France - Menton - Flamenco in Gorbiio

France - Menton - Flamenco in Gorbiio
16 x 20  Oils on canvas panel

This is from a post by Jilly in her blog Menton Daily Photo.


I have problems making clear, crisp photos of my paintings. My automatic camera is being surly again and won't focus on the painting, or when it does focus properly show every bit of the tiniest glare! :-)

Some More "New" Paintings

Here are eight more "new" paintings that I've done "lately".  NEW and LATELY are relative terms. Sometimes I can knock out a "small" (9 x 12 inches) painting before noon; other times I might work on it an hour or so then do something else then another hour on the painting. Blah blah blah. Anyhowwwww, the colors in these photos is "close" to the actual colors in the paintings. @#$%^& camera!


More postings to come. 

Baseball pitcher 1 - 16 x 20
Oils on canvas panel

Baseball pitcher 2 - 16 x 20
Oils on canvas panel

There are more baseball paintings in my head.

Bottle Tree 1 - 18 x 20
 Oils on gessoed panel.
A bottle tree is supposed to capture evil spirits. When the spirits are in the bottle we're supposed to cap the bottle then throw it away. We have a few green bottles just in case we have green evil spirits.These bottles came from our recycle center.

 There's one more bottle tree to paint!

Carpenter and his pencil - 8 x 10
Oils on a piece of scrap construction plywood.
The paint "soaked" into the gesso giving this painting a mottled look.

I'll confess. I'll paint on almost anything that doesn't move out of the way!

Giggling Children - 8 x 10
Oils on gessoed panel.
The face of the little girl (pink hat) looks a bit grotesque. I have some work to do?

Dancer in Red - 12 x 16
Oils on gessoed panel

 Making the photo of this painting was extremely difficult because of the glare from any light. The colors are close, but the dress is VERY red!

Eagle 1 - 11 x 14
Oils on gessoed panel

Eagle 2 - 11 x 14
Oils on gessoed panel

All of a sudden I felt the urge to paint an eagle(s). I have more paintings on the drawing board. I've already done little "tweety" birds. Now a SERIOUS bird of prey! These colors are almost the same as the painting but not quite.

Flamenco Dancer In Green

Flamenco Dancer In Green  14 x 18 $100.00 plus shipping

Flamenco Dancer In Green  14 x 18  oils on panel

This was inspired by Jilly Bennet's blog Menton Daily Photo.

Jilly has been so kind to me to allow me to use her photos as material for my paintings.

I have forgotten this dancer's name and can not find my references for the painting. Getting sloppy and trying to do too much?  :-)  I think that I recall that this lady was leading a class of persons interested in learning how to dance Flamenco.

Three Flamenco Dancers

Three Flamenco Dancers 11 x 14 $75.00 plus shipping

Three Flamenco Dancers   11 x 14  Oil on panel

This painting was completed last year but I could not make a reasonably clear photograph of it.  The brush strokes were/are too shiny.  Even this photo is the "best" of MANY attempts.

I don't know why, but I like this one very much.  Maybe is the expression of the dancer in the middle?

Flamenco Dancer in White

$75.00 plus shipping

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.

Flamenco in Menton France

$175.00 plus shipping

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.

Flamenco Dancer In Red

$175.00 plus shipping

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.

The Guitar Player

$50.00 plus shipping

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.

Dancers

Dancers 24x30 Oil on Masonite

I wanted to call this Flamenco Dancers, but it seems more ballet than Flalmenco. But what do I know? This is the third of my series of dancers - Flamenco or otherwise. I like the colorful costumes and the power suggested in the dancers' poses.

Dancer With Swirling Skirt - WIP

Dancer With Swirling Skirt - WIP 24x30 Oil on Masonite

This dancer is another Flamenco inspired painting that I'm working on. I've done as much as I want to do until the paint has dried some more. I'd like to put in more shadows and touch-up the lady's head (face, hair and etc.).

This is a WIP - Work In Progress. The camera seems to enhance the light catching the brush strokes. The background isn't really light blue! And the lady's top isn't gray - it's very BLACK! Go figger. My camera is having another bad day. The photographer (me) is doing fine.

Flamenco Dancer With Red Fan

Flamenco Dancer With Red Fan 30x24 Oil on Masonite.

09/24/2009 - posted a new photo. Finished :-)

A few months ago I saw a photograph on the internet somewhere and made a digital copy of it. The photo was one of many photos of Flamenco and Ballet dancers in very colorful costumes. One of the things that caught my attention was that the lady's face is just barely visible through the fan. It was a fun project!