Plaid

As I was working on the previous post, I relized that I have neglegted to show this painting to you. I did this one a few months back. Acrylic on Canvas, done using painting knives.

Whales

As you can see, I'm painting again. This one is called "Whales". Real tricky huh? It's acrylic on canvas. I think it's 24x20 inches. I included two pics because I have so much trouble getting clear pictures of my paintings. The first picture captures the colors but has lots of glare. The second one doesn't show the true colors but it's a cleaner photo.

I'm also in the middle of another painting that is totally different from this one. It's not done yet so you'll have to wait to see it.

Artistic Struggles

I havn't posted anything for a very long while. A big reason (or excuse) for not keeping up with the blog is that I haven't been painting much.

I completed a rather large painting (4" x 4" mdf) that hangs in my living room but it didn't photograph very well. I guess you want to see it anyway so here it is.

I really like the picture but it looks nothing like what you see in this photograph. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get rid of the glare.

By the way. The picture/scupture on the far right in this set (Wooden Tiles) is no longer there. A person who has a dance studio and does art sittings (provides a studio and subject for artists to come and practice) fell in love with it so I gave it to her. It now hangs in her studio.

Shaded Ball

This isn't exactly what you are used to seeing me paint. I am trying to learn better technique to be an all around better painter.

The shaded ball is an exercise that some art teachers have their students do to understand variations of color and practice shading.

This is done using 5 shades of black and white. I still need a lot of practice but hopefully it pays off.

Dancing Music

Here is my newest painting, Dancing Music. I painted this for my Mom's birthday on September 22nd. Happy Birthday Mom!

This painting is not my usual style or color pallet. I don't really like to do anything with detail. I'm more of a heavy handed, smearing paint, type of guy. I also like heavy, dark colors. the closer to black the better for me.

Here's the painting. Let me know what you think.

Shadows

This is my latest painting and is titled Shadows. Don't ask me where I got the idea from. I don't really know. I put several layers of paint on this thing but felt like it wasn't going anywhere. I took it out to the back yard and sprayed it with my high pressure washer which peeled of some of the layers of paint. Once I did that I started seeing something so I added the bold, horizontal, red bar and then covered the whole thing with a very thin wash of Mars Black giving it the dark feel. It might be a little too dark for most people's taste but what the heck.

Tell me what you think about Shadows.

Wooden Tiles

I know I haven't blogged in a while. I really haven't painted anything in a couple of months. I started on something that I couldn't get to look like my vision of it. It led me to avoid the painting. Finally, I decided not to do the painting so I hope that will help me get back to painting other things.

This one is called Wooden Tiles. It's more of a sculpture than a painting although you probably can't see that in the 2 dimensional picture.

I cut out several small squares of wood. I glued smaller blocks of wood on the back of the tiles of all varying sizes. The small blocks are all differnt sizes and angles. As a result, no two tiles are mounted the same. Then I painted each time individually and voila.

Wooden Tiles

Fabulous Red Stripe

This is called Fabulous Red Stripe.

The reason I called it that is because the painted originally didn't have any red at all. It was a totally monochrome black and white painting. The black and white painting was really good but when I added the red stripe the painting came to life. I said to my wife, without the stripe it's good but with the stripe it's fabulous.

This is the painting I sold on Friday. The buyer asked that I create another similar painting to go with it so I agreed. I actually painted two new paintings and will give her the choice of whcih one she likes.

Fabulous Red Stripe

Bec's Flowers

Here is my latest painting, titled Bec's Flowers. It is acrylic on MDF which is framed out in the back with 1x1 lumber. I made these as a two panel set. Each panel is about 10 x 24 inches.

I really struggled with these paintings. Mostly because the two different panes involved. I wanted them to be different but at the same time I wanted the colors to be the same. I originally tried a blended background having one color fade into another. I just couldn't get the two panes to match so I gave up on the idea.

After many attempts I finally arrived at the finished product you see here.

I hope you enjoy.

Bec's Flowers

Forgotten Window

Forgotten Window

I painted this on a 2x2 sheet of MDF and framed out the back with 1x1.

This painting is obviously very dark in mood but I think sometimes that can be appropriate. Originally I used masking tape to seperate the sections and I purposely offset the squares so that no two are the same size. When I pulled the tape I didn't like the hard line look so I ended up using the muddy yellow/red/black to make the borders.

I think each of the four sections provides a different feel and prospective from the others but they can also be taken as a group.

