Night Life

Night Life. 5 5/8" x 12". Oil on masonite.

This is a composite of several photos I've seen while browsing the "Google image world".

I have a little more work to do and I think that I'd like to make a larger painting similar to this.

From The Fairway #3. 12"x12" Oil on masonite.

From The Fairway #3. 12"x12" Oil on canvas over masonite.

This is yet another version of my earlier "guy playing golf" painting. I reinvented the mountain(s), chopped down the tree on the right side and changed the guy's clothes. I also shortened the guy just a bit.

See the postings from February 11 for #2 and February 7 for #1.

I continue to struggle with a @#$%^ digital camera, glare and getting the colors to be close to true. I tried Melissa's camera and it isn't the camera, it's me.

Rough sketches for upcoming Art Guild Art show

These are two "sketches" to try to see what colors work. I'm not completely happy with these sketches, but I'll work up another one or two of each. It's good practice and I need all the practice I can get! :-)

The pictures are taken from two of our family scrapbook photos. I'm the young boy with my mother on a fishing trip. My brother is with my dad. We lived in Central America during WWII and one of the diversions was fishing. That there isn't any resemblance to how we actually looked isn't on purpose. I'm simply unable to render a good likeness but I'm working on improving that.

"Lady fishing with a young boy". The painting is a "sketch" to see how my mother and I would look like in paint. The "sketch" is 6"x8" while the finished painting will be 11 5/8" x 24" . Another masonite scrap put to good use!























"Man fishing with a young boy". The painting is a "sketch" to see how my father and my brother would look like in paint. The "sketch" is 6"x8" while the finished painting will be 11" x 14" .






















I've "tinted" the gesso on the panels with dark mix of acrylic paints. The left side of both line drawings are washed out from glare. I work up my sketches on newsprint paper then when I have a pencil drawing that I like, I transfer the image to the masonite using Saral Wax Free Transfer Paper. The lines don't smudge like pencil or graphite do and the transfer paper can be used many times. Look for it at Dick Blick Art Materials.

Random musings - or is it gas?

I've been experimenting with putting canvas on masonite/hardboard. I've done it in the past by using rabbit skin glue but this time I'm trying some "carpenters" glue. Things worked pretty well until I put waxed paper on the glued canvas so that I could put weight on the canvas-board to keep it flat and to make sure the canvas would stick to the glue. Only problem is that the canvas shrank a bit (DUH) and wrinkled the waxed paper. So the result is that the surface of the canvas has a "texture" - putting it mildly. I was able to minimize the "texture" by wiping it down with a wet cloth. I made several 12x12, 9x12 and 11x14 grounds. I'll gesso them tomorrow and I'll have some painting to do when the gesso dries.

The Rogers (Arkansas) Art Guild is having an art show in April. I'm going to use my new grounds to make some paintings to enter. I usually paint on gessoed or canvas masonite/hardboard and make my own frames for here at home. I guess that I'll have to go to the picture-frame store and buy frames! I don't know about any kind of alternative to masonite/hardboard i.e. "gallery wrap".

I had a wooden palette that was difficult (to say the least) to clean up after a day of painting. And if I wanted to leave the paint overnight, the oil paint formed crusty crud on the wood that resisted scraping without damage. I was in Walmart and found a 16x20 glass cutting board for $9.95! One side is ripply the other side is smooth. I put the glass into a discard picture frame and now I can leave my oils out overnight, then use a razor scraper to clean up at the end of the second day. I find that 2 days is about all I want to try to keep mixed gobs of oil paint. The glass palette is really wonderful!

Redtail Hawk

Redtail Hawk. 8"x10" Oil on masonite.

I THINK that this is a Redtail Hawk. I don't know birds but I'm told that it is a Redtail Hawk.

I've seen at least three hawks at the same time - this one landed close by and I was able to snap off a photo. After admiring the photo I decided to do a really quick (3 hours) painting.

Three Golfers

Three Golfers. 11"x14" Oil on masonite.

