Stir Crazy

The snow envelopes our house like a huge silent blanket, the stillness broken only by the rumble of the snow plow as it scrapes and scratches its way through the slush and ice.

I suppose I try to make the best of it. I have been painting still life, trying to improve my techniques. I go to work but the church is dark and empty because the preschool classes and the adult day care program are cancelled due to the cold and snow. This is January in Northwest Ohio and we haven't had one this cold and snowy in a long time.

Here is a 9" x 12" painting I did Sunday. I am a bit behind on posting because I've been trying to organize my art business for the new year and it's a bigger job than I thought. I'm taking this one to work because I like it a lot and I just sold one that is hanging in my office.

Grapes with Green Pot

Adorable

I always tell the client to send me more than one picture of their pet when they commission a painting. Often one photo will present a better view or angle than another. I like to have choices. I think that after all these years of creating paintings I may have a better idea of what will make a painting work. Sure, I can reproduce a photograph exactly and make the painting look like the picture, but where's the fun in that? I want to leave my own imprint on it.

Fran gave me three pictures and while the little dog's head is half-buried in the blanket here and is showing clearly in the other two, I still felt drawn to this one. There is emotion here. The little dog seems to be tucked in for the night with his blanket and his favorite toy.

So I changed the angle of the bed a little and I moved the eyes of his "baby" so it appears to be looking at him and the painting immediately became more compelling. Now he is looking at us and his doggy doll is looking at him. It's a fun painting now, not just a painting of a dog lying down on a bed.

11" x 14" Oil on Canvas

Portrait from a photo

It's always more difficult painting a person from a photo if you haven't painted that individual from life. When the subject is right there in front of you the guesswork is eliminated. I had this photo from our portrait group that really captured the young man's attitude so I wanted to try to paint it.

It's even more difficult when you go to a smaller canvas. This piece is 9" x 12" so the margin of error when painting features that size is smaller than usual. I enjoyed abstracting the background.

9" x 12" oil on canvas

 Attitude

Green Pots with Orange

I am trying to put a bit more thought into my still life paintings by adding different textures and surfaces, varying the light, the colors, the materials and the fabric etc. The contrast between complements is the focus here. The orange seems even more orange than it actually is because the post are blueish green. The dark battle is there for balance and to stabilize. The grapes just nag out because I like the way they look against the white fabric. I am focusing on improving my edges and my compositions this year to create more unified pieces. So my New Year's resolution in the studio is 'think before you brush', very similar to the one I have made for my personal life: think before you speak. This doesn't always equate to the fastest paintings but it's not really about speed when you're in the studio.

So far, I like the way things are going. Now if I can only maintain. That's the difficult part.

9" x 12" Green Post with Orange

Tennessee Cabin

Another one of my "house portraits", this one is actually a cabin up on a mountain somewhere in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. The owner's daughter commissioned it as a birthday gift for her mother. I have stayed in a cabin in a similar place in North Carolina so I was familiar with how 'smokey' those mountains actually are.

11" x 14" oil on canvas