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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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"

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