I love it when I visit a museum and discover a new painting. I found this painting, The Proposal, by James Tissot (1836 – 1902) during my last visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Large museums like Cleveland’s display only a portion of their collection, which means frequent visitors like me can still discover…
I always try to be as efficient as possible with my paintings. But I’m also cheap. The combination of efficiency and cheapness has frequently caused me headaches. Instead of saving time and money, I’ve wasted both in my often wrong-footed efforts to save money. I prefer smooth painting surfaces but instead of buying the ultra-smooth…
This corner of my studio shows two paintings that I’m working on. The unfinished painting on the floor is the latest in my Main Street series. The large vertical painting is the newest work in my Amusement Park series. I had my first painting session with it yesterday. I’ll continue to work both of these…
This is a photo of my new painting room. It has a lot of north-facing windows so it’s great in that regard, but the ceiling is a little low as I think you can tell from the photo. It hasn’t been cold enough this winter to start a fire in the fireplace. The large painting…
My Amusement Park Series absorbs most of my time. The series contains a lot of large watercolors that I will share soon. But of course, the lion’s share of time is spent with the oils. Most of the works in the series are oils. Here are two oils in the series. The topmost painting, The…
I tested my new 35mm F1.8 prime lens today with my Nikon z7 camera. This prime lens joins two others in my collection–50mm F1.8, and 85mm F1.8. The latter two are exceptionally sharp and are the best lenses that I’ve owned. It’s too early to tell if the 35mm is as good as its siblings.…
Last week I put the finishing touches on this painting, The Fair. The Fair is part of the series I started last year called ‘Amusement Park.’ I have several other paintings underway in the series with a lot more coming, and I mean a lot more!
At the end of the eighteenth century, art flowed along several currents. History painting, the primary current, was in its heyday and remained the undisputed champion until ‘history’ intruded into contemporary events with the French Revolution. This current continued into the middle of the nineteenth century with Delacroix. Another important current used myth to launch…