Buying Apples With an Audience - WIP

Buying Apples With an Audience
12 x 16   Oils on canvas panel

This is my version of two photos from Nathalies post "New Season Apples" in her blog Avignon In Photos.


I need to work on this some more so I'm calling this a "work in process" (WIP).  :-(

The Spectators

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The Spectators  11x14  Oils on masonite panel

Two ladies watching an event below their window. The idea came from Jilly Bennet's blog Menton Daily Photo (a blog with very interesting photos and thoughtful commentary).

The ladies faces should be half in the sunlight and half in shadows.  My painting makes it appear as if their make up (cosmetics) is badly applied! :-)  I'll need to fix that!

Creole at Place du Cap 2

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Creole at Place du Cap 2  16x20  Oils on canvas panel

My apologies to Jilly Bennett's blog Menton Daily Photo. See and read Jilly's post here. This painting has been a struggle for me and I guess that it shows.

I think maybe I need to paint over it and start over. I'm not sure.

The Cookout

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The Cookout  16x20  Oils on canvas panel

From a photograph from the blog of Jemal Kasradze

"Georgia - Between Caucasus and Black Sea" (http://jemalkasradze.blogspot.com/2010/06/witchcraft.html)  Mr. Kasradze makes really wonderful photos that are posted by Irina Rekhviashvili who (no surprise) is a very talented artist! See her work at http://irinapictures.blogspot.com/

I think that I'm happy with my painting but I'll probably "need" to fix something later! :-)

Theme Day: Changes

Theme Day: Changes  12x16  Oils on canvas panel.

It's funny how "we" find wonderful photos to give us inspiration to make a painting. A blogger friend made a watercolor painting from a photo image on the blog built by "Jilly" where I found the photo for this painting. The website is Menton Daily Photo and contains beautiful images and descriptions of the subjects in and in the area of Menton, France.  The subject photograph blog post for this painting is Theme Day: Changes.

I could probably touch up this painting here & there, but NAH! I'm going to leave it alone, relax & enjoy Jilly's blog posts from Menton, France.  This is probably as close to being in France as I'll ever get!

Woman Outside in summer

Woman Outside In Summer  20x25  Oils on canvas panel

Image update 3/31/2010.

I have some work to do, but thought that I'd post the painting anyway!  I need to let the paint dry then I'll put in shadows and do some glazes.

Overall, though I'm not totally unhappy with what I've done so far.

3/31/2010 - Wednesday afternoon.  Although I had done all that I am going to do with this painting, I made a new photo just this afternoon for this update. 

4/7/2010 - couldn't help myself - I had to "fix" some things.  NOW it's finished!

I'm not sure that the title of this painting makes sense, even to me.  There she sits wearing a sweater, a blanket over the back of her chair and a jacket on the other chair.  Maybe it's early Spring?

An Artist In Venice Italy

An Artist In Venice Italy   16x20   Oil on canvas panel

I have a good start, I believe. This much was done in about four or five hours. I need to let the paint set up a bit then work on the arttist, building details and especially the water.

This is from a photo but for the life of me I don't know where it came from - aside from the internet.

 February 27th - Ready to call this "done". I'll put this painting aside then look at it in a few days. the figure to the far left bothers me.

At The Flea Market

At The Flea Market  18x24  Oil on Masonite

I did a smaller version a few months ago but I wasn't very happy with it.  The jury is still out whether I entirely like this version.  

The "backpack" lady's hand needs some work, I see and those guys on the right aren't quite right.

Gripe gripe gripe!

Woman Near Green House

 

Woman Near Green House  16x20  Oil on canvas panel

Updated Photo 1/2/10  - The photo of the "new" painting is on the left, the "old" painting is on the right.  I tried to improve the rendering of the woman's hands and face.  The darker photo is just digital bloggerization; I didn't change anything about the house in the painting. Honest!

For a person who tries to avoid GREEEEEN, I sure went through a LOT of green in this painting.  I picked this out of some public domain photos on the internet cause it seemed like I needed to make a painting.

It's hard to believe, but this will be my last posting in 2009! Tomorrow is 2010. That number seems cumbersome to me but I'll need to get used to it.

