Im back!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long delay in posting. This spring and summer have been one of the most memorable times in my life. The reason I have been away from posting is because I just got MARRIED! My dream finally came true marrying the love of my life. We first met almost seven years ago in Florence, Italy. I moved to Minneapolis for her after studying there and has been the best decision I ever made. From the first moment I laid eyes on her I knew she was the one. We got married in Pistoia, Italy which is 30 minutes outside of Florence. The villa we got married was just spectacular.

To have family and friends with us was even more special. It was all such a surreal experience. An experience I will never forget. We also had another event here in Minneapolis to celebrate with everyone that could not make it to Italy, and one prior leaving to Italy. To say we have been busy is an understatement, but have enjoyed every minute of it. 

Aside from getting married I have been busy finishing commissions. I'll post the older work in a couple days. I did however create three small 4 x 4 inch paintings for a local show here in Minneapolis. I really liked painting that small and seeing how far I can take it.  Here are the paintings I had in the show.

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"The Butcher"

4 x 4 inches

Oil on Masonite

This is a familiar face that I have painted and drawn before. This guy is the local butcher at our grocery store. Although I haven't seen him lately, so I can totally be sure he's still our butcher. But he has a great face to paint and have always wanted to paint him. Excited he agreed to pose for me, always unsure what the reaction might be when asking someone to pose for you.

NFS

"Mason"

4 x4 inches

Oil on Masonite

This is a very interesting individual I know. He's intelligent and extremely funny. Again it's a portrait I wanted to paint for a long time and finally had the chance to do so.

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"Mustache Jim"

4 x 4 inches

Oil on Masonite

This individual is somewhat of a local celebrity here in Minneapolis. He's a musician, and a barber. Another individual I would see from time to time and wanted to paint but never had the courage to ask him. One day I ran into him at the mall and took advantage of the chance. He was extremely nice and was very welcoming of me painting him. His hair and mustache are obvious reasons why I wanted to paint him. A very unique individual and a pleasure to paint.

Thank you again everyone for tuning in. I hope to post more shortly. Its hard getting back in the routine of things after such an amazing time. 

Cheers!

"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!

"Mixed Tomatoes"

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"Mixed Tomatoes"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I'm finally back after such a long hiatus, I've been working on larger paintings and also ball point pen drawings.  I've decided to slow down a bit with these alla prima's and concentrate a bit more on my personal art work.  I felt as if these alla prima's started to become my identity as an artist and their sole purpose from the beginning is to just be practice paintings, in which they are.  I'm diving into larger more allegorical paintings, which means they do take longer to produce and I will not be devoting as much time to these alla prima's.  It's hard to not paint these little guys every day but I have to force myself in order to really produce a body of work that truly speaks as to who I am as an artist.  I plan to still produce one or two a week of these alla prima paintings after all I do love painting them and learn so much every time I finish one.  

On a side note I'll be teaching again this week coming up on the 22nd of March figure drawing at the Bloomington Art Center.  You can check out their site here and sign up for my class!

You can still sign up for my "Pink Roses" lesson!

"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:

  

"Chestnut Crab Apples II"

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"Chestnut Crab Apples II"

8 x 10 in 

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to continue with these chestnut crab apples, I find them too adorable not to paint.  They have so much character due to their stem, they pose with a subtle hint of playfulness.  I also wanted to revisit big form modeling and stay true to the practice.  I find when I go back to what I was taught at the Angel Academy my understanding only improves to what I've learned so far.  

I started with the usual dry brush approach using no mediums and a bit of raw umber.  When the drawing is complete I stated the background and wooden base.  The colors I used for the background were naples yellow, cobalt blue and titanium white.  Then I filled in the wooden base by painting the fall of light from dark to light, I stated the general colors not worrying about putting in details at this stage.  The only thing I'm wanting to paint is the transition of values and keeping the edges soft.

Once the big form modeling is complete I state the smaller forms starting with the darker to middle values.  The colors I used were ivory black, raw umber and burnt sienna.  Then I stated the lighter values  with titanium white, yellow ochre, and naples yellow.  It's important to understand that the smaller forms would not work properly if the bigger form modeling wasn't done right.  Big form modeling is I believe more important than smaller form modeling, it creates the stage for the smaller forms to work with the overall values.  

