Christmas Tree

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I enjoyed painting all the sparkles and lights in this one. Happy Holidays and thanks for stopping by.

Head Study - Zorn Palette

We had a great model yesterday with red filtered light. This is one of the times I wished I had a full palette with me as quinacridone rose among others would have allowed me to get the bright reds and oranges. As it was, I used a lot of green to help the reds pop. Thanks for looking.

Birds of Paradise

I enjoyed painting this complicated image. Books on tape from Youtube got me through this painting. I listened to Books 1, 2 and part of 3 of The Last Survivors series by TW Piperbrook and Bobby Adair. I love to listen to books on tape when I read, and this dystopian series is good and has a great reader. Thanks for stopping by.

Some Head studies - Zorn Palette

Wednesday afternoons at the Southern Atelier has open studio for portrait painting. I love the energy of painting people from life and painting with a group of other like minded people. I use the Zorn palette there partly for the convenience of only having to carry 4 colors, but also because there are less color decisions to be made and I can easily reproduce any color. I find that M Graham's yellow is less green and better for this palette. I use walnut oil for medium and brush cleaning, viva paper towels, bristle flats, and I'm painting these on Canson oil paper.
Thanks for looking.

Beach Day

This was painted from a paint my photo shot. If you haven't been to that site, head on over. Thanks for looking.

In The Works

Did you ever have a painting that was more trouble than it's worth? Well the one on the left is one of those. I've been working on that one off and on for over a year. I think it's 8x10". I keep repainting it. Why don't I throw it out? I thought of stabbing it with a knife last night, but I didn't. I guess I can't accept defeat, yet. Thanks for looking.

Still life

I painted this at a Karen O'Neal workshop at the Woodstock school of art this past summer. She is a wonderful instructor and interesting painter. When we're painting we have to ask ourselves, " Is it warm, or cool - saturated, or neutral? What value is it? During her demos, Karen would name the value of her color, such as value 3, etc. Thanks for coming by. Here's my painting from her workshop last summer, and she is giving a week long workshop in Mexico this coming March.

Two Cats

I started the white cat in the winter and then didn't finish it until this summer when I also painted this adorable kitten. I was really missing my own cats who are similar in personalities. 

NY Summer

This past year has been difficult due to a family illness and subsequent passing. I've been living between NY and Fl dealing with elder family care as well. I finally got back into the studio this summer and I'm building up my painting muscles. (I think they're coming along better than my actual ones.) I painted these two studies from a Vermeer book I had with me.

Ghost Rider

I found this image on line and had to paint it. Zorn palette.

Some new studies

Wednesday afternoons are open studio for portrait painting at the wonderful Southern Atelier in Sarasota, which is run by the kind and talented artist Charles Miano. I've been using the Zorn palette with those studies. I started using it for the convenience of traveling light, but I've really grown to love it. I like the challenge of trying to convey purples, or yellow with it. Green's a bit problematic and our model had green hair! Oh well. The bottom was painted at the Ringling museum on a beautiful spring day. Thanks for stopping by.