Terry Daniels Art

"Juniper Cow" 8x10, while re-modeling

2010-01-31T14:19:00.003-06:00

A series of minor disasters over the holidays had me running around for a bit. Total net change for the last six weeks of life is that I gained a nice vacuum cleaner, and I lost my car. Since New Year's I've acquired a nice new easel, too, which has required a full week-long tear out/clean/re-organize of my studio space.

I finally made use of a cow-shaped butter dish I picked up at German Deli, which is nicely located right up the road (in Texas terms) from my residence. The juniper sprig is a clipping from a decorative tree in the parking lot of the Costco where I bought the new Dyson.

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

Available on Etsy Now - Click Here!

The Bear is Back. "Chrome Bear On Red"

2009-12-01T19:10:00.003-06:00

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.

2009-11-25T17:12:00.003-06:00

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"

2009-07-31T15:53:00.003-05:00

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

2009-07-10T19:10:00.004-05:00

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

2009-05-29T15:39:00.005-05:00

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"

2009-05-13T14:31:00.003-05:00

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"

2009-05-06T12:31:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-29T20:51:00.005-05:00

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

2009-04-28T22:55:00.005-05:00

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

2009-04-24T18:42:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-23T21:16:00.003-05:00

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"

2009-04-17T00:11:00.006-05:00

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"

2009-04-16T23:46:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-15T21:49:00.003-05:00

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"

2009-04-13T21:56:00.011-05:00

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"

2009-04-02T23:20:00.004-05:00

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.

2009-04-01T21:12:00.008-05:00

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...

2009-03-20T18:37:00.009-05:00

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

2009-03-13T07:34:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-12T09:44:00.003-06:00

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"

2009-02-04T22:25:00.003-06:00

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"

2009-02-03T21:56:00.003-06:00

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"

2009-01-27T15:45:00.003-06:00

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

2009-01-26T16:04:00.003-06:00

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

2009-01-22T14:32:00.004-06:00

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"

2009-01-21T23:06:00.006-06:00

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

2009-01-02T15:08:00.003-06:00

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.

"Stoplight Tomatoes"

2008-12-16T16:07:00.003-06:00

Click Here to Bid!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

I've never been stopped in my tracks by mere tomatoes before. They had a bin full of these things at the market store on Sunday - all sizes, shapes, and colors, all for one pound price, labelled "heirloom tomatoes". The first one I picked up looked like a small pumpkin. I picked out traffic light colors, hence the title.

"Punk Orange" - SOLD

2008-12-15T20:06:00.005-06:00

SOLD!

6" x 8" oil on archival canvas panel

This is a rare "Sunday Night Painting". I visited a local Upscale Market Store on Sunday for some Christmas wine and other goodies, and was delighted to find a surprisingly large variety of new and strange fruits in the bins, including "Satsuma Mandarins" with leaves still attached. The roommate picked this one out as her favorite. My conservative eye had located an orange with a couple of cute little leaves, but she dug a little deeper and pulled out this one with a full punk rock hairdo.

I brought home three or four different things to paint and was excited enough that I went ahead and started painting at 8 P.M. on a Sunday (Normally at that time I crash out and play video games or watch a downloaded copy of the week's episode of Top Gear). The late start wasn't a problem, as I had to paint fast anyway - the 75W bulb in my painting lamp is unkind to fresh greenery.

"Marzipan's End"

2008-12-13T20:29:00.006-06:00

Click Here to Bid!

5" x 7" oil on archival canvas panel

I have the great fortune of living only a short drive from German Deli. Of course I can - and have - ordered from them over the internet, but it's fun to drive up there on a Sunday afternoon and browse around. Usually they have beer and brats cooking outside in the parking lot available for a couple of bucks. German food makes for a good gift, as well, and for this painting I used the end of a marzipan piece included in a gift package from my mother. Marzipan ranks up there in my personal top ten eating pleasures. I really can't say enough good things about it.

This past week I've been putting the paintings up on consecutively shorter auctions, as it's getting down to Christmas crunch time for shipping. This one is up for three days, but I will relist for the regular period after this coming week. In the meantime, any purchases will be packed and shipped out as fast as I can go.

Sale Page is up!

2008-12-12T20:42:00.004-06:00

I've just finished coding my direct sale page! You can purchase some of my show paintings directly via e-mail.

Click Here for the Sale Page!

Next painting will be up tomorrow night, and then at least another one on Tuesday of next week. Depending on how things shape up, I may take the rest of the holiday time to work on other personal efforts. I have recently acquired a new Alla Prima Pochade Box made by the amazing Ben Haggett, and inspired by Qiang-Huang's latest small landscapes (and some possibly warmer weather in the forecast), I'm itching to go paint outside.

"Waning Cookie"

2008-12-11T19:43:00.008-06:00

Click Here to Bid!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

Title, composition, and lighting setup inspired by the recent Venus-Mars-Moon conjunction. The cookie was good.

