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"

SOLD

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"

SOLD

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"

NFS

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.