Family Christmas Commission

The Aldridge Kids

11" by 14"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

Liz asked if I would paint a portrait of her three kids and their dog Max as a surprise Christmas present for her husband. I finished it on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day I received an email from her which read "I love it!!!!! It is my husband's favorite present!" There is no better compliment than that!

2012 Mini Masters

Mini Cassatt

3" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

SOLD

Mini Vermeer

3" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

NFS

 Mini Degas

3" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

SOLD

I love painting these minis at Christmas time. A friend gave me these mini canvases as a gift and they are just the perfect size for my Mini Masters. Don't they look fun on the mini easels too?

And here is a photo of the Mini Vermeer painting in progress taken during class.

A Christmas Commission

Denis and Bailey

9" by 12"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled art board
SOLD

My friend Robbyn commissioned me to paint this painting of her son and his dog to give to her husband Dave as a Christmas present.

And then for a fun surprise, she brought him to the gallery and asked if I would pretend I was painting it as he came in. Took him at least 10 minutes to notice it, then he said "hey that looks like...it IS Denis." It was very funny. Here he is posing with his present (and me with my eyes closed)

Off to good homes

These 3 paintings were recently sold at The Red Inn and are now off to good, art loving homes. I am so happy for them.

A Busy Season

City Blocks

12" by 12"

SOLD

It has been a busy holiday season for sales and commissions. While I can't show all of the paintings here just yet (for fear of spoiling Christmas surprises!) I can share that this Boston scene SOLD at The Red Inn.

Yay for Christmas!

Newbury Street Cover Concept

I think this is so cool. A college student at the Wentworth Institute of Technology wrote me yesterday to ask permission to use an image of my Newbury street painting as a cover concept for their project's portfolio (their project involved developing a site on Newbury Street in Boston). And the image she wants to use is the partially completed one. What a great idea!

For reference, here is an image of the completed painting and a link to my original post about the in process painting.

It's that time of year

Yule Log

12" x 12"x 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

I recently gave a palette knife painting demo for the Taunton Art Association. I saw this beautiful holiday arrangement at our local grocery store and decided to make it my subject for the night. It had so many wonderful textures and colors that I knew it would be great to showcase a variety of palette knife techniques. The group was very fun and asked a lot of questions and I think a few converts will be trying palette knife painting for themselves in the near future. Success!

Here is a nice write up that they put in their newsletter before the demo.

And I hope to add some photos soon that they took during they demo.

The Red Inn III

The Red Inn III

12" x 36" x 2"

oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord
SOLD

This is another commission of The Red Inn completed as a wedding gift for a lucky couple who got married there in October. Some friends of theirs saw the SOLD painting at the inn during the wedding and wanted to commission another one as a gift for their friends.

I was able to complete the painting while working at The Art Gallery at Patriot Place a few weekends ago. Below is a photo I took after it was completed. You can get a better sense of the size and scale of the painting in this image.

The Final Sister Wedding Commission

"Blessed"

Heidi and Jim's Wedding

8" x 10" x .75"

Oil with a palette knife of cradled artist board
SOLD

The last in the series of commissioned "Sisters Wedding Paintings" and this one involved more than just the bride and groom as you can see. A challenge and yet very fun. All of these children are students of the bride who teaches theraputic horseback riding. The photo she sent me had a wonderful light coming down on them that I tried to capture in the painting. And the original photo did not include the groom. I had to add him by using a full length image of him from another photo.

A special Christmas gift from her sisters!

And, as usual, I wanted to show you how I started the painting, using the red/orange underpainting in acrylic.

If you want to see the other sisters paintings, click on these links. The first one was in Mexico, and the second was in Maine.

Celebrating 200

I was learning some new effects in InDesign from Mike Rankin on lynda.com and created this graphic to help celebrate reaching 200 followers on my blog. Welcome everyone and I hope you continue to enjoy reading this blog and taking a look at my latest paintings.

Have a great day.