Once the base is complete I start with the first chestnut crab apple and work on big form modeling.  I state the general colors while I'm doing big form modeling, again I'm not worried about adding the details just how the light and colors wrap around the form.  Once the big form modeling is complete I start with the smaller forms and state the darker to middle values first.  The colors I used were cad. yellow light, raw umber, ivory black, and cad.red light.

Then I state the lighter values with the smaller forms by using cad.yellow light, naples yellow and titanium white.  Once the first chestnut crab apple is complete I start on the second one and repeat the same process as I did with the first.  The colors I use are cad.red light, ivory black, raw umber and cad.yellow light.

Once the big form modeling is complete I start with the smaller forms.

Again repeating the process with the third crab apple after the second one is complete, I'm also using the same colors.

Once the third crab apple is complete I state the stems all at the same time.  When doing this I can see the painting come together and also how much more character it gives the crab apples.  I'm really glad I went back and worked on big and smaller form modeling.  Sometimes I forget how important it is, it's always good to just slow down and evaluate what's working for you'r painting and what isn't.  I find more success in trying to achieve what I want to paint when following this process.  I hope you enjoyed this painting, thanks for stopping and viewing. 

"Chestnut Crab Apples"

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"Chestnut Crab Apples"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

Crab apples are neat looking to me they seem to be a mini version of an apple.  Their textures are not shiny and smooth as a regular apple, but do have to overall shape to them.  What also attracted me to paint these guys where their stems, I found for the majority of them to have so much character.  They have a gestural feel to them which to I really enjoy painting, although the stem is not the majority part of this painting it does have a secondary role to it.  Textures to me are important in a painting they definitely make the object you'r painting come to life.  To understand how to paint texture is extremely important in order to advance as a painter.
I also wanted to mention that a good friend of mine told me about her having issues leaving comments on my blog.  She gave me instructions on how to fix it which I did and it should be working now with no problems.  I apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for continuing to visit my blog! 

I started with the drawing stage which unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of, but I used a bit of raw umber on the brush and no mediums.  After the drawing is complete I stated the background and the general colors of the crab apples.  The colors I used for the background were cobalt blue, naples yellow and titanium white.  For the crab apples I used naples yellow, and cad.red light.  Then I start on the first crab apple by concentrating on turning the form or big form modeling, not worrying about details just how the light wraps around the form.  The colors I used in this stage were raw umber, cad.yellow light and cad.red light.

Then I went back into the darker values and stated their specific forms, in order for that to work the big form has to be correct.  I did the same with the lighter values, stating their specific forms to work with the surrounding values.  When done without the first crab apple I repeated the same process with the second one.  I also stated the cast shadows which are important since the darkest values affect the overall tone of the crab apple.

Then I stated the lighter values with their specific forms and took the second crab apple to a finish.  As you can see with previous pictures I've begun to state the stems, just giving a hint of where they'll be placed.  After the second crab apple is complete I start on the third one and repeat the process.  I also use the same colors as I did with the first crab apple.

Once the third crab apple is complete I state the overall color of the wooden base and after I start on the darker values with their specific forms.  The colors I used in this stage were raw umber, ivory black, and cad. orange.  

Then I stated the lighter values with their specific forms by using titanium white, cobalt blue, naples yellow and burnt sienna.  In order for the lighter values to have worked with the overall tone in the wooden base the big form modeling had to be correct.  In order for the details or small form modeling to work the big form modeling has to be correct.  Essentially your big form modeling is setting the stage for the finer details, its imperative to get this stage right for the small form modeling to work.  When painting intricate details such as these crab apples it can be challenging to get the big and small form modeling right, it may take a while which is just fine as long as you understand the process and know that it works.  I hope you learned and enjoyed this one, thanks for stopping by.

"Nectarines"

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"Nectarines"

5 x 7 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

I wanted to continue the paring of fruits since the previous pair resembled nectarines so much.  The whole time I was painting I thought wow these really do look like nectarines.  That's the reason I wanted to paint actual nectarines for todays alla prima session.  Today was a bit challenging to paint these in natural light, the weather was cloudy for most of the day and pretty gloomy at times.  I wanted to stay true to painting in this manner even though it got pretty dim the colors were still pretty true to the original.

