Cape Neighbors

Cape Neighbors

12" x 24" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord
SOLD

This is the view outside my friend, Terry's place in Provincetown. I loved how you can look out windows while you are drinking your coffee and wonder if your neighbors are doing the same. I sure am not ready for summer to end-it is definitely my favorite season.

Chloe the cat

Chloe

Oil with a palette knife on board

6" x 6"
SOLD

Get ready for a parade of palette knife cats. This is the first in a series of 15 commission pet portraits. That's right, 15 pet portraits that need to be done in time for Christmas to be given as gifts. I'm so glad she started early and she sent me great photos to work with. This will be so much fun!

That is one sly fox

Sly

18" x 18" x 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on Blick Cradled Artist Board

Another fun animal to paint with the palette knife. I will be entering this and the Alpaca into an upcoming juried show called "Untamed" for Mass Audobon's Moose Hill Society. Wish me luck.

Alpaca

Just Curious

18" x 18" x 1.5"

Oil with a palette knife on Blick Studio Artist's Board
SOLD

I loved this face so much I had to paint it. And the hairdo-what fun to paint with a palette knife!

This painting is in need of a good name. Send me your suggestions if you have any good ideas. I want to include Alpaca in the title somehow since some people might think i'ts a llama. And Llama Mama would be a good title if that were the case.

I might just keep changing the title until I find one that fits.

A unique place to live in Boston

4 Charlesgate East, Boston

24" x 18" x 2"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord
SOLD

This painting of a unique building in Boston was a commission from a woman who was lucky enough to have lived here while she was attending college. Nice, huh? I have to admit I have never seen this building before so when she asked me to paint it, I took a walk down there to check it out for myself in person. It is incredible! The architecture so unique and the location can't be beat. It's near the Charles River, Fenway Park and Kenmore Square. It holds such wonderful memories that she wanted a painting to remember it forever. Can't blame her.

Along the way, I took several in process shots...

Here is the initial sketch stage and my set up:

This is stage 1 where I blocked in the colors:

At stage 2, the right side of the building is painted:

I completed the left side and the surrounding foliage at stage 3:

Then finally at stage 4, shown at the top of the page, I glazed a little color on the right side of the building to give some contrast and better feel for the light.

Ampersand Online Gallery

Lunch at Fanizzi's

24" by 24"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Gessobord

SOLD at The Red Inn

When I tell people who hire me to do commission work that I paint on cradled artist board, they usually don't know what that means. Here is a visual of a brand I use often called Ampersand Gessobord. They also make versions for watercolor and encaustic medium as well. I love the big sizes that they come in and they always make the painting feel so "substantial." What I also love about them is that, while they can be framed, they don't need to be framed because of the modern clean wood sides. On their website, they have some information about how you can stain the sides or put several sizes together if you want to. You can also order custom sizes as well.

Before I begin painting on them, I tape up the sides with painters tape to keep them free of stray paint. Then when it's dry and you pull the tape off, you have a nice clean edge.

Awhile back I submitted some work I had done to Ampersand and recently I got an email telling me that they included my painting (above) in their online gallery. Here is a link to the Ampersand Online Art Gallery. Take a look at all of the beautiful artwork included.

For smaller works, I also use a cradled board made by Blick Art Supplies. These come in a great variety of sizes and depths up to 18" by 24" and are very affordable. Click on this link to see the Blick Studio Artist Boards.

Paintings in situ

I absolutely love seeing my paintings in their new homes or after they have been custom framed to their new owners vision. Here is a collection of images that people have sent me over the years that show my paintings in their new home. If you have purchased or a commissioned a painting from me in the past, please send me your photos-I'd love to see them.

Take a peek into the Back Bay of Boston

A Peek Into Back Bay

9" by 12" by .75"

Oil with a palette knife on Blick Studio Artist's Board

I took the reference photo for this painting over a year ago and have always had it on my list to paint. Its turn finally came up last week. I completed this in two sessions. Here was the painting after the first session:

That's my orange wash that you see underneath but it kind of looks like Boston is on fire doesn't it? Well today it's going to be 100 degrees here and it will feel like it's on fire too!

And finally, I took some chunky delicious closeups shots so you can see the texture of the paint up close. These look like cute little paintings themselves don't they?

 

Husky Dog Portrait

Whooky

18" x 18" x 1 1/2"

Oil with a palette knife on cradled board
SOLD

This is a surprise birthday gift from my nephew to his girlfriend. This is their beautiful dog, Whooky. Look at those ice blue eyes-aren't they gorgeous?

Below is an image of my set up. I had a large color print out to use for reference as well as the image downloaded onto my ipad so I can zoom in on certain parts as I paint. You can just barely see a rough sketch on top of my cad orange/red wash.