I hope you feel some sort of emotion when you see this.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated.

Forgotten Window

Purple Bloom

Purple Bloom. This is a spin off of my Red Bloom painting. I liked the red one so I did one in purple.

Obviously I did this one a little different than the Red Bloom. I used yellow highlights instead of white and a burgandy background. I also added the 3rd set of petals to the center and painted those a lighter shade of red/violet.

Sheboss isn't all that crazy about this one so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

As always, I'd like to hear your feedback.

Purple Bloom

Red Bloom

This a my most recent painting. I titled it Red Bloom.

I had a lot of fun doing this one so it went rather quickly. The only problem came from making the center of the flower look the way I wanted. I tried several things before I reached the finished product pictured here.

The idea came when I was trying to sketch a flower with a butterly on it. Just some picture that Sheboss found on the internet. When I started sketching I thought it would look good as a painting so I went ahead and did it.

I hope you like it. I'd love to hear your comments if you feel like leaving them.

Red Bloom

Burst

This is called Burst.

I painted the first layer in black. Next I laid out several layers of red and yellow. Where those two colors mixed I got shades of orange. I used a compass to draw the two large circles and outlined the circles with shiny black puff paint. Before the black dried I used a brush to pull it outwards from the circle.

I really like the puff paint. My wife told me about it. She has used it to make Christmas stockings. I tried it and it's really cool. It creates a definite raised area that stays shiny.

I had planned on adding shades of blues to the circles but when I got to this point I decided it was good as is.

Sheboss is in love with this and had me hang it in the living room.

Burst

Calm Dragonfly

Calm Dragonfly is my most recent painting.

I started by creating an abstract background that I felt could stand alone as a painting and then added the dragonfly. After I painted the wings with a pink/metallic silver color I rubbed the paint off so only slight traces remain.

I'm liking these types of paintings. What do you think, should I do more like this?

Calm Dragonfly

Black Butterfly

This one is called Black Butterfly.

This is way outside my norm. All this color is not my style but I wanted to try something a little different. I am trying very hard to push my comfort zone but it is difficult.

I started by layering the colors. I tried three or four different patterns before I settled on these arcs. Then I created the semi-transparent black boarder. I taped out and painted the transparent white box in the middle. Finally, I searched the internet for a good butterfly picture. This is a swallowtail. I freehanded the butterfly in pencil and then filled it in with the black.

The goal for for the strong contrast. The normally very colorful butterfly is black and the background is instead very bright.

I like it quite a lot and hope you do too.

Black Butterfly

Winter Trees

Winter Trees is my new favorite.

I painted this on a piece of MDF plywood and framed out the back side with 1 x 2. I didn't want to buy a gallon of gesso so I used Kilz primer instead and it seemed to work fine. I spent far less money using this medium than buying a canvas this size.

Because of the size of this piece I used a ton of paint but it was worth it.

I also included a picture of me holding the picture so that you can get a sense of scale.

Winter Trees

Purple Sky

Purple Sky was painted for my Mom.

I painted it a while back but saved it for her recent birthday so I wasn't able to share it with you before.

This was my first attempt at purple but I really wanted to use that color since it is her favorite. Now that I am becoming more comfortable with colors I might have done it a little more vivid but at the time I was trying to play it safe.

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise is my latest painting. I had a small canvas that I wasn't doing anything with so I decided to paint this flower.

It is a strange flower. I had never looked closely at one before. Once I studied it I realized it's a large hinge. I don't know what the blue spear things are but they seem to be on every bird of paradise picture I find.

Hope you enjoy.

Bird of Paradise Painting

Salena's Hearts

This painting is called Salena's Hearts. I painted it for KilterT's best friend. She's a little bit EMO so I added a little bit of Emo to her painting. Hearts are not my usual type of subject but this is what she wanted.

Watch My Shoes!

I created the Watch My Shoes! painting for KilterT.

He has an obsession with his Nike Air Force 1 shoes. He cleans them constantly and get's crazy if anyone scuffs one.

This is a pretty big canvas to fill the blank wall of his room.

The term Watch My Shoes comes from a song he likes by 3 Deep that I have deemed his theme song. I stuck the lyrics to the chorus down below.

Do What Ya Do But Watch My Shoes

Dance Wit Ya Boo But Watch My Shoes

You Could Get Loose But Watch My Shoes

Cause You'll Get Blues You Don't Watch My Shoes