Art Show!

I will be showing two paintings in the San Antonio Art League and Museum's 87th Annual Artist Exhibition, opening Sunday April 9th, 2017, 3-5 pm. The opening is free, and the show will run until May 27th , if you can't make it that day. The museum is in a beautiful building down in the King William area. 

The two painting that were juried into the show are Winter Deer Skull, a hyper-realist oil painting that I worked on for about a year, and a little butterfly painted on gold leaf. Deer Skull also won an award, I'm not sure what exactly, but can't wait to find out! The little butterfly looks amazing as you walk around it, the gold leaf shines and changes with the angle.  Sadly I didn't take better pictures or videos of the butterfly before I took it in, I wasn't expecting it to be picked. It's always a gamble entering pieces into a juried show, because you never know what kind of art the jurors will like.  But luckily this time the gamble paid off, and I'll have to wait until later to get some better photos of the butterfly. 😀

 

Winter Deer Skull, oil on panel, 16 x 20 inches.

Gold Butterfly, acrylic ink and resin over gold leaf, 5 x7 inches.

San Antonio Art League and Museum
130 King William St
San Antonio, TX 78204

http://www.saalm.org/

Storm Clouds 3/11/16

This was the view out my office window a few months ago, one nice and half stormy afternoon. I tried to enhance the sense of depth in the painting, fixing what the photo lost. The photos I took looked flat, and lost how the layers of clouds moved into the distance. Some parts were also messy in the photos, so I moved clouds around and took some out.

Storm Clouds 3/11/16, oil on panel, 6x12 inches, finished.

Here's the progression from sketch to finished painting. This painting was done with no medium in the bottom layers, so the paint would stay wet and be blendable all day. The top layers did need a little Neo Megilp medium added to give transparency to the color, and make very thin glazes possible. For instance the blue sky has a very thin layer of pure blue over it that makes the color more intense.   

Storm Clouds 3/11/16, painting process.

I found a new tool to use for the under drawing this time, watercolor pencils. Regular pencil smudges too much to be used under oil paint, because graphite is non-polar just like oil paint, so they're attracted to each other. But I like a detailed drawing to start from and pencil is a natural fit for that because it can be very precise, and faint enough to not show through the paint, unlike ink or charcoal.

Starting sketch with watercolor pencil.

Water-soluble graphite doesn't interact with oil paint, so the drawing stays put nicely. The drawing can be painted over with water too, and the color gets much darker. I tried that at first, in the top left corner of the painting, but it wasn't really helping so I didn't do it anywhere else.

Storm Clouds 3/11/16, detail.

Here's a little detail from the left side of the painting, showing the smudgy grey clouds in the front, cumulus clouds behind them, and the background layers of clouds.
This painting is currently for sale in my Etsy shop here.

Working on This Weekend- 7/10/16

This is the painting I spent the most time on this weekend, and it's finally cooperating. I had a lot of doubts about whether or not I could make the sand look good, and the first few tries didn't go so well. Sand hasn't been easy for me in other paintings, it has a funny texture and more colors than it should. So to try to trick myself into finishing this painting I decided to do the background first, and save the flowers for last. That seems to have worked, now it's close to done, just needs another layer or two, to detail the sand and make the flowers pop.

White Beach Flowers, oil on panel, 5x7 inches, unfinished.

This painting is coming along smoothly, it's a Celestial flower with a tiny spider. These flowers are fragile and only last for a few hours, and the spider hanging out was a lucky find. Once I got close to the flower to start taking pictures the spider put his legs up like he was trying to scare me off. I'm happy with how deep the background looks, and how the bright grasses stand out. One thing left to fix is that the values of the lights and darks are too far apart on the flower head. That makes the light looks like harsh afternoon sunlight, not the last evening light it actually was. So I'll probably try a faint blue glaze all over it, to even out the values and match the color a little better.

Celestial and Spider, oil on panel, 5x7 inches, unfinished.

Ducks! This is a silly drawing I've been slowly working on for a while. Duckies are surprisingly easy to draw.

Ducks! sketch and White Beach Flowers, both in progress.

My latest little hobby has been making wire wrapped rings. Here's one made with 20 and 26 gauge coated copper wire, and twisted strands of electrical wire in the middle, it's about a size 6. These will be for sale on my Etsy store soon.

Copper wire wrapped ring.

In Progress- Storm Clouds 3/11/16

Clouds are so much fun to paint! These are some storm clouds from an afternoon a few weeks ago. I experimented with doing the under drawing in water color pencil, and that worked really nicely. You can see how the left side is darker, I was trying to draw first and then brush it with water, but it got surprisingly dark and smeared. So on the right side I just used them like regular pencils, and painted right over it with no problems.

Storm Clouds 3/11/16, 6x12 inches, oil on panel, unfinished.

 The first layer was painted without any medium added, so the paint would stay wet and workable all day, and I could save the mixed up colors for next time. It's a great time saver to be able to pull out the old colors instead of having to remix, and it will match for sure. Mixing the same exact color twice can be tricky sometimes. 

Storm Clouds 3/11/16, 6x12 inches, oil on panel, unfinished.

