"Peony"

10 x 8 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I enjoy painting peonies, from their beautiful colors to gestural pedals. Instead of doing a whole arrangement of peonies, I decided to keep it simple and just paint one. The colors as mentioned before is one of the beauties of this plant, its always fun trying to match the radiant colors it gives. Painting the pedals can be challenging as each of them are different. Overall it is a fun plant to paint and a beauty to always come across in the flower store

Thank you for stopping by and viewing. Cheers!

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!

"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! 

"White Ranunculus"

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"White Ranunculus"

10  x 8 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Hi everyone, it has been a long time since I posted especially an alla prima painting. This year has been a whirl wind for me, an amazing year to say the least. After the wedding this summer I dived into several commission projects, one of them I was able to share on the previous post.  A long with working on those projects we have become new home owners! I still cannot wrap my mind around it. A little scary but amazing to own our own home. I know thanksgiving is long passed but I have many things to be thankful. I could not have dreamed for such an amazing year and what it's still surprising us with. I wanted to thank you guys as well for still reading my blog, even though this passed year I have been very limited on how much I have posted. I swear when I say I'm trying to get better in posting regularly, it's hard to post about painting walls when all I want to do is paint on canvas. 

I've stated in previous post I was not going to paint alla prima paintings for a long time, well, long time has definitely passed. I really do miss doing these little guys. They are equivalent to sketching in your sketchbook when practicing. I have not painted in a while do to the move and we are still getting situated in our new home.  Painting this alla prima gets the blood flowing again, gets my routine going with painting. I will never stop doing these alls prima's for that reason a lone, it allows me to always practice fine tuning my craft, which I think we should always keep doing as artist. This painting is the first painting to be done in my new studio, fitting to say the least. I did not want to just post the finishing painting, I miss explaining my process. It's always beneficial to share your process no matter what your style is, there's always going to be someone out there that will benefit from it. 

I started with a dry brush and raw umber for the drawing stage. In this stage I like to keep the drawing simple and clear. Not worried about details, just concerned with placement and proportions.  

I then fill in the basic colors for all the sections of the painting, this is the only stage I work everything at the same time. I do this to get the overall tone of the painting from the get go. I work with big form modeling at this stage as well. The point of big form modeling is to state how the lights and basic color note wraps around the form. The colors I use is naples yellow, raw umber, viridian, cerulean blue, cadmium yellow. 

I know all my shapes are not final when I move on, I like to have the freedom to be able to move things if I need to. Now I start concentrating one section at a time. After big form modeling is complete I start with small for modeling in the darks. I start with the left side of the flowers, first by stating the middle to darker tones. I do not like to state the darkest darks first, I like to slowly move into them by starting with a middle tone. I am using the same colors as I did in the previous step. The good thing about this method is that you'r painting wet into wet, the tricky part is to not get to muddy or thick quickly. 

Once the smaller forms for the darks are complete I move onto the lights. I like to jump between those two stages to get to the right look I'm going for.

I repeat the same process with the right half of the flowers. First by stating the darker smaller forms. An important thing to understand with smaller forms, they can only exist if the big form modeling is done correctly. Small form modeling is the icing on the cake, all your work is mostly done with big form modeling. A lot of people like to jump straight into small form modeling or the "details" instead of concentrating on big form modeling. Big form modeling stage is extremely important to get right, it's the stage where you have to make the lights believable. 

After I worked with smaller form modeling of the lights I moved onto the vase and vines. I apologize for not showing more process from that point. I essentially repeated the same process what I did with the flowers. I changed the vase to fit better with the overall composition. After the vase was established I went back into the flowers and brought out the lights and darks more.  I keep tweaking sections that have changed by values I established in other areas. I constantly walk back forth from the painting, especially towards the end. The painting looks much different when standing back, I never judge my values and chromas from up close, always by standing back. I could keep working on this painting, but I have to stop, especially when I feel it served its purpose. 

Thank you again everyone for tuning in and interested in seeing my paintings. I appreciate all the support. I hope you guys enjoyed this one, see you guys soon!

"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!  