View from the Sea

The Red Inn From The Sea

12" x 36"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord
SOLD

Another Red Inn commission but this one is the view from the sea for another lucky couple getting married there soon. Hopefully Hurricane Sandy didn't rearrange things too much this past weekend. Yikes-what a storm!

A Ptown Perspective

A Ptown Perspective

24" x 18" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

SOLD

I painted this while working at the Artists Studio and Gallery this past weekend. It was a steady crowd both Saturday and Sunday due to a UMass college football game, a New England Revolution soccer game, and a Patriot's game. Also a wedding, a bar mitzvah and a high school reunion I heard. It's nice to see Patriots' Place so full of activity. And the weather was gorgeous to boot.

Here are a few in progress shots I took along the way...

The Red Inn II

The Red Inn II

12" x 36" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord
SOLD

Look familiar? A couple who got married at The Red Inn saw the painting I had there with the SOLD sign on it and decided they wanted to commission one for themselves. This place is one popular spot to get married!

Summer Tans, 1950 is a Ribbon Winner!

Update: I learned this past weekend that my painting won an honorable mention ribbon at the FAA show. How exciting!

Summer Tans, 1950

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

18" x 18" x 1.5"
SOLD

I was able to complete this painting while working on The Artist's Studio and Gallery at Patriot Place this past weekend. It felt really good to get back to painting people again. I love this size. You can really get in there with the knife and sculpt away at the faces. I have entered this painting into the fall members' show of the Foxboro Art Association which starts this weekend.

And as I often like to do, here is a photo partially completed after the first day.As you can see I used the red/orange acrylic underpainting again and taped the edges so I could add the photo border and date later.

I need to go hunt down some more photos like this to paint. If anyone has any old photos that they would be willing to let me paint, send my way. I am particularly interested in photos taken in the summer from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

The Art and Garden Show

Last weekend we participated in The Art and Garden Show at a wonderful place in Rehobeth Massachusetts called Country Gardens. Above is a group photo taken of all the participating artists and below are a few shots taken before the crowds filled the tent. Everyone came out on this beautiful day to enjoy the gardens and the art.

 I tried to get a shot of the entire tent.

 Here is our display.

Polo manning our section.

Our show at The Red Inn in Provincetown

Yesterday, Polo and I drove up to Ptown to hang up our show at The Red Inn. 

The Red Inn, Provincetown

12" x 36"x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled board

SOLD

The hallway where our paintings are hanging sees a lot of traffic as it's how you get to the restroom and how the waitstaff gets to the kitchen. 

Here we are after all our pantings were hung. We are excited about this new venue for exhibiting our work.

Besides the Red Inn painting shown above, the other paintings that are currently on display and for sale at The Red Inn are these six:

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

SOLD

Another wedding commission!

A Maine Event

8" x 10"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas board
SOLD

A few years ago I did a painting called Destination Wedding. A nice sister commissioned it as a present for her sister from her wedding in Mexico. Recently, the happy sister contacted me and wanted to return the favor by having a painting commissioned of that sister's recent wedding in Maine. From the photos she sent me, it looked like they had fabulous weather, spectacular views, and a beautiful wedding.

Docked in Provincetown

Docked in Provincetown

24" x 36" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord
SOLD

Here's another biggie for our upcoming show. Only a few weeks away now and I want to squeeze one more big one in. I think I can do it...and not be hanging it on the wall still wet.

Below are a couple of photos I took of the painting in progress.

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

Monochromatic study

Carol

Approx 10" by 8"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

I always find these quick sepia toned studies to be a good exercise in studying values. This was painted from a photo of my mother when she was very young. So cute.

A secret garden in Provincetown

Secret Garden, Provincetown

24" x 30" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord
SOLD at The Red Inn

I am getting ready for a September art show at the Red Inn. This is my latest of the series of larger paintings focusing on beautiful scenes in Provincetown.

Below you can see how I sketched the scene out in orange/red acrylic paint first, and ended up painting the right side in the first day and the left side on the second day. That wasn't intentional but it's interesting that it worked out that way.

If you find yourself in Provincetown between September 16 and October 5, stop in and see the show!