My Fastest Sale Ever

TITLE: Heads or Tails?

Posted it on eBay for BIN of $229 and it sold within three hours. This beats my old record of 5 hours- also on eBay- which was for the second in the series of Indian children.

This painting is larger and according the the buyer- has great "universal appeal".

I like it. The hair is why I painted it. Very cool looking and fun to paint.

Slide Show of Recent Work

Old Guy from the Motorcycle Swap Meet

This guy let me take his picture at a motorcycle swap meet in July. Our church was selling ice cream to raise money for the Mission Group and I was walking around taking pictures. One guy even asked me if I was the official photographer so I guess I wasn't being too covert.

Christine from our Portrait Group

I finished this painting Saturday. Her hair was so much fun to paint- it just went all over. Christine was a great model who sat very still and meditated the entire time she posed.

Finished this piece that I began a few weeks ago

A friend and I painted on her porch Sunday.

Carmen circa 1914

I paint a few commissioned portraits. This portrait of a client's grandmother turned out extremely well. I love her expression, the skin tones, the clothing and even the hair. She has so much "class", you can see it in her gaze. This is oil on Old Holland linen, the best surface I have worked on to date. It really does help to have a great surface when you're painting portraits in oil.

Freda oil on linen

This is Freda, painted from a small black and white photo like they used to sell in those photo machines at carnivals and airports. Turned out great and she looks like a 50's starlet to me.

Works from class

This is Mark (with a K.) Garrow's little snowscape that he painted Tuesday night - in less than two hours. Way to go, Mark. I wasn't watching really closely and Mark painted in an opaque cadmium orange underpainting instead of an orangish colored wash, as I suggested. But it really turned out well in the end, adding spontaneous color to what might have been a pretty blah-looking painting. The blue and orange complimentary color scheme really works in this painting, and the little fence posts lead our eye right into the focal point-- the cabins and trees. Mark could add some smoke coming from one of the cabins to add that "human" touch but it's a great painting as is. Mark-- I know you're reading this so take note of the great brushwork in the sky - click on the painting to see better- and notice how the underpainting shows through and really adds life and warmth, but also the brush strokes are going in ALL directions- the way they should. :)
Kathy started a flowery landscape that is half-way finished. The shed was the most difficult part-it had sunlight shining on it and lots of details that it really wasn't necessary to paint. There is a fountain behind some flowers that she might want to make the focal point.
Next week we are painting flowers! Whatever I can find on sale.

Bo Schembechler

Side-tracked from my painting of "The Oval" once again.... Jean, who owns the frame shop where I teach a class, told me someoen was looking for a Bo Schembechler print to hang on the wall of his restaurant (sports bar). So I finished this watercolor this morning. I don't know why but guys usually like watercolor sports paintings better than oils-0 at least my husband does, and he is into sports more than most people I know. Nascar, baseball, football, basketball... you name it- he watches it on TV. OK... he doesn't watch hockey. Since I have the watercolors out I will probablly get to the oval painting today.

Christine- Impressionist portrait

I used a #8 round synthetic and two #8 flats to paint this. I used the drawing I made last week of Christine and it didn't take longer than an hour to finish form life. I left the brush strokes large and unblended and they look really good from a distance. It's very impressionistic though because when you get close they are BIG brush strokes. I think I painted into a soupy kind of mud color I used to paint over the painting underneath. It ws an Indian that never sold. That helped add a bit of color harmony that might not have been there if I had used white canvas. Posting a couple closeups to show the BIG picture.
I have to paint Bo Schembechler for somebody this afternoon- they want prints- if I don't sell them the original I guess I'll offer it on the eBay. I sure hope there are some decent references on the internet somewhere.

Jocelyn a Portrait Exchange

11" x 14" oil on linen... I used the Old Holland linen for this portrait too and I'm afraid I am going to have to raise my portrait prices to accommodate the cost of this canvas because I just love painting on it. I offered Jocelyn a trade and lucky for me she went for it. Now she'll paint me in her favorite medium- acrylics. She let me know today that she loves it so I can move on to my next project-- a watercolor of "The Oval", a park-like setting near the Ohio State stadium. This is for my brother-in-law, and I have been putting it off because I find watercolors difficult to paint. Once I get going with them I'm OK, but they really require so much more preparation than an oil painting, which has become second nature to me. I'm very happy with the way Jocelyn's portrait turned out and it's a good example of what can happen if you think about lighting when you take a photo.

Allie in a Green Dress

The final in the series... I want to enter this one in a show so I've priced it pretty high. After the show I'll more than likely drop the price, although not too low because it is an awesome painting. The Old Holland linen canvas really does seem to make a difference when I paint portraits. The surface is so receptive, compared to the rougher weave of cotton, which usually takes a few coats of paint to become smooth. I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out although I may lose the flower because it is not doing anything for the composition except pulling the eye away from the focal point.

Two Models from Saturday

Tyler age 11, about 20 minutes and Christine about 40 minutes. These were done with charcoal on 18 x 24 80# drawing paper and I gave the models the drawings after I took pictures of them. I will use the pictures I took to do underpaintings for my paintings. Both models have interesting features, especially the boy.