New & Exciting!

Please note that I have added something new in the right hand column that I am very excited about. You can now order Art books, my favorites and yours, by clicking on my Art Matters Store, a direct link to purchase through Amazon.com! Please browse the books - I recommend every one that is listed on my site.

At last! Pain-Free Painting!

I am so happy to report, after six months of physical therapy following surgery, that this week I was able to paint at my easel for several hours with no pain in my right arm and shoulder! I didn't have to lower my arm once due to pain! It has been many many years since that was the case. Hooray!
The painting at left is in progress. I hope to finish it within this next week and will post the finished product for you to see. It is from a photo I took while walking this path at the John C. Campbell Folk School in NC when I was teaching there.
I am trying out some new paint and so far I absolutely love it. It is made with walnut oil instead of linseed oil as the medium (binder), which does not yellow like linseed oil does. The paints are pigment rich and soft and creamy in consistency. If I continue to like them, I will order them for our store. Once I decide, I will also share the brand name with you.

A Happy Valentine

Ashley is a beautiful young woman, but in just two and a half hours' painting time, this burnt umber and yellow ochre underpainting was as far as I could get. I really like the method I used of wiping out the lights from the toned canvas. This was a good likeness and the model really liked it. Her boyfriend surprised her with it for Valentine's Day!

I am still having a difficult time painting at the easel, such as I did here, but I am trying. I hope to be getting more art posted in the not too distant future.

11 x 14 oil on canvas

SOLD!

Delivered for Christmas - Click Each Image to Enlarge

Graphite Portraits (Almost Always) In Progress

I always seem to see drawing or painting parts that need revision when I am readying photos to upload to my blog or website. Below you will find photos of the three drawings (portrait commissions) I am currently working on. First you will see a new photo of Reilly, with very very minor, but necessary, changes to his right eye and his mouth. I will post the first photo next to it so that you can detect the changes I made. Next will be Monica, almost finished. When I looked at the photos in photoshop, I realized that Monica's upper lip on her right side has too hard a top edge; it definitely needs softening ans transitioning into the fleshy area above it. I also want to deepen the value of the inset on her shirt - it is too light and too close in value to the skin tone right above it. I will post this again once I have made those and any other revisions I determine are necessary.
The last drawing is of Clara, and as you can see it is still underway. Perhaps you can tell that the values are heightened or deepened in stages. Right now, her eyes look very dark and hard edged. I will be softening them but also adjusting other values which will make the eyes appear not quite so dark in comparison. This drawing is not complete in any area. It is a work in progress and I work back and forth into and out of areas of the face, adjusting one value in relationship to another.
These drawings are done in graphite on a Strathmore plate finish paper - one I have never used but wanted to try. The plate finish is much harder than the medium textured drawing paper I usually use, so I have to work harder at keeping pencil lines in tonal areas from "looking like lines."
Click on a photo to enlarge it. Please feel free to post comments or questions!

Reilly, Revised at left

As originally posted on 11/15/07 below

Monica, In Progress

Clara, In Progress