Counting Blessings or Sheep?

Like the portrait, this commission is in the early stages. Developing the mass and texture of sheep is somewhat tedious. From what I can tell, I've knocked out about 50% of the underpainting for this pastoral scene. This week hopes reach high as the detail needs to be refined and developed before I can begin glazing in the color.

Portrait in Batman Country

As the week unfolded a little more progress was made on this portrait. The patron told me his granddaughter was a big fan of Batman Asylum so time was spent figuring out what that video world looked like - which meant going through a bunch of screen shots of the game. Here is what was cooked up. I'm about halfway through the detailed underpainting. The likeness is pretty durn good if I say so myself. The trick will be glazing in colors that will bring the image to life.

Usually This Isn't the Way It Goes

Back in the '70s most of the time I tackled a painting via a detailed drawing. I abandoned that in the '80s. But decided to come back to it for this painting. It's a complex subject with the glass distortions, so wanted to see if drawing the object onto canvas made it easier to understand how to paint those refracted details. We'll see.

Three Sheets to the Wind

Or is that one large couch cover?

My son's production of Aladdin is crawling into our home life as he's taken over the kitchen table for some serious papier maché.

And in support of this play I'm going to paint a large backdrop of a desert scene. My wife sewed two old couch covers together and I just applied the first coat of primer.

Two things I learned.

1) Don't use couch covers that have been treated with Scotch Guard.
2) Don't paint a backdrop on the patio floor.

The cloth was so porous that nearly half of the primer leached through to the concrete. Fortunately, I was using an interior latex, so with a bit of elbow grease I should be able to remove it.

Should have the landscape done by the end of the week if the weather cooperates. Will post progress on this as it unfolds.

He Painted it: Hook, Line, and Slinky. . .

The themes of childhood live with waking thoughts on a regular basis. It was inevitable that those thoughts would find their way to canvas at different times in my life. The painting below is one of those interludes to the past. I finished the painting back in 1987, but was never quite satisfied with the way the shadows turned out. They just didn't look right.

This past Monday the painting took some sitting time on my easel. I completely repainted the background, touched up the color in the candy bar, fish lure, and squirt gun - intensifying the color. Then I repainted the shadows, several times, layer-upon-layer to get the right kinds of transitions I was looking for; ultimately lightening the value of those shadows.

Now I can live peacefully with the end result.

Hook, Line, and Slinky • 36" x 24" • $1235

acrylic on canvas

Donuts Anyone?

Okay. . . I love pastries. They spark strong emotions. They make me feel content.

Why? When I was in third grade we had just moved north to Sioux City, Iowa. We were extremely poor. Dad would drive to the donut shop to free the place of their day-old pastries. For most of that first winter we ate those tired pastries for breakfast washed down with cocoa. And Mom would transform them from flour bricks to an edible dough by placing a large colander in a pot of water.

There was an important lesson I learned quickly. Make sure to be one of the first to get to this make-shift steamer to pick out your pastry. Mom steamed a dozen or so at a time, so if you were late you got a bottom one. The worst were apple fritters. Those were soggy, tasted like a sugared glue, and were slimy going down.

I know. . . why does that make me feel content. The fact that for the first time family was really close. My aunt and uncle who had fallen on hard times that winter came to live with us. They took the upstairs with their two boys. Having them around just seemed right for the first few months of getting used to a new home.

A lot of times they would come down and eat pastries with us, or take a bunch upstairs. So pastries means being near family, a sugar-glazed high, hot chocolate, and the magic of winter snows that were rare to my previous years living in the South.

Breakfast Ritual • 10" x 8" • $75

acrylic on canvas

Shadow of Art revisited.

Shadow of Art • 10" x 8"

oil over acrylic on canvas

This week the groove of each day has been a little like riding a rocket to the moon. The trail of thought has been a creative burst. New projects are underway. Painting ideas are sitting on the launch pad waiting for the countdown. For breaks from the heavy mental lifting I returned to a couple of paintings. This was my first foray into oils after 30-some years of painting with acrylics only. The experience informed. Oils are so buttery and I love the scent of the linseed oil. The other wonder of it is the ability to go slow. Painting shadows the way I want them is SO much easier with oils. I finished the painting two days ago, touched it today, then had to repair my touch. I forgot how long it takes for oils to dry. : )