The Bear is Back. "Chrome Bear On Red"

 

Here again is my holiday friend, the strangest ornament ever to grace a Jo-Ann's shelf, the Chrome Bear. The berries were trimmed from a bush in downtown Grand Prairie just across the street from the farmer's market, and I have no idea what they actually are. I think the red is out of my system now, and I'll work on blue paintings for the next week or so.

"Title" - 8" x 10" oil on Ray-Mar oil-primed linen panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

Back just in time for Thanksgiving.

 

I hate long haituses (hiati? haitii?). I've been squeezing art into the cracks of chaos whenever possible, but fortunately things seem to be settling down around here. I have some temp work coming up between now and December, meshed in with the usual end-of-year reorganizing and resupply.

 

The first thing I'm pulling off of the "Things I've Done Since July" pile is called "Three Sizes". These apples were indeed wee, nae'-sa-wee, and f-in' HUGE! I have some Scottish heritage, but you won't find this sold at Everything Scottish. It's up in my shop instead.

"Three Sizes" - 8" x 10" oil on Ray-Mar linen panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

"Jade Buddha's Apple"

 

My schedule is still a bit volatile at the moment, which makes it difficult to set up still life paintings with perishable subjects. At the moment apples are the only thing around that last for more than a couple of painting days. Here again is my little jade buddha figurine (difficult to depict as ever) with a "Southern Rose" apple.

 

"Title" - 8" x 6" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

Six Weeks, Second Job, "Plum Buddha" 8x10 - SOLD

 

Six weeks plus is far too long to go without posting... I've picked up a job after eight months of looking and that has bitten into my painting schedule a bit.

 

I purchased a 10-pack of 8x10 double oil primed Ray-Mar panels last month and I think I've fallen in love with these things... They even smell good. It's frustrating to finish a painting and have it not seem as good as the surface deserves. I've painted a bunch lately but there are only a couple of survivors that I'm not going to immediately recycle through the "Paint Over This" pile. I picked up this Buddha statue at Whole Foods, of all places, and right near it was a bin full of "Texas plums". The plums tasted awful, but they were good subjects.

"Plum Buddha" - 8" x 10" oil on double oil-primed Ray-Mar canvas panel

SOLD!

 

"New Lily" sketch to get back in the swing of things - SOLD

 

That creaking noise is the sound of rusty artistic gears beginning to turn again... I've been away due to lack of supplies, and some time well spent with other people socializing (gasp!) this past weekend. I'll have pictures of that event up on Flickr later. In the meantime here's a leftover mother's day lily - really a quick painted sketch of a late blossom, painted cautiously with some new paints:

"New Lily" - 6" x 8" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

SOLD!

 

"Single Red Rose"

 

Another "title says it all" painting. Somehow I forgot to list this one, I had everything uploaded and ready to go, and then I was interrupted and forgot to go through with the posting.

 

Unfortunately I am currently nearly out of supplies. My next round of panels and paints are on the way, and I will be back to more regular posting shortly.

"Title" - 6" x 8" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

"Experimental Rose"

 

Title says it all. My inexpensive single roses were coming to the end of their service life. I decided to try a fast sketch on an old 6x6 board by building in deep color from back to front, painting directly without much of my usual pencil drawing on the board - sort of a compromise between direct painting (which doesn't work well for flowers in my experience) and careful build-up. I also went heavy and almost random on the color choices, not a lot of mixing, just picking stuff straight from the tubes.

 

"Experimental Rose" - 6" x 6" oil on Ampersand Gessbord

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

"Single Peach Rose" and some photos

 

The local Upscale Market had some single roses on sale, which were a godsend as I'm all about saving money on supplies and subject matter, and I've been on the hunt for flowers that cost less than an Andrew Jackson. First up this week is an individual peach rose, which have special significance for me for reasons I won't disclose (she knows who she is). Happy birthday J!

 

"Single Peach Rose" - 8" x 6" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

I've also been adding some photos to my Flickr. I thought this one was of artistic interest:
 
I swear I didn't pose anybody in this photo. It looks like a painting by somebody who's name I can't recall.

Link and run - Peter Funch's photographs

I love this kind of thing:


Peter Funch builds composite images out of photographs taken over the course of several days. As a people-watching artist with a hangup on all sorts of confusing and interesting social phenomena, I must say that these pictures are my cup of tea. I can't help but be reminded of "The Matrix" looking at some of his photos.

I'll be back with more paintings tomorrow.

"Wednesday Rose" for a Friday

 

I may be approaching my goal of "not terrible" with flowers. They are a challenge, or perhaps I'm trying to paint out of a rut... I'm not sure. Maybe I should blame the warm muggy weather. In any case here's the second one this week that I'm almost satisfied with (almost - since complacency is an artistic sin!).