"Ranunculus"

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"Ranunculus"

8 x 10 in 

Oil on Canvas Panel

I haven't painted flowers in a while and wanted to paint these, I gave these ranunculus to my girlfriend and decided after a couple days that I needed to paint their beauty.  I've been busy painting larger paintings and producing ball point pen drawings so it was nice to change the pace to these alla prima's.  After not painting alla prima's for a while it was tough to get started and find a rhythm, after half way through it started to click and come back to me.  I really do miss painting these guys on a daily basis but at the same time I like devoting most of my time to my larger more personal work.  The sole purpose of these alla prima paintings is for practice and try to understand the oils as best as I can.  Painting flowers are a bit different than painting a regular object in a still life, first flowers move by the hour and second their form is far more intricate and complicated.  I found painting flowers you have to simplify their shape as much as you can and towards the end of the painting stages thats where you can get complicated with the rendering.  Overall it's a joy and pleasure to paint a beautiful subject matter as this.

I started with the usual dry brush approach by just applying a bit of raw umber on the brush and using no mediums.  When the drawing is completed I then stated the background and after the general statement of the flowers and vase.  At this stage I just lay in a thin layer of paint which creates a nice surface for the oils in the later stages.  I am also concerned of the movement of light at this stage, big form modeling if you will.  I used ultramarine blue, naples yellow and titanium white for the background.  For the roses I mainly used quinacridone magenta for the initial stages, and for the leaves and vase I used viridian and naples yellow.  I usually don't lay out my colors all at once because I like the keep the paints fresh in every section I work in, I do know with certain colors you are able to get away with that instead of having a dry look towards the end of the painting.

Once the big form modeling was complete I then started to just concentrate on individual sections, I choose the first left roses to paint.  First I stated the darker values with their specific shapes, the colors I used were quinacridone magenta and ultramarine blue for the darker values.  Once the darker shapes were complete I moved on to the lighter shapes and stated their specific forms.  I used titanium white mixed with quinacridone magenta for the highlights and lighter values.  I repeated the same process with the middle set of flowers

As you can see its the same process when stating the lighter values after the darks are complete.  It usually flows nicely when you complete each stage well,  there are at times were you do have to go back and adjust certain things to get the overall value or paint quality right, just depends on how the look of the object your painting.  I repeated the same process with the third set of flowers on the right side of the painting.

Once the flowers are complete I moved onto the vase and stating the middle to darker values, the colors I used for this stage were viridian, and ultramarine blue.  This area is a good lesson in not painting every hair on a dog to get the point across that theirs a lot going on, as long as you paint a representation of the form and whats going then your find getting away with it.  If I was to paint every single strand of stem and leaf then it would start to come out bland.  You have to choose your battle and see what information is important to leave in their when you paint, what will help you'r painting out if you were to leave that out or push it more in order to get the message across.  Remember your the director of this frame you can choose what the viewer see's and feels.

I finished the painting by stating the small stems poking out of the flowers.  I hope you guys enjoyed this one, I know I did and hope to do more in the near future.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing!

"White Roses"

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"White Roses"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

These white roses I first saw at my girlfriends sisters apartment and knew right away I had to paint them.  White can be such a subtle and difficult color to paint, it can retain so many different hints of colors that it can easily get to muddy.  Knowing how much I like to challenge myself with these guys I was definitely looking forward to it, not mentioning the background too how easy it is to get your palette muddy by using so much black.  All these components make a great experience in painting this subject, it teaches you many factors that go into controlling your craft and how far you can push your sense of color while being subtle.  When I was studying at the Atelier I remember the first cast I painted in color, it was an all white cast which I thought would be simple to paint since it was just one color with a green background and the color of the base.  I cannot tell you how many colors I used in that cast it had so many subtle hints of every color you can imagine, its incredible how your eye can play tricks on you or you think its just a plain color which in reality is not.  Needless to say I learned tremendously from that cast painting and so on, and it also reinstates what I tell my students observe everything you draw and paint to the teeth.  

"Fuchsia Orchids"

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"Fuchsia Orchids"

9 x 12 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I didn't have to go far to get inspired to paint.  My girlfriends birthday was just the other day and she got a lot of flowers, you can say we have a garden growing by the day.  I wanted to paint this picture using natural light, I'm used to painting in artificial light because it's the way I was trained, although I know there's nothing like painting in natural light.  The only thing I don't like about it is that I have to sit down the whole time.  I paint in my kitchen to get the best natural light and the space is pretty tight so sitting is the best option.  That being said I really enjoyed the whole experience from the beginning to end, as stated before there's nothing like painting from natural light.  Orchids are challenging to say the least.  Their colors are pretty subtle and you have to be aware in the change of values that occur really quick.  I haven't painted orchids in a while and glad I did so, it really pushed me in studying these orchids in depth in every way.

 This is my set up from the kitchen with my pochade box and the model.  

I started the drawing with a bit of raw umber on the brush and no mediums.  Once thats complete I stated the general colors of the orchids and stems.  The colors I used were quinacridone magenta, cerulean blue, and cad. yellow.

