Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai - SOLD

"Cloudy Day in Shanghai"

5"x 7" Oil on Ampersand Gessoboard.

Click on images to enlarge.

I was looking through my Dad's travel photos and fell in love with a few of his from a trip he and Mom took about 10 years ago. This is a scene in Yuyuan Garden in the old city area of Shanghai. It is a classical garden built during the Ming Dynasty with over 400 years of history.

This was a bit too complex for the small 5x7 format and I included more detail than I wanted. You know how that goes! Someday I'll try this in a larger scale but for now, just zoom in on those detail shots and pretend like they are life size!

This maybe have been good practice for the next cityscape DSFDF challenge. I don't have much (hardly any) with that subject and am really looking forward to it. I'd love to go to NY city and paint there - let's go!

End of Year One - Dubrovnik #2

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9"x 12" Oil on Ampersand Gessoboard. November 2008 nfs

To celebrate one year of a my return to painting or, more accurately, my first year learning to oil paint, I thought it would be interesting to repaint something that I painted in October a year ago. Two years ago in October of 2006, I had a wonderful trip abroad and returned with a great number of photos from which to paint. That trip was the genesis of my desire to begin a new adventure into fine art. A year later in October 2007, I finally began painting and this subject of a narrow street in Dubrovnik, Croatia was one of the first paintings that I produced. Above is the painting that I just produced these last few days and below is the painting that was painted a year ago.

I'm encouraged by the improvement, and hope when I paint it next year I'll see even more. Maybe I'll continue painting it each year about this time to see the steady growth. Wouldn't that be a cool thing to have, maybe fifteen paintings from the same photo, each a year apart?

9"x12" Oil on canvas board ( really cheap canvas board!) October 2007

If you view the photo reference below you will see that last year's painting was pretty much a copy of the photo. Not a bad job, but it doesn't say or add anything beyond the photo. The focus becomes the mother in the orange top, your eye follows the street in the foreground up to the mother and pretty much stops there. Well, maybe your eye goes back and forth to the red shirt on the guy beyond. The point is that these two people are what you notice and the great setting takes a back seat in my opinion.

In my current piece, I gave some thought to many considerations before picking up a brush. I tried to remember the day, the light, my emotions, my mood, how the street made me feel, etc. My strongest impression was of the narrow streets, only open to foot traffic, contrasted by the tall buildings on either side with the occasional light coming down into the darkish corridors. The other thing that made a huge impression on me was the actual streets themselves. This was a ancient walled city built by the Romans and had no grass or land anywhere. All the ground was paved with large flat stones that were worn so smooth by all the years of foot and hoof traffic, that they shone as polished marble. The streets reflected everything on the surface as if they were wet!

I wanted to emphasize these impressions and also correct color and value in the photo, which now I recognize is not to be trusted. I also made some changes to the composition by adding and deleting elements hoping to create more interest and to draw the eye farther down the street and give a sense of distance. I wanted the eye to go to the figure in the middle standing in the shaft of light and then wander beyond a bit. By creating a new light source, moving the sun a little forward, I was able to create more dramatic light on the upper buildings and that strong shaft of light breaking through the narrow alley cutting across our street. This pattern of light not only adds interest and leads one's eye to the focal point, but it also creates movement by leading your eye around the painting.

Although, I'm aware of some weak elements in this piece, I think I really worked out some good solutions to achieve my purposes. It was a great learning experience and fun to see how differently I approached this painting with a lot of gained knowledge and experience. One thing I know, is how much MORE I would like to know. The more you paint, the more you improve and grow, but also you learn how much you don't know about painting! It would be boring to get to a point where you know it all and there is no more to learn. The challenge of stretching, experimenting, studying, and staying inspired is the best in living! Such happiness and fulfillment has come to me this year in my journey. Blogging and meeting new friends and artists has been such a blessing also and I thank you all who have visited and shared in my journey this year.

Photo reference from trip in October 2006. Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Close up of new painting. I may like this cropping better, but the painting is on board!!
Besides that, some of my favorite parts are in the upper parts of the buildings.