 

"Wednesday Rose" - 6" x 8" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

"Tuesday Rose" for a late, unhappy Thursday

 

Title says it all. I'm not happy with most of the week's work and this was the first one I thought was even worth posting... And that's all I have to say about that.

 

"Tuesday Rose" - 8" x 6" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

"Snapdragon 2"

 

Only a few minutes ago it was Thursday, and now it's Friday, so here I am making a Friday post... I'll be away for the weekend, and will hopefully have a chance to post more new work right after I return. In the meantime here is the second Snapdragon. I had to rush a bit to complete this one as one of the blossoms died on me while I was painting, and then the photo didn't turn out so great... I really need to invest in a reliable setup for photographing my paintings as soon as I have the money.

 

The plant itself cost me $2.15 total, and is thriving happily out on the porch with plenty of new flower buds on the stalks, so I should be able to re-visit this subject in a week or two. I am pleased with the large painting return on a small monetary investment, and I look forward to the test and comparison between "old" and "new" paintings.

"Snapdragon 2" - 8" x 6" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

eBay (almost not) Thursday - "Snapdragon 1"

 

It's that time of the week again... 11:47 PM Thursday is still Thursday, right? I bought some Snapdragons and I generated much better results painting them then I did taking photographs of the paintings. The white background makes a mess of processing; if I make it as white as it appears to the eye, the whole image looks burned out, but if I keep the highlights knocked down enough to see the canvas texture, the overall image looks like mud. I did the best I could with the JPGs, but the real articles look much better.

"Snapdragon 1" - 8" x 6" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on eBay Now - Click Here to Bid!

 

"Orchids Old And New" for a Late Wednesday

 

A follow on to the subject of the first "eBay Thursday" (now available on Etsy, by the way): the second painting of Philaenopsis Orchids. I had to pause and leave the painting mid-way through completion, and when I returned later in the week to finish it, one of the orchid blossoms had perished and collapsed in a sad, floppy heap. I decided to paint what was there, instead of faking the complete blossom in the background. I find that I don't have any objection to painting shriveled, dead blossoms... In fact I rather like the contrast they provide. Flowers are finicky, delicate things, and they die just as they live, so that's how I like painting them... It's either that, or I'll have to go old school and start putting skulls in my arrangements!

"Orchids Old And New" - 8" x 10" oil on Ampersand panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

Post-holiday "Sunday Roses"

 

Some roses for a post-Sunday Monday - a relatively quick & loose outdoor sketch of some white roses that the lady of the house received for her birthday, painted "live" out on my porch on my plein aire gear. These were actually painted a couple of weeks ago. I meant to post this (and several other works) before the holiday weekend, but on Wednesday & Thursday I actually didn't have enough light to photograph paintings due to inclement weather. At least the random cold snaps have stopped, which means the flowers I'm painting are that much less likely to perish before I'm done with them...

 

The trouble for the outdoors-minded painter is that there are only three basic seasons in north Texas, "Ungodly Hot", "Stormy", and what I as a Yankee transplant describe as "Ludicrous" - Ludicrous being the fitful, random, non-sensical transition between the first and second seasons, a sort of perpetual manic fit of conditions that alternates between a beautiful spring and quasi-winter. At this point I'd normally expound at length on how I strongly believe that a properly structured world should have four seasons, but I'll let it go, and just close by saying that I'll have some new work up tomorrow!

"Sunday Roses" - 6" x 8" oil on Ray-Mar canvas panel

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

 

eBay Thursday: "Three Orchids"

 
I will call today "eBay Thursday", which is a good day to post a lonely little 10-day auction for a larger-than-small painting. Well, it's almost not Thursday anymore, but posting at 11:30 P.M. local is close enough for government work (now where's my billion dollars?). Painted from a locally purchased Philaenopsis Orchid which happily survived my painting sessions, and now graces the roommate's desk at work:
 
 

Click Here to Bid!

 

8" x 10" oil on gessoed panel

 

Pansy Wednesday... And my cat, and some changes.

 
A couple of pansies for tonight, both of them on Etsy, both 6" x 8" on Ray-Mar canvas panel, both painted relatively quickly in the great outdoors from a live source. I apologize for the crummy photo of the first one:

 

"Purple Pansy" at Etsy

 

"Orange Pansy" at Etsy

 

Over the next couple of days I'm going to close up my Ebay store and move everything over to Etsy. I will still post items on Ebay occasionally, but fees, costs, and general downturn have made Ebay non-cost-effective. I'm also working on some fun stuff aside from the regular painting routine, a small preview of which is visible below, cleverly concealed within a gratuitous cat photo:

Yeah, here comes the Rooster...