This is the second layer. After the first layer dried, I went back to rework some areas, and add brighter whites. From the photo, it's kind of hard to tell which clouds are in front, so I was trying to make that more clear. Some of the areas needed to have a little stronger color, like the blue parts of the sky, so I added Neo Meguilp medium to the paint and glazed it on. The medium makes the paint more translucent, so it can catch more light and look brighter.

Storm Clouds 3/11/16, reference photo.

Working on This Weekend- 5/17/15

I finished a few little things this week, that's always fun. All three of them are now available in my Etsy store.

Winter Thistle, mixed media drawing on paper, 5x7 inches, finished.

I've been trying to finish up some of the many little drawings that I have floating around, and I started this one quite a while ago. I started the drawing by transferring the pencil outlines, tracing them with pen, and then scrubbing in shading with charcoal. Tracing with pen works nicely, because it doesn't smear or disappear when the charcoal is added over it. After that I refined the dark areas with more pen work, sharp pencils and charcoal, and added in the white highlights with white acrylic paint. 

Beach Shells, oil on panel, 5x7 inches, finished.

This is another picture I gave up on and put away before finishing. But I tried again, and now I think it looks finished. The sand has shape and interest to it, and the shadows on the shells make sense now. 

Dam Sunset, oil on panel, 5x7 inches, finished.

I love the colors in this one, and after a few tries the grasses look good too.

AZ Aspen, oil on canvas panel, 9x12 inches, unfinished.

Still working on this one, I tried another color on the fence, and this time it looks better. The fence and sidewalk at the bottom still need a little more work, but it's close to done.

Working on This Weekend- 5/10/15

 I finished a few things this weekend, trying to clean up a bit so I can start new pictures.

Dry Wash, charcoal drawing on paper, 10x14 inches, finished.

This drawing came from a photo my mom took in the desert a few years ago, of the patterns in a dry creek bed after a rain. It's charcoal on soft paper, with highlights in white pastel and white acrylic paint.

Beach Shells, oil on panel, 5x7 in, finished.

 I started this little painting about a year ago, and then didn't like how it turned out. But I reconsidered abandoning it and worked on the background a little more. Now it's more finished looking, the sand is interesting to look at and has a sense of distance and shape.

Dam on West, oil on canvas panel, 5x7 in, maybe finished.

 This is a little sunset painting I started a few months ago and then didn't know how to finish. I added detail to the grasses in front and worked on the road today, and maybe it might be done now.

AZ Aspen, oil on panel, 9x12 in, unfinished.

 Still tinkering with this one, the clouds were easy, but the tree and the fence in the front have been trickier. And for some reason the colors are hard to photograph, they come out looking strange no matter the settings. 

Winter Deer Skull, oil on panel, 16x20 in, unfinished.

Working on the grasses in the background of this painting now, but there's still a lot to do, just because of the size.

Three Pink Roses

Here's the finished painting of pink roses from the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, in front of the Auld House. The Auld house is a historic farm house built in the 1880's that was donated to the San Antonio Botanical Garden, it was moved from the original location and rebuilt in the garden. 

Three Pink Roses, oil on panel, 8x10 inches, finished,

Three Pink Roses, detail, oil on panel, 8x10 inches, finished,

Three Pink Roses, detail, oil on panel, 8x10 inches, finished,

Three Pink Roses, progression, oil on panel, 8x10 inches, finished,

For sale here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/224530506/three-pink-roses-original-oil-painting?

Working on This Weekend-12/21/2014

Mainly worked on two paintings this weekend, Three Pink Roses and the Winter Deer Skull.

Winter Deer Skull, oil paint on panel, 16x20 inches, unfinished.

 I went back to the shadow areas of the skull and
 added a light blue layer, with some texture. Then I redrew the fence wires and the cracks in the skull with Raw Umber, too.

I originally wanted to do only glazes of pure colors on this painting, but that isn't giving me the results I want, so today I tried working wet in wet on the background grasses. It worked really well, but it will be tedious to get all the background area covered. Galkyd tends to get sticky and messy very quickly, within an hour, so that means I can only cover small areas at a time, with small batches of mixed colors.

Three Pink Roses, oil paint on panel, 8x10 inches, unfinished.
 Mostly got the background out of the way here, now I can work on the fun part, the flowers! I swear painting backgrounds is like eating your veggies before the good parts of dinner. The first layer had already been done on the background, so this layer was easier to apply and adjust. I made three shades of grey, using a dark Torrit Grey from a few years ago, plus pure white and the grey for the darks; and added color all over, working from lightest to darkest with the same little filbert brush, and then blended it all with a soft brush. After the blending I cleaned up the stems and flowers with a clean brush dipped in mineral spirits.

Toy I

Toy I, with the model.

I wanted to try some still lifes based on my favorite colors, Prussian Blue and Alizarin Crimson, with little toys and items from around the house. This is the first finished picture in that series, it features one of my favorite model horses that I've had since I was little.
This painting was done on canvas, but I wanted the bottom white part smooth, so I built it up with many layers of gesso and sanded it smooth. After that was smooth I poured on Prussian Blue mixed with Galkyd and let it form the drips.

