Field of Dreams

Tuscany - a feast for the senses and the soul. I will be teaching a workshop there in September 2012. The itinerary is packed with painting choices - in the ancient town of Cortona, to nearby lakes, the gorgeous hillside vistas, and more. Sprinkled around the painting sessions will be wine tasting, chocolate sampling, restaurant hopping and local shopping. Whats not to love? If you want to experience a bit of heaven on earth, come join me!

Tuscan Field of Dreams

Acrylic on Canvas, 6x6" Price on Request

Poppysilk Red

Good old Revlon #714. I've only been wearing this shade of lipstick for a bazillion years. I gave up on nail polish a long time ago, it seemed pointless since my hands and fingernails are always covered with lovely, festive blobs of paint.

Yesterday I painted this setup in oil, and then decided it would be a fun exercise to see how it translated to acrylic, using much larger (and much cheaper) brushes than I use for oil. I thought the two paintings would be totally different, but was surprised to see they are fairly similar. The acrylic painting went very fast because I had the advantage of already "knowing" it. If it's not immediately obvious, the acrylic version has the slightly bluer background.

In any setup, there is often one thing that catches my eye and moves me to paint ... in this case it was that blue-green color spot reflecting up into the metallic paint tube.

Poppysilk Red

6x6" oil and acrylic (each) on canvas, Price on request

Apple Demo

I'm back home from a week on the road, (many thanks to everyone who sent me their laryngitis remedies!) and now back to classes. Today I started teaching a 10 week class, which always begins with a "Fast and Bold Demo", (usually apples or some easy shape) along with my standard lecture that nothing is boring (even apples) - its all about what we bring to the painting. All sorts of colors are lurking in unexpected places, and its up to us to find them and lure them out. Squint to see the values, open wide to see color. So easy, right? mmm, not exactly!

Two Apples

Acrylic 8x8" Price on request

Speechless

I'm in upstate New York this week so I won't be able to post paintings. I gave a two hour lecture/demo last night to the lovely folks of the Cazenovia Watercolor Society and on Saturday I am speaking to an audience of 115 artists at in Syracuse. I was looking forward to it until I woke up this morning with complete laryngitis. Life, always throws curveballs when one least needs it. I'm off to the homeopathic store to pick up some wacky sounding remedies that I read about on the web. If anyone has any legit cures, do speak up (for those who can't).

Texting with Toto

A classic slice of everyday life in the city, which is what I love about painting New York. Everyone is just being who they are, oblivious to the hoards of people and chaos going on around them.

Texting with Toto

Acrylic on canvas, 6x6" Price on Request

The Big Apple

Anyone who has spent time on the streets of NYC knows that its all about energy, movement, a cacophoany of swirling colors, a symphony of sounds. It's truly a feast for all the senses. Capturing that spirit is what makes painting the city so challenging. In my recent explorations of working texture into my paintings, I decided to tackle the city and see what would happen. Pastes, paints, gels, ink, paper, magazines, cardboard, stamping, stencils... I threw in everything but the kitchen sink. Thats kinda what NY is - its all right there, right in your face.

The Big Apple

10x8" Mixed Media on board, Price on Request

Tuscan Hillside

I'm messing around with texture by adding some new elements to my painting besides the gels, pastes and paints - I cut up an Italian newspaper and adhered pieces of that to my board as another visual element. It adds a little spice and interest in otherwise flat areas. There is no end to the amount of cool effects you can incorporate when you 'let go of the side of the pool', so to speak. The layers just keep adding up and contributing to the overall effect.

Tuscan Hillside

8.5 x 7" Acrylic on Board, Price on Request

Tuscan Church

I've been experimenting with texture lately, using various mediums on my board, and using different tools to apply paint. The challenge in this piece was to communicate an intricate, weathered old building on such a tiny canvas. It seemed impossible at first but I realized I needed to approach it in a less detailed, more abstract way. Using pattern and texture, rather than rendering, to convey the landscape foliage was an interesting way to approach that.

Tuscan Church

6x6" Acrylic on Canvas, Price on request

Sunlogged

Sometimes one wonders why they chose the subject matter they did. Not in this case. With frigid cold weather that cuts right to the bone, I'm wishing I could be transported to this scene, like now.

I experimented with a prepared surface (Light Molding Paste), which was very absorbent and textured, and did a washy underpainting first. I spread it on with a palette knife so that it was bumpy. The paint went on very different than the slick surface I normally paint on. In hindsight, I probably chose the wrong subject matter for a textured surface (small figures). Next time I work with texture I'll pick a simpler subject that is less detailed, so I can take better advantage of it.

Sunlogged

Acrylic on board prepped with LMP

5"x4" Price on request