MORE FLOWERS?

Yep, more flowers. This time its Zinnia. My wife plants a bunch of zinnia in front of our home each spring and by June they fill in and look amazing.  A sea of color...anyway, I'm not sure why I'm painting flowers a the moment, but its been more fun than expected. Here are some process pics of this painting.

this last pic is a little washed out... in it's frame it looks pretty good!...well, at least better than the pic!

Holly hocks finished

I took a few pictures of some holly hocks that were growing close to my home last summer.
They were amazingly beautiful.  I actually saw them for the first time while I was passing them in my car, and I made mental note to come back and take some photos.  I don't usually paint flowers, and I've been trying to paint more from life, but these flowers just needed to be painted.

Chuck Taylors progress pics

Started another small 8X10 painting.

Here I am trying to sketch things out and blocking in some value.

...and this is as far as I got with the time I had on the first night.

Here is where I got last night...hope I can keep going and still make it better. I would like to loosen it up a bit, maybe try to add some subtle color into this. We'll see.

This is how it turned out. I'm pretty happy with a few aspects of this painting...just need to keep working and I'll get better. I have a friend that used to say, you can't even call yourself a painter until you've painted 100+ pieces.  I may still have a ways to go, but I'll get there.

Finished, Framed, and SOLD!

Tangerine SOLD

Here is how this one turned out. I was surprised to see that this one sold for the highest price at the dinner/art auction fund raising event the other night (highest out of my four paintings that is). Congrats to the new owners, you bought one of my first paintings from my "restart" in 2016. Thanks!! I hope you enjoy it for many years to come.

salt and pepper process

 here are a few pictures of the stages of this painting. I've been trying to loosen up...but it's still a struggle. There were moments while painting this that I felt I was making some progress, but the more I work on something, the more I tighten up.  Can't seem to paint thick and loose.  Maybe in time.

gift for my daughter

"Fall's first color" is a painting of maple mountain which is located just a little south of my home.
I tried to loosen up on this a little and I'm somewhat happy with the results...I hope my girl will like it when she sees it. It definitely has a Utah mountains feel to it, so that should make her happy.

Finished Pepper

5x7 oil on masonite. quick little study of a anaheim pepper. I'm pretty happy with the way this one came out. I tried to leave some brush strokes...I'll get there maybe.

"Baseball"

8X10 Oil on Masonite.
If you have interest in buying this painting you can click on the auction link below.

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/331781827056?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I've had this glove for almost 30 years...it's an old Rawlings with Willie Stargell's signature on the inside. If you know your baseball, that'll tell you how old it is.  It's so "broke in" I used to call it the rag.  I used to use it as my softball glove and have never been able to let it go.

Pepper

Here is the start of a simple little pepper. 5X7 oil. It's fun to paint these little guys. Just what I need to hopefully build my confidence while I learn/remember what I'm trying to do here.

Art Auction

It's been a while since I've tried to sell any of my work. A neighbor of mine has asked me to participate in a dinner/art auction fund raiser for her non profit nowIcan foundation. This piece, "Strawberry Jam" will be auctioned off this week, then the dinner will be Feb 9th and I'll have 3 more works available for auction that night. Should be fun.

Progress on my Tangelo

Here is a progress shot of my little 8X10 tangelo painting. I know this is rather simple, but this little painting represents some real breakthroughs for me.  This has been really fun to paint and I have managed to keep it much looser than my normal paintings. My goal is to paint realism, but still have it look painterly.  This is hard for me with my illustrator background. I tend to want things smooth and clean, which somehow takes the life out of a painting for me.  I'll keep pushing...wish me luck.

Another Start

I've started another little painting.  This one is a tangello. Here is a progress shot.  I'm trying to use bigger brushes, stay a little looser and vary my edges a bit.  We'll see if I can do it.

Here are some paintings in frames. It's amazing what a frame can do to make a painting look better/different.  I still need to varnish these so they may look a little better when I'm done.

First 3 DONE!

It's kind of fun to look at my first 3 paintings together. I'm not happy with everything about these.. (that's the hard part about being an artist, nothing I do is ever good enough) What I am happy with is the fact that I'm painting again and having fun trying to improve. I can do better, I"m sure of that.  Let's see what Feb '2016 brings.

idea

Most daily painters have painted an orange or tangerine at least once. So this isn't anything too original, but I was thinking I could step back and paint something a bit more simple and try to push  color and brushwork a little. This was a sketch out of my mind while thinking along those lines.
Not sure if anyone comes here anymore, but check back soon to see how this one progresses.

Progress

I'm happy with the progress on this painting. I don't know if I'm learning or remembering how to paint, but it seems to be getting a little easier....at least on this painting.

another start.

Here is the very beginning of another painting. These are some beach rocks gathered up by a neighbor of mine.  She has several of these buckets on her porch and when I saw them I thought they might make a cool painting...we'll see.

calling this one done.

This painting had a few moments of fun. Every time I paint now, I wish I would have continued painting and not let life get in the way so that I could draw on that experience now. "If wishes were fishes...." Can't look back now, just need to keep moving forward.

last progress post

Thought I'd post one more progress post. I thought I'd finish this over the weekend, but this was as far as I got.  Almost there, slow progress.

progress

got in a little more time in on this last night.  Kind of just sloppy block in of rough color, but I was having fun doing it and I felt like I was getting in some what of a groove not worrying about much except just covering the canvas, now the fun will start.

new painting for the new year

I started a new painting a couple days ago. Here it is about an hour into it. I'm not sure when the timid stage will go away, but it is amazing how hard it is for me to start something new.  Hopefully this one will come together.  2016 needs to be a year of painting. I need to get back what I've lost and continue to improve from there. Comments welcomed!