House Painting with People.

16" x 20" oil on linen

This is a house in Connecticut that I painted for a couple who won the bid in a grand prize to benefit the Autism Society of Connecticut. I donate a few paintings a year to worthy causes and this is one. The couple sent me three pictures, one of her with the boys, one of him with the boys and another of the house. Adding the people in front of the house is a nice way to personalize a house portrait.

Seasonal Stuff

This is a painting of tomatoes and peppers given to me by my neighbor. I kept the piece very warm and used a lot of cadmium red to achieve this. Even the background is quite warm, but it's still red, which really keeps the focus on the peppers, because they are a complimentary green.

Another Portrait

Jada 11" x 14"

oil on linen

Jada posed for our Saturday morning group. She is eighteen years old and moving to California this year to go to college. I think I've made her look a bit older than she actually is.
Jada won Miss Buckeye State, which is a huge honor. You have to be smart!

This painting was done 90% from life in one pose and I finished her dress and the background home using a photo reference.

Pastel Portrait

This is a pastel of our model, Jessica, completed in one session. I used Ampersand Gessoed paper in umber and Rembrandt and Nupastels for the most part.

16 x 12 pastel on Pastel Board

Sgt. Jon Martin

Sgt. Jon L. Martin

I was asked to create this painting of Staff Sgt. Jon L. Martin five days before the event where it was to be presented. I have painted these posthumous pieces of military personnel who have been killed for the past eight years but someone else was asked to do the work this year. Martin died from injuries he received when he was injured in a bombing in Iraq.

Apparently the piece did not look like him and they asked me if I could do something at the last minute. The reference was awful- a tiny cell phone print out on plain computer paper.

So I finished three days before the event and ended up framing it for them two days prior to the ceremony.

It was a challenging piece, to say the least, but I was happy with the way it turned out.

I Didn't Stop Painting

A few people have asked me when I'm going to start updating my blog again, and the answer is today. I recently began working full time and it's limited my painting time. But I'm still painting and I'll share some of the good ones over the next few weeks.

This is a painting of Jessica, a model who posed for our portrait group in September. Jessica always manages to look like a different person every time she poses.

16" x 20" oil on canvas