I'll probably make some adjustments to this painting after a while and before I sign it. I guess it will be finished when it's finished.

Happy New Year!

Bon Fire on the Beach

Bon Fire on the Beach 11x14 Oil on Masonite Panel

I had to stop "messing" with this painting. I don't know that I'm happy with it - yet but I'm going to let it rest then take a look at it in a couple of weeks/months. Some paintings seem to just jump out of my brush onto the canvas but this one . . . grrrrr Perhaps it wasn't meant to be?

I finally figured out why my post formatting was being weird?!?! There's a SETTING to use the "new" editor or the "OLD" editor. I chose the OLD EDITOR and badda-bing, badda-boom I'm a happy dude. It probably doesn't matter, though. YA THINK??????? DUHHHHH!!!!!!!! But I'm grinnin'!

:-)

Good Spot For The Parade

Good Spot For The Parade 16 1/2 x 20 3/8 Oil on canvas panel

Nov 24 2009 - updated the photo. FINI! DONE!

Nov 20 2009 - updated the photo after "touching up" the painting a little bit. I feel that it STILL needs SOMETHING! I have no clue what. :-)

This started out as a painting of a woman sitting on a sunny park bench reading her book. B-O-R-I-N-G. SO, I sat her down between two benches in an aluminum lawn chair and gave her a warm coat and a lap blanket . Because the parade is taking place in Arkansas, the graffiti on the wall is "localized" a bit. (My apologies to all Arkansans and graffiti artists.)

The strange panel size comes from recycling scraps of Masonite and pieces of wood. I glued the Masonite to the pine wood frame. I "squared" it up with my table saw when the glue was dry. I probably did it backwards, but that's how I usually do things, so why change now? :-)

At last the painting is in focus in the photograph. I told my camera that I wasn't really taking a photo so it relaxed and let things happen. woo hoo.

Weekend Shoppers

Weekend Shoppers 11x14 Oil on Canvas panel

This appears to be a family (tourists?) out shopping on Main Street in Eureka Springs AR. This was in the summer on one of the hotter days we had a few months ago. I'm guess that this is Mom and Dad out with their daughter. I go to look at and photograph the people - Melissa likes to go into the shops. This works out really well for us both.

I had problems with lighting this painting for the photo. I keep getting glare this is the best of many. I'll try again today to see if I can make a digital photo with a smart camera. The camera is smarter than the operator, that's for sure! :-)

Eureka Springs has many natural mineral springs. Two web sites where you can read more about it are: http://www.eurekasprings.com/ and http://www.eurekasprings.org/

We always stop at Bubba's BBQ - really! :-) Good BBQ and real people work there.

This is pointed on one of my home made Masonite panels covered with canvas. These panels have the look of canvas without the "bounce" of stretched canvas. The Masonite is reinforced with 3/4 inch square pieces of pine glued in place. I use better quality carpenter's glue clamped to the frame while the canvas is glued (and back stapled) to the Masonite with rabbit skin glue then I apply 3 or 4 coats of tinted Gesso. Presently my panels are "only" 3/4 inch thick. I'll make some thicker "gallery" panels later. I'll explain it mo bettah if anybody who is interested reads this far and lets me know with a comment.

Sidewalk Espresso

Sidewalk Espresso 18x24 Oil on Masonite

This is a composite from three or four photos that I found online plus a couple of photos that I've taken myself. I took many liberties and moved things around, added stuff here and took stuff away there.

Why does the dude on the left have two cups in front of him? Is it because the waiter is trying to make a move on the lady in red? Maybe the innocent waiter has the lady's check and is about to put it on the table. AND why is the dude wearing sunglasses inside? hmmmm Might be that he's sly and giving the lady in the jeans outfit a good long look.

The lady in the jeans outfit sat near the dude, but not too close. She probably doesn't trust somebody wearing sunglasses that has two cups of coffee on his table. Little does she know that he's more than a little burned up that the waiter hasn't been around for a while and wouldn't be very good company right now.

What ARE the specials today?

Two Dollars An Hour

Two Dollars An Hour 24x30 Oil on masonite.

