Blue Bird

oil on panel, 12" x 16"

After what feels like a long hiatus from painting as I relocated back to California from New Mexico in March, I'm picking up where I left off in my painting explorations before I moved out of state a little over a year ago.  At that time, I had just begun a process with a new set of tools and a new approach to painting that somehow got sidelined in New Mexico, where I digressed starting with a class I had taken at UNM, which may be the subject of a future post.  For now, I am happy to be in an experimental mode weaving abstract shapes in and around my subjects.  

Pink-necked Green Pigeon

oil on wood panel, 12" x 12"

This is a work in progress, having laid down the basic composition.  I'm hoping to work on it more this week, but I'm attending a six-week workshop that is keeping me very busy learning another approach to painting, the indirect method.   In this approach, you first complete a tonal underpainting, then apply paint in layers as transparent glazes to get an overall translucent effect.  I've been painting in a direct method, or alla prima (one session), for the most part, for years now.  It involves painting wet on wet with opaque (non-transparent) paint.  I sometimes paint wet on dry simply because I can't get back to it for several days, but I've learned to work with that being the case.  I'll be posting a little less frequently because the paintings done in the indirect way take much more time, since each layer of paint needs time to dry before work can progress.  So, this new challenge is most welcome!  The teacher of the workshop is an incredibly talented young artist named Lindsey Kustusch.  Check out her work!  

Updated 9/20/17:  I've worked on this painting more and, for better or worse, consider it finished.  I wanted to render the foliage in semi-abstract leaf and flower shapes so as to draw more attention to the pigeon.  Not sure I accomplished it, but that was my intent.  I just love the rainbow of colors on the pigeon's front as they interact with the red berries directly below.

Ain't Talkin'

acrylic on canvas, 8" x 13"

This was just for fun.  The reference photo I used for this painting is of a nicobar pigeon.  I was intrigued by it, especially by its hidden head, which made me wonder, what else is it hiding?