(Well, Blogger is publishing all my new photos much lighter than they are in my photos or seeing the paintings in person - wonder what's up with that!!! I kind of don't want to hit publish- get so frustrated doing this kind of busy work - no offense to computer people! What's the point of publishing my work if it looks washed out!)

Here are two 12" x 12"'s, also at Abend Gallery in Denver.

 

The Center of a Sphere is not on it's Surface...

oil on panel 12" x 12"

Lee's Peonies

oil on panel

12" x 12"

Sold

New Paintings...

Been painting every day and still it takes forever to finish. I'd rather paint than write so not much to read here! Here are some new paintings - all at Abend Gallery for the Holiday Season.

 

Sasha's Tip   oil on panel 6"x 6"

(Sean) O'Meallie's Yoyo  oil on wood panel  6" x 6"

Side View

More paintings at Abend

Blue Pitcher and White Tile
20" x 20"
oil on canvas

Egg Timer
20" x 20"
oil on canvas

Counter Balance...Sold!

 Counter Balance

oil on panel

  10" x 20"

Private Collection in Oslo, Norway


Long time since I've posted, but I am painting again and have several paintings in the works...more to come!

Some Recent Work...

Sand Dollar Bay 1
oil on canvas 12 x 24
Private Collection

 

 

Denver Botanic Gardens
The Birdfeeder
oil on panel  5 1/2" x 11 3/16"

Private Collection

 

Copper #8 Grisaille

Getting better - will work on this until I'm satisfied then I'll start the color - my whole objective with this entire enterprise! By the way, I use 1500 grit sand paper cloth, wet, to sand down ridges of paint in-between each days work if there are any. I don't use any medium at this stage.

Copper #7 Grisaille

Here's the very beginning - a real mess! Looks kind of blue green, but it's totally neutral gray paints!

Copper #6 drawing

I use home made pastel transfer paper using a sienna soft pastel/alcohol on tracing paper to transfer my drawing to the copper. Then I'll start the grisaille.

Copper Prep #5

Here's my 12" x 12" 18 gauge copper panel smooth and dry ready to the drawing. You can see how thin the paint is - that beautiful pink copper color shows through in place, though it won't show in the finished piece.

Copper Prep #4

Sure wish there was a way to put more than one photo is a post, then I could write the whole thing together instead of piece meal - last step on top of first ones! Anyway...

Here, I'm using a brush to put on flake white - actually I used some Cremitz white here - that's been thinned with mineral spirits or turps. I started with the brush to get the stuff on there, then I smoothed it out with my thumb.

Copper Prep #3

After polishing with the Never Dull and cleaning several times with the alcohol, I then use ca.400 grit wet/dry sand paper to take off the red curprous oxide (CU2O) formed by reaction between surface of copper and oxygen in the air. You can see the fine powder that's on the sand paper and the difference between the cleaned side/dirty side.

This abrading, done in small circles with dry sand paper and quite abit of pressure, is what allow the paint to bond with the copper. I think an ion is exchanged between oil paint and the metal, but don't know the science exactly - only that it works!

Then I clean off any red dust that is left behind, again with the alcohol. Now it's ready to accept the ground of thinned flake white.

Copper Prep #2 Supplies

• Never Dull - a metal polishing batting that works well.
• Denatured Alchohol
• 400 grit wet/dry sand paper
• flake white oil paint thinned with a bit of mineral spirits

Copper Preparation #1 Dirty copper

I love painting on copper! But as with most painting supports - linen, panel, canvas or wall, there is much work that must be done before I can even think about painting on it.

Here is a 12 x 12  18 gauge copper panel. Paint will not adhere to the surface as it is and MUST be thoroughly cleaned and abraded .

Blue

Blue oil on linen panel  13 x 15

My intention here is to study the color blue. However instead of painting blue spheres like I did for 5 YR, I decided to try this blue pitcher that's pretty close to 6.5PB and Nasteriums from last summer's window box...for a touch of humor I added a small iron bird wondering about that reflection that leads outside! I started this one with local color on linen panel and have started another using a neutral grisaille but on copper. I'll post the way I prep the copper in the next post.

Battiporta - Italian Doorknocker

Here's another one - Battiporta or Italian Doorknocker 9 x 8 oil on panel

New Work 2011

My, how time gets away from me!  I have been working, though you wouldn't know it from the dates on this blog!

Here's a commission of a Black Capped Chickadee - oil on panel 6 x 8

20th Anniversary at Abend Gallery in Denver, CO

                   Still Life with Crystal & Peonies 

                     oil on panel  15 x 17 (image)

Some Recent Work - Still Life with Tea

Still Life with Tea

12 x 12

(Sold)

Silver Rimmed Bowl

Silver Rimmed Bowl

16 x 20 oil on panel

Available at Abend Gallery.com

Detail Silver Rimmed Bowl

Beets - Locally Grown

10 x 20 oil on panel

Available at Abend Gallery.com

Munsell Exercises

In between living & painting, I've finally completed some of the Munsell Exercises as recommended by Graydon Parrish at Rational Painting. The investment of more than 3 years, lots of paint & work, and the Big Book of Color is starting to pay off.  I've set up the current round of exercises that I finished last fall just to show myself how much I've accomplished - even though they're not perfect - I am beginning to get it! I'll start on a new round of sphere studies soon. As with most things, one must actually do the work to arrive at a deeper understanding.

The value sticks have come in very handy! I started with these:

It's hard to know if I'm on the right track, as I haven't been able to attend Graydon's Color Workshop in person. Learning all this stuff over the Internet by trial and error, not having anyone to critique the work, has been frustrating to say the least, but also very satisfying to accomplish what I have on my own! Thanks Graydon, wherever you are, for starting the conversation and sharing your research and experience!