Beginnings - Portrait of a Girl

I am super excited to be entrusted with this portrait.  Here are the first stages.

Sketch.

 

 

 



Canvas tint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Basically two more layers that add the detail and highlights!

 









Cow update and new paintings

Well, so far I've just now finished removing what I hope is all of the top varnish from the cow.  It is smelly hard work and so I took a small break and have done a couple of paintings.  Next I will sand and bondo the damaged parts (15% of the cow in my estimation), then sand, re-prime, re-paint, re-gel, and re-varnish.  Whew.  anyway...here are the new paintings.

 

This poppy painting is acrylic and was my first experiment using texture medium.  Quick and fun.

 

 

 

This painting is a small oil.  11x14  I plan on doing more like this one, but I need models!  The search begins.

 

The New River Gorge Bridge

I had so much fun painting this.  This is the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville, WV, my hometown.  It is within walking distance from the house I grew up in.  It used to be the world's longest steel arch bridge, but now I think it is only the longest in the western hemisphere.  The painting is impressionist and I purposefully left some of the drawing lines exposed.  Acrylic on 30x40 canvas.

Vandalized!

Well, the cow parade is just a couple of weeks away from getting all of the cows off the streets, touched up, and auctioned.  Black and White had almost made it without any of the trouble I had been hearing some of the other cows had.  Then I got the email.  I have to admit I was too mad to blog this when I first found out last Wednesday.  Andrew is going to go pick her up and I am going to try my best with some bondo, but the repairs will take quite a lot of work and then I may have to paint most of the cow over.  Here is the damage...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, not pictured, whoever did this ripped out the bolts from the feet holding the cow to the weighted platform.   

 

I am still cooling off.  More pictures when I get her back and start the bondo-ing.

 

 

Moonlight and Lake

My Studio

Here is a look into the studio I have here at home.  This is about as clean as it gets.

From the outside looking in...I love not having a solid door.  With this kind of door I have quiet without feeling like I don't know what is going on in the rest of the house.  We are planning on moving within the next year, so I have put in my request for another one of these doors on my new studio.

I basically have two easels/painting stations.  This one is my acrylic painting area and it is just right inside the door.

This is the oil painting area.  Notice the stereo in the bottom right corner.  That is white paint all down the front.  I had a really bad day that day!  Took forever to clean up and what a waste paint.  The painting on the easel is what I'm working on now.   Hope to finish it up within the next week or so.  I'll post when done.

New Fall Path

Here is Fall Path II while it was still on the easel.  A bigger version of the original....

And here it is on the mantle of its new home.  Sorry I should have used a flash, but you get the idea.