Sunday, May 10, 2009

Oil Painting to Watercolor - Illustration


Thank You
6 x4, Watercolor with Pen & Ink

It's been an experimental few months and I'm not done exploring yet. Recently my agent Deborah Wolfe of Illustration OnLine suggested we give our clients another illustration style to choose from, something loose and free, like watercolors which used to be my medium of choice. It was a great idea and I'm loving the spontaneity of these.


Flowers For Mom
4x4, Watercolor with Pen & Ink

This illustration is one in a series that depicts a small story in only 6 steps with no text to describe the story. The pen I'm using to do the inking is my Aunt's which she used when she was just a young woman. It's in my studio now and I'll treasure it forever.


Smart Car Journey
7x6, Watercolor with Pen & Ink

Smart cars are a pretty nifty mode of getting around but they do have their limits.

Am I done exploring? I don't think so. A commission for another trunk has come in and this one has a Cuban theme. The research phase is underway and inspiration is starting to flow. Still lifes in oil, whimsical watercolors and acrylics, and functional art, it's going to be a fun and very creative summer.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Snow, Cranes & Chilis - Oil Painting



Red Hot Blues

(6 x 8, oil on panel)

Sold

While the springtime drama of snow, sun, snow, sun has been taking place the trees grow knobby with buds and the pussy willows burst out. Flocks of Sandhill Cranes are soaring and circling overhead on their way to their nesting grounds making far away haunting calls.

Over the winter the studies have been large but I’m back to painting small again. I love doing the tiny paintings. Red Hot Blues, so contradictory with it's cool blues and deep red, kind of like our spring which was warm and sunny one day and snowing the next. Fortunately the snow seems to finally have given up and the chorus of frogs, robins and chickadees is getting louder.


"Who told you that one paints with colors? One makes use of colors, but one paints with emotions." (Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin)