Category Archives: Oil Paintings

Ten Small Studies in Three Values ~~ Black, White and Gray.

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Here is the series of monochrome studies, all 6″ x 8″, done during the workshop with Bernie Dellario. Such a concentrated repetition of that exercise was useful in helping us spot values quickly.

  • Flower Girls at the Beau. Oil on Paper. 6×8.
  • Max and Stash at the Market. Oil on Paper. 6×8.
  • Roxie and the Window. Oil on Paper. 8×6.
  • Birds on Break. Oil on Paper. 8×6.
  • Chef Chaoun Morocco Alley. Oil on Paper. 6×8.
  • Smokebush against Trees. Oil on Paper. 6×8.
  • Koi Pond. Oil on Paper. 6×8.
  • Scotch Breakfront. Oil on Paper. 6×8.
  • Cannas, Bamboo & Joe Pye. Oil on Paper. 6×8.
  • Racing on the Potomac. Oil on Paper. 8×6.

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.

Final Post on Day 7 ~~ Shells and Pearls

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It was Day 7 (and I was in a chatty mood): Hmmmm. Here’s a little still life I did day before yesterday. Dear cousins want oysters & pearls for their daughter’s new office. This was the first take; am now working on something bigger with a single oyster. Will share when it’s done.In the meantime, what are your thoughts on my current dilemmas: I set the oysters up on a white tablecloth (bottom photo), but the first cut was perhaps too monochrome & bland; so in the next pass I pushed the cloth toward lavender. I think it may now be ‘too too’. The background behind is probably too similar. Finally, the cloth, as painted, is wonky & needs to be reshaped & redone in any event. Ideas, y’all???

Shells and Pearls. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 10 x 12.

2020.06.01. Reprise of yesterday’s facebook post ~~

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I’m heartsick at the events of the last few days. Clearly there are more than enough bad folks to go around, but DAMN. Black folks have had a rope around their necks or a knee on their throats or a bullet in their backs for far too long. I heard wonderful Van Jones on TV last night, describing ‘the talk’ that each black parent must gave to their young children of a certain age, and these words stuck out: your skin is your sin. I had to make a quick painting this morning before heading into an art workshop filled with ole white women making fabric sculptures of themselves. How quaint.

Your Skin is Your Sin. Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 12 x 9.

2020.05.29. New painting ~~ Great Falls on the Potomac River

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New work to share! Here’s what’s on my easel, about to be signed. Sons Sam & Will, with their families, and Pat & I visited the Virginia side of Great Falls on the Potomac River last Christmas. I finally got around to making a studio painting of the magnificent scene!

I’m not great at landscapes, but I think I made real progress on this one!

Great Falls on the Potomac, Virginia. oil on linen. 20×16.

Day 5 of the Challenge ~~ Be Safe

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Day 5 brings another experiment off my beaten path. We were told in a workshop to draw a wandering line around our canvas without looking — and then turn it one way and another to see what it might suggest. We developed and painted expressive compositions out of our simple lines. I like how this turned out. I imagined the figure on the right as a mother and the other figures her sons, heading outside. She’s saying ‘Be Safe, My Sons!’ Now she’d probably be saying: ‘WEAR YOUR MASKS — and be EXTRA CAREFUL!!’

Be Safe, My Sons! Oil on Arches Huile Paper. 15 x 11.5

Day 4 of the Challenge ~~ California Dreaming

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For Day 4, here’s another recent painting — based on an early morning drive south of Half Moon Bay in California around Christmas. I loved how the masses were knit together in form and color by the nestling mist — and the interesting, barely-there trees out on the cliff point. I’m still ‘California Dreamin’. With this coronavirus stuff, I don’t know when I’ll be able to fly out there again. Road trip???

California Dreaming. Oil on Linen. 16 x 12.

This is the second painting I entered in The Tonalist Society competition.

Day 3 of the Challenge ~~ Decayed Beauty

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My Day 3 painting hearkens back to a trip to Havana a few years ago. This striking statue guards the ornate staircase of a decrepit mansion, now serving as home to a dozen families. We trekked up four floors to reach an avant garde ‘paladar’ (privately-owned restaurant permitted by the government in an experiment in capitalism). It was good, but not as memorable as this ‘Decayed Beauty’!

Decayed Beauty – Havana. Oil on Linen Panel. 16 x 20.

Day 2 of Facebook Posting Challenge ~~ the Candle

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For day 2 of the challenge, I posted a more recent piece which includes some of those gorgeous pines(?) in downtown DC. I call it ‘Lighting a Candle’ . . .

Lighting a Candle. Oil on Linen Panel. 16 x 20

A new art society was formed in the last year or so ~~ The Tonalist Society, which encourages and recognizes artists who work in a ‘tonalist’ style. As you can tell from earlier posts in this blog, I admire the work of Terry Miura and Marc Hanson who often paint in this style. I decided to enter two paintings in the first annual juried show. This is one of the two.