Roses and Bicycle IV - A tribute to time

Mixed Media with acrylic, ink and crayon on hardbord, 9x12

The greying sky,

Like the remnant of a fire,

Lingers on.

The space is empty 

Of your presence,

 

And soon will be filled with the drizzling rain,
Like tears of laughter.

Tequila and Bougainvillea

A student of mine, Marian, brought over a bunch of bougainvillea and a Tequila bottle which I'd never see before to paint. The setting was beautiful. Marian started it very well. But it tempted me to give it a try after the class. The bottle was clear and the bougainvillea's got "a hundred" blossoms on one stem, and they wilted very fast. To avoid the blah, light background and a clear bottle, I added blue for a more painterly effect. As for the busy flowers, I concentrated on a few with light pink to dress up the petals.

 In a still life, especially, we don't really have to paint what we see but what we feel.

If you would like to purchase my paintings, please

email me or go to Paypal through my web site.

Roses and Bicycle

Mixed Media with Ink and Acrylic on Telati board, 9x12

All of a sudden I feel like it's time to take a break from traditional painting and do some abstracts. The figurative's been on my mind, and a bicycle seemed like fun because of its various geometric shapes and my fun memories of it in my childhood. A bicycle to me implies freedom, youth, movement in nature, balancing and innocence. What does it mean to you? 

If you would like to purchase my paintings, please

email me or go to Paypal through my web site.

Iris in the Wild

Oil on Board, 9x12

Starting with the thought of painting it abstractly, I painted this one fairly quickly and it turned out not that abstract, but I like it. I'm beginning to feel comfortable stretching the values a bit more; using the very dark and the very light, from about 2 to 9 in the value scale. Soft edges can make peace for the meeting of the two extremes.

Please go to my website if you're interested in purchasing this painting. I've been trying to get the Paypal Buy Now button to work elsewhere, but am having a hard time. The one on my website seems to work fine.

Two Bottles

                                                       Oil, 12x9 

There are quite a lot of things I learned from painting this:

 There can't be light without the dark; 

The translucent light alongside the bottle could be done straight from the tube of the right value and color (which I didn't have, I had a hell of a time making it look even close. I mixed white with light green and cobalt blue but only made it opaque or dull looking); 

Green pepper is not that complicated to paint, it just takes a little patience; 

Background is fun to paint, just don't paint what you see; 

Don't put too many cherries on the table. 

*****

I'm taking reservation for a four day workshop for Qiang Huang in July, 2013 in Scottsdale, AZ. If you're interested please email me. The space will be filled up fairly quickly, so please act fast. Here's the flyer for more detail:

Lily In a Glass Vase

Oil, 14x11

After a while, I thought I must have been nuts to paint such delicate flowers. Sunflowers are a lot easier; with many little petals, a few quick brush strokes with different shades of yellow will do the job. But a lily has only 5 petals and each has very delicate colors and design. Painting them made me feel humbled. 

I have also learned a lot about painting a plate. The edge of the plate going from the dark side to the light side is one continuous line. The transition from dark to light is a little tricky as it takes a lot of patience and steady hand to get it right. The temperature change is delicate and you need to clean the brush often. Because I didn't, it made me a bit frustrated. And so I learned.

***

Please email me if you have questions, or visit my website 

to see other paintings. 

To purchase this painting please click here. 

Thank you for visiting!