Best Friends: : a new pet portrait

Best Friends

6" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

Commission

Rex asked I would paint this cute image of his friends two dogs as a gift for her. The image captured the moment when the doggie on the right finally accepted the newer doggie on the left in to the family. Awe!

Province Lands

Province Lands

12" x 36" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

This beautiful view is what you will see if you go all the way to the end of Commercial Street in Provincetown on Cape Cod. It's off of Provine Lands Road and it's part dunes, part marsh, part ocean, and part beach. In the distance you can see the Long Point Light Station.

I'm off and running with my paintings for the red inn season which opens in April. My goal is to have 5 new paintings by the time they open their doors. We are headed down (up?) to Provincetown this coming weekend and I hope to get some more inspiration.

Wish me luck!

What a pretty kitty

P.K.

6" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

Commission

The third and final cat portrait for my friend Danielle.

P.K. is short for pretty kitty and what a pretty kitty he was. He passed away several years ago but still a beloved pet. He looked a lot like my cat Skippy who owned me for 17 years until he had to be put down back in 2001. I did acrylic painting of him several years ago. You can see that painting by clicking here.

Here is all 3 of the paintings together. I decided to give them all a consistent blue background since they will be hung all together along with Paprika whose portrait you can see below.

Meet Lulu

 Lulu

6" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife of Ampersand Gessobord

Commission

This is Lulu, the second cat that my friend Danielle asked me to paint for her. She has such beautiful eyes, don't you think? They are looking right at you asking for treats.

Fluffy : : new cat portrait

Fluffy

6" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

Commission

Awhile ago I painted a portrait of my friend Danielle's cat Paprika as a tribute to her after she passed away. You can see that portrait of Paprika by clicking here.

Danielle recently asked if I would paint portraits of her other two other cats at the same size and also one of her first cat, PK, who passed several years ago. So my next several posts will be all about cat portraits! Cats a great fun to paint with a palette knife. Especially the whiskers.

Great Danes: : Large pet portrait commission

The Boys: Ziggy and Rory

24" x 36"

Oil with palette knives on Ampersand Gessobord

Comission

Tim asked me to paint a portrait of his two Great Danes as a gift for his partners's birthday. These large dogs needed a big canvas and it took about 8 painting sessions to complete. I took some progress shots along the way. 

Here was my set up. I printed out the reference photo at actual size (on 4 color copies 11" x 17" that I taped together.)

I started with the most important things first-the dogs. I painted a little of green background around them so that I could make sure they would read on the dark green and also to soften the edges of the dogs a little bit.

Then I painted the trees in the background.

Then the flowers, grass, and finally the rocks. The rocks were the hardest thing to paint. They have a lot of colors and textures that I wanted to capture but didn't want them to distract from the dogs.

 This painting is still drying but will be ready to ship to the birthday boy in a couple of weeks.

Thor and Loki at the Public Garden

Thor and Loki

9" x 12" x 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

These two Sharpei cuties are residents of Boston and like to hang out at the Boston Public Garden. I had done a painting of Thor on the beach previously but now Thor has a new sibling, Loki to share his escapades with so Hercules wanted me to paint a new painting of both of them together.

Here are a few shots I took along the way to show the process and the progress. I always start with  the most important thing, the subjects, then work my way out from there adding more details along the way as needed.

Notice that I left a little orange corner unpainted in the bottom left. Do you know why? That's where my signature goes so I leave a space to carve out my initials at the very end.

Superbowl Sunday

Polo's Pat Hat

8" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas panel

Available at The Artists Studio and Gallery at Patriot Place

We will be working at the art gallery at Patriot Place this Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday, but will be home in time to watch the game in the evening. While it will be a "Patriotless" game, it will still be fun to watch both the game and the commercials (but when do you use the restroom without missing something??).

Happy Superbowl Sunday everyone! Next week, one of two lucky cities will be celebrating their world champions with a parade.

Grandkids are the best

Grandkids are the Best!

9" x 12" oil with a palette knife on Blick Studio Artist Board

Commission

This commission has made its way to these lucky grandparents in Chicago. Their good friend Betsy wanted to give them a special gift so she asked if I could paint from a photo that they loved of a special day with their two grandkids. Isn't it the sweetest picture?

Here is a photo I took of my set up at the art gallery showing the painting in progress. I was painting during a playoff game-thus the hat!

Lili : : new Husky pet portrait

Lili

11" x 14"

Oil with a palette knife on Blick Studio Artist Board

My nephew Xander is turning 30 this week. His mama wanted to get him a special gift and decided on a painted portrait of his beloved Husky girl, Lili. She is such a good model and this photo of her swimming is one of Xander's favorites. 

Happy Birthday to Xander!

2020 Announcement :: Getting Focused and Organized

Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe it is 2020 already? It's a little surreal. I started this blog on January 1 of 2009 and I plan to keep it going for as long as I can. It's been a documentation of my journey as an artist and I often look back on it to remind me where I've been and where I want to go.