5/1/2009 - - Photo of the painting was updated I can't seem to get the painting in focus!!!!
5/3/2009 - - Photo of the painting was updated
5/8/2009 - - corrected the title 2 dollars an HOUR, not 2 dollars a day.

I'm done with this - just a few thing that I needed to "fix" e.g. their feet/shoes for one thing. See the April 20 post to see two preliminary sketches.

All in all I'm satisfied with this piece. The idea came from a photo in the National Archives. The folks in the photo hoed sugar beets in fields sunup to sundown for two dollars an hour.

Now I'm in one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations - sort of similar to a dog chasing a car. Now that you have it, what are you going to do with it? :-)

5/1/2009 - As two of my friends pointed out, the feet of the person to the viewers left needed "fixing" so I tried to get that done. I'm going to stare at the painting for a while making a list of things that I think need tweaking. Then I'll study that list and decide which "fixes", if any, will be done.

5/3/2009 - I fiddled with a couple of things. The "major" change was adding color to the shirt of the third guy from the right. I'm pondering (big word) whether or not to suggest trees and/or buildings in the far background.

5/8/2009 - Original photo by Bill Gilette, near Fort Collins, Colorado, June 1972. National Archives, Records of the Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/way-we-worked/way-we-worked-photos.html

Two Couples Looking At The Sea

Two Couples Looking At The Sea 8x16 Oil on masonite.

Updated version 4/25/2009.

Here are two couples looking out over the sea. The couple on the left has either just arrived or is taking a last look before leaving. You decide. The people on the left are relaxing in the sun doing a little reading. Both have sweaters so the weather might have been chilly earlier.

I think that I'll make a larger painting of these folks - move 'em closer together, have them make new friends.

Watching The Tide Come In II

Watching The Tide Come In II 7x15 1/2 Oil on masonite

Just another "quickie" to play with my water soluble oil paints. I'm beginning to like them a bit more - if only the paint didn't smell so bad. The smell goes away quickly, I guess. The paint also handles much differently than "regular" oils. They don't seem to cover as well. I'll use my regular oils to make my "permanent" paintings.

This panel was tinted with a "tan" which I left exposed here & there on the beach - and (inadvertently) elsewhere.

I made a mistake by typing this in MS Word then pasting into Blogger Post Editor. Blogger isn't happy with that sort of stuff. I sure won't do THAT agian!!!! :-( I had to edit out a bunch of junky HTML that Word inserted.

Farm Woman - WIP

Farm Woman 12x16 Oil on masonite

A work in progress (WIP)

The inspiration for this painting is a 1940's black & white photograph from the National Archives. (The title is theirs - I'm going to think about renaming it when I finish the painting). In the original photo, the lady is wearing a dress so I "modernized" her by putting her in casual outfit that ladies might wear today.

I've been glazing and fussing lately. I need to give her a face, give her a "hair-do", take care of the left wall and call it DONE! Procratination is killing me this week. Maybe I'll get it done soon. Maybe not. :-)

Sketch #2 for "Two Dollars A Day"

Two Dollars A Day #2 8x10 Oil on masonite

This is my second try at water soluble oils and another quick study for a 24x30 painting of field hands hoeing sugar beets for two dollars a day - hence the title.

I moved the person on the right a little closer to the rest of the folks and reversed the person on the left.

I think that I like this composition more better. I'll work on their clothes in the larger painting - I'll do it with "real" oil paints! :-) I don't like this "pretend" oil paint very much.

Watching The Tide Come In

Watching The Tide Come In 12"x12" - diptych. Oil on masonite.

A little change of pace. Hardly any green in this (these) diptych. I was going to do a 7"x15" (another scrap of masonite not wasted) but that seemed a bit boring. So . . . . this diptych.

By the way, the horizon is FLAT in the painting - the camera chose to bend it for me! The camera and I fight an honorable battle. The camera usually prevails. :-)

Last Bus To Zurich

Last Bus To Zurich 11"x14" Oil on masonite.

A few years ago, my wife was on a business trip to Switzerland and brought back some beautiful photos of the country, the buildings and etc. For some reason this photo of a guy getting on the bus to Zurich grabbed my attention.