A young virtuoso in the making

Xander at the Piano

12" x 9"

Oil with palette knives on Ampersand Gessobord

Bill asked me if I would paint this cute image of his nephew Xander at the piano. He took this image over the holidays, you can see Xander's is wearing his Christmas vest. I just loved that his tongue was sticking out, concentrating hard on playing just the right notes for his audience. The ambiance of this beautiful room added to the fun of painting this piece.

Doodle Commission

Hobie

12" x 9"

Oil with palette knives on cradled board

Amy saw me painting a pet portrait while visiting the Artist's Studio and Gallery at Patriot Place and she got an idea for a Christmas present for her daughter and son in law. 

Meet Hobie. Doesn't he look like such a good boy? Doodles are such fun to paint with palette knives. Their fur lends itself to the textured strokes perfectly. 

Christmas Cat Commission

Abby and Teninty

10" x 10"

Oil with palette knives on cradled board

Cindy asked if I would paint these two cute ginger cats as a Christmas gift for her daughter Amanda. Don't you just love their faces? Such personalities.

Here are couple of progress shots.

Paint pour experiment

Chatham Seal

6" x 8"

Acrylic paint pour and oil with palette knives

SOLD

I tried an experiment with this painting. I used an acrylic paint pour technique to create the water effect of the ocean background and then once that was dry, I painted the seal using oil paints with my palette knives. I plan to do a larger version of this painting but wanted to experiment first at a smaller scale to see how it would work.

Here are a few process shots I took along the way.

My set up.

I elevated the painting on a tissue box so the colors could drip off the sides.

I like the shininess when the paint is still wet!

Once I decided to stop the paint pour for the background ocean (when to stop was the most difficult part), I then scraped away the area where I wanted to paint in the seal with oils.

Here are some fun abstract blobs of color left over.

"Cocktail Hour" at the Miami Art Museum

I'm just now getting around to posting some images from a memorable visit to my alma mater last December. I met up with my sister Cathy, and my art school friend Lynn to visit the Faculty & Alumni show at the Miami University Art Museum. I was thrilled that my painting "Cocktail Hour" was juried in to this wonderful museum's exhibit.

Lynn and I did a lot of reminiscing about our art school days. It was interesting to see the new art building and to see some of the art students at work. Very different from when we went there, but such fun.

Celebrating 2021: The Hawthorne Barn, an overview

For this last part 3 of my series about the workshop at the Hawthorne Barn held last October, I wanted to share some photos that show the atmosphere and history of the barn itself. What an experience this was!

Polo waiting to go inside.

The kitchen

The bathroom

John read to us from these two books below to get us inspired while standing in front if this huge north facing window.

And now just some cool shots from in and around the barn...

Celebrating 2021: The Hawthorne Barn, afternoon session

Portrait study

12" x 16"

Oil with palette knives on board

This is part 2 about the Hawthorne Barn painting workshop we attended last October. For the afternoon session, John had us paint from a live model. I had not painted from a model in a long time so this was a great challenge for me. But I loved it.

Here are a few more images from the afternoon session.

John's demo in the afternoon. The model stand is the same one used in the Cape Cod School of Art back in the day.

Here is a photo showing my vantage point to the model.

And here's a view of the whole class painting.

Celebrating 2021: The Hawthorne Barn, morning session

Still-life with Orange

Approx 12" x 16"

Oil with palette knives on canvas

Happy New Year! I wanted to take some time at the start of this new year to celebrate a few things that I am thankful for from last year. This first post is about a one day workshop led by the artist John Clayton that Polo and I attended in October. It took place at the historic Hawthorne Barn in Provincetown MA, where the Charles Hawthorne and the Cape Cod School of Art used to hold classes back in the day. This has been on my bucket list for awhile now, and this is the first time I've been able to participate so I jumped at the chance. 

Here are a few images from the morning session where we all painted different still lifes that John set up for us.

Here is John giving us a demo.

This is a pano view of the entire room.

The final paintings.

A few of the other still life set ups.