Toy I, oil painting on canvas, 12x24inches, finished, 2013.

GIF of Toy I, showing some of the layers that went into the horse.

GIF of Toy I, showing the layers that went into the whole painting.

Toy I, with the model.

Working on This Weekend-Thanksgiving 2014

  A painting that I started a few months ago and then forgot about got most of my attention this weekend. This is the first layer, on top of a pencil drawing. The photo is of roses at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, in front of the Auld House, a beautiful historic Texas farmhouse that was donated and relocated to the gardens. I think it already looks pretty great, should only take a few more layers to get right.

Three Pink Roses, 8x10, oil on panel, unfinished.

Three Pink Roses, 8x10, oil on panel, unfinished.

Color Sketch for Winter Deer Skull, 5x7, finished.

This was a little color sketch I  did to check the colors I picked out for the big winter deer skull painting.

Stormy Clouds, 5x7, oil on canvas panel, unfinished.

A little landscape I've had in mind for a while, storm clouds from a few weeks ago. I love the colors of storm clouds, this is my first try at painting them. This will need at least one more layer, once it's dry in a few days.

Working on This Weekend-11/23/14

I was stuck working on some little pencil drawing for the last week, because it was too cold outside to spray them with fixative. But Sunday was nice and warm, so I was able to fix them and work on the next layers.

Hall House Deer Skull, pencil drawing with white acrylic highlights,  5x7 on bristol paper, finished.

This drawing is mostly pencil, with a little white acrylic paint to bring out the highlights, and that white paint made a huge difference, the drawing looked pretty flat before the whites were brightened.  

Thistle Seed, pen and charcoal, 5x7 on bristol paper, unfinished. 

 I did the underdrawing for this with copic pen, so the sharp spines wouldn't be blurred by blending the charcoal. Making this look 3D will be my goal, because even the photo looks pretty flat.

Torrit Grey Lady, oil painting, 11x14 on a canvas panel, unfinished.

I've been wanting to paint a figure for awhile now, so I picked a vintage erotica picture to work from. These pictures are old enough that the copyrights have expired, and there are tons that would make beautiful paintings. Also I prefer these "real" figures over the oddly photoshopped anatomy you see in most modern photos. She needs a good name too, but there's time to find the right one.

Deer Skull, oil painting on Gessobord, 16x20, unfinished.  

This is the big picture I'm working on now, and it's slowly progressing. I wasted some time drawing in grass in the background and then losing the drawing when I tried painting over it, but I was trying to figure out how to deal with the grass and I think I'm closer now.  With a mid-tone background I can draw in the light colored stems of grass and add in the darks around that.

Working on This Weekend-11/2/2014

The main project I have going now is a big painting of a deer skull hanging on a fence. The light was great that day, sharp and wintry, the shadows on the skull were bright blue and the grasses were grey and gold.

Deer Skull, 16x20, preliminary drawing for a painting. 

Laying out the drawing and doing the transfer to the painting board was tedious, but it's finally done. I also decided to leave out the fence post and the tag on the right antler.

Deer Skull testing color schemes for a painting. 

Picking the colors is the next part, I want to do glazes of pure color over most parts of the painting. Glazes will glow and be intense, but that means all the colors have to be right from the beginning. First I tried Pthalo Blue, Indian Red, Yellow Ochre, Titanium White, and Vandyke Brown (the bigger sheet on the left). But the problem with Vandyke Brown is that it tends to look dead and gross when it mixes with white or yellow, and is hard to get dark enough because it's so transparent. So I tried again with Raw Umber, which is about the same color as Vandyke Brown, but plays nicely with other colors and is nice and dark. And I switched the Indian Red for Permanent Rose, because that makes a nice pretty purple with the blue and it will work on the parts of the shadows that look pink too. Currently I'm thinking Pthalo Blue, Permanent Rose, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White will be the way to go.

Hall House Deer Skull, pencil on Bristol paper, 5x7, unfinished.

I also have a few small pencil and pen drawings floating around. This is another whitetail deer skull, from the tree in the backyard at my grandma's house.

Thistle, pencil on Bristol paper, 5x7.
Another small drawing, of a thistle seed pod in the winter. I haven't decided whether to use copic pen or pencil yet, maybe both. 

Beach Shells,  oil on Gessoboard,  5x7, unfinished.

Still working on the little sea shell picture, mostly frustrated with it though. I haven't figured out how to get the sand to look right, and the orange shell is a mess. Some areas are too dark and opaque, it looks blotchy, and I think I might need to repaint most of it to fix it. I used Neo Megilp on Gessoboard and ran into an issue with previous layers wiping off when I tried to scrub in the next color. Maybe sealing the layers with Galkyd Lite might be the way to go. Gamblin used to say not to mix their mediums, but now they say everything can be used together, so maybe I'll ask what they think before I try that.

AZ Blue Sky, 5x7, oil on a canvas panel, probably finished.

A little painting from a picture my mom took somewhere out near Big Lake, Arizona. I keep messing with it, but it's probably done now.