Lady With Sunglasses

$50.00 plus shipping

If interested, contact me at ken.barclay@yahoo.com

Lady With Sunglasses  8 x 10   Oils on canvas panel

UPDATED - December 20, 2010.  I glazed some blue and violet on the sunglasses.

This started off as a "landscape" (orientation and subject) experiment and when that went bad, I made it a portrait (orientation and subject) painting of a lady with fancy sunglasses.  You can imagine the landscape if you look at the painting in landscape orientation. There's a blue sky on the right with snow flakes, a brown shoreline in the middle and blue water on the left side - or that's what I was trying to do.  When I put paint thinner on the "landscape" the paint sort of shmeared, dribbled and ran from top to bottom.  I thought that it looked sort of nice then I left it and went inside our house for the night.

The next day I decided to make a portrait and ta-da! There was the canvas panel already "prepped" for an off-beat portrait of a lady wearing "fancy" sunglasses.

I'm going to leave it alone for now. Maybe it's finished, maybe NOT! :-)

Lady in Yellow scarf 2

$75.00 plus shipping

If interested, contact me at ken.barclay@yahoo.com

Lady in Yellow scarf 2   9x12  Oils on masonite

I posted this once before (I thought) in February 2009. Now I can't find it!  It seems that some of my posts and pictures have been seen so often that they've worn out!  :-)  NOT!

This is the other attempt to make this painting. The other is posted separately.

Being a person of the male gender, I understand that the fabric on this lady's head is probably not called a "scarf", but . . . .  Scheeeesh!

Jake Carter

$75.00 plus shipping

If interested, contact me at ken.barclay@yahoo.com

Jake Carter  9x12   Oils on masonite

Jake is a purely fictional person that I made up after seeing the hat in another photo.  The hat is worn well and lovingly.

This photo was posted a year or so ago but it seems to have been lost? :-)

Some of the photos in some of my posts are "empty", also.  What the heck!  Do posts get old and disappear?

A Boy And His Grandmother

S O L D

A Boy And His Grandmother  2 Paintings - Oils on canvas panel

The Boy painting size is 8x12

The Grandmother painting size is 7 3/4 x 12

These paintings are preliminary or studies to a portrait where the boy will be sitting with his grandmother. The grandmother passed away in 2007 before the grandson was born. There aren't many reference photos of the grandmother and I had to "wing it" when I created her hair. Many apologies!

The final "portrait" size will probably be 16x20 and this is my first commission - if the parents approve.

Uncle Jemal

Uncle Jemal   12x16  Oils on canvas panel

"Uncle Jenal's" name is Jemal Kasradze a gifted photographer living in Tbilisi, Georgia, a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Mr Jemal;s blog is one where I can spend hours looking at his photographs. Beautiful.

The photo for my painting is taken from his blog ID photo. His niece, Irina, is one of my good blogger frineds.

As usual lately, I need to put this painting down and get back to it later.

Anuka - A Work In Progress

Anuka    16x20   Canvas panel

A Work In Progress.  I started this painting around 10 AM this morning I got this far by 2 PM.this afternoon.  Then I had to stop for the day. 

I have the foundation done pretty well (I think), now I need to make my darks darker (DUH?)  and just get the painting DONE!  The photo of my painting shows the painting a little lighter than the painting and there is some glare on the right side. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!  :-)

I saw the photo of Anuka in a blog with gorgeous photographs taken in Georgia "Between Caucasus and the Black Sea". The photographer,Jemal Kasradze, is the uncle of Irina one of my "blogger" friends. Irina also makes some of the photographs in "Uncle Jemal's" blog.  :-)  You should take a look at both blogs ,they're really good.

I worked on this piece today (Feb 25th)  but I still have more work to do. Obviously!  I was able to darken her hair and I'm relatively "happy" with that. BUT, her face looks like one of the characters from The Munsters TV program!  Make it DARK DARK DARK There, I've said it and I know it!  But, dang, why are darks so hard for me? :-) 

Fiddly dee, tomorrow's another day!

 February 27th - worked on this painting some more. I'm beginning to like her eyes more. The photo doesn't represent her hair well - it's much darker in the painting.

Melissa in a Blue Mumu

Melissa in a Blue Mumu  12x18  Oils on Masonite

I've been working and working and working on this one. Getting the folds of the fabric in the beautiful blue mumu has been tough for me.

AND since the beautiful lady is Melissa, it's doubly difficult. True to my limited talent as a portrait painter, I've missed her likeness by a LONG mile.  :-(

But I'll keep on keeping on and sooner or later I'll figure it out!

End of the Year Challenge - Different Strokes From Different Folks

End of the Year Challenge - Different Strokes From Different Folks   9 3/4 x 11   Oil on panel

This challenge is hosted by Karin Jurick on her Different Strokes From DIfferent Folks blog.  Artists that chose to participate emailed a photo of themselves to Karin. When Karin had all of the photos, she randomly emailed a photo to an artist. So, most of us don't know much if anything about the subject of the portraits we would paint.

I really did enjoy making the painting of this lady - I don't know her name or anything about her yet.  To understand what I'm saying, go to the Different Strokes From Different Folks blog and see what other artitsts have done. You can also go to You Tube to see the photos and the painting.

I'm having a problem with this BLOG posting software interface so I'm not sure how this will look!  It appears one way in "compose" then another way after it's "published".  :-| That being said, my next whine is that I had to make HUNDREDS (no kidding) of photographs before 1) the color was close, 2) the glare from the shiny surface was gone and 3) the photo was in FOCUS!