way to do it is to paint the drapery without the linear pattern first then add it later. Regardless of the method I am enjoying this painting. Something about the subject matter and colors feels very comfortable and calming.

Tara's Eggs

My friend Tara raises chickens in her backyard, and these are some of her eggs. Such beautiful delicate colors.

Pure Color!

These toy paintings give me a chance to work in very saturated color. It's fun how they seem to take on personalities as I paint them. These guys are hanging around wondering what to do, not quite bored but a bit bewildered.

More transparent dark discussion

This painting, finished recently, comes much closer to achieving the transparent dynamic darks I'm working toward. Basically it's made up of multiple thin layers of burnt umber and raw umber, plus a bit of sap green, which is also quite transparent.