Woman in Purple Boots is 40″ x 50″. No part of the painting is finished; I’m in my second passage through it. This painting is has gone smoothly –so far. The scale is interesting. It’s not so big that just covering it with paint is a chore. But it’s big enough that eight figures, even…
Unfortunately, the overcast skies resulted in a dark photograph of Sunday Parade. The studio’s bank of natural-light lamps washes out the colors in photographs, so I have to make due with this dark photo or none at all. The painting has a long way to go but parts are done; such as the figure on the far…
I had two more painting sessions on Washington Square. I finally got the pigeons in there (can you see all 7 of them*?). Washington Square has a hole in the middle which is supposedly a no-no. Cleveland has a painting by Poussin with the same empty center, and it’s very effective. It took me awhile to…
Grandfather was turned against the wall for a long time; I just didn’t like the direction it was going. Since then I’ve completely altered the background by adding the landscape through the window, and the green curtains. I wanted to make a painting that didn’t look ‘modern.’ I used to think about categories of subject…
Yesterday’s session with Taking Note was my 6th, according to my trusty studio journal. It’s coming along–so far so good. With such a simple design, the drawing has to carry the load. Well, that’s true for all my paintings, but in the more complicated ones there are other things that can make or break them, such…
This morning’s painting session was my 15th on The News. I finished the painting and took a short break, celebrating with a cup of coffee. Returning to the studio, I immediately realized the last thing I painted was too strong and needed healing. I worked another 45 minutes and set the brush down and went upstairs for a…
I build paintings slowly. I spend a considerable amount of time on the drawing before touching a brush. Once painting starts, I try to work as efficiently as possible. It doesn’t always work out–so much can go awry. But the point of so much preparation is go get a painting to the finishing stage where…
Junk in a junk shop–oops!, antique shop–and people milling about doing what people do. Main Street #1 is composed from three photos. I moved figures around, as I often do, in a photo of an antique shop on Main St, and added figures from two other photos. Three photos for a painting is about par for me these…