Then I stated the background to give the painting more of a whole look.  The colors I used were yellow ochre, cerulean blue, and titanium white.  Once the background was complete I started with the first set of orchids by stating the darkest values with their specific forms.  I start using naphthol red, and ultramarine blue in the mixture.  

Then I add the lighter values with their specific forms, I also start on the other set of orchids by just implying the middle to darker values.  When stating the lighter values I had to slow down and be very subtle with the value shifts, orchids have a delicate and subtle texture to them.  Then I added the darker values with their specific forms to the other set of orchids.  

I finish the painting by adding the lighter values and darkening the cast shadow in the background.  

Here's a look of the finished painting on the pochade box next to the orchids.  I enjoyed this painting to say the least, I did go through some points when I was not gonna finish but glad I stuck through it to the end.  Painting difficult subjects are always a challenge, I've learned if you stick through it you'll benefit so much from it.  I hope you guys enjoyed this one, thanks for stopping by and viewing!

"Ranunculus 2"

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"Ranunculus 2"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to paint another version of these beautiful flowers, as stated in previous post these guys remind me of peonies thus the reason I like painting them.  I've been so busy lately doing other paintings its always good to come back to these alla prima's and have a fresh eye.  I believe doing alla prima paintings are essential for painters, it keeps you fresh and allows you to experiment with your own technique.  I've been painting flowers for a good while now I have to say its taught me a lot with my own approach to painting.  Flowers have an abstract shape to them to me thats what makes them so beautiful, once you think of them as abstract shapes then it becomes easier to paint.  What I like about these ranunculus it seems as if the lights radiating from the middle of the flower, it's all in the coloring of the flower and how its dispersed through out its body.  It's amazing how mother nature conjured up all these wonderful flowers.

I started with usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber on the brush, I didn't want to get to detailed since I'll be adding most of the flowers in the later stages.  After the drawing stage is complete I stated the general colors with middle values, I don't want to add highlights or darker values just a a general statement.  The colors I used for this stage is titanium white, quinacridone magenta, naphthol red, viridian, and raw umber.

Then I added the background using yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, and titanium white.  Adding the background at this stage allows me to get a general feel of the colors.  I can now start adding darker values and their specific forms with the first batch of flowers.  The colors I used are ivory black, raw umber, and ultramarine blue.

Then I add lighter values and their specific forms, the colors I used for this stage is titanium white, quinacridone magenta, and naphthol red.  Once thats completed I start on the other section of flowers and repeat the same process.  I also use the same colors as I did before, I start adding middle and darker values and their specific forms.

Then I add lighter values and their specific forms.  I'm constantly going back and forth between values and adjusting them to the right look, this always happens when adding a new value.  Once the flowers are taken to a close finish I start on the stems and vase, I start on the middle to darker values and their specific forms.

Then I add the lighter values and their specific forms and take it to a finish, I then go back to the flowers and tweak some highlights and darker values.  Once I've taken the flowers to a finish I take the painting to a completion.  As stated before in the beginning I truly do love painting flowers they teach me so much about painting and its textures, it's great practice overall and enjoy every second of it.  I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing!

"Ranunculus"

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"Ranunculus"

10 x 8 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Todays alla prima painting is of ranunculus, these beautiful flowers resemble peonies to me even though I know there not.  I went to my favorite coffee place in town and met up with a couple friends which I'm glad I did because I ran into these beautiful flowers.  They were sitting right on my table and instantaneously I fell in love, the movement within the petals and rich colors made it more of a reason to paint.  I thought I was going to be done with painting flowers for a while and suddenly changed course again after seeing these beautiful flowers.  That's one of the reasons why I love doing these alla prima's, you never know what your next painting might be and if you do it can change in a split second.  Inspiration comes from everything I see and what moves me is what I enjoy painting the most, I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

I also wanted to let you guys know that I've finally published the video of the portrait demo I did at dick blick last Saturday, thank you to everyone that was able to show up I greatly appreciate it and had a lot of fun.  I have the video on youtube you can see it by clicking here.  

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber on the brush, again not spending to much time on the inside of the drawing just stating the general shapes.  After the drawing is complete I start on the background the colors I used are ultramarine blue, naples yellow and titanium white.

After the background is complete I state the general colors and keep all the edges soft, I'm not concerned with details or the darkest values just the general statement of colors.  I keep the paints really thin at this stage this creates a base for when I put more paint it'll glide easier and blend better.  Then I state the darker and middle values and their specific forms, I start narrowing down the shapes at this stage still keeping the edges soft and subtle.  The colors I use at this stage are quinacridone magenta, viridian, cad. yellow, titanium white and ultramarine blue.