On a personal note, I sacrificed today's painting time in order to drive over to Ft. Worth Joint Reserve Base (formerly Carswell AFB) and take photos like these:

I had time to make a few sketches of the crowd at the overlook before I spotted some friends at the fence, and not long afterwards things started to happen down on the flightline, so I traded my sketchbook for a camera and binoculars. On the aesthetic front, Endeavour is a beautiful ship in the flesh. I've always seen the Shuttle as boxy and only vaguely airplane-esque - an extraordinary collection of compromises which, while an amazing accomplishment, is certainly nowhere near as attractive as its 1960's and 70's aerospace contemporaries, like the brutally beautiful Phantom, broad-shouldered Tomcat, or elegantly thuggish F-105. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in person, from the side, the Shuttle does show just a dash of the aggressive, hungry 1960s look.

I don't have much else to report without using superlatives like "spectacular" and "once in a lifetime". That is not an exaggeration, since this was my first, and - due to the Shuttle's impending retirement - last opportunity to see the Shuttle ferried through this neck of the woods. Some things are worth skipping work for.

"Sugar Cookie Stack"

2008-12-09T18:19:00.003-06:00

Click Here to Bid!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

I've always liked the appearance of these kinds of cookies. The lady of the house brought some home from her office Christmas party, and suggested I paint them. This is the second time I've had a subject like this, and I've found that cookies with sugar on them are a surprising challenge to paint.

Thanks to everybody who stopped by the table to chat at the show on Saturday! Unfortunately there were no reindeer to sketch - for that matter, I didn't have a chance to crack the sketchbook, with all the crowds. I've had some technical issues here today, my computer picked up a virus last night somewhere and I ended up spending all day tracking it down and killing it, but tomorrow I plan on introducing a direct sale page for the paintings I had at the show, among others. Stand by.

Mansfield, TX, 12/06

2008-12-05T16:35:00.005-06:00

I'll be at the Mansfield, TX civic center tomorrow. It's a quick little one-day craft-type show, and supposedly last year they had a live reindeer on the grounds for the kids to interface with. I'll definitely have my sketchbook along for that! (I would anyway, but I'll double-check that I have my stuff with me before I leave the house)

This week kicked my rear with non-art-related futzery, and most of what I did produce was unpostably weak, and made me deeply unhappy. Such is my excuse for the lack of posts. I'll fill in the blank with a couple of bits of sketchbook fodder - a random imaginary watercolor landscape, and a small pen-and-ink thumbnail of my silly cat out on the porch in cold weather. Everybody likes cat pictures! Right? RIGHT?

"Berries And Orange"

2008-12-02T17:51:00.005-06:00

Click Here to Purchase!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

I'm usually a bit stumped when it comes time to title these more "traditional" type miniature still-life paintings. I don't want to be pretentious, but I don't want to be flat and explicitly technical, either. On the other hand, sometimes flat and technical is all I can think of. I wanted to to paint some of the berries from the tree outside again, I had a creamer to put them in, and I needed something large and eye-catching for contrast. Staying seasonal, I picked an orange from the store. I used one of my new background cloths. So... It's "Berries And Orange" because it's the shortest way of telling the truth about the painting.

This is not to say that I had no enthusiasm about the subject beyond the immediately technical, but I'd rather not beat the viewer over the head with highbrow noise (especially since eBay listings need short titles). Unless you're into that sort of thing? "Existential Pairing #5: Fruits of The Season" could work, too, if you like. Whatever levitates your seagoing craft, wink smiley!

"Green Apple Present" - SOLD

2008-11-28T17:38:00.007-06:00

SOLD!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

I once had a color theory teacher who harbored a silly hatred for chartreuse. We were actually told that we would be penalized for using it in any assignments, because "It had no use anywhere" (It's safe to say this woman knows nothing about the original 1970s Lamborghini Miura and has never seen any nightclub flyers). Since taking that class years ago, I like to keep an eye out for chartreuse-type greens in daily use. The latest appearance was on last Sunday's "Thanskgiving Showdown" episode of Iron Chef America. Besides a really wicked Indian Pudding dessert cooked by Bobby Flay, the show featured a chartreuse ICA "crossed knives" logo on the judge's table.

For my part, I picked up a delightfully retro green background cloth at a fabric store the other day, and I decided to put it to use with a yellow-green apple and a small gift box from the roommate's jewelry cabinet. Green is my all-around favorite color to begin with, so it was fun to throw together various blues with my two mainstay yellows. The downside is that it was hard to adjust the photograph of the painting, with all the subtle yellow-greens in play.

"The Chrome Bear" - SOLD

2008-11-26T21:20:00.007-06:00

Click Here to Bid!

6" x 8" oil on archival canvas panel

Yes, it's a chrome-plated polar bear. Every so often, in one of America's numberless stores full of kitschy Chinese junk, I'll find something so strange that I have to have it. Such was the case with this chrome Christmas bear. It's like a hood ornament from Santa's vintage roadster. I have no idea what I'm intended to do with it, but it was half-price, and since it is the patriotic duty of all freedom-loving Americans to buy stuff when it's on sale, it came home with me.