 

No we ain't gonna die-e-e-e... And I'm not dead, either! Alas, this post is not about Alice In Chains, but there is a rooster - two of them, in fact, or if you prefer, one rooster shown two ways. This is a matched pair of 9" x 12" paintings on panel:

 


 

9" x 12" oils on gessoed panel...

"Rooster & Grapes" on Etsy

"Rooster & Nectarine" on Etsy

I've decided to move away from small daily paintings and start producing larger pieces. In consideration of those days when the daily 6x6 isn't any good, or when the non-art world rudely intrudes on my work routine - a Category of Pain under which I place the phenomenon of "economic collapse", by the way - my lack of an explicitly "daily" update makes a mockery of the word. I'm going to expand and change up things a bit, so I plan to make some changes around here over the next week or two. I've found a good place to acquire nice flowers at a reasonable price, so I will have some flower paintings in addition to other new stuff (flowers are a subject I've wanted to explore for a while, and with spring coming up, I'm that much happier to wander afield from small fruity things).

Hardware-Caused Delay

When they say three year warranty on computer power supplies, I think they really mean three year lifespan. I have a new PSU on the way but in the meantime I'm using the roommate's (non-art-oriented) computer, which leaves me unable to scan or process photos of anything. I'll be up again with some fun new things after the weekend, assuming UPS brings me what I need, and that the failure didn't wipe out any data.

I don't like computers... I only use them. At least when a pencil breaks, it doesn't take everything else with it.

Updates Forthcoming

I've been out of the daily sales business this week to work on some other projects. I've listed some of the recent holiday work on Etsy and will be updating sales links below. I'll be back with some small dailies again soon.

Here's a tiny fragment from the painting sketchbook, of a little something I'm working on, starring Nicole's superbly whimsical "Woodsy Ghosts". Hi Nicole!

"Love Snack"

 

 

Click Here to Purchase on Etsy!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

The box for these cakes actually does say they are a "snack". Any reference to the B-52's was built upon that basis.

"Black Heart And Rose"

 

 

Click Here to Purchase on Etsy!

 

5" x 7" oil on archival canvas panel

 

My first one for February. I feel pretty good about it, despite its simplicity. January was pretty much a dead month and things aren't going so great here at the moment, so it felt good to get back to a familiar subject. I actually hadn't planned on doing anything with plums again so soon, but at the store the other day the lady of the house picked up a "black plum" at random and - mirable dictu! - it was shaped almost exactly like a heart. Pointiest plum I've ever seen. Ten steps further and we found a display of "Pacific Rose" apples. I put the color combination and the names together in my head and thus, we have our painting, with its Fake But Accurate title.

"Fruit Is Love"

 

 

Click Here to Purchase on Etsy!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

This arrangement quite literally dropped onto the table. I bought raspberries specifically for painting, and was disappointed to find that without cores and leaves (like freshly plucked) they are significantly less interesting visually. When I put this one down on the table, I got lucky because it's heart-shaped. Appropriate for Valentine's Day, and edible, too.

"Nectarine Alone" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

I had a really hectic Friday and Saturday which prevented me from putting this one up on time. Shortly after I finished the nectarines decided they didn't want to be fresh anymore - thus ended their artistic stardom.

 

In hopeful anticipation of holiday demand, I'll be re-posting some of my older work for sale this week along with the regular daily works.

"Nectarine Trio" - SOLD

 

 

SOLD!

 

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

 

They had small nectarines at the store, which I will describe as "cute", for lack of a better word. In this case, I was feeling a bit graphic. A little bit primary, even...

"Strawberry Pair"

 

 

Click Here to Purchase on Etsy!

 

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

 

I apologize for my lack of posts lately - I came down with some sort of sickness last week. It must be something going around the entire country, because I know of multiple people in different states who have been ill in the past two weeks. Thankfully I am now back underway, (relatively) healthy again and apparently free from January doldrums.

 

I've never painted strawberries before. I like them. They are of course pleasantly red, and good strawberries on home-made shortcake with real whipped cream is a pleasure fit for kings. Such was the post-painting fate I had planned for these, but the lady roommate decided to eat them plain while watching television. Next time, my pretties... Next time you will be shortcake...

New Year

 

Will be back from The Holidays on Monday. In the meantime, here is a quick & dirty sketched portrait of my ceramic porch Guard Penguin, nursing the after-effects of New Year's with a delicious Reed's Ginger Brew.