The Dancer

The Dancer (new photo)

6" x 6" oil on canvas panel $49.99

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A new daily painting for ebay

I loved the drama of this piece. I added the earring because I thought she looked like a flamenco dancer.

Thanks very much to Megyarsh on Flickr for the use of her fabulous reference photo.

Cheers, all

Life is Golden

Life is Golden - 8"x10" for Julia Kay's Portrait Party-Flickr

I was having a bit of fun for Julia Kay's Portrait Party last night. I painted this from one of Tipsy Darkness' photos that she posted of herself. The bright areas are actual gold leaf...her eye highlight, ring, left corner and the bright lights in the background.

My Darling Daddy

Sketchbook Project -- My Darling Daddy

I was feeling inspired this morning as I was looking at the newest "Strokes of Genius" collection of drawings, so I decided to draw my dad. This is just pencil in my little moley, from life while having his morning cigarette...(Hack! Hack!) The eyes look a little freaky in the scan, they're darker than in the drawing so they look a little over-exaggerated than they do for real...oh well.

Inishmore

"Inishmore" 12x16 oil on panel $400.00

I remember the day when I took the reference photo for this painting so well! I was stuck at an intersection on my rented bicycle behind this pony cart driver on Inishmore Island, in Ireland. We were waiting for about ten other pony carts and bicycles, and a minivan and I took advantage of the moment to ask to take his picture. He has such a magnificently craggy, character-filled face! And he kind of frowned, and looked off in the distance, and said "Fine then, shoot away." No smile, nothing...but I remember it fondly...

"Keiki Hula Girl" 14"x 18" oil on canvas

Aloha from Maui everyone,
this is one of my newest paintings, not from my upcoming show, so I feel like it's okay to show it:) The photo is horrible...the paint is still slightly wet and the camera seems to have managed to pick up previous layers of paint in the background...weird...you can't see them when you look at the original. In fact, I'm going to try for some better pics of this one. Anyways, here it is for now,
Enjoy

"The Long Road" 12" x 16" oil on canvas

Another image from my Barkerville series. This one is adapted from a very cool old black and white postcard taken of one of the men who spent days hiking overland on foot to the gold fields in Barkerville. This guy seems to have just collapsed with exhaustion and layed down on the ground for a nap. I loved the image, and it worked well in color.

Senorita

"Senorita" 9" x 12" oil on canvas

I have to try to get a better photo of this one, without the blur and the glare, but nonetheless, it's still one of my favorite paintings to date. I'm getting better with the loose brushstrokes, and this one literally flew off of the brush. It was really inspiring to achieve exactly what I was going for in this painting. It doesn't happen for me that often. The looseness worked, the colors worked...and thanks very much for the great contributors at WetCanvas for the great reference photo.

Randy Hall

"Randy" 12" x 12" oil on canvas

This is my husband's son, Randy. He's a handsome guy, and he looked so intense in this pose that I thought I'd try to capture his intensity.

Hula Girl

"Hula Girl" 9"x 12" oil on canvas

I took the photo for this one last winter in Maui at the Children's Hula in Lahaina. Although it was indoors, the light through the skylights was very dramatic, and I was able to get a lot of great shots. The sun shining today made me feel "Mauish", so I thought I'd post this painting, which I did a few weeks ago in a frenzy of creativity. I think I completed six paintings that week, all larger ones, too. I'm sure most of them will eventually end up on this blog, too.
I'm starting to feel a little like I'm coming out of the darkness of an extremely long and difficult winter. The weather is warmer, the grass is starting to come up, and I have tulips! It makes me feel like painting again, and dancing, and smiling...all that good stuff.
Happy Spring!

I Hope...

Hope -- 9" x 12" oil on canvas

...everyone had a great Christmas. I'm taking a break off of ACEO's for a week or so to paint something I really want to, and this was last night's result. About 6 hours to completion, I think.
Her eyes say it all...

The Candy Man -- Mason & Daly, Barkerville, B.C.

The Candy Man -- Mason & Daly, Barkerville, B.C.
18" x 24" oil on canvas

I did it, I think. I overcame my struggle with this one all by myself. Thank you, viewers, but not a single one of you here, or on Flickr, had any words of wisdom, so I was forced to use my own brain, however dysfunctional it may be at the moment.
Can you believe I am still nursing a 2+ year old, and she wakes up at least 5 times a night? No, I don't expect too much sympathy, yes, it's my own fault! But it does explain some of my psychoses these past months, LOL! I also have been too exhausted to paint much, so this one took a long time. For every two and a half hour painting session, I got about two of those jars painted. (The only time I get to paint is after the kids go to bed, and that's how long I last before I fall from exhaustion.)

Anyways, I think I've explained Barkerville before, it's one of British Columbia's most interesting historical sites. It is an old mining town, which has been lovingly restored, and has period actors that carry out the actual services of the town. You can eat at restaurants with menus from the 1800's, but old-fashioned fudge (YUUUUMM!!!) and candy from the Mason & Daly, fresh baked goods, you name it...there's even a China Town. It's a definite must-see for anyone traveling in B.C. It's about 1 hour northeast of Quesnel, in Central B.C.
This is my friend, Rick Galbraith, an historical writer and singer in the town who is my partner on a publication about Barkerville to be released hopefully in 2009. He does a wonderful job of doling out fudge and cheer to the many visitors of the store. You can check out the Barkerville site at http://www.barkerville.bc.ca/.

