Going, going, gone....

Looking Up
Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist panel

8" x 8

I donated this painting to the Foxboro Library Art Auction which took place this past weekend at the Foxboro Country Club. What a well organized and fun event. There were 53 works of art auctioned off and they are estimating that they raised around $14,000 dollars for the library. Pretty impressive. You can read more about the auction by visiting the Foxboro Art Association blog.

Below are some photos from the night.

The organizers of the event.

The auctioneers with the painting that solicited the highest bid of the night-Founder's Day Parade by Jackie Canna-for $1050.

My painting being auctioned off.

I bid on several paintings and was lucky to have come home with a beautiful pastel by Cindy Kerr.

In Your Face

Cirque du Kitty
6" x 6"
Oil with a palette knife on board
NFS

The colors of this painting got a little crazy, like circus crazy. But I'm liking how it came out. This cat's eyes reminded me of the poster for the musical Cats-so striking! He has a very regal, wild, tigerlike face, don't you think? I am enjoying doing these really tight close ups of the animal faces. If you have a cat yourself, you have probably seen this in your face at about 5 am checking to see if you are awake. Isn't it time to eat?

Inspirational student work

There is a wonderful student show at the Transportation Building in Boston right now. It's the Annual Scholastic Art Gold and Silver Key award winners. I took some photos of some of the pieces that caught my eye but overall I was so impressed.

This is a detail of a drawing by Anna Viccica. I loved how you could see the texture of the paper coming through. Exquisite.

There were several large self portraits from one school in Belmont which were fantastic. This wall held most of them. Hats off to this art teacher encouraging his/her students to work this large. I don't remember ever doing something this big in high school. And the technical skill was outstanding. Below are a few close ups of two of my favorites.

All media were eligible including photography, sculpture, digital art, and design.

I loved the artwork on this boot. Take a close look at the detail if you can. Amazing. It is so inspiring to see such wonderful art coming out of our high schools.

Opera House Makeover

Boston Opera House (revisited)

12" x 12" x .75"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled board
SOLD

I revisited this painting. Something was bothering me. There was no sky and I think it was making the painting feel too yellow and orange overall. You can see the earlier version by clicking here. I thought if I added a nice blue it might make the other colors pop more. It's always scary to do something like this because, what if you make it look worse? So no one is allowed to tell me you like the original painting better. Oh-alright, I can take it.

And finally...a chunky delicious close up.

Abstract Boston?

Boston from the Footbridge

9" x 12" x 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled board
SOLD

I thought the shapes in the reference photo I used for this painting had a very abstract feel and I tried to capture that in this painting.

Of course, I couldn't resist adding just a few windows. And I tried something new in the reddish building in the back. I scraped away the paint with the knife to create the feel of a row windows instead of painting them on top.

The Sketchbook Project Tour has begun

My friend Greg took this photo of his daughter holding up my Boys & Girls sketchbook which they checked out on the first stop of The Sketchbook Project's tour-Austin, Texas. How fun is that?

The next stop is Portland, Maine. We plan to head up there with a few other artist friends to see the tour firsthand on April 2.

Click here for the schedule of all of the cities on the tour. Is it coming to your town?

And just an interesting side note...Elizabeth, shown in the photo, loves books and was the subject of this painting, In Her Element.

How much is that kitty in the window?

Le chat dans la fenêtre

8" x 10"

Oil with a palette knife on board
SOLD

There was something about the reference photo I was using for this painting that looked French to me. For my blog readers that know French (Martine-Alison, Tony, Kim) you can tell me if google translated the title correctly from The Cat In The Window.

I started this painting a few months ago and was never happy with how the curtains came out. Very difficult to get that feel of sheer doile, laceyness with a palette knife. I ended up painting a light color on top of the dark color and then scraping some away to get the effect I wanted.

Paint your cake and eat it too

Say Cheesecake

8" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas
SOLD

I bought this cute little cheesecake at Finale (a wonderful bakery down the street from our office) so I could paint it during painting class. I have to admit, I thought painting this would be a "piece of cake" but it was soooo tricky. The fork especially, was difficult to make look realistic with just the palette knife.

The best thing was, we were able to enjoy eating it after class with our chicken nachos and beer. And it was creamy delish.

Wide-eyed kitten face

Wide-eyed Kitten Face

6" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on board
SOLD

This is Gadjo. He is Rumi's little brother. This painting was done from a photo of him when he was just a kitten. He is now a young man and fitting right in with the rest of the critters. Check him out on Jala Pfaff's blog and while you are there, take a look at her new beautiful pastels. Quite a treat.