The berries are from a small tree outside my apartment building. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but it has borne lovely little red berries for weeks now, despite two cold snaps and a rapidly fading fall season.

"Orbs"

2008-11-25T20:57:00.004-06:00

Click Here to Bid!

6" x 8" oil on archival canvas panel

From the "I Swear The Title Is Not A Dirty Euphemism" file. I meant to paint this arrangement last week using an Australian blood orange - they were rounder and more red - but the roommate wiped out the last orange before I could paint it. I had to substitute a tangerine instead. The glass item is actually a teapot, the roundness of which inspired both the idea and the title.

"Graphic Apple"

2008-11-20T20:11:00.004-06:00

Click Here to Bid!

6" x 8" oil on archival canvas panel

My first painting on a 6x8 RayMar panel. I've been experimenting with canvas panels, and I wanted to move up in painting size. The apple is a honey crisp (best apple EVER) from the local grocery store which just happened to have a striking set of stripes on its skin. It looked very graphic, and I painted it as such, hence the title!

I must apologise for my absence. It's been a crummy week and a half for artistic achievement. I was neatly taken down by a number of logistical issues, combined with a freak fall cold which put me out cold on the couch right in the middle of a work week. I did manage this painting (cue sound of cheers), and some sickbed sketches. I'm back in my correct work routine, G-d be praised, and happy to be there.

"East Texas Honey"

2008-11-10T16:57:00.003-06:00

Click Here to Buy!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

This was a fun subject. The honey jar really is labelled "Honey 100% Pure East Texas" and contains a section of comb. The bear figurine is one of three that I picked up somewhere years ago. I don't even know what exactly they are supposed to be - I think maybe they were intended as something to put on top of a pencil - but I have one each in flourescent pink, flourescent green, and white (pictured). It was the only thing in the house that was remotely appropriate for accompanying a honey jar.

"Silver Cup, Red Orange"

2008-11-04T14:46:00.004-06:00

Click Here to Buy!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

I bought a worn silver cup at a thrift store a while back that I have really wanted to paint for a while now. There was no special idea behind this one, just a combination of silver, orange, and blue, using my favorite backdrop cloth (which is actually a ladies pajama top, I think). The orange is an Australian blood orange acquired at a local upscale market store, of interest to me because it's red more than "orange". I thought about showing it partly peeled, but a blood orange with the flesh showing looks a bit freaky. Maybe I should have done that for Halloween...

"Mango Lemon Buddha" - SOLD

2008-11-01T20:12:00.006-05:00

SOLD!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

I wanted to do something very yellow.

"The Pumpkin's Fate"

2008-10-31T23:32:00.006-05:00

Available via my Direct Sale Page!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

The nice thing about painting food is that you can usually eat it afterwards. The featured slice of pumpkin pie made a good (and seasonal) post-painting afternoon snack.

On the subject of seasonal pleasures, I just realized that I have yet to buy my annual treat of Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, a.k.a. The Best Pumpkin Ale Ever, Full Stop. This is a tragic oversight that I must remedy as soon as possible.

"Vase, Glass, And Mango"

2008-10-29T19:16:00.003-05:00

Contact Me for Sale!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

I thought I would try a little more traditional still-life setup on the smaller daily painting format. These are some thrift store items and a Brazilian mango (according to the label) that I picked up at the store the other day. I didn't really have anything special in mind for this one, I just put the items together, picked up the brush, and went at it.

"Red Plum Pair" - SOLD

2008-10-27T17:14:00.004-05:00

SOLD!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

Commissioned to go along with two other plum paintings previously sold. I'm pretty sure I bought the last four red plums available on this side of Dallas!

"Fall On Blue" - SOLD

2008-10-26T19:03:00.004-05:00

SOLD!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

I had some reservations about posting this one, as it's a bit of an experiment. I was aiming to keep color as clean and pure as possible, and at the same time, use only a single 1/2" flat brush to do the entire painting. The "blue" is actually a beach towel, which is not very "fall", but there were some oranges and yellows in there that worked as a background pattern. I had to put everything on the floor down by my ankle to get this POV, which meant a bit of extra work keeping the cats out of the setup.

"Goose And Apple"

2008-10-24T16:40:00.003-05:00

Click Here to Buy!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

I must apologize for the uncreative title. I figured the best thing to do was to stay descriptive, and keep it simple! I picked this goose figurine up at a local thrift store along with a bunch of other props and items for still-life paintings. It's amazing how much random stuff you can get for $7.83 if you know where to dig.

I've been wanting to deviate from fruit a bit, and I don't want to over-do the "apples" thing, but there were some really nice big ones available with all sorts of interesting shapes and patterns. I can't help myself. And they're delicious too... Honey Crisp for the win!

"Autumn Owl"

2008-10-22T15:46:00.006-05:00

Click Here to Buy!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

The last couple of dailies were somewhat experimental in nature, and I didn't find the results acceptable (hence the lack of updates). Here I've returned to my old favorite owl-shaped candle holder, and some "fall fruits".

