Marbles

I'm working on a series of small marble paintings. I'm fascinated with marbles and love staring at the differences in the surface and interior. These paintings are almost abstract to me, they're kind of an iconic circle or sphere shape against a stark background.

This is the beginning of a green marble.

This is how I start a lot of my paintings, very loose and just establishing values. For this painting I decided to do a true grisaille underpainting, and really worked up the details on the marble using just gray and white. I used raw umber and ultramarine blue for the gray.

I didn't take a picture of the finished underpainting, but here is how it looks after one glaze of color:

I normally paint more directly, only adding some glazing at the end, so this is a really different method for me. I'm not sure if I like painting this way or not. I will try to keep taking photos of this one to show it's progress.

Bunnies

 

Oil on Linen

28" x 32"

This is the large painting that I have been working on for several months. I made the purple and pink bunny slightly out of focus to let the yellow bunny pop out a little bit.

Burien Art Gallery Juried Show

 

I'm pleased to announce that three of my paintings were chosen to be exhibited in the Artists United Annual Juried Show for 2009. The painting above, "Turquoise and Green," was chosen for use on the postcards advertising the show, and I was informed that the painting "Sardines" won honorable mention in the show.

"Candy 3" is the 3rd painting that will be shown.

 

Teresa Saia and Ken Turner were jurors for the show, which includes paintings and 3D art. The show runs at the Burien Art Gallery in Burien, WA from September 3-27, 2009, with the opening reception on September 4, 7-9pm. 

I'm looking forward to a great show, there are some really wonderful artists in this group, and hope you can stop in to see the show!

Ford 9 Inch

 

Here's another car part I painted several years ago. I have always been interested in so-called "realism" and getting an accurate representation of what I'm painting, but at this point in my painting career, I was too impatient to take the time to get it completely right, so there may or may not be that many actual teeth or splines (or whatever it is they're called!) on the wheel.  I do think the slightly clumsy draftsmanship gives it some charm. I would love to paint another one of these.

Oil on Canvas

14 x 18

More Car Parts

 

Here is another older drawing of mine, in oil pastel on board. Continuing the theme of car parts. 

The large painting I am working on is coming along, I'm working as fast as I can but it's taking me much longer than I thought it would. I'm hoping to be able to show it here by September.

Car Part

Here's that Ford 9-inch again. I believe this is from 1998. I had some trouble with the circles on this one. I was really beginning to hate the rust color by the time I painted this one, though I still love looking at the intricacies of the part. If only it was all chrome!

Oil on Canvas
12 x 18

Blue Marble

 

Here's another one of my small marble paintings. This one was particularly difficult because of the lighting and the fact that the stripe is all blue. I had to use several different blues (among other colors), and I still don't think I got enough variegation. It's funny how such a simple subject can be such a challenge! I spent approximately 7 hours altogether on it.

Oil on Wood

8 x 8