Tag Archives: oil

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Art Zoo

Once Handmade Hopewell (HH) finished, I could spend more time working on art again instead of working on presenting art. Here are recent animal paintings.

This sea turtle was “finished” a few weeks ago, after HH. To give a sense of scale, it is leaning against a door.

At the start, there were some energetic, sketchy elements I quite liked, eg., around the flippers, but most of those areas ended up getting more refined or painted over. Looking at it now, I wish I had preserved more of them. Even so, the painting satisfied my need to do something artistic besides re-painting tulips and working on my video for HH, and I am generally content with it.

The Wednesday after HH, I got a call from neighbors who asked whether I were willing & able to come up with something artistic & humorous that night to mail Thursday morning to a couple getting married that Friday or Saturday. Although these wedding pandas are not punny of themselves, my neighbors were encouraged to send the happy couple a note congratulating them on going forward with their wedding during the panda-demic.

There are also some bird paintings, but I will save them for another time.

I hope you enjoyed today’s trip to the zoo.

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“God created great whales”…

… And I painted one. 

The word “serene” kept coming to me during the creation of this painting.  I started this with the remaining pigments on my palette after completing the Honu painting featured two posts ago. (Link goes to the post.) This painting is quite a bit larger than that one: 24″ x 30″. I had planned to hang it in my office at work, but a buyer came along before that happened. 🙂 I can always painting another one (or two or three if there are any interested parties out there).

Hope you enjoyed this little whale-watching trip. ‘Til next time.

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Paintings from Paradise

Alooooooha! Two and a half weeks ago, I returned from my first visit to the Hawaiian Islands–Kaua’i and Hawai’i (the Big Island), plus a day on Oahu. The different environments, animals, and a number of the local art galleries, inspired some fun, artistic exploration once I got back to the mainland. That’s what I’m sharing today. 

  1. Some pen doodles inspired by some of the simple graphic designs on National Park pins. My traveling party saw green sea turtles (honu in Hawaiian) on two occasions: once at Punalu’u, a black sand beach, & again at Kaloko-Honokohau, a National Historic Park.

 

2. Ginger plant (acrylic, 8 x 10″). The ginger blooms in several different colors — red, white, yellow, & pink. The pinks & reds were quite striking against the green foliage of the rainforests.  

3. Painting of a honu resting (oil, 9″ x 6.5″). This was painted more like a watercolor would be (in terms of layers & values). First I painted the yellow across the whole hardboard (such that it started off looking like a background color), and then the blues on top of that, preserving the lights. Many of the greens were actually mixed right on the surface when the blue & yellow paint met. 

Mahalo nui loa for reading. 

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December Showings

I’m pleased to announce that 2 paintings are be part of exhibitions this winter. First, included in the Light Space Time online art gallery’s 2018 seascapes competition is the painting Ã€ la côte sud d’ ÃŽle Sainte-Marguerite, which was the subject of this post in July and was included in the competition’s Special Merit category for painting and other traditional media. Check it out: https://www.lightspacetime.art/seascapes-2018-art-exhibition-special-merit-painting-other-category.

Second is a new piece painted at the end of November for Trenton Artworks’ annual 10 x 10 Red Dot fundraiser event. (This is my first year participating.) Artists in the area are invited to create art on a 10″ x 10″ picture plane. Each piece sells at the event for $100, with proceeds being split between the artist and Artworks or, if the artist elects, 100% to Artworks. The oil painting I created for this event is called “Promising Day” and is based on photography from my travels in Oregon and Washington state in August. 

The opening reception was this past Saturday, December 8. I attended with fellow Principia art alumna and Tenacre cabinet painter Marissa Bunting. Now a few words about the name of the event: When any art sells, a red dot (sticker) is put next to the painting. Sensible enough. If any happy art collectors wish to take home their prizes before the end of the show, they can; the Artworks staff then hangs red paper plates, which are just bigger red dots, on the wall in place of the art.

Ironically, Marissa also painted coniferous trees against a cloudy blue sky for this event, and her painting also had “day” in the title. And–I kid you not–the show organizers put our paintings next to each other. What can I say? The Force is strong with this one.

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Put on Your Sunday Clothes

Happy Sunday. After working months on the last painting I shared (À la côte sud d’ ÃŽle Sainte-Marguerite) & another one I haven’t posted yet, I desired to paint something quicker and less detailed. Sometimes doing a “quickie” after or during a longer painting gives new life or energy to the creative process. Granted, it took some hours, but it was done, to my satisfaction, over 2-3 evenings. I primarily painted with a palette knife. 

With a dress like that, if you don’t think of Hello, Dolly!, you must not have seen this musical. Note the added business card in her left hand.

In other news, I recently added some new little paintings to the Nature & Animal Art galleries; see whether you can spot them.