Rolling Along ...

The girls are coming along nicely. The masking is off, and I have placed some shadows on the cows.

The portrait is looking suitably weird. It seems all portraits [paintings, too, I suppose] go through this incredibly strange-looking phase, and I am definitely there!

I've also been busy making posters to take to some of the large boarding barns and riding facilities, advertising my availability to do commissions.

As always, your comments are most welcome.

And if any of you are interested in a painting, please contact me. 

Alive & Well & Still Painting ...

I started off a small color and compositional study ...

... and reached this point, which I like. This is only a 5 x 7 inch study, but I think it captures the idea I wanted to express about knowledge, the church, and the time frame of the early 14th c. I will get to a larger, more finished, and hopefully more impressive piece in the future.

I also started a small [5 x 7 inch] goose. Not thrilled, but I'll see what I can do to improve it.

This summer, I took some photos of an acquaintance. She has the most beautiful red-head coloring - just gorgeous! However, as soon as you point a camera in her direction, her expression becomes that of a deer caught in headlights. ACK! Not easy to photograph at all! Above is my 1st attempt at painting her. I didn't like how it was coming along, so I have started again, using a different technique than the last one.

I have started very w/w, with the board at quite an angle to encourage paint flow. I am also using a different palette. It looks more promising.

Earlier this week, I sold one of my goose paintings. The  buyer is a fellow blogger, and she left me a note saying she LOVED my cow painting, so I sent that along with the goose. Above is another version on the same theme that I have just started.

As always, your comments are most welcome!

ALWAYS on the Day before I Have to Go the Office ...

I decided to psychedelicize the wasp ...

This is another oldie I would like to re-work. I'd keep the same composition, but change the colors.

And another one that is crying to be re-done. This is from my botanical stage. :)

Still working on detailed sketch.

Possible values for background

More of my scribbled sketching

It seems the day before I head to the office, my mind is full of ideas that I want to paint. After a day slaving over hot mouths, so to speak, I am too drained to do any decent painting, so it's a bit frustrating.
The sketches are for a landscape I'd like to do, inspired by the movie "The Name of the Rose". I LOVED it - the scenery, the characters, the plot, the time period ...  I would call the era the end of the Dark Ages, still very grim, but with some intellectual light peeking through. The protagonist is a rebel, almost a heretic, and the story revolves around several mysterious and bizarre murders at an abbey. It brings in aspects of medieval peasant and religious life, religious schisms so prevalent in the era, the Inquisition, and many other sub-plots. All is set in the depths of winter, in an isolated abbey in northern Italy. The scenery and cinematography are fabulous! Parts were filmed at the Rocca di Calascio in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is this bleakness and darkness, yet with a glimmer of light, that I will be trying to portray.

As always, your comments are most welcome. :)

Since It's Raining Cats and Dogs ...

12 x 18.5 cm.
I'm not sure if I want to let him/her stand alone, or have some sort of almost-not-there background.

Still in progress. This one is a little more painterly.

 I found a cute cartoon of "raining cats and dogs", but I just read the small print, and found I would be infringing on copywrite. So, imagine the rain ... pelting down ...

Kim, Trigger's owner, and I finally got together yesterday. She loved the painting, and the portrait is sold ... finally. :) 

I really darkened the background. As a result, Trig looked quite cold, so I warmed up his face and neck with some pinks and oranges. DONE!

Are We There Yet???

This is pretty much how the color comes through. I was lucky to have sunlight this morning to get a decent photo. I 've reached the stage where I am doing more intense scrutiny rather than painting. [That's one of the reasons I like to work on several at once.]  I think a touch of careful darkening on  the outside of the left eye and just above the curvature of the jaw ...  maybe a bit more work on the pillars ... intensifying the eyes??? And I think I'd better get another sketch on the board to paint!!!

As always, your comments are most welcome!

EEK!!! ... or a little walk down memory lane

These are a few attempted portraits of the son of a friend of mine, and their beloved dog. 

Making full use of a sheet of paper.

Several tries on a friend's cat.

I've been doing a bit of a much-needed clean-up - throwing out all I don't use or need. Yes, I am re-cycling all the paper! I thought you might find it amusing [I did] to see some of my old paintings from ten and more years ago. I notice, looking at them, I have kept to pretty much the same themes. Well, at least I am consistent. :)

As always, your comments are most appreciated!

I Think I'm in Love ... and it's not another horse

I left off here ...

I've lifted some of the color from the robe - it was too warm. And I have deepened the shadows on the left of his face with a w/w wash, and done a bit of detail work around the eyes..

More of a close-up. This is why I am in love. It is the serenity and  impression of quiet inner strength.

Working on the pillars - painting the shadows first.

Then a wash of quin. burnt orange with quin. violet. It looks like it will need more wood color, as well as more shadowing.

I am going to reluctantly put the monk aside for today, and head into Vancouver to deliver the dreaded bridge painting to John, and have a visit with the family.
While you are here, I invite you to visit Gallery at the Farm.

As always, your comments are most welcome. 

It's SO Weird ...

I've worked a bit on the face and robe. I may have gotten carried away with the warms in the robe - have to lift a bit. 

I'm working on subtle nuances of skin color - fascinated by the interplay of warm and cool hues.  The "weird"  is how this painting is almost emerging from the paper. It's another one that is painting itself!

As always, your comments are most welcome!

Just in Passing ...

Studio light

Outdoors, sunny day, in shade

I think I've found the best lighting for my work. The only problem is that is is not often sunny in Vancouver in the winter. C'est la vie! 

The Pilgrim's Progress [OK ... Bad Pun]

W/w varied-intensity wash of orange over the background

Some violet and blue

A road map of the head and upper torso, with warm and cool flesh colors

Intensifying flesh colors, and starting robe

It's a play on titles with John Bunyan's late 17th c. novel. I took a course in English lit. - loved it.  I waded through Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Spenser's "A Fairy Queen", among many others.
The monk seems to be coming along well. So far, all has been done wet-in-wet. The real fun will start when I start playing warm and cool colors off each other in the skin tones. Anyway, this is what I am up to this morning while waiting for the glaze of heavy frost to melt from the riding ring. Bruno does not have skates!!!