Once the darker and middle values are close to completion I start on the lighter values and their specific forms, I'm able to take the whole section of the flowers to a finish when painting this stage in.  I'm constantly going back and forth between values and adjusting them to their specific look that's why I get to a close finish with the darker values, when I paint the lighter values I can really take the whole area to a finish.  After the flower section is complete I start on the vase and also darken a bit of the lower section of the background to have more of a fall of light.

I sharpen a bit of the edges on the vase and add highlights which brings that section to a finish, then I go back to the flower and tweak certain highlights and shadows.  I'm glad I was able to run into these flowers today and paint them, I had fun doing so and learned something new.  I hope you enjoyed this one, thanks for stopping by and viewing!

"Fuchsia Peonies"

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"Fuchsia Peonies"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to mention that today is the one year anniversary of winning the Daily Painters contest, cannot thank all of you enough for making that happen.  It has been such a blessing in winning that competition and just every moment after that, it was one of the toughest times in waiting to see if I would win or not and glad it went the way it did.  Apart from the contest I've painted so much more prior to it, its taught me so much discipline and shown me how much fun one can have painting these little gems every day.  I enjoy the concept of discipling oneself to paint for a certain time of the day everyday (if you can), sounds so simple but yet it can be very complicated depending on one's schedule.  Not only they're fun to paint but they've taught me so much outside of the schooling I've had, to paint in a consistent manner every day you get to learn from your mistakes and try so many different approaches to your technique.  I thoroughly recommend it to anyone wanting to push themselves to that next level.  I think of it as sketching in your sketchbook every day you do it because it warms you up and it gets you better, the more you practice the better you'll get.  These alla prima's have been a blessing to me and truly feel so lucky to be able to get up every morning and paint these jewels.

    These peonies where a lot of fun to paint, I especially like the arrangement in composing them on the canvas.  The color pattern and fall of light on the peonies where just to good not to paint, as stated in the previous post when I painted another batch of peonies they can be very challenging to paint.  Aside from the challenges, it was a lot of fun playing with different textures and impastos.  I also enjoyed playing with the composition and getting the right movement that I can through out the picture.  Painting the bright fuchsia colors was a bit challenging as well, a beautiful color all around though.  Peonies are such beautiful flowers to paint and enjoyed every bit of it, I hope to do more of these in the future.

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber on the brush, I kept the drawing pretty loose since painting flowers you can only go so far with the drawing.  I believe in certain flower paintings you concentrate on the drawing more when you paint it rather in the initial drawing stage.  Then for the next stage I decided to lay in all the general colors at once, from background to peonies and the leaves.  Reason I did that is to get a general feel of the overall color pattern since there is so much going on in the painting, it would be hard to imagine it one stage at a time. I keep the paints rather thin in this stage so I can easily build upon it in thick passages if need be.  

Then I concentrate on the fuchsia peonies first starting with the darker values and stating their specific forms.  Then I add the lighter values and their specific forms, I keep jumping back and forth and adjusting the values to look right for the finish.  The colors I used for the for the fuchsia peonies are quinacridone magenta, titanium white, ultramarine blue, ivory black, and titanium white.

I used the same color palette in the middle peonies, I started again with the middle to darker values and their specific forms.  Then I added the lighter values and their specific forms, I didn't take it to a finish yet I wanted to add the rest of the painting and come back to it.  There's enough paint on there where it won't dry in certain spots it'll stay wet for a while.

Then I stated the white peonies with the middle and darker values, stating their specific forms as well.  Then I added the lighter values and their specific forms, I kept jumping around and adjusting the values to the right look I was going for.  The colors I used where cadmium yellow, titanium white, ultramarine blue, quinacridone magenta and raw umber.

Then I stated the leaves and their whimsical shapes, the colors I used where ultramarine blue, cad.yellow, yellow ochre and ivory black.  After finishing the leaves I was able to go back to the middle fuchsia peonies and soften more of its edges and adjust its values, doing so I was able to take that area to a finish.  I was also able to add thicker impastos in the lighter peonies, those areas where so much fun to paint to let the paint do its job and not really manipulate it was great.  I always enjoy the impasto areas you get to be gestural and really get beautiful textures with the paints.  Overall had a lot of fun with this painting and really happy with the outcome, thanks for stopping by and viewing hope you enjoyed!