Cupcake

Who doesn't like whipped lard and sugar?! This painting, while kinda tough, came together rather quickly. I think I finished it in about an hour and half. I was particularly pleased with managing to capture the creamy center, crumbly cake, and smooth icing. Unlike painting a vegetable, I look forward to eating up the subject matter when the painting session is over.

Oil on canvas board, 8" x 8"

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Trout on Newspaper

I live on the north end of Colorado Springs. In nearby Monument the state stocks the town's reservoir with plenty of rainbow trout, which I like to go and fish for. I caught these guys and before I cleaned them up my wife, a photographer, snapped some photos of them. I painted this image from those shots. They have so much color going on, which I pushed a bit farther in paint. Fun stuff!

This was my first time using a smooth mason board and I wasn't much of a fan. I like the finished image just fine, but I didn't like the surface at all while painting. Perhaps something with a bit more texture, but not quite full on canvas? I'll try that later.

Oil on gessoed board, 9" x 7"

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Daisies

We've had a wet spring and early summer in Colorado, so there are wildflowers popping up all over town. These daisies were growing alongside the road I was walking along, so I snapped a quick pic to paint later. Nothing groundbreaking, but they were fun to create and I've got other flower pics waiting in the wings.

Oil on canvas board, 8" x 8"

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Watermelon

Not much says Summer time better than watermelons I say. These were fun as I tried to keep them simple. It fascinated me how much they looked like watermelons only after the seeds were painted in. Prior to that they seemed rather oddly non-watermelon-ish.

Oil on canvas board, 8" x 8"

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Cherries on Paper

Simple arrangement of some spring cherries and trying out a square format for the first time too. I came really close to wiping this one out a few times during the painting of it. The reason is that I'm currently painting in my kitchen, which is normally well lit day or night, but leading up to this evening's painting a lot of bulbs had all of a sudden gone bust. I was pretty frustrated with not being able to see well, but decided to soldier on.

I'm glad I did, because I really like the finished piece!

Oil on canvas board, 8" x 8"

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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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