This one was really tough to photograph. Rainy weather today means bad light for photographs in my apartment, and I put a lot of subtle darks into this painting, which are a bit difficult for the camera to pick up on a good day. I ended up photographing it under my work light, and doing more than the usual amount of digital adjustments.

"Loving Pear" - SOLD

2008-10-17T16:33:00.006-05:00

SOLD!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

Another one from the pear backlog.

"Tilted Apple" - SOLD

2008-10-16T15:06:00.005-05:00

SOLD!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

Attack of the Uncreative Title! The apple really is tilted. The bottom is flat but the body of the apple slants at an angle. It was purchased as an ingredient for a crock pot curry, but I demanded that it be spared - at least until I could paint it.

"Ghost Pumpkin" - SOLD

2008-10-14T16:27:00.006-05:00

SOLD!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

I was thinking of the opening scene of Hamlet while I was arranging the pumpkins.

"Reclining Pear"

2008-10-13T16:05:00.007-05:00

Click Here to Buy!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

Sorry for the posting hiatus. I have built up a little bit of a backlog (which is a good thing), so here is the first painting on my newly constructed setup, painted last week.

I've had a mind to try painting pears for a while, but the offerings at the grocery store were ugly or bruised, until last week. One of these days I'm going to be admonished by store staff for manhandling fruit, as I like to pick and poke through produce in search of artistically interesting examples. This is the second painting I did of this particular pear, which was the only one in the pile with a leafy stem. I didn't much like the first one, but this one is acceptable.

Sadly, this painting also marks the death of my second Escoda sable detailing brush. They start out so lovely and satisfying to use, but it seems like small sables can't survive the daily oil painting routine for long. I was not ready to make another internet re-supply order, but a small touch-up brush is something I consider a necessity, so I made a quick hop down to the local art $upply $tore and picked up a Princeton 4000R size 0. So far, it shows no signs of unhappiness with its duties. I'm turning into a fan of Princeton brushes.

Overhaul underway, be right back

2008-10-06T08:29:00.003-05:00

I'm building myself a new light box and making some changes to my ~~second bedroom~~ studio space, among other things. Will be back with new work and a sale on the older work later in the week. If you're interested in anything on the blog, drop me a line:

tdaniels at gmail dot com

Post-fishing-weekend re-org

2008-10-01T12:34:00.011-05:00

I'm back from a weekend at Lake Fork. I'm doing some major re-organizing behind the scenes here, and will have new work up by the weekend, at my newly purcha$$$ed eBay store. Please forgive dead links in the meantime; I have to shuffle a lot of things around.

With Erik Tiemens and Nathan Fowkes in mind, I made plans to try some gouache & watercolor sketching while out and about around the lake. I've never seriously tried the combination before, so it was all new - new environment, new brushes, new moleskine, new paints, new technique.

One of the views from the dock near the RV park

Trees in a small park across the causeway, eastern half of the lake

I didn't learn until after we got there that Lake Fork is one of the best bass fishing lakes in Texas. I didn't have any luck, and I felt compelled to quickly give up fishing pole for paint and sketchbook, but the lady of the apartment caught two small fish (both too small to eat, lucky for them):

The sunsets out there are lovely, and the abundance of birds was startling. The lake is quite large and gives an impression of emptiness in the photos, but it felt very active and rich in wildlife (especially bugs - all those fish have to eat something). Saturday evening's sunset looked like an ideal Japanese painting, with black horizon, hinomaru-red sun, and wading birds flying across the evening sky. I chose to put the paints down and enjoy it rather than try to capture it in situ, but I may work up something representative later.

"Coconut & Lime On Gold" - SOLD

2008-09-26T16:43:00.009-05:00

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

This one's a bit of an experiment, pushing fast & loose again, over a black background a la the amazing Karen Jurick. I stuck almost entirely with earth tones - Raw and Burnt Umbers, Burnt Sienna, and Yellow Ochre, cut with black or white, and a bit of Cad Yellow and Cad Scarlet here and there. The setting is a shiny cloth thrown over a pillow.

I will be out of town for a weekend at an East Texas lake campground, and will hopefully have some good landscape work to post on Monday. It'll be great to get out of the beige box for a day or two and have some outdoor subjects to sketch and paint.

Travelling around Texas by car can be artistically frustrating. What North Texas lacks in expressive topography, it makes up for with lighting and atmospheric subtletly. Add in the random trees and cow herds, and on a drive out of the city I usually end up seeing so much I want to put on paper, that I could spend an entire drive with my head down in the sketchbook, finishing one quick sketch, looking up, seeing something new, and going right back into it, until I'm mentally and physically tired. Is there a medical term for this? "Sketchbook Whiplash", maybe?

"Thai Banana Fan"

2008-09-25T15:33:00.009-05:00

Available via My Direct Sale Page

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

I pushed "fast and loose" while deliberately punching up the color. As for the subject, I saw these small "Thai bananas" at the market and really liked the repetition of their fan-shaped array. The other local grocery store had similar small bananas from Colombia, with an unusual brownish-bronze color, but I left them where they were - I doubt that anybody would want a painting of brown bananas!

