"Torso"

"Torso"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I copied this torso from a Roberto Ferri painting, It is a snippet from one of his magnificent paintings.  With this painting I experimented with the flemish technique. I was inspired after going to the M.I.A. and seeing the Hapsburg exhibition. It was a beautiful exposition showcasing their collection of paintings, sculptures, and jewels. In the exhibition they had Rubens, Caravaggio, Titian, Velázquez and many more painters I can't remember.

I would recommend anyone that is in the twin cities to go see this exhibition. 

Cheers!

Still LIfe Paintings on my Etsy Store

Click here to purchase this painting at my Etsy store

"Cheese Board"

16 x 20 in

Oil on Canvas

Click here to purchase this painting at my Etsy store

"Evening Tea"

14 x 18 in

Oil on Linen

I have created a section to sell my still life paintings at my Etsy store. The prices are a little different than my alla prima paintings, of course these take more time to complete with many levels of paint. 

Enjoy!

"Cheese Board"

Click here to purchase this painting at my Etsy store

"Cheese Board"

16 x 20 in

Oil on Canvas 

This is a new still life painting I made for an Art Fair I participated a couple weeks ago. I will post more pictures soon of the whole event and the other paintings I showed there. It was nice painting a still life again in the classical method. Setting up the objects and painting them fast enough before they start rotting was a challenge. 

The setup.

Process pics of the grapes and cheese near completion.

The bread also near completion. 

Once the foreground was complete I filled in the background and brought the whole painting together. I was able to soften edges and make objects recede. I was using Ivory Black and knew that it's a slow drier, which is the reason I saved it till the last stage. Once the black was painted in, I then went back to the foreground and keyed up certain values and hues.

Once the painting was complete I was able to enjoy the still life by drinking some good wine with grapes, bread and cheese. Thank you for stopping by and viewing! 

"Pink Peonies"

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"Pink Peonies"

12 x 9 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Happy New Years everyone! I have so much to be thankful for such a wonderful year, excited to see what the future has in store. Can't think of any other way to ring it in other than painting.  I have been wanting to paint for a while and finally after all the holiday festivities I was able to do so. Peonies have always been a personal favorite of mine to paint, their color and texture are a big draw to me. It's a subject in which if you try painting every single hair on a dog it will not work in your favor. Either way it's a challenging subject matter to paint, but always a pleasure to do.

I start with a very thin layer of raw umber, not using any mediums either. I do not use any mediums through out the duration of the painting, I like to keep the toxins level as low as possible. This stage I like to concentrate mainly on the composition and placement of shapes. I am not concerned with details or getting everything perfect, just getting the overall placements in the right areas. Later on through the painting the shapes shift here and there that's why I like to keep this stage fairly loose. You can think of it as a gesture drawing, not concerned with proportions or details, just the sole of the drawing, the movement of life through out the drawing. 

Once the drawing is complete I then start with the peonies and its stems. This is the big form modeling stage. I am only concerned with getting the overall chroma and the turning of the form correct. Still not worried about details, just turning the form with the lights and correct chroma.

Once the big form molding stage is complete I then start with smaller form modeling. In order for this stage to work the big form modeling needs to be correct. I have found with a lot of my students they like to rush through this step. The importance of getting that stage right is overlooked at more often than not. Smaller form modeling is just a miniature version of big form modeling. 

I am still not completely done with smaller form modeling since the background and leaves are not done. I lay in the background and really like how it pushes the peonies forward.

I keep going back and forth with the small form modeling stages through out the peonies and leaves. The painting is finally complete and really satisfied with it. These peonies get me excited for the summer after these sub zero temperatures we are experiencing. 

Thank you for stopping by and viewing, wishing everyone a Happy New Years! 

Minnesota State Fair

"Evening Tea"

14 x 18 in

Oil on Linen

I'm very proud to announce my painting "Evening Tea" will be on display at the Minnesota State Fair! It's such an honor to be showing at a great venue and with so many talented artist. The Fair opens today August 22 until September 2. Stop by and check a lot of great art on display while eating cheese curds or a bucket of cookies. 

Cheers!

"Evening Tea"

Click here to purchase this painting at my Etsy store

"Evening Tea"

14 x 18 in

Oil on Linen

This is my latest still life painting (not an alla prima painting), its of oranges surrounding this beautiful rustic tea kettle resting on a geisha blue cloth and a wooden stool peaking through.  To say I had fun painting this one would be a complete understatement, I wanted to control and manipulate a bit the lighting pattern in my painting.  One thing is to copy from life the other is enhancing what you'r painting and make it your own.  I had this gold frame for a while and glad I was finally able to create a painting worth of it.

I started with getting the setup just right and positioning my canvas to a close sight to size copy I can get to.

I did the drawing in raw umber, concentrated in simplifying the shapes as much as I can and positioning them just right.

Then did a whole underpainting in raw umber, and cremnitz white.  This allows me to get the tone I'm going for and play with the lights a bit.  I usually don't do this when starting a painting but wanted to try something different this time.  This is also good to do if you haven't prepared your canvas with a ground, it gives the linen some tooth.

I started to paint the blue cloth and oranges, as you can see I had to get other oranges because they started to go bad and change colors.  There are many tricks you have to improvise when painting from life especially with still life's pertaining to fruits and vegetables.  This is the last picture I took of the process and apologize for not taking more.  Basically I worked on each section to a finish and brought the whole painting to a finish by repeating this process.  The process I use for my alla prima's I applied to  this painting, I saw how easier it was to achieve difficult transitions in certain areas and have a unity throughout the finish of the painting.    

Just a reminder to everyone you can sign up for my new lesson on how to paint "Pink Roses".  Here's a trailer for it:

  

"Pear in Red"

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"Pear in Red"

10 x 8 in 

Oil on Canvas Panel

I did this painting today in the middle of the million things I had to do, glad I did though I had so much fun with yesterdays painting I wanted to continue that today.  This time I actually painted a pear other than yesterdays painting looked like pear's.  I wanted to also have it in a black box to add more drama to the painting.  I always love the baroque paintings that implore these type of lighting compositions.  It was a challenge to paint such a dark background in one passage especially when it involves different elements that are mixed into it.  What I was striving for was having the pear be the central focus with the lighting and have the rest of the light shimmer across the red cloth.  I had a lot of fun painting this one especially that it was different than my normal alla prima's, I'm excited to see what else I can do with these type of compositions and lighting situation.  Till then thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this one!

Setup of my little still life with a make shift shadow box, using natural light as the main light source.