"Tomatoes"

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"Tomatoes"

8 x 6 in

Oil on Belgium Linen Panel

This was a quick painting I did for a video I filmed, but to my disliking I was not able to upload it to the iMovie on my mac.  I was very excited to edit the video and put some nice music but I guess it was not meant to be.  I want to paint more tomatoes in different views, this was a very quick painting and got the feel I wanted, hope you enjoy!

"Foot in the Door"

This was the entrance to the "Foot in the Door"show, it was held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  The line to get in was about a 45 minute wait, and it wrapped around three rooms.  Their was so much artwork that it overflowed to the outside of the gallery as you can see in this pic.  

There was so much artwork and people it was a little overwhelming, I could not find my piece in the sea of art.

Found it!

Ivan!

My wonderful girlfriend, Ivan and I!  

I have to say when I was looking for it I was a little nervous that they would have placed it to high for anyone to see, but it was placed perfect at eye level.  This is the first time I have shown my ball point pen drawing in a public show, I'm very proud and pleased with the result.  I hope you enjoyed it!

"Red Onion"

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"Red Onion"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Belgium Linen Panel

I started with a dry brush approach which I usually do with my other paintings.  Pretty straight forward just drawing the shapes, don't wanna get too detailed with the drawing or it'll take away from the painting.

I filled in the background as soon as the drawing was done, at times I like to paint the object first then the background.  Wanted to have the background a little dramatic with the lighting, just stating the overall colors not going too dark or light in the first phase.  I am also keeping the paints pretty thin at this stage, if you go too thick in the beginning it makes it harder to shift the value and chroma.

After the background is at the middle stage I then move on to the onion, worrying about big forms first then making the shapes turn and having the right chroma and value.  Then I start to add a bit more of the smaller shapes after the bigger shapes are stated.

At this stage it starts getting more meticulous with the smaller shapes or the details.  Remember the details are the supporting casts to the whole picture not the leading role.  I started adding smaller shapes to the wood and also to the onion leafs.

This was the original final painting, then I got a good comment that the background was not good enough which I agreed.

This is the finished painting, I went back into the background and stated the lighter colors in the shadows, also made the lights brighter to give it that dramatic feel.  I also went in and stated the darker darks in the onion and the wood, hope you enjoyed this one!

"Tangerine 2"

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"Tangerine 2"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Belgium Linen Panel

With the beginning of this painting I was more in tune with the drawing for some reason.  I guess because I started a ball point pen drawing yesterday and when that happens I usually tend to draw the same way with the brush.  You can see that I went straight to the background worrying about the overall temperature.

Once I have my background filled in I moved towards the base, making sure I get the correct chroma and value.  Once that is in the correct place I then move to the tangerine, at this stage I go into big form modeling.  You can see that I go dark into light with the modeling, I don't go too dark with the darks I leave that till the end of the painting.

Once my big form is modeled to my liking, I move on to the leaves.  I'm only filling in the darks with the leaves the same way I handled the tangerine.  Then when I am done with the modeling the big form I move onto the smaller forms, I start adding the subtleties and also the placement of the highlight.

This is the finished painting, you can see after I added the smaller forms with in the tangerine I moved towards the leaf's and did the same.  There is no mediums used through out these paintings so it's interesting to see how they react to the surface and through out the duration of the painting.  Especially the darks, when I started this painting the darks where stated but not to its fullest dark, towards the end of the painting they were already sinking in.  The lights were also fun to do, you can be so expressive with the lights, it's hard not going into them in the beginning of the painting.  Hope you enjoy!

"Zug"

"Zug"

9 1/2 x 11 3/4 in

Oil on Canvas Board

This painting I have had for a while but forgot to post, I have the process of it on my youtube video section.  This was done in Zug, Switzerland it was a lot of fun to do.  I am not much of Plein Air painter but this really made me wanna do more, being in Switzerland and soaking up the beautiful scenery was just breathtaking.  The mountains were so inspiring too paint it was hard to paint indoors, every where you looked was a painting waiting to happen.  I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did!

"Squash"

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"Squash"

9 x 12 in

Oil on Belgium Linen Panel

I started this painting with a dry brush like I always do unless its more of a complicated setup.

I did not fill in the background, I went straight into the squash.  Did not go to dark with my darks, wanted to just have a general feel of the value and chroma.  

After establishing the big form modeling with the squash, I went to the base and moved to the background as well.  Always making sure to keep everything soft.

After the background is filled in, I started to work on the smaller shapes within the squash.  Again always squinting not worrying too much on details, although they are attractive you have to ignore them at this stage.

This is the final painting, this was more of a challenge in the end to finish.   There is so much details within the squash and subtleties that it's visually tricky to pull off.  I learned from this one a lot and wanted to go more into details, but kept myself back because details are not the answer.  Squinting and getting the general feel too me is more important.  The details serve as a supporting role not the lead.  Hope you enjoy!

"Tangerine"

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"Tangerine"

8 x 10 in

Oil on Belgium Linen Panel

This is painting I started pretty late last night, I believe it was around two in the morning when I started the drawing.  This is the same way how I started my other painting just a dry brush approach, to see how it will be placed on the canvas.

