Eggs and Fork

I had a bunch of fun with this one and am mostly pleased with how it turned out. All this white on white was a bit intimidating, but I tried to be as direct and confident as I could.

Oil on canvas board 9" x 7"

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Indian Paintbrush

I wanted to get pretty loose with depicting these flowers--they're called Indian Paintbrush in fact. I was loose on the flowers, but spent a lot of time trying to get the Mason jar right. I like it, but I was frustrated about that. I really should have thought more and reversed things, making the jar more gestural and placing more detail in the flowers. Not thinking while painting is a problem for me. It's too easy for me, and a lot of other painters, to just put things on autopilot and not think about what the painting needs.

Oil 7" x 9"

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Denby Dishes

When my wife and I married we registered for these great Denby dishes because we both loved the vivid colors. Turns out, after painting bright colored fruits, they aren't as vivid as I thought when it comes to painting them. I didn't originally like these when I had finished them, but over time there's enough going on that I am starting to enjoy them. I think what frustrated me at the time was how I was laying down the paint. I wasn't as accurate with each brush stroke as I wanted and needed to work over areas multiple times. I guess the time away from the painting has helped to soften those feelings and I can just judge it as it stands.

Oil 7" x 9"

Ice Tea With Lemon

I was pretty pleased with how this one turned out. All those colors and shapes seemed pretty daunting, but I just decided to be as bold as possible and get at it. I was especially pleased with get the ice right. I took a photo with my iPhone just prior to starting because I knew that the ice would pretty melt before I was done--I'm glad I did!

Oil 7" x 9"

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Crochet

My wife likes to crochet to help herself unwind. She even had an Etsy account for a while where she sold some incredibly cute crocheted animals she made. So I had her in mind for this one.

When I first painted this I wasn't too terribly jazzed about it, but it's starting to grow on me. My six year old son tells me it's his favorite because, "It looks real." I'll take it!

Oil 7" x 9"

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PB&J I

So here's the painting from which my banner comes from. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out and I'm especially pleased with managing to get the strawberry jelly's color both right AND capturing that transparent quality jelly has. That's also my homemade bread!

Oil 9" x 7"

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Peaches

OK, so this painting is the first one up till this point that is headed in the direction that I would like to see my paintings go. When I look at it I'm seeing, what I believe, is my style starting to develop, rather than me aping some of the things I see in the work of other artists I admire. It's not that I believe that anything here is revolutionary, in fact it's all been done before, but this painting was just me laying down brushstrokes that felt natural to me rather than me thinking about how I can get a certain look that other painters achieve. Does that make sense?

It's not a perfect painting, but I'm fairly pleased with it all the same. There's something about the way I laid down the paint on that peach in the upper right in particular that has me pleased. It also helped that I started using a painting medium with this one. In prior sessions I had been thinning my paints with just mineral spirits, but after trying this medium of stand and linseed oils, I'm hooked.

Oil 7" x 9"

To purchase click here.