"Chincoteague Fugue"

11"x14" Oil on canvas

I'm planning a pantining trip in early summer to Chincoteague Island, off the coast of Virginia....it's one of my favorite places to paint and I can't wait to get there and be inspired!

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"Breakfast"

16"x20",
Pastel on board

This is another work in progress from the Carducci Pastel workshop I attended last week.... It is definately unfinished.. notice the black plate.. the shape is wrong in the foreground, but it did not go unnoticed.. I just didn't get a chance to fine tune it and correct the shape of the plate... it's sometimes tough to get that elipse right! I'll finish this one of these days and post it again....

Onion Group

19"x12",
Pastel on Canson paper




I took a wonderful pastel workshop last week with Master pastelist, Judith Carducci.

This was my first day's work... I haven't worked in pastels since I was about 10 years old.... I forgot how much FUN it is!!

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Portuguese Water Dog

5"x7", Oil

This is another painting from my weekly dog paintings... a wondeful family pet with an unusual name. They actually worked on ships with fishermen way back when... and would dive into the water to retrieve fish. The breed almost became extinct until a wealthy businessman decided to start a breeding program in the late 1800's. The first ones were brought to the U.S. in 1958...

I loved painted this one becasue of the wavy, messy nature of the fur.. I was able to paint it so loosely.. and the looser I made it , the more accurately it resembled the breed.

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"Tamika" , Work in Progress

16" x 20" Oil on canvas.

Here is a work in progress I started yesterday. The model is beautiful and an inspiration to paint. I loosely sketched her in charcoal, and when I felt I had her likeness, got started in paint. I laid in the underpainting in dark ,cool tones, developed the shadows, and then began to balance the darks with the lights, which began to give it life. Now I need to work back into the entire thing to develop more interesting color tones... I'll get back to painting her again in a couple weeks and will post the finished painting.

"Bulldog"

5" x 7" Oil on gessoed hardboard.

Here is the finished product from yesterday's post.

You can see that I worked more heavily with the paint to "mold" his features properly, and had a fun time playing with the distinct shadows in the folds of his cute face.

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"Bulldog", Work in Progress

5"x7" Oil on gessoed hardboard.

Here is another work in progress. I usually sketch out the p[ortrait very lightly with vine charcoal and then start to roughly block in the basic shadows and massses of color. becaisse it is done in oils, I sometimes have to give it a little time so it's not quite so wet, and come back to it and finish off the finishing touches and and brightest highlights. I love that part. It's like putting frosting on a cake... it all comes alive.