"Moon Cake Pig"

2008-09-24T20:32:00.006-05:00

Click Here to Buy!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

This weekend the local Asian market was celebrating a "Moon Festival", and tins of "moon cakes" were for sale in great big stacks. Some of them were round, and others were shaped like pigs. The pig shaped "cakes" (more like cookies, in this case) were so much fun to look at in their strange space-suit-like plastic containers, that I absolutely had to acquire one for painting purposes.

Of course, if you've never had a pig-shaped moon cake you might wonder how it tastes. The closest comparison I can make is to Marzipan, or a similar paste made from nuts, except more like vegetables (the ingredients are lotus seeds and peanut oil). I wouldn't seek them out again, but they were interesting to try once, and I liked painting the pig.

"Blue Monday Teacup"

2008-09-23T19:52:00.010-05:00

Available via My Direct Sale Page

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

Those who came before me
Lived through their vocations
From the past until completion
They will turn away no more

Yesterday was Monday, and I decided to make it blue. I've had this teacup for a while and didn't really know what to do with it painting-wise, so I picked "blue" as an idea and threw in some Voortman's shortbread cookies for accent. Getting the photo to look even vaguely accurate was tough; a lot of the more subtle purples and greens got lost between the camera and the JPG.

"Raven Among Plums" - SOLD

2008-09-21T19:25:00.006-05:00

SOLD!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

I wanted to place some of the darker, more purple plums with some kind of purple object. The raven is a small crystalline stone item I bought at a gem & mineral show many years ago. I'm not sure what stone exactly it's made of, but the household consensus is that it's amethyst.

"Buddha's Three Plums" - SOLD

2008-09-17T20:35:00.008-05:00

SOLD!

5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

This was done on the recycled panel from last week's post-lunch "wiper". We continue with the plums and the Asiatic theme...

"The Lady of Plum Wine" - SOLD

2008-09-16T20:18:00.009-05:00

Click Here to Buy!

5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

Another one on Raphael panel, and I think I'm getting marginally better at this "keeping it loose" thing... Marginally. I've started using only three brushes - a very large (1") angular bright, a 1/4" flat, and my Escoda rigger. The big angular bright is a little awkward to start with on such a small surface, but it keeps me focused on quickly building up mass. I use the flat brush for cleanup & trimming, then the little Escoda is used for touch up, enhancements, and edge control. This all sounds very methodical, and I am a methodical kind of guy, but the actual process, of course, is not so cut and dry.

I'm really enjoying painting plums, so I may stay on this theme for a while longer. The cup is from a small sake set brought back from Japan by the roommate's uncle, and the bottle is Fu-Ki plum wine... It's like liquid candy. I think of it as sort of like Japanese Manischewitz. If it wasn't so devastating to my digestive health, I wouldn't be able to keep my nose out of the stuff.

"Prosperity Plums" - SOLD

2008-09-14T19:50:00.007-05:00

SOLD!

5" x 7" oil on archival linen panel

While preparing for Friday's painting, it occurred to me that plums are a sort of prosperity symbol. We refer to choice jobs or desirable assignments as "plums", for example. Years ago, just prior to art school graduation, a classmate gave me a small wooden teapot, which he explained to be a symbol of prosperity in Chinese culture. I liked the idea of a symbolic connection between a plum and a teapot. I couldn't find the actual wooden miniature that my classmate gave me (although I can swear I brought it down to TX with me when I moved back here again?), so I settled for one of the roommate's curio items.

I'm staying the fast & loose course here, this time on a newly purchase linen panel. The Raphael-brand panels cost 3x as much as Ampersand Gessobord, but I find that they give back a canvas-like feel on a more solid support, without being too rough.

"The Lime Slice" - SOLD

2008-09-11T19:36:00.008-05:00

6"x6" oil on gessoed panel

Not a very creative title for this one... I tried to keep a new attitude of "fast & loose" with this painting, to cut down on time and add a little bit of "painterly" quality back into the work.

"Fragile" - SOLD

2008-09-09T19:22:00.008-05:00

6"x6" oil on gessoed panel

The local Hong Kong market had small teacups on sale for 99 cents. I picked up two, thinking I could work them into my painting somehow. The flower is a dried rose.

Wash.

2008-09-09T12:11:00.005-05:00

Today's painting was a wiper. And it was the worst kind of Wiper - a post-lunch wiper. At 4 P.M. the roommate comes home and that means television noise, and my cat starts following me around while meowing like crazy because she's been demoted in the hierarchy of dominance, so it's hard for me to get anything done in peace and quiet after dinner. The lime slice and tonic water I had set out as a subject became a post-lunch drink (alas, I am out of Tanqueray), and the rest of the day will be dedicated to blog maintenance, paperwork, reading "Problem Solving For Oil Painters" by Gregg Kreutz, and sketchbook time.

Yesterday's painting will go up on Ebay this evening. Tomorrow's painting will appear Thursday after it's dry enough to photograph.

"The Lime In The Coconut" - SOLD

2008-09-08T19:41:00.008-05:00

SOLD!

