Tastings at Patriot Place

I worked on this painting some more after our Patriot's Place plein air event last month. Here it is after I glazed it and framed it up. I love how the glaze brings the colors back to life after the paint has dried. I'd love to hear if other artists glaze and/or varnish their paintings after they have dried and what brands you use. I used Liquin Original here but have also tried Dammar Varnish. The varnish seems to be smellier (is that a word?) takes longer to dry, and leaves a much shinier coat.

In her element

In Her Element

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artists' board

10" x 8"

Click on the image to enlarge

I painted this picture of my friends' daughter Elizabeth, an avid reader. I just loved this photo of her taken in a bookstore in Paris, France and couldn't resist trying to paint the pretty dress with the pink tulle she was wearing. You may remember that I had done a sketch of this photo back in August.

I also wanted to post this updated version of my painting Sunday Morning. In my Thursday night painting class, Kim showed me how to glaze this painting to warm up a few areas of the painting and make it more cohesive. Here is a before and after. I just realized that I also made a few adjustments to the composition after I took the second photo. Can you spot them?

Thanks Nancy and Greg for the great reference photos!
 

Haunted House and Halloween Update

Who living up there in that tiny room? I don't think this house is really haunted but on Halloween anything is imaginable. Happy Trick or Treating!

UPDATE The weather Halloween night couldn't have been more perfect. Warm, windy, and an amazing moon. I tried to capture it as it reflected in our dormer window, but photographer Kerry Hawkins captured it much better as you can see on her blog.

Our end of the street is kind of dark and we usually don't get many trick or treaters, so this year I made a few luminaria to try and entice kids to walk up the driveway. It worked! I couldn't believe we were able to keep these going with all the wind, but they lasted the entire night. And it looked really cool cuz the bags glowed an orange light. It was a tradition in our neighborhood in Ohio for each house to make these and put them out on Christmas Eve. I used to love driving around that night and seeing all of the streets lined with lights. 

And finally, scary Polo...

Abstract #1

Abstract #1

Oil with a palette knife on canvas paper

8" x 8"

Click on the image to enlarge

Here is my entry for the latest challenge from Karin Jurick's blog Different Strokes from Different Folks. It was a photo of rooftops in San Francisco. I really, really tried to keep it to just abstract shapes but then couldn't help myself by putting in a more details. It was fun to lay in big areas of flat color with the palette knife. Karin was right when she said that this was a perfect challenge with respect to value and mixing colors. I painted this all in one sitting last night because I really like to work wet into wet. And it's easier to scrape off areas that aren't working. I call it Abstract #1 because you never know what someone else might see in it, and perhaps it may become a series. Who knows? 

Library Auction Donations and Press Update

Prim Rose 

Oil with a palette knife on artist board

9" x 12"

Click on the image to enlarge

On Saturday November 14, the Friends of the Walpole Library are holding an art auction to raise money for a new town library. I've donated this painting and you can see it on their site along with many other wonderful original paintings. The auction will be held at the Walpole Country Club from 7-10pm and should be a lot of fun. So if you are looking for something fun to do on a Saturday night, purchase original art and gifts at unbelievable prices, all for a good cause, come on down.

I've also contributed two books by the author Kristin Kladstrup, The Gingerbread Pirates and The Book of Story Beginnings. Both are signed by her as well as the illustrator Matt Tavares.  

What a great gift! Thanks Kristin.

UPDATE On October 29, me and some folks from my art class appeared in the local paper. Here we are with our donations.

There's something about Mary Cassatt

Mini Cassatt, Mother and Child 

Oil with a palette knife on canvas paper

8" x 6"

Click on the image to enlarge

I painted this for an upcoming show that the Foxboro Art Association is sponsoring in January called Masquerade. Artists are asked to choose a painting by an artist they really like and do their own version of it. I chose this painting that was part of a wonderful Mary Cassatt exhibit I saw back in 1999 at the MFA in Boston. It has been awhile since I had done any more additions to my Mini Masters series and I forgot how much you can learn by doing an exercise like this. And it's even more challenging when you try to do it with a palette knife on a small scale. I think I might do some more!

