Thursday, July 31, 2025

Symphony in Orange and Green

 
acrylic on canvas, 24" x 24"

Another work in progress, I nearly gave up on this one.  It has turned around, though, and I may end up really liking it.

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Tokyo Rococo

oil on panel, 12" x 24"

This is a work in progress.  The challenge will be when to stop.  Updated 8/3/2025:  Now it's done.

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Pam

 
oil on canvasboard, 14" x 11"

Here's another portrait study taken from the BBC's Portrait Artist of the Year.  The sitter was Pam Hogg, a British clothing designer.  She was an interesting subject, which everyone picked up on.  I'm thinking of doing a larger portrait of her from the same angle.  We'll see...

Monday, July 14, 2025

White Hydrangea

 
oil on panel, 11" x 14"

I rarely do still life paintings, but I came upon an early Matisse still life of flowers in a vase and felt compelled to do one.  

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Portrait of Monica

acrylic on canvas paper, 12" x 12"

This is a portrait sketch of the Italian actor Monica Belluci.  I've painted her before from this same image, but this one was done fairly quickly, and I liked the green showing through in the lower part of her face and in the upper right of her forehead.

Monday, July 7, 2025

Head Series #2

acrylic on canvas paper, 12" x 12"

Here's the second head done from imagination with the self-imposed time limitation of 30 minutes.

Monday, June 30, 2025

Head Series #1

 
acrylic on canvas paper, 12" x 12"

This is a challenge I've set myself to paint a series of imaginary portraits, each in under 30 minutes.  This is the first one.

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Coit Tower at Dusk

 
oil on panel, 12" x 12"

This is another in a series of urban scenes I've been painting lately, done mostly with a palette knife.  Updated 8/1/2025:  I toned down some of the oranges to draw more attention to the tower.

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Floodlights

 
oil on canvas paper, 12" x 12"

Another palette knife study of a somewhat abstracted cityscape in the rain.  Just playing with abstract elements within a cityscape.

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Sacto

 
oil on panel, 12" x 12"

A painting of downtown Sacramento.  I did it primarily for the warm color palette.

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Emily

oil on canvasboard, 11" x 14"

One of my favorite shows to watch is the BBC's Portrait Artist of the Year.  I decided to paint one of the sitters as an exercise.  The competition for each portrait is what can be accomplished in four hours.  I spent 3.5 hours on this one.  It could be good practice to do more of these, since many of the sitters are unfamiliar to me.  Emily is an award-winning singer/songwriter based in the U.K.  I thought she had a regal bearing and I liked the three-quarter angle.  Updated 5/29/2025:  I changed the background a wee bit with an overlay of lavender.  

Monday, May 19, 2025

Facade

 
acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20"

This is the finished painting of an abstract that I started way back when, then consigned it to the time-out room forever.  Patience.

Thursday, May 15, 2025

Fierce

 
oil on canvasboard, 14" x 11"

A portrait of a young Choctaw Indian woman.  I found her stare compelling.

Thursday, May 8, 2025

A Heart of Gold

 
oil on panel, 24" x 18"

This painting has been in the making for a while.  It was a slow process as I sat with it and pondered how I wanted to paint it and what I wanted to say through it.  I'm happy with the result.

Wednesday, May 7, 2025