Shade to Light

2011 SLAA Art Walk

2011-03-15T09:22:00.000-05:00

Chairman of the Board

1st Place in Professional Oils Division. On to the NAA Exhibit!

2011 SLAA Art Walk

2011-03-15T09:17:00.000-05:00

ISABELLA

Very pleased that Isabella got an Honorable Mention. Now I can show her at other Exhibitions.

NSA Exhibition

2010-09-26T16:03:00.000-05:00

I'm very pleased to announce that I came home from the National Society of Artists 26th Annual Juried Exhibition with an Honorable Mention for my painting 'Your Move'. The show was in Clute, Tx. and sponsored by the Brazosport Art League.
This is my first NSA exhibition and it was an honor to have had all four of the paintings I submitted accepted the show, let alone win a ribbon.

Hope

2010-08-24T21:37:00.001-05:00

Dexter Creek painting

2010-07-18T18:13:00.000-05:00

After two and a half mornings of painting at Dexter Creek off Hwy 550 just outside of Ouray we have a finished painting.

Colorado Trip

2010-07-15T17:23:00.000-05:00

I'm in Ouray, Co. for a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to get in some plein air painting while I'm here. I will post works in progress soon.

Isabella

2010-07-15T17:20:00.000-05:00

I'm exploring a different direction. Looser and with more texture. This is the first of a series. I'm using a combination of techniques and layers to achieve more depth and character. This is an image of Isabella from my last painting.

Lesson in Humility

2010-06-09T16:16:00.002-05:00

Several months ago I entered my first exhibit and came away with Best of Show, 1st place, and 2nd place. I was hot, right? Last month I entered my second exhibit (LSAG Artwalk in Conroe, Tx.) and did not fare so well. This was a show open only to works that had won an award in the last year so the competition was stiffer. This time I had two out of the three pieces I submitted win Honorable Mentions. Not bad, I know, but humbling nevertheless.

The woman who swept it this time - Ann Walker - certainly deserved it. Congratulations Ann!

The Process

2010-02-18T21:37:00.003-06:00

The process I go through for my paintings are eerily similar. For this next one I will start as I usually do with a 'vision'-in this case the idea was inspired by Isabella, a family friend who I 'saw' sitting alone in a dark Gothic-style church, deep in reverie, and backlit by a stain-glass window.

I then took several photos and settled on these two:

Photo #1 Photo #2

I like the dress in Photo #1 and the way her hands are holding the bible but I like her expression in Photo #2 so I will combine them in my sketch. I then found some reference pictures for stain-glass and church interiors:

From these I will cobble together the sketch that will be the foundation for my painting....

After several attempts at placement and scale, I settled on this image. Initially I had Isabella larger and up close. However, this did not give me the sense of being a small girl in a large church that I wanted. Here it is just her and Mary alone in a vast space. I base-coated my gessoed canvas with a gold color that will hopefully give me the "glow" that I am after. I then transferred my sketch using white carbon paper.

ISABELLA

This is the finished piece. The photo is a poor one as it does not give a good representation of the warmth and intensity of the colors, but you get the idea.

Recent Paintings

2010-02-13T10:17:00.000-06:00

"Chairman of the Board"

"Mother and Child"

"Shock and Awe"

SLAA Art Walk Show

2009-11-07T18:27:00.002-06:00

Wow. What a day! I entered my first art show and came away with "Best of Show", 1st Place, and 2nd place in the Professionals category. I had hoped, of course, going in that I might get a ribbon or something but THIS.... well, all I can say is thank you Lord.

This was the award presentation. The painting is "Your Move" and not the one I necessarily would have thought would win "Best of Show" but what do I know? I thought "Tree of Life" would have gotten something but... nothin'. 1st place was "Solitude". And second place was "Shock and Awe".

Sugar Land Art Show

2009-11-03T11:45:00.003-06:00

Coming up November 7 to November 14, I will be showing 6 paintings at the Art Walk in the Sugarland Town Center. You can find out more by going to www.sugarlandareaartists.com.

Colorado Paintings

2009-09-28T09:12:00.018-05:00

Well, we just got back from our semi-annual Colorado vacation. It's a great getaway both from the demands of work and the oppressive Houston heat. This year I was able to do some plein air painting. Something that I had not done before but have wanted to for some time. Usually I take pictures that I use for references back in the studio or I just bask in the beauty that is Ouray, Colorado, storing up mental and spiritual images for later use.

The first painting I did was of a grove of Aspens that were just starting to turn their fall color. I set up my easel and started to paint, soon realizing one of the fundamental difficulties with painting outside on site - the lighting quickly shifts. To offset this problem I decided that I just had to imprint in my mind the lighting that first caught my eye and go with it. I also made the decision to edit and even add to the scene that was before me, all the while holding on to my original inspiration. Here is a photo of the scene and the painting it inspired:

Here is another photo and painting in the same area as the Aspen grove. I liked the little red tree so much, I included it in the first painting.

And finally, my "hay rolls" painting and one of the photos I took of the scene. As we were driving to Telluride I saw several fields of hay bales and something about them appealed to me. I think they look surreal against the backdrop of sprawling vacant fields. The problem is getting close enough to them to paint as they are on private property. There was one field in particular that we saw on the way and I made a mental note to take pictures of it on the way back. Driving back we stopped at the spot and a tractor was already picking up the bales. I jumped out and quickly snapped several pictures. Further along the sky was starting to change as a storm started to build in the distance. I liked the look of the transition so I photographed it. Later on, back at the Ouray house, I put aspects of the different scenes together into one painting.

