Lake Washington View

This is an 8x10 thickly painted scene of Lake Washington in Seattle. I'm next working on a challenging interior scene and will see how it works out.

Still working part time so less time to paint but have a bigger series of new landscapes in mind and will start working on these soon. Was going to take a related class to get me going on these new works but figure can invest the price of the class in materials instead. Also have some schedule conflicts and at the high hourly price, wouldn't want to miss a session. Mainly take classes to motivate myself but in this economic environment I'd do better to motivate myself and spend the money more efficiently. Most classes I end up being the most advanced learner and don't get that much out of them other than the several hours of class time to discuss art.

Portrait

Here is an 8x8 inch portrait from a photo by a traveler to China. It's for an informal contest among the Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters. Portraits take a lot of time and effort. I had trouble making the young lady look young enough until I finally rounded the features and blended the shadows. Portraits are not my strength even though I do a lot of drawing and can get a pretty good likeness. That last few percent is the difficult part. This was also painted on an absorbent gesso on board so the texture is not what I wanted but I am fairly satisfied with the result. I have a nice red antique frame for it.

Also been busy updating my art database to get ready for when the economy picks up and sales perk up again.

Chinese Village

This 11x14 oil is part of an informal contest for the Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters. Several photos from a member's China trip were selected and each member can paint from them to do their own interpretation. I did my thick palette knife style as usual. There is also a portrait option and I'll work on that next although not sure which style. I may redo the landscape scene in wax as another option. I enjoy having a goal like this and like competition.

Worked on my taxes all afternoon so painting was a nice break. The business tax portion takes as long as the rest put together.

Another Grand Canyon

This is an 11x14 oil done completely in palette knife technique. After a few layers the surface looks like the aging eroded rocks.

Malibu Landscape

Here is a 9x12 landscape from my trip to LA in the winter. This is a view from the park high above Malibu beach. It's the thick palette knife style I like although sometimes it's not the best for some scenes, like a smooth ocean in the distance.

New Arizona Scene

Here is a 9x12 oil using mainly palette knife. Still working part time so haven't gotten organized to paint as much plus had a family trip for a week where was too busy to do much. I know, excuses, excuses. Also went a little nuts converting my music collection to mp3 for a new tiny player my wife bought for me for my birthday. Use it at work while creating curriculum at my desk. Have converted and loaded 416 of my favorite songs now. Bought a few online to supplement the collection plus bought speakers to play them off my computer as my little stereo in my studio doesn't play the mp3 format. I have mainly mellow songs that are great background music for when I paint so I guess I can call this preparatory work?

The palette knife technique works well for rocky scenes like this because it matches the texture of the landscape. Have to remember to adjust my technique to the scene but liking more and more the thick textures of the knife painting.

Haven't done much with wax lately as it requires ventilation and it's too cold to be blowing all the warm air from the house outside. Hoping it warms by March so can do some of the same scenes in wax for comparison. Wax also provides the texture I love and works well for scenes such as this one, titled "Canyon".

More snow scenes

I have completed a few more snow scenes from our recent storm. Now there is flooding throughout our corner of the world as it warmed with rain to melt the snow. And it's only early January. Hope the rest of the winter calms down.