Southwest Art Magazine

It's small but often!  This little AD is now running in every issue of Southwest art magazine .. If you have a copy, why not have some fun and hunt for it?  :-)  

Southwest Art Magazine Ad

Here's a scan of the AD that features in this months Southwest Art Magazine, featuring my work with Ventana fine art gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico tel (505) 983-8815 ( http://ventanafineart.com/inventorypage.asp?tid=2&aid=63 ). If you find yourself in the neighborhood stop by?  Failing that find yourself a copy of the magazine!

The four year project - post 3

Even though I'm not quite there with the faces, I made a decision to get most of the painting keyed in, to get  a feel for the overall tone and color. Everything was pretty cleanly blocked in, I imagine over time some colors will be adjusted, for example I see my standing sons shorts as slightly darker and more muted and perhaps his shirt a little lighter? But this is a great base to start from and it gives me a good feel for the overall painting and it's tonal changes.

I think the back walls looking pretty good and the colors of the chair are where i want them to be. There's a nice warmth in the painting and I think I can afford to key back the strenght of the color of my eldests orange shirt if I want.  I should start on the hair soon and the picture frame on the right, since these items will provide the darkest colors within the painting and it's color plan.

I've really been enjoying the rich 'gloop' of oils, it's hard to get brush strokes like this with Acrylic.

Poppies - A long time in the making

Poppies with the blues on bird cloth

24X36         Acrylic on board

This painting took a long time to reach completion. I based it of the painting below 'Poppies with lemons on bird cloth', but wanted to give a different color palette to the subject.

Originally I planned a green jug, but found the tone ultimately wrong for the painting. I then  tested and experimented with a white jug, but this didn't seem to work either. Ultimately, I found these nice purple hues. I also went back in and created a lot of rich depth in the blue drop cloth, which really gives a nice 'pop' to the whole scene.

 Poppies with lemons on bird cloth

24X36         Acrylic on board

the 4 year project - post two.

Here's the second post for the boys double portrait. I wanted to tackle the faces first to set the palette for the rest of the painting. I found it a little challenging keying the darks jsut right with no other frame of tonal reference in the rest of the painting, so obviously will go back at some point to refine and add a richer dark here or there.   I think the lips and particualry the eye colors are very much fist pass.... more soon.

I had a plan to paint this is a very distinctive style that would have required very different brush work from what you see here. All ready I'm deviating from the plan... oh well.

 

Thought I should add these detail images below, to give a better feel for the work on the faces. Lots of refining still to come, hopefully, that giddy balance of just the right amount of work, but stopping before it becomes overworked. This was about 3.5 hours work.

 detail.

 My eldest needs a little work on his nose and perhaps mouth.

  detail.

My youngest here really needs his mouth and cheeks fixed a little.

Embracing the Sun

Here's a little one from the other week! I'm particularly happy with those flowers.

 Embracing the Sun on purple
24X18           Acrylic on board

the 4 year project - post one!

Well it's that time, every four years or so I paint a double portrait of my kids, to chart their growth and personality (well as best I can). I have a bit of a dream of one day when I'm old and gray hanging all these works together and seeing them all side by side. Who knows if I'll ever get there, but we all need to dream of something!

It's a personal painting, but it can take an unseasonable amount of time to finish since I don't regard myself as a skilled portrait painter. Additionally, I rarely paint the figure , so I need to relearn color ranges and methods as I go. In short the painting can take a while to complete. 

I paint it from photographs over many months, in amongst many other projects.  I thought this time I would post each stage up on my blog, at the end I'll do a big summary post, (but who knows when that will be).... Stay tuned.

The original line work blocked in.

Looking pretty robust, but somethings not quite right in the face of my eldest son (seated), not sure how to fix it yet? Usually he's the one I find easier to paint... Also pondering, if my other son is tilting his head and wearing his glasses squint, should I fix the glasses, so his eyes don't appear too wonky?... Also forgot to add my standing sons foot, oops. He'll fall over unless I put that in!

The color plan

I create these color plans in a similar way to my still life paintings. I photograph the painting of the line work (seen above), I then bring it into photoshop and add some quick colors to get a feel for my proposed palette. This in turn guides me with under painting, as well as the final piece. Sometimes I move away from this plan as I paint, but usually I stick pretty close to it.