Back on Etsy

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My paintings are back on Etsy, I have done a horrible job on putting them up for sale. Take a browse by clicking here, its free to browse.  I am working on a lot of projects right now and will be able to share shortly what I have been up to. Till then happy painting!

Peonies

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"Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I have posted this painting before but have not offered it for sale. If you are interested bid on it through my ebay page.

Cheers!

Bouquet Peonies

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"Bouquet Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Edina Art Fair

"Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Back to the easel into producing more art work for the Edina Art Fair.  The fair will be from June 5 -7. Last year was my first time showing and it was a lot of fun participating in the event. The amount of people I met and got feedback from was immense. I recommend anyone who has never been a part of one to do it, it is a great experience.

It is that time of year that peonies bloom for about two weeks. It's a short window but I want to take advantage of it. They are one of the most beautiful flowers to paint. Peonies are always a challenge to paint in one session because of their intricacy, but is one of the main reasons I am attracted to paint them. 

You can see with the process shots above I went with big form modeling of the lights for all three Peonies. I was not interested in details until the hue and chroma were stated overall. I was working from general to smaller forms. Starting right away with details will hurt your painting. Work with larger shapes then working into smaller shapes. Which is the same as doing big form modeling first then completing the painting with smaller form modelling. Edges are also another key component with this painting. I left some edges blurry to push the middle main Peonies forward. I stress to my students how important edges are, they will either make or break your painting. Transitions from one value or chroma to another depends greatly on the edges and how fluid the transition is. 

I like to paint peonies from life as you can see all their true colors. Which goes with anything you want to paint, photography looses a lot of the colors and distorts the picture. I do use at times photography if I have no option and will paint into the night. I always prefer painting from life with natural light when I am able to. This is another painting I am doing for the art fair. Peonies open their pedals so quick, by the time I was getting closer to finishing this painting the white Peonies that I painted was already half way blooming. 

Thank you everyone for stopping by and viewing my paintings, cheers!

Fuchsia Peonies

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"Fuchsia Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I am well aware Peonies are out of season, These peonies I bought for my wife a while ago and loved how they looked. I took a picture and always said "I will paint that one day" well that day finally came.  The texture and movement within these flowers are spectacular, I tried so hard to portray that in my painting. Fuchsia Peonies are always fun to paint due to the purples, blues and reds that are hidden within each pedal. The movement from one petal to the other has a beautiful gestural quality to it. It is a challenging flower to paint but always rewarding in the end.

Thanks for stopping by, cheers!

"Peonies"

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"Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel.

I've been away from painting these small gems for a while now as you may have noticed.  I have been swamped with work that needed all of my attention, I finally was able to finish half of the commissions I needed to.  I miss doing these daily's for many reasons but I know I have to get more of my personal work going rather than concentrating all of my efforts in these studies.  It is passed the season of peonies but I was able to get some off the farmers market, they were not as fresh and lively looking as I wanted them to be but they still possessed beauty.  The process of creating this painting is similar to the other alla prima's.  Each peony I handled as a sphere only concentrating how the light wraps around the form, not worrying about details yet just how light skims across the form.  At the beginning stage when modeling the lights I do not put in the highest keys in values and the darkest values.  Once this stage is complete i'm able to complete the painting by just adding the smaller forms or details to each "sphere". 

I also wanted to give you guys some news in my personal life, I just got engaged about a month ago and have been on cloud nine since.  I met my beautiful fiancee in Florence, Italy when I was studying at the Angel Academy of Art.  She was studying for a semester through the University of Minnesota.  By chance we met and I fell in love at first sight.  I moved to Minneapolis to be with her and haven't looked back since.  You can read a snippet about it on her blog.  To say I am the luckiest guy in this world is a major understatement, I am beyond blessed to have found my beautiful fiancee.

Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoyed this one!  

"Peonies"

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"Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Being on vacation has its benefits but the downside is that I wasn't able to paint for a while, it was nice going back home and relaxing it lets me clear my head and come back with a fresh slate.  I cannot believe its been a week since I last painted I don't like that I had to do that, since coming back from vacation I've just been so busy with everything and finally had time today to paint again.  It feels so great to paint again it just puts all your worries away and I just dive into my painting not thinking of anything else, its pretty therapeutic.  I always say to myself after not painting for a while how I can go so long, I seriously go through withdraws.  What can I say I'm addicted to painting!

Peonies are intimidating to me their pedals are so complicated to paint and there's not a set way to paint them.  To say that I went out of my comfort zone again is an understatement, especially being the first painting back from not painting for a while.  Usually I like to paint a couple pictures before I dive into something so complicated like this, but today I just decided to go at it.  Peonies are just so beautiful in their subtle colors and how each pedal has so much character to it.  Other than being intimidated to paint the pedals I was also excited because I can be so gestural with the paints, usually I'm not able to do that but with this painting I went to town with it.  The subtle colors and gestural strokes made it so much fun to paint, I'm really happy with this painting and how it came out I hope you can see how much fun I had with the process photos.  Now time to get back to the grinding wheel and start painting more again!    

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums and just a bit of raw umber on the brush for the drawing stage.  I kept the drawing pretty simple didn't want to get to detailed since these flowers are pretty complicated with each fold.  After the drawing is complete I went in and added the general colors of the peonies, not worried about details at this stage just the statement of color and how it wraps around the form.  I also do not add the darkest and lightest values, I wait to do that in their separate stages.  

I start on the first two peonies working them at the same time, I only paint the middle to darker values.  When that stage is close to completion I start on the lighter values and highlights, this stage was so much fun.  Since each pedal has a gestural look to them I decided to treat them in that manner, I went very gestural with each stroke I didn't wanna make it to abstract just enough to give the sense of movement.  When filling in the lighter values I bounce back to the darker values and adjust the intensity if need be, usually it does.

Once they are done I move onto the next two starting with the middle to darker values, I wish I can say my approach to painting peonies is the same as my other paintings, it's not.  There are some similarities but peonies are so complicated with each pedal, they are so mushed in together its hard to just render each pedal one at a time.  When adding the lighter values and highlights I also go back to the darks and adjust their intensity, and also go back to the lighter values and do the same.  When adding the lighter values I notice I need to add the darker values around the peonies which are the leaves, they frame the peonies and give them their shape which is important so I can take it to a finish.  I keep working on the peonies for a while bouncing back and forth from darker to lighter values, I'm also getting thicker with the strokes in the lights.   As stated before I'm being more gestural with the strokes to indicate movement and texture, I can not lie it was so much painting like this I was able to be gestural than usual.

Then I filled in the background after finishing the peonies, stating the background now is important so I can address the edges and push certain areas further away.  When stating the background I also fill in the  stems and clear vase, once that was complete I go back into the leaves and take them to a finish by adding more chroma and lighter values in certain areas.  This painting was a lot of fun all the way till the finish, playing with textures and movement of the paint was a neat thing to do.  I'm looking to implore more of that in the future with my paintings.  I hope you guys had a lot of fun with this one, thanks for stopping by and viewing!