Well, I hope to start on another Barkerville painting tonight, so that's all until next time.

In Progress-#2

This is after my first day of working on laying in the main colors. I quickly blocked in the background and started adding detail to the part of the blanket that's wrapped around the baby. I changed the position of the face, and added detail there. I quickly blocked in shadow colors on the arms and legs. I'm having a few problems with the skin tones and the temperature changes. I think that I may need to make the local skin tone warmer, with the shadows warm, as the light is fairly cool. Right now she looks kind of corpse-like...YUK. The colors in the reference photo aren't very good, and I wanted to warm the whole thing up a bit, so I am kind of guessing at the colors at this point...tricky...anyways, I'll have more soon.

Nap Time -- In Progress

Okay, so I'm on to something new. This is a large painting, one of the largest I've done. It's 24" x 30", and so far, I'm enjoying the size for the clarity of detail and features that can be attained. This is almost life size. Since this isn't a daily painting, I thought I'd post some in-progress shots.

So this morning, I thought I'd work on my painting while the baby napped...isn't she beautiful when she's sleeping? I started to get ready, ate some breakfast, kicked my husband and son out of the house (well not really, they went willingly) and prepared my self mentally to start painting, when, of course, she woke up. No painting during the daylight hours again today. I heaved a big sigh and collected her from her room. We had a bit of a snuggle together, and she left my lap to go and play. Now, I do a pretty good job of baby-proofing, but something always seems to show up when I least expect it. This time it was a pin-cushion...missing the pins.
Oh My God! Where did she find that and where are the pins. I found one soon enough, sticking out of my foot! I pulled it out and blood squirted all over the carpet. As I'm trying to clean up the blood, I notice that Rhiannon is being uncharacteristically quiet, so I limp over to where I thought she was admiring her portrait, only to find that she is adding her own artistic touch with a blue wax crayon. I hope that oil paint sticks to wax! You can see her beautiful scribbles at the top of the painting, from one side to the other.

Anyways...About the painting...I learned my lesson with the last painting, and this time I did some planning. After taking the reference photo, I cropped it to get the best composition that I could and did some thumbnail sketches. Then, using a wonderful program that is a free download, called "Oil Painting Assistant", I gridded the reference photo and printed it, and then, using the same ratio, I gridded my canvas. On smaller paintings, I usually don't do this, I just rely on my eye, but on something this large, it's easy to really screw up proportions.

I lightly sketched the image onto the canvas with a #2 pencil, leaving out unnecessary details,and then re-enforced my pencil lines with a mix of burnt umber and hooker green. Next, I used a mix of hunter green, burnt sienna, cad yellow med. and white and I laid in a very fine wash of the local blanket color. I kind of use it as an underpainting to fill in the white of the canvas. I do the same with the skin tone, burnt sienna, cad yellow med., aliz crimson, ultramarine blue and titanium white, and the hair, for which I use a mix of the skin tone, with a bit of burnt umber, I think. Then I start to work in some of the major dark areas, and wipe out some of the lightest areas. I put in a bit of red on the lips, ears, nose and fingers, where the blood is close to the skin. All of this is basically an on-canvas value study that will later be covered with thick paint. It helps me see the beginning of the painting as a whole, and determine if I need to make any major changes in value, composition, etc...I know, this is a step that should be done as a thumbnail, and I did do some, but I find that it is not always successful. The last painting I started looked great as a value study, looked great as a thumbnail, even looked great as a 12 x 12 painting, but when I transferred it onto a bigger canvas, it was just plain boring. The large format didn't do it justice at all, so I wiped it off and started this one.

Well, now on to laying in the real thing. I'll try to post an in progress picture tomorrow.

In Pursuit of the Perfect Wave

~In Pursuit of the Perfect Wave~ 16" x 16" original oil on canvas $400.00

This is a horrible photo of this painting! The colors are off, and the big white glare in the middle doesn't exist, it's from the light in the room. I can't get a good picture because I can't remember the last day that it didn't rain here! I finished this painting last night, and I really wanted to post it, so this photo is temporary, until I get a good day.
It's quite a bit larger than anything I've painted lately, but I really felt like I needed to breathe...take a break from the mini paintings and stretch my painting arm! How can you tell it's winter?...I'm painting beach scenes! I'm dreaming of the ocean, the sun and holidays! I can't wait till January.
This was from a black and white photograph that my sister took at Long Beach in Tofino, B.C. Check out more of her photography at www.ArtWanted.com/Karie.
TIP: For photographing your artwork, the best light is outdoors on a slightly overcast day. It gives a soft, even light which doesn't seem to affect the colors as much as trying to shoot indoors, under artificial light. Put your painting on a flat, even surface, or hang it on a wall. I usually try to zoom as much of the painting into the frame as possible, then crop it in photoshop to get clean edges.