I wanted to let you guys know I'll be doing a demo on Thursday September 22 at Dick Blick in Edina from 1-4 p.m.  I think I might do a rose or fruit painting still undecided on what to paint, any suggestions?   Hope to see you guys there! 

I started with the usual dry brush approach using a bit of raw umber on the brush.  Once the drawing is complete I stated the background and nectarines with its general colors.  The colors I used were ultramarine blue, naples yellow, titanium white, burnt sienna, cad.red light, and cad.yellow light.

Then I stated the darker values with their specific forms, the colors I used for this section were burnt sienna, cad.red light, raw umber and ultramarine blue.  Then I added the lighter values with their specific forms, the colors I used were titanium white and cad.yellow light.

I repeated the process with the second nectarine after the first one is completed.

After the nectarines are completed I stated the wooden board with its general colors, the colors I used were raw umber and burnt sienna.  Then I stated the darker values with their specific values, the colors I used were ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

Then I stated the lighter values with their specific values, the colors I used were titanium white, naples yellow, burnt sienna and cobalt blue.  This is the finished painting and really happy with the result.  The lighting was an issue in the beginning but it was just something to figure out and able to work through.  As stated in previous posts painting in this manner is addicting, I love the colors one is able to see with natural light and how subtle value shifts are presented.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing, hope you enjoyed this one. 

Picture of the setup.

"Mini Heirloom"

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"Mini Heirloom"

6 x 6 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

We were at the store today getting ingredients for a baby shower my girlfriend is throwing, she's cooking a whole lots of cupcakes and I'm gonna try to steal some before she takes them.  While we were at the store I saw this adorable little heirloom tomato and automatically wanted to paint it.  I was gonna paint in my kitchen and do the natural light method again but she's cooking away all day with her sister.  Instead I decided to paint in our room where the natural light is not to bad.  I really do enjoy painting in natural light, there's so much more colors and subtle tones that one can't get through pictures.  

I started with the usual dry brush approach using a bit of raw umber on the brush.  Once the drawing is complete I stated the local colors of the heirloom, at this stage I'm not concerned with stating the lightest and darkest values.  The colors I used for this stage were cad.red light, naphthol red, cad.yellow light, and viridian.

Then I stated the background and wooden base to give more of a whole feel to the initial phase of the painting.  The colors I used were cerulean blue, naples yellow, titanium white, burnt sienna, and raw umber.  Then I stated the middle to darker values with their specific forms.  I like to slow down in these later stages to really conform the shape and get the subtle value shifts, it's almost impossible to get those subtle information when your in a hurry to finish.

Then I state the lighter values with their specific forms and take the heirloom to a finish.  Then I start on the wooden base and state the darker values with their specific forms.  The colors I use is ultramarine blue and raw umber.

Then I stated the lighter values with their specific forms and took the base to a finish.  I also added more naples yellow and yellow ochre to the background, and also brought the value down.  I really enjoyed the process of creating this painting, painting from life is something one has to do in order to get an intimate feel of its subject.  One has to see its true colors and how light really wraps around the form.  Pictures are not bad for reference use, but it does limit the information one can get from life.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing, hope you guys enjoyed this one.

Picture of the finished painting next to the model.  I'm getting used to painting more on my pochade box, I just have to get used to painting sitting down.

"Orange with Blue"

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"Orange with Blue"

11 x 14 in

Oil on Masonite

This is not an alla prima painting, this is a painting I did some time ago and just pulled out of the closet.  I really do love the color balance the orange and blue create with the dark background, gives a great composition to the painting.  This painting does come framed as well.  I really like finding these paintings after painting so many of the alla prima's.  This painting was a bit of a challenge due to the surface, masonite can be very slippery to paint on.  Usually I like to create a couple of layers of paint to get the look I'm wanting for the final painting, of course when I mean a couple layers its between drying times.  I do prefer painting on more of a textured base so the brush and paints have grip to them, but painting on masonite definitely humbles you as a painter and makes you see your weaknesses right away.  Thanks for stopping by and viewing hope you liked this one!