6"x6" oil on gesso board

I had some limes, and there were coconuts available at the store, and of course there is that song lyric... I had an idea for a circle-within-a-circle composition looking directly down on half a lime inside half a coconut, but I've never opened a coconut before, and I didn't do that neat of a job, so my plans went out the window.

This is the first painting to go up on eBay. I like Etsy's system better, to say the least, but eBay seems to have a wider audience, so we'll see how it goes.

"Two Hot"

2008-09-01T18:41:00.006-05:00

Available via My Direct Sale Page!

6"x6" oil on gesso board

The local Kroger stores have been stocking whole Habanero peppers. I've never knowingly seen an Habanero before, and was surprised at their lovely, subtle vibrance and milky surface quality. I tried to capture that glow but I don't think I've succeeded here. I'll have to try a different approach to achieve the impression of transparency.

I figured a simple pairing of an Habanero with a garden-grown red Chili would be a fun way to start painting peppers. My desk light was warming up the peppers as the day wore on, and by the time I finished painting, my eyes had become irritated from their peppery vapors.

"Lofty Aspirations"

2008-08-28T22:29:00.005-05:00

Click here to purchase on Etsy

5" x 7" oil on linen panel

Everybody else in the world has painted limes at some point, so I figured I'd go ahead and give it a try. I also picked up some linen panels on my most recent internet re-supply run. I think I prefer the look of Ampersand Gessobord, but paint does handle better on a nice textured surface.

This photo was very hard to manipulate into a correct representation of the actual painting. The light values and subtle colors in the background were tricky to tune with levels and saturation. Somehow the red accent markings on the limes got lost, and the shadows of the limes are a warmer gray (not so much black) on the real work.

"The Love Cookie"

2008-08-25T16:32:00.004-05:00

Available via the Direct Sale Page!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

(Note: Title is best said in a Barry White voice.) These "angel cookies" are some of the most profoundly good cookies available. They get high marks from me in taste, texture, aesthetics, and price.

"Dragon Fruit" - SOLD

2008-08-24T02:28:00.008-05:00

SOLD!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

A visit to the local Asian market this past weekend yielded a couple of new subjects for painting fodder. I seriously considered calling this one "Enter The Dragon (Fruit)" but that just sounds creepy. On the other side of the coin, "Strange Magenta Fruit on Top of Crappy Varnished Table" was too cynical. The real name for the "dragon fruit" is pitaya, and while exotic, some people might not know what a pitaya is, so plain old "Dragon Fruit" it is.

The inside of a pitaya is as interesting and pretty as the outside, resembling a poppy seed muffin, but with the texture of a cooked pear. I haven't tried cutting fruit open to paint the insides for a number of reasons, but I may be missing out by not doing so.

"Nectarine In The Mountains" - SOLD

2008-08-24T02:20:00.007-05:00

SOLD!

5 "x 7" oil on gessoed panel

Another arrangement discovered at random. During setup I put the nectarine down on my green cloth while I was organizing something else. When I looked back at the pile, I realized that I liked how the highlights had fallen on the cloth. I felt that there was only so much I could do with nectarines on a cheap glossy table, and the fruit I had purchased was getting over-ripe, so this is the last nectarine painting for now.

"Nectarine Reflective"

2008-08-20T22:21:00.006-05:00

Click here to purchase on Etsy

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

My second nectarine, placed flat on top of a cheap side table - again trying to keep it clean and simple.

"Nectarine On Green"

2008-08-20T18:26:00.007-05:00

Click here to purchase on Etsy

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

In the interest of economy, I endeavour to choose fruit for painting that will also be good for later eating. The large, soft fruits featured in the local stores are usually not very good, but this past week the nectarines were a fragrant, tasty exception. This being my first-ever painting study of a nectarine, I decided to keep it simple.

"Strange Fruit" - SOLD

2008-08-18T21:49:00.020-05:00

SOLD

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

A cucumber is a fruit, according to the internet, but I didn't know that when I titled this one. The figure is about an inch tall. I found it on a staircase a block east of my dorm while out walking one day during my mis-spent year at a large northeastern university... He might be called Lost Buddha, Found Buddha, or perhaps even Boston Buddha, though that sounds like a baseball player's nickname.

The cucumber is locally sourced, and it is a straaaange item. If I had a miniature ship model handy, I would have painted the two together and titled the result "Moby Dick", because this particular cucumber reminds me of a Great White Whale in miniature. The colors of this one don't come across very well in the JPG, a lot of the high end values are cut off for some reason. The painted cucumber has more white and clearer highlighting.

"Cosmic Combination"

2008-08-16T04:12:00.015-05:00

Available via my Direct Sale Page!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

This is what became of the 6x6 that I scrubbed out before doing the previous painting. I had been getting caught up in details and complications, so I aimed for "bold and simple". I attempted to paint chocolate and cherries together, but 70% cacao Scharffen Berger chocolate melts ridiculously fast if it gets anywhere near a 60-watt desk lamp, so the best alternative was to use something cake-like that wouldn't melt before I finished the under-sketching. This is the last remaining fresh cherry atop the last survivor from a batch of brownies.