And this image below gives you a nice sense of scale of the final painting.

Afternoon In Ptown

Afternoon in Ptown

12" x 24" x 2"

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

Yet another Provincetown painting that will make its way up to display at The Red Inn once it's dry. I was attracted to this image because of the light coming on the cottages that is so typical of the cape. 

I was pretty good about taking photos along the way so below you can see both my progress as well as  my process. 

I started with a cad orange/cad red wash in acrylic. Then sketched the scene in pencil on top.

For some reason I started working right to left. It's either because I'm left handed or that I loved that yellow light in those windows on the bottom right and was dying to paint that first.

This was how I left it after day one. I had only the sky and the foliage to add at my next session.

More Red Inn for the Fourth

Relax And Enjoy The View, at The Red Inn

24" x 24" x 2"

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

I am in the process of working on some more paintings of The Red Inn in Provincetown to bring up there in a few weeks. You really can't go wrong with any view of this amazing inn. This deck that they have off the back is filled with Adirondack chairs where everyone goes to watch the sunset every night. Usually with cocktails in hand.

Below is a photo I took to show my set up before I started painting. I did my usual cad orange/red underpainting wash, then sketched on top with a brush (gasp!) using the same color. I was lucky enough to have a color print out as well as the image projected on the ipad for reference.

Happy Fourth of July everyone. I hope you have an amazing place like this to relax and enjoy the view!

Some Friday Fun: : Vegetarians, look away!

I wanted to share something just for fun today. 

Polo started creating these "sculptures" while he was spicing up the hamburger meat before grilling and it has now become a series. It's been fun brainstorming who the next subject will be. 

The Commander in Beef

by Polo Barrera

You're Fired

by Polo Barrera

 The Man In The Mirror

by Polo Barrera

The other night, I gave it a try myself with a smaller amount of ground beef and created the one below. It's harder than it looks!

Phone Home

by Ann Gorbett

Feel free to send your suggestions for future scultpure subjects.

Mini Hopper

Mini Hopper, After Early Sunday Morning

3" x 5"

Oil with a palette knife on Ampersand Claybord
SOLD

These minis are so much fun to paint, I love to fit them in when I can. I painted this on a sample size of Clayboard that I had from Ampersand. I loved the size, but if you see this in person, you will see that the surface sort of sucked the oil out of the paint and left the matte looking pigment on the top. I think I'll need to add a varnish to bring out the color again.

This was the second Mini Hopper I painted. The first was this one from several years ago:

Mini Hopper, After Automat

4" x 5"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas board

SOLD

Golden Girls

Nala

6" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas board
SOLD

 Sophie

6" x 6"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas board
SOLD

Meet Nala and Sophie-The Golden Girls. I am working on a couple of large commission pieces of these cuties so I painted these small studies in preparation. I think I am going to need some large trowels to paint the bigger versions. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

UPDATE: instead of painting these larger, we decided to try making large canvas prints from the smaller paintings. Check this out. Doesn't it look awesome? This print is 48" by 48"!

Pink Paper Party Dress

Pink Paper Party Dress

10" by 8"

Mixed media: acrylic, cut paper, paper clips, and beads
SOLD

Custom Art Framing and Gallery 9 in Norwood is sponsoring a fun art show for June. The idea is to create a piece of art to go with a frame. Julie had a bunch of frames created by Roma Moulding that fit an 8 by 10 canvas and then she wrapped them all up in brown paper for participating artists to choose without seeing them.

Here is the frame that I was given. The flowers are carved into the wood and then it looks like it has a silver leaf applied on top.

Here is a photo taken at the gallery of the two finally together:

Recent Press

How exciting...I was interviewed by Norwood Life Magazine awhile ago and was recently sent the issue where it appeared. It is kind of bizarre to see yourself and your art in a publication, right? Yet really great exposure at the same time. Thank you Norwood Life!

The Girl In The White Jacket

Pretty on Pink

10" x 8"

Oil with a palette knife on canvas board
SOLD

I was feeling like painting something a little "girly" while working at the gallery this past Sunday (maybe because it was Mother's Day?).  I was inspired by the paintings of these two other artists.

The first one is by Gustav Klimt that I happened upon while researching something else:

Portrait of Maeda Primavesi

Gustav Klimt (1913)

And the second one is this pastel drawing by Whistler:

The Blue Girl

James McNeill Whistler (1900s) 

I have been trying to simplifiy my faces down to the fewest strokes and values possible, which I think Whistler does here superbly. I also originally had much more detail in the wallpaper background but it looked way too busy so I scraped it off and liked the effect that gave it. Then added back a few more flowers on top. Then finally, I wanted to make her clothes and hair look a little more modern so I changed those up to my liking.

Fun.