I didn't fill in the background like I have been doing with the previous paintings.  This time I went straight into the Tangerine, just worrying about modeling the big form and to always squint to make sure my values are correct.  

As you can tell from the previous picture I moved into foreground after modeling the Tangerine.  I moved from the foreground straight to the background making sure they are all working together.  After I filled in the background I blurred my edges with the Tangerine, then moving in towards the leaf area.  It was hard not putting in the highlights in the Tangerine, I had to avoid the urge so I can get the other components correct before I put the fun and finishing touches.  

This is the finished painting, I finished it close to five in the morning, ugh.  I was planning to get the major keys in and go to bed but I was having too much fun with this one.  After I filled in the leaf portion of the painting I moved into the Tangerine and worried about modeling the smaller forms.  The same goes with the base of the wood, through out the whole painting I was constantly squinting when I wouldn't squint I would start getting too caught up with details.   Which details are not the answer for a finished painting, they really aren't.  When you are constantly squinting thats when you are truly seeing a painting come a live.  Well, I hope you enjoyed this one!

"Turnips"

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"Turnips"

10 x 10 in

Oil on Canvas

This painting is of Turnips, its pretty straight forward I kept the background just straight black.  I started the painting as I usually do with a dry brush and just draw out where they will be placed on my canvas.

After finding their placements and getting the drawing where I wanted it to be I started covering the background with my first coat of Ultramarine blue and Burnt umber.  

After the background is filled in I started working on the turnips.  I apply very little paint in this stage to make sure I just get the right value and make the form turn.  If you go to thick it'll take longer to dry and you always wanna stay thick over thin if not their would be cracking in the longterm.

At this stage I have my main information filled in, now I am just concentrating in the values.  Another thing too what really helps is too constantly squint, I can not tell you how much it solves so much of your problems, it makes you see better.   The more you squint the better, details are not the answer to make a painting look perfect.  

This is the finished painting, I had fun with this the one. What I loved about it is that it forced me to squint again, I always get so boggled with details in my paintings and forget about the bigger picture.  With this painting it was different and I loved it, hope you enjoy!

"Ivan Kramskoy"

"Ivan Kramskoy"

5 x 7 in

Ball point pen

This ball point pen drawing I did for a show that they are having here in Minneapolis called "Foot in the Door".  It's being displayed at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, its open to all artist.  It's such a great venue to show your art and opportunity to be seen by everyone.  I am really impressed that the M.I.A. has done this for all artist, they do this every ten years so you can imagine the turn out they are having.  If you are interested in purchasing this drawing you can email me for more information.  Hope you enjoy! 

Orchids

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"Orchids"

9 x 12 in

Oil on Canvas

Well, its been a while since i've last posted, I have been adjusting to my new schedule and also having two weeks of vacation did not help.  I completely fell out of my rhythm and it's so hard to get back into the producing machine that I was at before the vacation.  So I guess you can say I have been in a slump, but not anymore!  I am so happy to have finished this painting, I feel like I am back on track and ready to indulge myself into more paintings.

I started out drawing on the canvas with a dry brush, after I have the initial drawing down and the measurements look right, I then move onto the darks and also state some of the lights.  You can see that I left the big orchids untouched, I wanted to put the background in first en-then judge how light I should go.

I have laid in my first passage with the background, after that I go into the orchids and start playing with the values.  With this painting I was pretty limited with color, which was not a bad thing it really made me look at the value system a bit more and see how I can incorporate more color.

This is the finished painting, at this point I have done a second passage with the background and reinstated my lights.  I went really thick with the whites in some areas to get that texture that I wanted, and in the darks I kept it relatively thin.

This is a detail shot of the finished painting, you can tell the textured areas and the smooth areas.  With my paintings I always try to find a balance where I can achieve the two.  Hope you enjoy!

Another Landscape...

9 x 12 in

Oil on Canvas Panel

This is another painting I did today of the beach here in Key Biscayne.  I am starting to see more and more that landscape painting is not my forte but I am still trying though.  Its difficult to do paintings when visiting family, when we go to the beach for some reason its easier to paint.  I am currently painting a couple small still lifes and will post them soon, hope you enjoy!

Landscape...

"Key Biscayne"
9 x 12 in
Oil on Canvas

This is a painting I recently did in Key Biscayne, FL.  I am in south Florida visiting family, and thought coming down here would be nice and warm to escape the harsh winter of Minneapolis.  Well, I got off the plane with the weather at 30 degrees, needless to say I was not happy.  I was born and raised in Miami and never experienced this type of cold here.  Finally today the weather warmed up to 70 degrees and was able to go out to the beach to do a landscape painting.  This is not a normal painting for me, this was heavily influenced by Norman Rockwell.  The other day I went and saw his exhibition in Ft.Lauderdale and it was so amazing.  To say that I was inspired is an understatement, the way he is able to play with broken colors and also with the blended areas is just pure genius.  If I can achieve 1/4 of what he did in painting I will be happy.  I really love how he handles the lighter areas with such thick paint and is not afraid to put it on the canvas.  I learn so much every time I see his work in person, there is nothing like it.  With this painting I just loosened up and went really thick in the lighter areas and played with the gesture of the stroke to give it movement.  I hope to do a couple more of these before I leave, hope you enjoy!