I'm still looking at this one. I suppose it's done when I don't know what more I could do to it!

Melissa's Gourd Art Featured in Rogers Newspaper column!

Melissa's display at the Rogers, AR Public Library was the focus of a column in The Morning News, Rogers edition today. You can see the column at HERE. See Melissa's web site HERE for more examples of her gourd art.

Both of us are working on pieces to be shown in the Rogers Art Guild's April Art Show. The show is scheduled to run from April 15th through April 24th at the Rogers Public Library. All works in the show will be for sale.

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From The Fairway #2

From The Fairway #2. 12"x12" Oil on masonite.

This is another version of my earlier "guy playing golf" painting. I melted the snow, grew a tree on the right side and changed the guy's clothes. I also shortened the guy just a bit. The first version is shown below.

I think that I like this version mo bettah! :-)

See original post below - Feb 7th.

Two paintings for an Art Show (?)

I'm considering entering these two paintings in an art show. I'd like someone/anyone to help by critiquing these paintings before I go any farther working on them. They are both "almost" finished but I'm not sure that they would be adequate for an art competition.

What do you think? Leave a comment, or send me an email. I sure would appreciate it!. :-)

Lady With Orange Head Scarf. 8"x12" oil on masonite.

The scarf started out to be yellow but turned out orange. I had done one very similar earlier it was 9"x12" and I wasn't real happy with it.

The "finishing" would include some pattern in the scarf (busy work in my opinion) and adding a necklace. Those large red earrings need the necklace. Right? Wrong?














Man With Yellow Sunglasses. 12"x12" oil on masonite.

Not much needs to be done here - I think. I'll add some highlights on the lenses when the paint dries some more. Maybe tone down the teeth? And just generally clean things up.

From The Fairway #1 - 2nd in Golf series

From The Fairway - 12x12 oils on masonite

Working up ideas for a larger (30x30) painting. Might need a tree on the right to "frame" the mountain & golfer.

This an idealized picture of a golfer. It isn't often that you can (or even want to) play by yourself.

For the curious, the ball landed in the water. :-) Cuz I say so! It isn't a lake, it's a ball magnet.

Approaching The Hole

$75.00 plus shipping

In The Hole 9x12 0il on masonite.

Funny thing happened. This was in my stack of things "to do" when a good friend asked if I could make him a "golf painting". Weird.

I like doing golf paintings because the challenge is (for me) to work with that much GREEN. I don't know about the rest of the paint artists, but when I use much green in a painting everything I touch gets green paint on it. Even the bristles of my brushes seem to take on a green stain.

We're doing research now for my "commission".

:-)

Thee Shoppers At A Flea-Market

Thee Shoppers At A Flea-Market. 12"x16" Oils on masonite.

This is a work in progress. For some reason it isn't happening - I'm struggling with it for some reason. Some paintings just seem to flow out of my brush while others resist me. Go figger. Maybe it isn't a good idea.

I especially struggled with the shopper on the left - in the blue top. See below. I'm struggling with her face profile. So I grabbed up some really small scraps (5"x5") and practiced.





Shopper #1 - Lady in the blue top. 5"x5" Oils on masonite.

This is one of five 5x5x that I did quickly to try to get the lady's face in profile worked out. Of course they all seemed to flow. Maybe I just need to lighten / loosen up, do the big painting quickly & move on.

Street Cars on Hotel Street - - + some home photos

$50.00 plus shipping

Street Cars on Hotel Street 5 5/8" x 12" oil on masonite.

This is the third in my series of using scrap pieces of masonite. I don't know if the name of the street is really "hotel street" but since there's a sign that says "HOTEL", well, DUH.

Stairway From The Courtyard

$50.00 plus shipping

Stairway From The Courtyard. 5.5" x 12" oil on masonite.

The second of my 5.5" x 12" paintings. I have several of these "usable" scraps from cutting "regular" size (8x10, 9x12, 11x14 and etc) panels.