This year I have a big announcement to make as I start my 11th year as a blogger. I've made the decision to retire from my full time graphic design job of 30 years and focus on painting. It's pretty exciting but also very scary.

This is my first week working at my new full time job as an artist and I am trying to get organized. I am a list maker and have lots of ideas so I recently collected all of my notebooks so I could start making a plan. Each of these notebooks hold various thoughts, ideas, and inspirations. The reason there are so many is that I have them in various places-in the car, in my purse, at my bedside table, at my desk. How do you organized your ideas? I would love to hear any suggestions or other words of advice you may have while I wade through the waters. I am a sponge ready to soak it all it!

Ready? Let's Go!

Pure Joy

Pure Joy

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

36" x 18"

My friend Ann commissioned this painting for her husband's birthday. She sent me the photo she had taken that she wanted me to paint from and I could picture it on this size canvas immediately. I wanted the focus to be on the dogs while still creating interest with their surroundings using depth, color, and atmosphere.

Here are some closer up shots of the doggies. They are such happy Goldens in their happy place-water!

An international commission

This is Boston

8" by 16"

Oil on canvas

SOLD

Bio Bio River, Chile

8" by 16"

Oil on canvas

SOLD

These two pieces were commissioned by someone who bought a small painting of mine at The Artists Studio and Gallery at Patriot Place. The paintings were inspired by photos he took while flying overhead two of his favorite places, Boston and Chile.

These were painting on a loose piece of canvas and I deliberately left the edges rough. 

They were mailed off to Mexico City this week so I guess I can now say my work is collected internationally. That's pretty cool, right?

Larry the dog

Larry

8" x 8"

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord

This is Larry. I just love the name Larry for a dog. He looks like a happy pup. He is a rescue dog and this portrait is going to his owners as a present.

I painted this at home last weekend and took a photo of my set up. For reference, I used a color print out to size as well as the image on the iPad so that I can get a truer sense of Larry's coloring.

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs

Entering Truro

16" x 16" x 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

Available at the red inn in Provincetown

Entering Provincetown

16" x 16" x 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

Available at the red inn in Provincetown

These two signs just made their way up to the red inn a few weekends ago. On our way there, we passed by both of the real signs. 

I have painted these signs many times, however this time I added a few landmarks in the background. For the Truro sign I added the long row of Days Cottages and for the Provincetown sign I added the Pilgrim tower and a dune shack in the background. I am excited to move on to paint other towns on Cape Cod adding landmarks from each town in the background.

Race Point Ranger Station, Provincetown

Race Point Ranger Station

24" x 18"

Oil with a palette knife on Blick Cradled Artist Board
SOLD

This painting worked up quickly while working at the Art Gallery at Patriot Place a few weeks back. I finished it in one session. The photo I used for reference was taken in the fall on Race Point in Provincetown and the lighting was spectacular.

Pepe's and progress

Lunch at Pepe’s Wharf

18” x 24”

Oil with a palette knife on cradled panel

SOLD

This is one of our favorite spots to have lunch in Ptown, Pepe's Wharf. It has an amazing view of the water and also amazing negronis. I added a few negronis into the painting for fun. Can you spot them?

I took some progress shots along the way. There was a lot of detail in this image so it took several sessions to complete.

 And I also took some close ups so you can see the texture and details.

While summer is winding down here in New England, I like to look at this painting and anticipate being out there again next summer for a cocktail and delicious lunch.

Red Inn From The Sea Number 5

Red Inn From The Sea V

12" x 36" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

SOLD

This is number 35...yes, that's right, the 35th time I have painted this magical place in Provincetown. We were just there last weekend to deliver more paintings and I heard that this painting had sold, so Yay!

New Pet Portrait : : Mischa

Mischa

8" x 8"

Oil with a palette knife on Blick Studio Artist board

This beautiful girl belongs to my beautiful step daughter, Marissa who turned 30 this year. I painted this portrait of Mischa as a special surprise gift for her birthday which was on August 25. 

Here is Mischa checking herself out. The portrait will hang here by Mischa's window spot with the nice view. 

 I think she approves.

The Harbor Lounge, Provincetown

Cocktails at the Harbor Lounge

18" x 24"

Oil with a palette knife on Blick Studio Art Board

SOLD

On our last day trip up to Ptown, I dropped this painting off at the Red Inn for sale. Polo and I went to have lunch and while we were eating, I heard that the painting had already sold. The Harbor Lounge is a popular spot to have a cocktail and you can see why-it's right on the beach! It was a beautiful day when we were there so the photos I took gave me some nice reference shots to choose from. We hope to make another trip up soon to drop off some more paintings so stay tuned for the next selections. Ptown offers an endless amount of beautiful painting subjects to choose from!