2009-09-05T08:51:00.002-05:00

Art Exhibit, Opening and Reception, Saturday, Sept. 5th 6-8 PM. Exhibit will run throughout the month of September. Gallery Address: Artist Alliance of Sugar Land, 104 Industrial Blvd, Sugar Land, Tx. For more info call: 713-541-1806.

2009-07-22T11:29:00.004-05:00

And...this is the finished piece. After about six months to a year I will give it a clear varnish and it's ready to go.

2009-06-25T10:17:00.006-05:00

This is the initial glazing or "blocking in" where a thin wash of oil color is added. From here I will continue to add layers of color to achieve the finished look. At the same time I will be tightening up details.

2009-02-16T16:51:00.003-06:00

After a detailed sketch comes the underpainting. This was done with a thinned down acrylic wash of burnt umber/raw umber mix. This is done to establish tonal values and lay the foundation for the painting.

2009-02-12T07:05:00.003-06:00

So here I put them all together - sketched on primed canvas.

2009-02-09T09:04:00.004-06:00

So.... Here is a picture of Kova on a chair that I think will work nicely:

Now the idea is to combine all three images into one cohesive whole.

2009-02-08T09:13:00.004-06:00

I liked the composition of the Devon/PawPaw picture but I thought it could be even better with the addition of an audience:

I had this picture of Spanky on file but he needs to be sitting on a plush reading chair with a dog, right?

Genesis of a Painting

2009-02-06T08:44:00.006-06:00

One of the goals of this blog is to lay out, in a methodical way, the process involved in making a painting. I'm going to attempt to do this with my next painting.

The first thing to start with is an idea - in this case I wanted to show an intimate bonding between grandfather and grandson - so I staged a scene and, after several photographs and experimenting with different lighting, I settled on this shot:

PawPaw's Deer

2009-01-29T09:50:00.003-06:00

"PawPaw's Deer" Oil on canvas. The picture for this painting was taken at Granny and PawPaw's Colorado house. PawPaw would feed the deer right outside the front and back doors so they were very tame.

The original photo had the deer just outside the screen door and the "little house" in the back filled up the rest of the background. I thought the deer should be farther back plus I wanted greenery so I used another photo shot from the front door as reference.

What drew me to this scene was the feeling of reverence and awe that little Victor seems to have for the deer. As he silently points, he turns to PawPaw and invites him to share this special moment.

Master painter dead at 91

2009-01-18T21:05:00.003-06:00

"one's art goes only as far and as deep as your love goes"

"it's a moment that I'm after, a fleeting moment but not a frozen moment"

Andrew Wyeth 7/12/1917 - 1/17/2009

"Tree of Life"

2009-01-15T14:17:00.011-06:00

"Tree of Life" 60" x 48". Oil on canvas. The title comes from Genesis 2:9 "the tree of life also in the midst of the garden", in which it had the potential to grant immortality to Adam and Eve. In Proverbs it is a simile for a blessing.

Various trees of life are recounted in folklore, culture and fiction, often relating to immortality or fertility.

The idea for this painting was sparked by Darren Aronofsky's film The Fountain. The image of this tree was imprinted in my mind and , when I got to the studio, I sought to render it the way I remembered it (with some changes). For instance, I wanted it solitary to add to it's uniqueness and, instead of a wide pool at it's base, I have a small trickle of water - itself a symbol of life - widening to a stream, then river, emanating from it's roots. The tree "glows" from within and it's branches are heavy, extending even to the ground. It is morning and the world is young.

"Solitude"

2009-01-14T08:19:00.009-06:00

"Solitude" 36" x 55". Oil on canvas, started with an idea - a scene - I had in my head where I knew I wanted a boy sitting by a stream. Something to convey a lazy day of daydreaming. On vacation in Colorado, I found the perfect setting and, using my son Wesley as the model, I took several pictures and combined the main photo with elements from another photo for the final scene. I also incorporated a section of a Maxfield Parrish painting for the background adding a slight "fantasy" feel.

I have always admired the works of Maxfield Parrish, especially his "women on rocks" series and his landscapes, and so I did a little research into finding out what I could of his techniques in order to try to achieve the luminosity that his paintings are known for. Without going into too much detail, he would start with a cyan (blue) underpainting and add thin layers of oil glazes to get that "glow". So I did my blue underpainting and added my oil glazes and, while not achieving the same level of luminosity (or quality), nevertheless ended up with a satisfactory piece.

"Sanctuary"

2008-12-29T13:57:00.008-06:00

This 48" x 84". Oil on canvas. This painting is an example of an imaginary landscape - composed of several different elements to create a certain look. In this case, an "old world" forest. I originally imagined a path through a densely wooded forest. Something dark and foreboding with a distant light suggesting a way out or "the light at the end of the tunnel". I started with the owl ( which I borrowed from artist Terry Isaac) and developed a sketch that is significantly different from the finished piece. As I was painting, I decided to add more plants and a boulder in the foreground, as well as a snake and a lizard (you have to look for it). I also decided to put a stream running across the path to add more interest and, of course, once you have a stream you have to have a deer on the other side. The end result ended up being less foreboding and more of a refuge or "sanctuary".