Sunday Morning

Sunday Morning 

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

9" x 12"

Click on the image to enlarge

I finally completed this painting after many sessions in my Thursday night painting class. You may remember that I posted a sketch of this piece back in August. This was my first interior painting, and there was such wonderful light and details in the photo that I wanted to capture. Now...Kim says "DO IT AGAIN BIGGER!"

Patriot's Place on Columbus Day

It was a beautiful day for painting at Patriot's Place in Foxboro yesterday. That is, when the sun was out. Amazing this time of year how cold it can get when the sun gets hidden by clouds. Columbus day was our rain date because the original date of October 3 was a major wash out. After we were invited to come down and paint there, we were instructed by security that we weren't allowed to paint the stadium or any logos. I mean, what else is there? So I went with a square format thinking I might try and do an abstract composition. I ended up putting in more detail than originally intended but the front of the Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro had some interesting architectural details that I wanted to see if I could capture with my knife. Here is my sketch.

I took this photo after I had sketched onto my panel and put in the sky. Notice-no stadium in my painting. The kids that came by were very funny. They are so fascinated and honest with their comments and critique. 

Here is me at work. My favorite quote of the day was when a woman came up to me and said "my husband said I had to come down here and see your work because you were painting with a spatula."

Here is Polo busy working on his painting.
And here are his adoring fans.
After the event was over, we all went to Tastings and enjoyed some great wine and food. While we were there, the artist, Eli Cedrone was inside painting another beautiful interior of the restaurant. There is another event scheduled for Saturday, October 24. We might need a "snow date" for that one.

The finding of The Taking

I just finished reading this book, The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr. It was recommended by Tony from my painting class who had seen the post I did about Caravaggio back in March and thought I would enjoy reading it. And I did. I enjoyed peaking into this world of art history and research through the eyes of a young art history student living in Rome and then the authentication and restoration process by an experienced restorer in the National Gallery in Ireland.  The book tracks the story of this Caravaggio painting, The Taking of Christ, lost for 200 years and then discovered in the 1990s hanging in a Jesuit rectory in Ireland. It also gives details about Caravaggio's tumultuous life, which I found interesting after having had taken that class at RISD. The man holding the lantern at the right side of the painting is supposed to be Caravaggio himself. He often inserted self portraits in his work. The painting was on display at Boston College in 1999. Wish I had seen it.

The Taking of Christ

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

Oil on Canvas: 1598

National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

October 3rd Tag Team Events

On Saturday, October 3 Polo and I will be in 2 places at once. From 10am-4pm we'll be at the 5th annual Walpole Arts & Music Festival held at Blackburn Hall and from 1pm-5pm we'll also be plein air painting at an artist fair held at Patriot Place in Foxboro. If you haven't checked out Pat's Place yet (that's what the kids calls it) you should make a trip down there. It's pretty amazing. We've figured out how we can do a tag team approach and be able to participate in both events. Oh-and it's also the drop off day for the Foxboro Art Association's Fall Member Show. Wish us luck!

UPDATE

Rain has postponed the plein air artists event at Patriot's Place to Monday, October 12 from 1-5pm. Come on down!

Vanilla or Chocolate?

Sprinkles 

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

4" x 4"

Click on the image to enlarge

This is the latest painting I submitted to Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. The photo that Karin posted was an beautiful array of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles. I chose a vanilla one to paint because that is what I would have chosen to eat. I painted it on a small cradled board so I also took this photo that shows it's dimension.

When I paint with my palette knives I often feel as if I am icing a cake so this image was such a fun image to paint. Getting that icing nice and thick was so satisfying. Like butta.

Another Opening, Another Show

We just finished hanging our September show at the Boyden Library in Foxboro. We will be having a reception from 2-4 on Saturday, September 19. Here is a preview, but we hope to see you there!

(I didn't paint the clock)

10-10-10

Today I want to stop and take a moment to appreciate achieving a few small goals. I have finally made it into the top 10 listing on both google.com and bing.com when you search for palette knife paintings. Wow! To be listed on that very first page is so exciting and so cool. Also-I have now reached 10 followers and have gotten 10 comments on a single post (a record for me). Both of those thanks to another talented palette knife artist, Trisha Lamoreaux. Thanks Trisha-I've been admiring your work from a far. So let's hear it for the number 10!

Future paintings

August has been a busy month so I haven't had a chance to do much painting. That doesn't stop me from being inspired though. I have had a chance to do a little sketching from some photographs that I think would make nice paintings.