"Take Us To Your Leader" - SOLD

2008-08-16T04:07:00.024-05:00

SOLD

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

This one resulted from what is usually called a "happy accident", though it was anything but happy at the time. I was a full four hours into a 6"x6" when I realized I was polishing a pile of crap, so I scrubbed it out, tossed the dirty board aside, and started anew. My ideas for this new painting weren't any better. It was getting late in the day, and I was frustrated and PO'd. Out of desperation (and with a dash of cynicism), I threw down a backround cloth and tossed some cherries onto it at random. Fortunately for my sanity, they landed in a workable arrangement that suggested a story of two cherries with alien "antennae", versus one without.

"Goth Cherry" - SOLD

2008-08-16T03:44:00.016-05:00

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

Picking through my bag of cherries for artistically suitable specimens, I found one with a freakishly curly stem. I bet it was ostracised by the other, redder, cherries. This curly-stemmed, pale cherry probably listened to WFNX and wrote poetry. It was a bit... Goth.

Speaking of which, I understand that "goth" has morphed into "emo"? My cultural vocabulary is still late-90's vintage (for example, in the old days at the end of last century, back when cell phones were a rarity, "sick" meant "gross", not "awesome") and, being conservative by nature, I refuse to change, goth darnit. Therefore, my unique cherry is "Goth" and not "Emo".

"Hot and Sweet"

2008-08-16T03:36:00.009-05:00

Available via my Direct Sale Page!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

I was just getting started on cherry paintings when I was given a purple pepper from a local garden. I'm not sure if it's a hot variety, but it certainly was purple, and made for a fun combination.

"From The Garden"

2008-08-16T03:30:00.013-05:00

Available via my Direct Sale Page!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

The title is not rhetorical - the tomatoes, pepper, and greenery were all grown fresh and local. Important note: If you paint fresh greenery from a garden, be sure to paint fast, else the greens will un-freshen over the course of a work day, and your composition will change as you paint. Ask me how I know!

"Uranium Glass Cat"

2008-08-16T03:17:00.012-05:00

Available via my Direct Sale Page!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

Title says it all - this is a cat made from Uranium Oxide glass. I bit off more than I was expecting to chew with this one. I accidentally overslept on this workday, and the late wakeup put me under time pressure to set up and start painting, so I grabbed the cat from the roommate's curio cabinet, put it on top of a box, stuck a sheet of paper under it to break up the background, turned on the light, and got to work. It took a lot of work to cope with the varied colors, reflections, transparencies, and opacities on what appeared to be a simple green piece of glass.

If you ever see one of these Uranium Glass antiques, you should know that the glass is not dangerous, but it really is made with a form of Uranium. And yes, the feet of the cat were off the paper on the actual object, so although it looks like it's floating, that's how it sat on the box top.

"Time For Pie" - SOLD

2008-08-16T03:08:00.016-05:00

SOLD!

5" x 7" oil on gessoed panel

(How long should I stay on the Star Trek movie title theme?) Circumstances on July 4th prohibited me from blowing up anything, barbecueing, or going shooting, so I did the next best thing and made an apple pie, per the instructions of Our Lord and Master of Good Eats, Alton Brown. Unfortunately since the pie done got 'et (and it was good) the next best thing was to paint the pie bird and pie server, and since it looked like the antique pie bird is calling out, I figured he was saying "Time for pie!", and I put him next to the pie server - get it? I'm so clever.

This one frustrated me at the time. The velvety foreground cloth texture gave me a hard time, and I was painting well into the evening. In retrospect, though, it's become one of my favorites.

Painting Trek 2: The Wrath of Backlog - "Home-Made", July 8th, 2008

2008-08-16T02:56:00.012-05:00

Available via my Direct Sale Page!

6" x 6" oil on gessoed panel

This is painting #2, from back on July 8th. I made a batch of cookies on the previous Monday night, and saved a trio for painting on Tuesday. At the end of the workday the milk had been out for too long, but the cookies were still perfectly edible... And they were good.

Here we go... #1: "Minerva", July 7th, 2008

2008-08-16T02:49:00.010-05:00

Contact me for sale!

5" x 7" oil painting on 1/8th" thick Ampersand Gessobord

Here is my first-ever "daily painting". I have a bit of a backlog, so in truth, this one was done back on July 7th. The owl is a candle holder acquired at a local thrift store, and the apples were the finest quality available from Kroger. They were left over from my July 4th applie pie, and if I recall correctly, they were made into pastries not long after this painting was finished. They were good.

New Direction

2008-08-15T01:12:00.013-05:00

There have been some big changes going on behind the scenes here, but they don't make for terribly exciting reading. The important development is that I will soon begin posting daily oil paintings for sale through my shop on Etsy. My goal is one painting a day, sold for about $100 shipped, and I've spent the last couple of months setting up and starting this new venture. I'll post the paintings here with commentary. I also have quite a bit of digital housekeeping to do. There are accounts to set up, graphics to be made, and layouts to be adjusted.

