Zuni Girl Finished

I will probably wait until Thursday to list this one. She is a great contrast to the warm tones of the Blackfoot boy I painted last week. I want to do a series of ten Native American children, all from different tribes, all 11" x 14" in size. Each painting will have a different background but I want all of them to be outside.

Zuni Indian Child - No 3 in the series of Native American Indian children

This painting has exciting possibilities. It too is in the underpainting stage. I will work on it tomorrow if I have time after working on the Navajo man. Is this a painting of a brave or a young girl? I'm not sure what direction I will take it.

Navajo Man - oil on canvas in progress

I worked on the underpainting for this one this morning. I am using lead white, cobalt violet and Indanthrene Blue. The blue I am not too familiar with sio it is a bit of an experiment. It seems similar to ultrmarine but more dense and opaque. Slightly silverish too, when mixed with the white. I'll let his dry overnight.

Little Raven, a Blackfoot Indian

This is such an awesome painting. I fell in love with the child as I was working on him. It's one in a series of paintings of Indian children I am working on. I finished it Saturday and listed it on eBay Sunday. It sold the next day with a BUY IT NOW so someone else agreed. It truly is a fine painting and I will more than likely offer prints of the entire series when I am finished.

Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel

Quite a few people suggested that I should do a painting of Coach Tressel after I painted Woody Hayes. Apparently he is gaining a cult following of his own. The trademark sweater vest is now admired greatly, along with the man and his coaching ability. Here is the 14" x 18" painting after three to four hours of work.

Patriotic Pears 8 x 10 oil on canvas

Pears are just the most expressive fruit and I painting them. I especially like to paint Bosc pears like these. I enjoy eating them too! There's just something about pears. You can pose them like miniature people and their curves and expressive stems lend a natural grace to any painting. One of the pears in this set-up refused to stand up so I left it in a prone position. I posed the other two so that they appeared to be looking downward (at least they look like they are to me). The red and white striped tablecloth was begging for a blue background. I think the more I paint the more I see. Red and white reflections I might have ignored a year ago are very apparent in the skin of the pears. I absolutely love this painting.

Decided to Finish off Scott

I had a photograph and I won't be at our portrait group this week so I decided to finish this painting of Scott. It's close but not exact as far as a likeness.

Rework!!!

A beautiful painting with tons of character, painterly lost edges, amazing skin tones and delicate brushwork. I decided I wanted to do another painting with a Rembrandt-like dark background. I've listed this one for sale on eBay here. There is a funny story behind this painting. I was originally auctioning off the second painting of our beautiful model, Margarita, that I completed in our open studio portrait session. But Margarita wanted to buy it so I found myself with a paid auction listing that I did not want to cancel and lose money on. I had a larger 16 x 20 oil painting that I had done of her when she posed for us back in November of 2006 so I decided to "fix" it. I had never been crazy about the black dress or the way I had her hair painted so I made some adjustments and arrived at this new and improved version this morning. I used a hybrid of the dress she posed in most recently because I had a couple of pictures of it. I now like it much better and this is actually one of the best and most detailed paintings I have done recently. The flesh tones are highly realistic, with cadmium red undertones and greenish tints of reflected light in the shadows. The eyes in particular are awesome. I didn't have my model int he studio so I may have lost the likeness but it's still a really awesome painting of a beautiful lady.

100th Post!! Scott in Open Studio

I can't believe I have posted 100 times. That means I have painted at least 100 paintings since I started this log in November 2005. Not really being a math person I think that's about 15 months or 62 weeks. Divide 100 paintings by 62 weeks and that's almost 2 paintings per week. I am actually painting about three a week now and more of them are successful so maybe the average will go up. You really can't count a painting that ended up being painted over and turned into something else. That was the fate of Cowboy Jim, who is slowing morphing into a fireman's coat, hat and boots. Today's post is the second session of a guy named Scott who was the model for our open studio last week and this week. I had to repaint the glasses three times. I keep putting them on the wrong place. Sigh.. Maybe one more time and I will be finished hopefully. Unless I give up and try to finish at home.

Beer and Popcorn Listed

8 x 10 oil on canvas over masonite, this is an awesome little painting that I wouldn't mind keeping if it doesn't sell. The more I looked at that popper the more things I saw. Painted in my studio this morning I listed it on eBay here.

Cocoa at the Window

I worked on this painting of Cocoa yesterday when I finished the cow and I'm much happier with it now. I glazed raw umber into the shadow areas and used a mixture of cerulean blue and white brushed heavily in the light areas and into the glaze in the mid tones to brighten the painting, add contrast and unify the color throughout.

Bessie with an Attitude

This is an acrylic painting on canvas that I painted this afternoon. I used a pinkish gray underpainting to give it a really warm overall feel. I want to enter it in the All Creatures Great and Small Show my art club is having this week so I used acrylic to be sure it would dry.

Listed Peyton Manning at Auction

I don't think I like this one as well as the Troy Smith painting but I did put a little more time into getting it "right". The background is pretty awesome.

Football Paintings - Peyton is Coming!

I'm producing a new series of paintings featuring college and professional football players. AJ Hawk, Troy Smith and Peyton Manning are just a few of the greats I'll be creating original paintings of. Ohio State is our favorite school here in the sticks of Ohio so many of the featured players will be OSU alumni. I'm also offering Woody Hayes limited edition prints of my classic watercolor painting: Woody Hayes on the Sidelines. The diner series continues through March 2007 when I hope to have the final pairs of "people and their food" finished.

Woody in Watercolor

The original is being donated to a benefit sponsoring an event that will raise funds for cancer research in memory of a man who worked with my husband.

Our Awesome Model, Margarita, is Back!!

Margarita is such a great model. She is back for another four week session. This time, thankfully, the black is gone and she is in pink. And her hair is down - she is just so much more beautiful like this and a joy to paint because she stands so still. This is what I came up with today. Just a fun session for me and I love the way it turned out.