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!

The Family Has Gone Away

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The Family Has Gone Away  11x14  Oils on masonite panel

A deserted house with an weed-choked yard. Blank windows stare into an empty landscape. The family might have hit hard times and had to quit the house.  OR maybe they found another, better place to live and prosper.

The magnolia tree is in bloom maybe there is life and some hope left here after all?

Flamenco Dancer in White

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Flamenco Dancer in White  11x14  Oils on masonite panel

I was trying to get a mood of the dancer on a darkened stage with two spotlights illuminating her.  There is a spot light out of the picture to the right.

The photo makes the background look like light blue while it is in fact a mixture of green & red with a LITTLE prussian blue mixed in for good measure.   The background in the painting appears almost black.

Menton France - Hat on Garden Gate

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Menton France - Hat on Garden Gate  11x14  Oils on masonite panel

Another inspiration from Jilly Bennet's blog Menton Daily Photo! 

It appears that I have most things leaning to the left. What's that all about?

I tried to capture that the sun was casting a shadow onto the left front of the home while the right is shadowed.  Maybe I should darken the shadow?

France - Apricale -The Conversation - Two Men

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France - Apricale -The Conversation - Two Men  11x14  Oils on masonite panel

This painting was inspired by a photo on Jilly Bennet's blog Menton Daily Photo.

To create the stone wall, I used a painting knife for the first time then a brush to put in the shadows. All in all I think that the stones are believable. :-)

France - Menton - Creole Beauties

Creole Beauty 1
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France - Menton - Creole Beauties  9x12  Oils on masonite panel

Sorry about the photographs. :-(  

Thanks to Jell Bennett's blog Menton Daily Photo for taking such wonderful photographs and giving me permission to use the photos to make paintings.

I apologize that I can't find the posting in Jilly's blog of this young lady. Dang! 

 Part of the Creole Du Cap posts are here.

 The paint is still wet on these and I'll continue working on them when the paint dries.

Creole Beauty 2
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Creole Beauty 3
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Flamenco in Menton France

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Flamenco in Menton, France  15x24  Oils on masonite panel

From a photo posted by Jill Bennett on her blog Mento Daily Photo. The lady in Jill's photo is Isabel Cortes who is leading a class in the annual Gorbio, Frnace, Flamenco Festival. I did NOT attempt to capture Mme Cortes' image, but used her form as a basis to begin.

My painting is not yet complete, but I am posting it anyway! :-)  Sorry for the glare in this photo my camera looks for these glare spots! :-(

The panel is half of a larger painting 24x30 that needed to be "downsized".  The luxury of using masonite panels is that I can make the size smaller by sawing off a section.

Cowboy roping wild mustang

S O L D

Cowboy roping wild mustang  11x14  Oils on masonite panel

This was a fun painting to make. I didn't think that I could make a reasonably believable image of a horse. I've tried once before and it wasn't very pleasant to look at! :-)

I think that I've made a "REASONABLE" duo of horses and one cowboy. This was quickly done in about (maybe) three hours - I really don't know but it just came out of my brushes with only a few "ooopsies". (I usually have many).

By the way, in my painting the horse is gray, not bluish! I needed to get that said. :-)

Market Flower Vendor

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Market Flower Vendor  11x14  Oils on masonite panel

Another "EH!" photo from my naughty camera. ANYWAYYYYY. . . . 

This is from a photo I had in my computer files. I've long forgotten where it came from or when I downloaded it.  I do know (I think) that this was photographed in Seattle's Pike Place Market. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!  :-)

The original photo had much more floral detail in the background which, in my humble opinion, took away from the lady graciously making an arrangement for her customer.

Street Scene - Market Day

NOT FOR SALE

Street Scene - Market Day  17x24  Oils on masonite panel

I'm betwixt and between with this one. It's probably very obvious, but I have forgotten where I was going with it! :-)  It made sense to me when I began but I haven't worked on it for several days and . . . . .

Maybe you have a "helpful" suggestion? 

I have almost decided to just paint over it and move on with something else. 

Grain Elevator With Red Door

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Grain Elevator With Red Door  12x16  Oils on masonite panel

This started out as painting of "just a grain elevator" but then I decided that since it wasn't going to actually rain here that I would make a rain storm in a painting. And I'll pretend that it will rain any day now. (I also get up early for the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.)

This painting captures the grain elevator a few minutes after the rain storm has moved on.

I note that in the photo the building seems to be leaning to the left. I measured (with a ruler) the painting and the building really isn't crooked. I'll blame this on my camera! :-)

Flamenco Dancer In Red

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Flamenco Dancer In Red  14.5 x 24  Oils on panel

This is the best photo so far and I've taken MANY. Amazing, isn't it? :-)

I can't seem to get the focus in focus and the glare unglared in the same photo. This photo has been tweaked very much with Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and it still isn't a good representation of the painting.  Enough whining, right?

I did some flamenco dancers a few months ago then this weekend I was browsing my photo files for an idea for a painting and came upon this figure who in the reference photo is one of several dancers on a stage. I think that the painting looks fine and I'll try to make a better photo from time to time. Until then I've started on one of two paintings of grain silos. Yup, grain silos. Go figure!  :-)

BTW, I make my "panels" using a Masonite panel on a wooden frame which is then covered with cotton canvas. This panel and one other were left over from cutting "standard" panel sizes from a sheet of masonite thus the wierd width of fourteen and a half inches.

Casey 9/15/2005 - 8/6/2010

We had to put Casey to sleep this morning due to kidney failure and cancer.  A very good dog and a best friend to Melissa and me.  He leaves a huge void that will take a long time to ease.

We still have Simon (a boxer) and Bella (a miniature schnauzer) to help us in our grief.

9/25/2009

1/29/2006

Frog

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Frog   16x20  Oils on canvas

This is one of the "pet" frogs from Melissa's frog pond. The painting suggests that he/she is large, but it's pretty small. I'm not about to measure it but the rocks are maybe 1/2 an inch?

Water Lily

S O L D

Water Lily  16x20  Oils on canvas panel

This is the first (only) bloom in Melissa's "frog pond". The frog pond is our 50 gallon water element near her pergola on the North side of our house.

It's too dang H O T ! ! !

This is a photo of our indoor/outdoor thermometer. The big number at the top is the outside temperature while the number a the bottom left is the inside temperature.  The sending unit is on the wall of our patio - in the shade! The temperature has been triple digits for several days with NO RAIN!  Enough, already. This is 38 celcius, by the way.

The Guitar Player

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The Guitar Player  9x9  Oils on masonite panel.

This painting came from visiting the internet in a Flamenco website. I'm afraid that I've lost the URL for the particular website.

This painting would not photograph for me. The reflections and bright light in my studio were too much for my camera.  I even tried using a cardboard box but that didn't work.  I'll give the painting some time to dry then try again with subdued lighting.

The Hombre

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The Hombre  9x9  Oils on masonite panel

This painting came from my brain but it's probably (DUH) something that I have seen somewhere. I don't know where, though.

I don't know if this "hombre" is a rustler or a lawman or just a podnuh on a ranch. But with those squinty eyes he looks like one tough customer. :-)