"Daily Painting" is a petite phrase, but it contains an entire Operation Overlord of change. I have re-arranged my office/studio, researched the market, purcha$$$ed a painfully large pile of $$$upplies, acquired materials for setup and lighting, discovered (or re-discovered) the ins and outs of producing good work in a hurry, and then of course there is the ever-present trial-by-fire in which the brush hits the gesso board, and planning meets reality. Of course, none of this is revolutionary - or news - but for me it's a very moving process. A new artistic start is simultaneously fun and excruciating, and unfortunately I don't have anyone to share it with, except you, the reader. Hopefully daily sales will mean traffic, which will mean comments and communications with other artists? That's what it's all about, in the end, I think... Work produced, and ideas shared. Progress!

Napoleon in Hell - Gouache 6x8

2008-04-23T00:45:00.009-05:00

I've been working on painting characters and scenarios in gouache on illustration board. This is my first result, developed from a truly random brush & ink sketch. Between Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey & Maturin series, Peter Padfield's books on Maritime supremacy, and HBO's "John Adams", I've had 18th Century on the brain for a while. Random sketching while meditating on the literal idea of personal demons produced a twisted little figure in a big hat which bore a remarkable resemblance to Napoleon. If he's anywhere, I figure it's someplace cold.

Life imitates Henri Rousseau

2008-04-23T00:12:00.009-05:00

Not pictured: Nude women, French Post-Impressionism.

I was on the porch sketching with pen & ink and had gotten up to get another glass of iced tea when I turned around and saw Roland "hiding" in the houseplants. They had been taken down because of a storm, and became a convenient mini-jungle right out of Henri Rousseau's "The Dream". I can't believe he stayed still long enough for me to get the camera.

Sketching with a waterbrush and either sumi-e or a fountain pen/grayscale marker combination is my way to get around a mental block. When all else fails, grab the big sketchbook, put the ink in the left hand and the water in the right, and get through it. I start with random strokes and build from there. It doesn't result in beautiful, perfect composition, but it gets the basics on paper. Lately my quick & dirty ink sketches have been images of the jungle:

These are serving as preliminary work for illustrations in support of one of my long-term animation projects. I'll put more from this project up soon.

I see the doorway to a thousand churches

2008-04-22T23:57:00.007-05:00

My goodness, it's been a long time since I posted. That's sad, but I have a (partial) excuse:

I got new eyes.

On February 29th I had IntraLASIK done. I went from "between 20/300 and 20/700 uncorrected" (!) to better than 20/20. It's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Every day I see something in a new way or notice things that I had been unaware of before - it's truly amazing. Just FYI, being able to see comes in damned handy for an artist - who knew?

Not long ago in human history I would have been uselessly near-blind, but in the 21st century I can get my corneas reshaped with a frickin' laser beam and see better than new. I figured a photo was in order. This is me, glasses-free, in the middle of a workday, in my painting shirt, unshaven, mussed up, overheated, and holding my cat.

(Any other time Kali follows me around, wanting attention or playtime with her feather toy, but of course when I need her to stay still and shut up for a second, she freaks out. I guess they wouldn't be called "cats" if they were sensible.)

I'm sufficiently recovered to pick up where I left off around the new year, so regular posting will begin again shortly.

Rough couple of weeks for art

2007-12-05T20:58:00.002-06:00

Day job schedule, the sudden death of my ten-year-old Wacom tablet, and general domestic futzery has put a crimp in my posting (odd how "The Holidays" mean people work more instead of less). Today was the first full day I've had free to draw & paint in too long. Not much success to show for it, sadly. 1st image is from a sketchbook thumbnail of a field on my morning commute, seen at sunrise. 2nd image was a quick gouache of the view off my porch when I went outside for a fresh air break.

I have an unhappy backlog in the sketchbook, including work from a business trip to New Orleans last month, which I'm eager to get down on paper.

Wednesday Pen & Ink sketches

2007-11-15T02:57:00.002-06:00

I went looking for clarity and found a whole lot of mush. Annoyed, I decided "When in doubt, do something different" and took out my new waterbrushes and sumi-e. I tried "serious" and ended up sketching cats (again!). I wanted action and started drawing baseball... I guess the World Series is still rattling around in my head somewhere. Today just didn't go as planned.

Gouache Apple

2007-11-13T00:25:00.001-06:00

I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't used gouache in far too long. I've gone back into it recently and I decided first to experiment with painting simple things like fruit. It's nice to be able to paint in the real world again (outdoor painting isn't much fun in Texas during the summer!), and this time without the trouble of toxicity and travel-unfriendly equipment.

A couple of speedies

2007-11-13T00:04:00.001-06:00

90-minute digitals. Cats seem to be a theme this week. I thought for sure I was on a "robots" kick, but most of my current sketches happen to be of cats.

Monday Night Sketchbook

2007-11-12T23:49:00.001-06:00

No kitty, you're not allowed on the art desk.

Surely I'm not the only artist who's had this problem.