Category Archives: Art Work

Fruit Portraits

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I’ve done a number of simple still life paintings of fruit from life – primarily in watercolor. Key goals: paint an accurate – and hopefully interesting – ‘portrait’ of the items and integrate them into their space so they’re not just isolated lumps. The excellent Ed Praybe has been our lead in these endeavors!

  • The star. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 12 x 16.
  • Unlikely duo – heirloom tomato and peach, snuggling. Watercolor on paper. 6×8.
  • Green apple getting close with another heirloom tomato. Watercolor on paper. 5 x 7,
  • Bright palette – orange and lemon. Watercolor on paper. 4×6.
  • Watermelon and Lime. Watercolor on what turned out to be some kind of board!

More Pandemic Art ~~ a challenging composite of personal memories.

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Over the last six months, I’ve been zoom-studying with artists otherwise out of reach. Here’s the final project of a recent class with Ed Praybe — a composite of several separate images arranged into relatively natural composition. It is based on an image of my mother Annette, taken in her twenties, a photo of my six sisters and me, taken years later as a reference for a group portrait lost in Hurricane Katrina; and several photos of our Biloxi home, also later destroyed by Katrina.

To make it work, I had to adjust the relative scales of the elements and imagine a consistent light source across the whole scene. . .

The final image:

Composite of family home, mother, and sisters. Watercolor on Paper. 14 x 11.

The 4 images that provided the underpinnings of the composition:

Annette O’Keefe, circa 1945.
Family portrait at 725 E. Beach Blvd., circa 1983.
725 E. Beach Blvd, newly restored post Hurricane Camille.
The seven sisters, posing for a painting that was destroyed in a hurricane.

It’s been awhile ~~ here’s my latest painting!

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I just finished an intensive four day workshop with outstanding local artist and teacher, Bernie Dellario. We were expected to make up a ‘color chart’ exploring the ways in which 3 tube colors (yellow, red & blue) + white could mix together to make virtually all the colors you might want.

We also painted ten 3-value monochrome paintings; ten 3-value color paintings; and a plein air painting which we then translated into a larger ‘studio painting’ (hopefully retaining the 3-value structure of the studies). Here’s my 16″ x 20″ studio painting of our cannas, through which we can enjoy our neighbor’s yard.

Cannas, Bamboo & Joe Pye?? Oil on linen panel. 16×20.

Here are the initial monochrome and color studies. Note that I included the bushy Joe Pye plant (?) in the black & white study; left it out of the color study; and then re-inserted it in the larger piece. Am glad I did – it’s now my favorite part of the painting!

  • B&W 3 value study.
  • 3 value color study.

The ‘7 Palettes’ Kicked Off a Summer-long Exhibit Yesterday!

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Yesterday, some friends and I, who collaborate on all things art as The 7 Palettes,  opened a new exhibit in Bethesda, Maryland.  Our art — some 40+ pieces — will be displayed for three months at Maplewood Park Place on Old Georgetown Road.  Come see our pretties, please — any day between now and August 24, from 10 to 4 daily.   And congratulations to Sara Becker, whose large abstract painting sold during the Opening Reception!!  Way to go, Sara!

 

I’m sending a painting to the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art auction! Help us fundraise!

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Marsh and Blue Skies. Oil on Linen. 20×16. 2018.

Am just back from UPS, having sent one of my ‘babies’ down to the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi MS. It’s a contribution to an upcoming auction to benefit the museum. I hope someone saves me from the embarrassment of it going unsold!!!! (I’m sure they’ll let you bid long-distance if you call! Help me help me help me!). That was tongue-in-cheek!  [NOT!]

For those of you in the area, the auction is going to be at a fabulous event — enjoy a beautiful home, wonderful food, and play murder-mystery as entertainment.  If I were down there, I’d definitely be there!  Contact the museum for tickets if you’d like to attend.

Painting Without Pressure

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on portraits of my three grandchildren — a task much less ‘fraught’ than the commissioned portrait I showed you last time.  Here’s the one that’s farthest along, after about eight hours of work.  I see lots of ‘issues’ still to be resolved, but it’s in a much better place than the other one ever reached.  Can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Four Months. Oil on Linen. 9 x 12. 2018.

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Performance Anxiety in a Portrait Painter!

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I spent a helluva lot of hours on this grandmother/grandson portrait.  It took me over a year and a half(!!) — though most of that time was spent dreading painting, rather than putting brush to linen.  It was commissioned by a friend and based on her photos from years earlier, rather than observation — never a great thing.

Grandmother and grandson, with hydrangeas. Oil on linen.

My next post will show a portrait that I did in a weekend  ~~ things work (and look) much better without anxiety!

Dog I ~~ CJ

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My brother has a gorgeous Labrador, who is about as majestic as the recumbent lion in the last post.  I couldn’t resist rendering Regal CJ on the iPad.  I did this on the long flight from Los Angeles to Japan a couple of months ago.  Couldn’t sleep so I figured I’d do something productive instead.

CJ. Original iPad Painting. 1:1 aspect ratio. 2017.

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