Lake Como No.3

After a week of finishing projects, making improvements to "Comfortable Hide-Out", and failing at a painting of a single rose, I was in the mood to relive memories from Lake Como, Italy. The day that I was there it was very cloudy and gray and all my photos look like the one here. I decided that I would make the best of the reference and use it very loosely, as an inspiration. The ideal would be en plein air or paint from memory, but I wanted to paint a brighter and sunnier day than I remember. I used only the bottom left portion of this photo to inspire my composition.

I gave the canvas a light tone of raw sienna, adding some darker smudges to indicate composition and wiped out the lightest areas. I established a composition with a large dark mass on the right, and a subordinate dark mass on the far left. The focal point would be the group of white boats which will also be the lightest light on the canvas.

Next I began filling in the local colors, continuing to work out the composition and comparing values as I go. At this stage I can already visualize the sun hitting the boats and buildings in the cove.

This photo of the finish painting fails to show the distant buildings in their full intensity of color. In the original, the roofs are redder and the boats are very white and "pop" out as the focal point. This photo shows the red and white flag on the right, competing with the focal point, but it doesn't at all in the painting. I've shot this in many lights, inside and out, night and day, and have finally settled for this heavily photo-shopped image.

Click on image to enlarge.

6"x 8" oil on canvas mounted on hardboard

Lake Como #2 - SOLD

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7"x 9" oil on gessoed board. sold

The three weeks since I've posted new work seems like a year! A multiple of reasons for the long break could be listed, but all I want to say is it's good to be back painting.

This piece, painted from a photo I took in 2006, was painted over several days. I'm using new paint (regular oils instead of the M. Graham oils) new palette of colors, a new self mixed medium, some new brushes and new surface ( the second time to paint on board instead of canvas). I found it very hard to get back into the hang of it all. The time away from the easel combined with the new supplies was intimidating to say the least. I felt like I was starting from scratch and had forgotten how to paint at all. Approaching this painting in baby steps, over three different sessions, was easier than having the pressure of completing it in one sitting. I've been used to working wet into wet, so this was a bit different working over dry paint. I found it very hard to achieve the soft edges without mixing paint for already painted areas to work into the newly painted parts. Due to the new palette I'm really pleased with the color. I've dropped Ultramarine blue and am now using Prussian blue, as well as adding black. Many teachers say never use black, but one of my favorite artists (Daniel Gerhartz) uses black. He never uses black alone, only mixed with other colors. I'll let you know if I can get along without the ultramarine.

Gondolas in Venice - SOLD

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7"x 10" oil on canvas. Available.

This little painting is from one of my dear photos taken in the fall of 2006. I was able to capture this scene while crossing a little bridge on the way to eat real Italian pizza. The trip to northern Italy and the Greek Isles was life changing in that it was the catalyst to my painting again. I've been at the easel for six months and have now painted from one of my Venice photos for the first time. I simply fell in love with Venice and I was only there a half a day! I haven't wanted to paint my favorite place until I was ''ready" and had the courage. This weekend I was ready and painted it small– 7"x10"– to force myself to limit the detail. I wasn't too successful with that, I just kept picking up that small brush! I really wanted the water to sparkle and I think I achieved that. In fact, I like it a lot and much better than the photo of it! Why can't I ever get a good photo of my paintings? I move the painting every way possible to avoid those light reflections but I always get those little white dots that look like the canvas showing through the paint. If someone out there can tell me how to avoid that, I'd love ya!

Enjoying Venice - SOLD

This is a photo of my brother and his wife in Venice. Following is a painting from this photo. 16"x20" o/c.


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I've had a request to post a painting that was completed in November of 2007. Upon returning from a trip to Italy last year, my sister-in-law emailed a photo of her and my brother in Venice. I surprised them with this painting based on that photo. I'm including a post of the photo first and then the work in progression. The size is 16"x20" and is painted in oil on canvas.

Travelogue Paintings - SOLD

sold

sold