I haven't painted in a few days. I've been busy reading up on color principles. Also, going through my photographs and pulling those I would like to use as references for future paintings.

I came across these next paintings in my files. These were birthday gifts I gave to my family a few years back. I was planning to do a painting for everyone in the family that year for their birthday. I got the paintings for the first 5 birthdays (of which I am posting only 3 - can't find the photos of the other paintings) done but somewhere over the summer I lost steam. Now 3 years later I've decided I need to finish what I started. Only four more paintings to go .  .  .  .

                                    Jacks,  6" x 6", oil

This painting was for my dad. I can remember playing jacks with him when I was young. And by the way, these are the original jacks we played with.

                                   Frogs of Clubs,  6" x 6", oil

My brother Michael was the recipient of this painting. For some reason we tend to give him gifts pertaining to frogs. I don't know how this started but I stuck with tradition. 

                                   Peanuts for Elephant,  6" x 6", oil

I gave this painting to my niece Jennifer. There was somethng about this figurine that reminded me of Jennifer's style (not the elephant itself but the style of the elephant).

                                  Two Birds,  6" x 6", oil

This painting was actually a gift to my dear friend and fellow painter Dawn. I really liked how this small piece came out. And what better person to receive a favorite painting of mine than a bestest friend.

Keepin' On Painting

                                       Chocolate, Vanilla, or TWIST?,  6" x 6",  oil

My sibs and I often talked about opening some kind of business together as we would get closer to  retirement age. Since we all have jobs that can be rather stressful at times we thought how about something real simple. No stress and basically no hard thinking involved. Hence, "The Dairy Dome" idea was born. Only serving soft serve ice cream, 3 choices of flavor, 3 choices in size, no thinking involved on our parts (Though my brother Mark insisted on serving blizzards - I told him he was in charge of that). 

When my dad would come out to Syracuse to spend a couple of months each summer, we always went to this buffet at the Turning Stone Casino (yeah, my dad loved playing poker on the slot machines). They had a soft serve ice cream machine serving chocolate, vanilla or a twist. So I would make us cones to practice for the future business. On one of our trips I took pictures of a couple of the cones I made.

Which brings me to this painting of one of my attempts at making a "twist".  When I found this picture in my files, it brought back memories to those times I spent with my dad. So here's to you dad.

By the way making a cone is not as easy as I thought.

                                  Pomegranates,   8" x 10",   oil

As I continue to experiment with a more expressive painting style, I painted the above with a palette knife. I had taken a few books out of the library to gain a better understanding of color and found this book "Painting Class: Oil" by David Sanmiguel.  The above painting is one of his from the book. I basically copied this to get the hang of painting with a palette knife. And I think I will leave painting with a palette knife to those artists who prefer to paint with one. I'm going to stick to brushes.

On a final note; I came across the paintings of  artist Lisa Scott who paints with her fingers. Her work is absolutely amazing. Check out her web sight to see her work and read her story:

http://www.irisscottfineart.com

                                          Tweetie,    6" x 6",  oil

This is my 2nd painting in the challenge. I painted this Sept. 21st. I found a photo of this metal wind-up toy on Etsy (for sale) and thought it would be a great subject to paint. I like the character of the vintage metal toys. Nice bright colors.

                                          2 Brown Mice,  6" X 8",  oil

3rd painting done on Sept.23rd. 2 Mice figurines. These were a lot of fun to paint. The colors on the mice had subtle variations between grays and browns. As you can tell I enjoy painting objects. With every painting I'm feeling more comfortable with the medium.

                                          Waterlilies, 8" x 8",  oil

I  admire the work of artists who paint with thick paint strokes, bright colors, and a free style. This is something I want to move towards myself. But being an illustrator by profession, I find it difficult to let go and loosen up. This waterlilies painting is my attempt at being more "expressive". I don't think I succeeded with the colors or the direction of the brush strokes. But it's definitely a starting point.

BAck to the Easel

                                          Skate Key - 6 x 6, oil


Well I'm finally back to painting. A friend mentioned a 30 in 30 challenge which I thought would get me motivated to get back in the studio. The challenge began Sept. 1st and I got a rather late start due to a huge project at work. (I did start a painting on the 1st, but was not at all pleased with the results, so I let that go.) So on Sept. 20th I painted the above piece. It's good to paint.

Beach Combing

6" x 8"  Oil on gessoboard
In August 2011 my painting buddy and I went to a 3 day plein air workshop in South Freeport, Maine with Liz Wiltzen. It is absolutely beautiful there and it was hot. The above painting was actually from a photo (my friend Dawn took). She should have been paying attention to a demo Liz was giving but she was distracted by this little girl so intent in digging in the sand.

Walking the Dog

                                      6" x 8"  oil on gessoboard

Last November my friend Dawn and I went to Hilton Head Island for a painting workshop with Karin Jurick. The workshop was awesome and my fellow "classmates" were a really nice group of ladies.During this workshop I created several paintings. The one above is one of my favorites. While there we were recruited into the Hilton Head Gang. As a member, we went around the island, shooting pictures of unsuspecting people and pets. I love the way the woman and her dog are in step together and the play of the diagonal shadows on the walkway.

"Miss Me"

"You'll be sorry. One of these days I'm going to hang my baby shoes outside your door and you'll realize how much you miss me."

This is a painting I did for the DPW "Paint your Shoes" Challenge last week. The expression was used between my co-workers and myself when one of us didn't get their way or was being a big baby themselves. Looking for a subject to paint for the challenge, I saw these baby shoes on my shelf and immediately thought of this expression and the friends from this job. We had many fun times at work and this painting serves as a reminder.

Waiting

Oil • 8" x 8"

Poison Berries

6 x 6 • oil

Pine Cone

 

8 x 10 • Oil