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Sunday, May 23, 2010

#91 "Proud to be Irish", oil, 14" x 11"


The two day portrait painting workshop with Michelle Usibelli was fun and productive. The first day we had a model and the second day we worked from photos. I promised I would publish the good, the bad and the ugly (not being a portrait painter), but the painting from the first day was both bad and ugly. I may work on it and publish it later. However, I am pleased with this portrait I did of my Dad who is 92 and proud of his Irish blood. (I think I may give it to him for Father's Day). The two days simply flew by. Painting is definitely my flow time. We had lunches in the sun in Michelle's fabulous garden, feeding our senses and our soul. A delightful two days. The Ray for the Day is "Proud to be Irish".

Monday, May 17, 2010

#90 "Good Old Gal", oil, 24" x 18"


At first glance this may look like the last posting I made, #89 "Study for Truck". This is, in fact, the enlarged and, hopefully, improved version of this subject. I meant to post the underpainting, but ran out of time. So here she is. It was very helpful to make a small, quick study in which I worked out some of the problems. I know this is a time-honored way of going about things....but I rarely do it. I was somewhat intimidated by the forest in the back ground. All that green!!! I did my best to vary the temperature, hue and value of the greens and indicate some trunks and stems. The Ray for the Day is: "Good Old Gal".

Monday, May 3, 2010

#89 "Study of Truck", 12" x9", oil


After a very busy and fun weekend out of town, arriving home late last night, I arrived in painting class this morning tired and without a clue about what I wanted to paint. As I left my studio I grabbed a couple of interesting photos I took last Summer of this wonderful old truck. I have done a couple of watercolors of it and knew I would oil paint it sometime. Liana saw the photo and said "make a small study of that, and prepare to make a major painting from it". What a great idea! I thoroughly enjoyed designing and painting this little study. It will be interesting to use this study to help me paint a larger (20" x 16"0 painting. The Ray for the Day is "Study of Truck".