This first one is my friends' daughter, Elizabeth, in a bookstore in Paris.

And this one is of my friend's parents (Elizabeth's grandparents) reading the paper inside a beautiful castle where they stayed in Scotland. You can see where she gets her love of reading!

I have been wanting to try an interior painting and this photo has such wonderful light I am excited to give it a go. It reminded me of the beautful interiors that Vuillard painted. Check out this painting of his on Gail's blog and you can see why. I will have to use him as my inspiration when I paint this one.

Berkeley Street take two

Looking up Berkeley Street II

Oil with a palette knife on canvas paper

12" x 8"

Click on the image to enlarge

At our Barnes & Noble show in July I had two different people interested in purchasing my painting called Looking up Berkeley Street so I offered to paint another for the second person who inquired. I finished it this weekend. It was an interesting exercise because I went back and forth between looking at my reference photo and looking at the other painting. There are many differences between the two but I'm pleased with the results. If you'd like to see the first one I painted, here is the link to that blog post.

I've also been working on a really large version of this painting that measures 48" by 30". I sketched it in several months and it's been staring at me ever since. I think I am intimidated by the size. Holy cow what was I thinking?

Streets of San Francisco

Streets of San Francisco

Oil with a palette knife on canvas paper

12" x 8"

Click on the image to enlarge

Here is my entry into this week's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. I was confused when Karin referred to this as a view of Lombard Street because I always thought that was the crazy winding street, but perhaps this is the climb to get there and then you descend down the other side? 

When I first saw the photo I was excited because it immediately brought to mind one of my favorite artists, Richard Diebenkorn. I dug out the big orange book I had about his work and found this painting. I wanted to use his work as inspiration for my painting.

Ingleside

Richard Diebenkorn

Oil on Canvas

81 13/16" x 69 1/2"

1963

Collection of the Grand Rapids Art Museum

I started with a sketch again to warm up....

And then launched in on the painting last night. I think it will make a nice companion piece to the NY Madison Avenue painting and the other scenes of Boston in my View from a Cube series. A new "Streets of..." series might be in the works. 

Honeymoon en Espana

Wendy and Bill

Oil with a palette knife on 1.5" cradled board

12" by 9"

Click on the image to enlarge

I painted this for my friends Wendy and Bill as a surprise wedding gift. It was painted from a photograph that was taken on their honeymoon at a wonderful cafe in Spain. I mean, don't you just want to be there right now with your honey and a glass of wine? I know I would. 

All wet

All Wet

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

10" x 8"

Click on the image to enlarge

OK-it's actually NOT raining today, but this painting was done from a photo that my friend Kim took of her daughter Lucy on one of the many days that it has been raining this summer. She has it posted on her blog. I just loved all the colors and doesn't she look like the Morton Salt Girl? Lucy might be getting a new baby sister today so three cheers for that. Good luck today, Kim.

JULY 30 UPDATE Elizabeth Dianne was born at 5:22am Thursday morning. Welcome Elizabeth and Happy Birthday! 

Looking for that perfect gift?

I've updated my blog side column to include a price list for commissioned paintings. I love to paint from family photographs and they make a unique and special gift for birthdays, weddings, and other important occasions. Take a look at the paintings in my Family Album Series to get an idea of some of the previous commissioned work that I have done.

I like to paint on these artist panels that come in 3 different thickness. This photo gives you an idea of what they look like. So send me your photo and let's talk!

Quiet Time

Quiet Time

Oil with palette knife on canvas paper

10" x 7.5"

Click on the image to enlarge

This is my entry into this week's Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge.

I started out with this pencil drawing to really study the figure as Karin suggested. I find that my train commute into work is a great time to sketch. As I was getting off the train, a woman commented "Your drawing is really nice. I was watching you draw in the window reflection as I was sitting behind you." A compliment like that from a complete stranger can be the best kind ever.

Looking at my painting now, I do see some flaws in the drawing. His torso looks too squat. But I do think that the drawing helped me to really study the figure in detail before I attacked the painting with a knife. I wanted to focus on the figure and really downplay the background. I also deliberately put him in the corner, emphazing his isolation from the surroundings. Here is a close up of the face.
And I didn't wait until the last day this time. Yeah!