Young Paul

Thanks to Paul for the photo reference of his younger self I found among his FB photos. A classic!

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Mabel

Sweet Mabel. The photo I used as reference was taken at her dad's marriage to my good friend, Wendy.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Dennis and Dad

Another drawing done from a photo stolen, I mean borrowed, from a friend's Facebook photo album. This is Dennis with his dad. So cute.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Tim's Gang

I saw this photo of my friend, Tim, among his Facebook photos and just had to add it to my Boys and Girls sketchbook. That's him in the glasses and plaid shirt. Looks like something out of Our Gang, right? They just need the Petey the dog to complete the image. What fun this was to study and draw each "character".

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Things are still Looking Up!

Looking Up
Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist panel

8" x 8"

I painted this in one session from a reference photo I borrowed from our instructor, Kim. During critique, everyone said that this should have been my "Looking Up" submission for the November show at Gallery 9. Ah, well. too late.

But the First Friday reception for the Looking Up show was a great success. All of the paintings were so interesting, I couldn't stop looking at them. Here is a shot of them all hung up together.

The gallery also had a canvas set up at the show and artists were encouraged to paint a portion of the painting. The painting will be auctioned off to raise money for the Norwood Food Pantry. What a great idea. Here is Polo adding one of his signature apples to the painting.
Here is what the painting looked like at the end of the evening. My contribution was the wallpaper.
Check out more photos from the event here.

Meet Skippy

I realized after my last post that I don't believe I ever posted this palette knife painting I did a few years ago of my famous cat, Skippy. He was my best pal for 17 years, a graduation gift from my college roommate. He was quite the talker, very social, and made many friends in the neighborhood. I had to put him down about, gosh has it been 9 years ago now? I never replaced him and miss him a lot. It is incredible how these little creatures can become part of who you are.

So, go hug your pets today.

Skippy meets Nikki

My nephew Nicholas as a baby in my apartment meeting my cat for the first time. I love how Skippy is checking him out, not quite sure what to think.

The young apprentice

The budding artist, Edda, watching her uncle paint with pen and ink.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Things are Looking Up

The Penthouse Suite

Oil with a palette knife on canvas

10" x 10"
SOLD

This is my submission for the November show at Custom Art Framing & Gallery 9 entitled "Looking Up". Every artist is given the same size canvas to participate and interpret the theme. I've been obsessed with painting windows lately, so I chose this photo reference looking up at some city buildings. I imagine the view up there in the penthouse is pretty great. Ah-maybe some day-things are looking up!

The paintings should look pretty cool all hung together since they will all be the same size. Stop by for the reception Friday, November 5 from 6-8pm and check out all of the great art.

Snowman for Dani

My good friend Danielle with her mother Alice after building one incredible snowman.

A Japanese Tradition

Kyoko

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

8" x 8" x .75"
$150 unframed

It is a tradition in Japan to have professional photos taken in a kimono when you turn 20. My friend Haydi recently brought photos to painting class of her niece, Kyoko, taken for just this occasion. They were such beautiful images that I asked her if I could paint one.

Haydi also painted one of the photos in watercolor which is shown below. Isn't it stunning? We all love the long vertical format of this piece as well as the detail she was captured in the face and and in the kimono. Just wonderful. Make sure to click on the image to see it larger.

And I had to get a shot of the beautiful picture holder that the photos were mailed in. Kyoko's mother made it from milk cartons and Japanese paper. Just perfect. (Oh, and that's Haydi in the background busy working on her next watercolor masterpiece!)

Congratulations Kyoko on your 20th birthday.

Daddy's little girls

This photo was submitted to me by a fellow blogger earlier in the year when I was asking for photo submissions to paint for a show back in June. She recently posted on her blog that it would have been her father's 73rd birthday had he not died of lung cancer at the young age of 47. It made me remember that I had this image of her and her sister sitting on their daddy's lap so I had to add it to my sketchbook.

Thinking of you Autumn Leaves.

Mom's Dollhouse

I found an old photo of my mother so excited to play with her new dollhouse, even in the dead of a Chicago winter. Her birthday is January 8, so I'm sure this must have been a much desired birthday present. You can even see a tiny CAROL written above the door. Sweet.

In their Sunday best

There he is again, little Polito, in his Sunday best, surrounded by women-his 3 sisters and his mother. Looks like a special occasion, or maybe Easter Sunday? I guess it's been all about Polo this week.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

A Pinata for Polito

Another from the "young Polo collection"...on his birthday I'm sure, trying to hit the somewhat scary looking pinata in the backyard. (p.s. I can't quite figure out how to get that little tilde over the n in pinata within blogger, so pardon the omission.)

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.

Posing with Dad

New drawing from a photo of a young little Polito posing along side a photo of his dad. So darn cute. I've been posting all of these drawings to my Picasa Web Album.

Missing Summer

The weather has started turning colder here and it makes me miss summer. This drawing, for my Sketchbook Project, was done from a photo taken in 1936 of my grandfather and mother on the beach and it's helping to warm me up today.

Plein Air on Lake Pearl

Autumn Tree Bouquet

Oil with a palette knife on artist board

8" x 10"

SOLD

We had so much fun yesterday painting plein air at our friend Diane's house that I just had to post a bunch of photos of the day. We arrived in the morning which provided the best light and set up outside her house on beautiful Lake Pearl. Here's a shot of the group. Don't we look like professionals?
Here's Polo working on his masterpiece. He received the prize for the day which was a "trip to paradise" for the best painting. I hope he brings me along!
Here is Frank hard at work on his second painting. Show off.
And here is Cindy in action. Look at those colors!
Haydi is crafting a beautiful rendition of Lake Pearl in watercolor.
We found out a little later that our host Diane, is also a swan whisperer. She lured this family of swans-mom, dad, and 5 babies over to the dock-for us all to get a closer look.
Tashi was our guardian. Ever on the look out from the deck, ready to protect.
And as a finale to our wonderful 10-10-10 day, we saw this fish cloud in the sky. So beautiful and yet so bizarre as these were the only clouds in the entire sky. Do you see the bubbles coming out of his mouth? What does it mean?

Opera House, Boston

Opera House, Boston

Oil with a palette knife on cradled artist board

12" x 12" x .75"
SOLD

I originally intended for this painting to be more abstract shapes and then found myself getting obsessed with painting the windows again. I took this reference photo looking down the Ave de Lafayette at The Boston Opera House (the white building) on Washington Street. Again, I was attracted to the juxtaposition of old and new Boston all sandwiched together.

We had a discussion in painting class about that triangle roof-I struggled with it's perspective in order to make it believable. What's interesting is that I was googling images of the Opera House this morning and found some earlier photos where this buidling had a different roof. Later photos showed scaffolding around this building so that must have been a recent update. Kind of strange that they added such a modern roof to an otherwise historic looking building. Do you think they were trying to make it blend it better with the brandy new building that popped up behind it?

Pom Pons

The next sketch in my Sketchbook Project.When my friend Kim first posted this photo of her younger self on Facebook, I commented that I liked the Pom Poms on her sweater. This started a discussion that ended with "is it pom pom or pom pon?" Well-technically it is pom pon but "Pom Pon Girls" just doesn't sound right, does it?

Ah well.

All of the drawings I complete will be posted on The Sketchbook Project's website.