Colleen from our Portrait Group

Colleen posed for the Hyter Group yesterday. She wore a black blouse but I am not that fond of black so I changed the color to a violet. A great model who held her pose well and didn't complain. I have located my pastels so I decided to use them! The day was perfect except for the opera music playing loudly in the back of the room. Oh well.... can't have everything I guess.

14" x 18"

Pastel on Canson paper

The Caretaker's House at 577 Foundation in Perrysburg, Ohio

I spent an afternoon painting with friends at the 577 Foundation in Perrysburg, Ohio last week. This is the caretaker's house, where they hold meetings and luncheons. Another wonderful day to paint. This summer has been a wonderful season to paint outdoors.

11" x 14"

Oil on canvas

Kunkle Horse Barn

 9" x 12" oil on linen

It was a perfect afternoon to paint and my friend and I had permission to paint on a farm in Kunkle, Ohio. We wanted to take pictures of goats and Brenda Baker has 8 or 9 of them in her pasture. Unfortunately, one of the "kids" took a liking to me and my painting gear. Here he is investigating my suitcase. Later he jumped up to have a look at my palette and got cadmium yellow light all over his foot. Then he walked around, ate some grass and ended up with paint all over his mouth! I tried to clean him up with a baby wipe but it didn't do much good. He had the paint all over my pant legs by then and I decided to make the best of it and try to ignore him. However, I seemed to be dealing with a drunken 50 lb. puppy who had no concept of what the word "no" means. "Billy" would forget about me for awhile and munch his grass, then suddenly he would look up and spot me again. "Maaa?" He would cry as he galloped toward me and I braced myself and my easel for his enthusiastic greeting. It was quite an experience. I was surprised that my painting turned out as well as it did with all the external elements I dealt with that day.

Kenda's House

A commissioned painting of a really cute brick house that has many interesting architectural details that aren't readily apparent in the photograph of the whole house. I had to use four other detail shots and raise the point of view a bit to get everything in that the client wanted to include. (Also deleted a lot of things she DIDN'T want like neighbor's houses, eaves troughs etc.)

9" x 12" oil on canvas 

The Dog is Larger than Life...

The dog may be larger than life, but so is his personality, according to the woman who commissioned this house painting. She is giving the painting to people who LOVE the dog, so I guess that's all right. This is a small 11" x 14" piece and it was difficult to get enough detail into the dog to be recognizable but you can tell it's a French Bulldog.
House paintings are usually fun to do. The owners are thrilled to have something hanging on their wall that tells the world how much they love their home. And it's always a challenge to turn a bland photo into a colorful oil painting. It requires imagination and invention because the details are just not readily apparent in the photo. Thankfully, most houses are constructed the same way and I've painted a lot of them so I know where to fill in the blanks.

This Dog Owns The Lawn

11 x 14