Category people

Oxford I

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Acrylic on canvas paper, 9 x 12

This is another boating picture, this time in a punt on the River Cherwell in Oxford, England, from the summer of 2018.

I toned the canvas with Cadmium Red and Cadmium Yellow Medium, using my blade to spread it. I like to leave areas of it showing through, as in parts of the boat.

It’s such a peaceful activity in a very beautiful city.

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Oil, 9 x 12

Then I tried another version in oils, again with the same acrylic red and yellow underpainting. I like some of the effects, but the faces are indistinct, and the oils seemed to become too thick. I have more to try yet!

 

 

 

 

Katherine

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Oil, 8 x 10, linen on board

I painted this portrait of my youngest daughter from a photograph that I took in the spring of 2016. The photo was taken in a cafe in Chicago, after our we had  just enjoyed a very good family trip to the Adler Planetarium. I think she had a special drink here, which is one reason for the pleased look on her face. I think she also looks calm and dreamy-maybe tired!

I painted this after watching videos by Matt Philleo  www.realisticacrylic.com although I did not completely follow his methods. He gives good information and teaching on painting very realistic portraits in acrylic, which were helpful and useful, but I decided to use oils in a slightly looser manner.

The result makes me smile inside.

 

Rest Stop

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Acrylic, 9 x 12

I love painting trees and water with the Princeton Catalyst blades! Again, here I like the contrast of the bright colors of the kayaks and clothing with the peaceful setting of Racoon Lake, Indiana.

Summer Triads

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Red Treasure, Acrylic 9 x 12

Now I’m adding a time limit (guideline!) to my triad limit. I’m trying to keep each painting time to around an hour—challenging! This triad is Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Medium and Ultramarine Blue (plus Titanium White).

I decided to try the skin tones in the same acrylic colors, and I was using one of my larger brushes to try and capture the big tones and not fuss with the detail. I was pretty excited that I actually could paint as loosely as this!

More blades!

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Flying! Acrylic and oil, 9×12

This time I used the Catalyst Blade for the background and the skirt. It was great fun!

I’m trying to limit myself to simple triads of colors this summer. This one is Cadmium Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Medium and Ultramarine Blue (plus Titanium White, but I think of that as a constant necessity, not part of the triad).

I used oils for the skin, changing the cadmium yellow medium for yellow ochre.

I used a photograph of my granddaughter at a fast food restaurant play place as the basis for this painting. I love the wildly mixed colors, which feel to me like the energy, noise and sometimes chaos, of these play places.

 

Wedges and Blades

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I’m really enjoying experimenting with these great tools, especially the mini-blades with handles. They are like flexible palette knives and the feeling is very liberating. I can mix and scrape right on the canvas and create all sorts of effects that a brush would not do.

This small acrylic painting (6×8 in) is a study for a larger painting. My daughter was trying on her first real ballet outfit, twirling around the room, and caught sight of herself in the sliding glass door. Her pose caught my eye.  What was going through her mind?

I loved how the blades made the tulle of the tutu. The rest of the study was done with brushes.

A beautiful meeting

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Oil 9 x 12

This young lady is the daughter of friends we knew a long time ago. She was born on Christmas Eve and we visited her and her parents in the hospital on Christmas Day. I had seen her very little since that visit at one day old.

Last summer, we were able to visit her family on our travels to the east coast. As we were there visiting, she arrived home from Israel, having also recently been a missionary/aid nurse in the temporary trauma hospitals in Syria. She sat in the beautiful summer light and told me about her experiences. I loved the peace and calm she exuded and the hope she was offering to hurting people, all of which seemed symbolized to me by the yellow shawl she was wearing. I’d wanted to paint her ever since then!

I painted this with an acrylic under-painting (full color) and then painted oils over that.