two more

Here are a couple more...

One of the hardest things for me is trying to 

decide WHAT to paint.  

Some new watercolor paintings...

I've been working hard to get back into the watercolor routine by doing a series of small (6" x 6") paintings. I'll move on to some larger ones after these.

I have to have a bunch of watercolors for "Art City Austin" (formerly called the Austin Fine Art Festival) in April as well as for the Antique Rose Emporium's "Galleria in the Hacienda"

I've been trying to focus on oil paintings lately but both of these shows have requested my watercolors so I have to change hats for a while. I've been completing these little paintings in about 2 days each so I should be able to have quite a few by the end of March.

I'll post more as I finish them.

an update...

I managed to get a few hours of painting done on this today and I think it's coming along.

Hopefully I can work on it again tomorrow. I have to focus on watercolor over the next month for a few upcoming events and I have to work at "changing hats". It seems to be more and more difficult to do that lately.

See you tomorrow.

Why not?

I've always loved horses. When I was 5 years old, my Dad had to take long circuitous routes from point A to point B to avoid passing by my beloved pony farm! 

I still love horses and I have no idea why I've never done paintings of them. This week I decided to give it my focus and I started the oil portrait of a bucksin inspired by a photo that I clipped from an old magazine (My magazine fetish is another long story that needs telling at some other time)

This is a cellphone photo of the results after my first day of painting on it. The color needs work and it needs a LOT of refining and a good idea for the background but I'm happy with it so far.



I'll post my progress on this first piece of equine art as it moves along.

A lovely ballerina...

This was painted alla prima during our portrait group at the New Braunfels Art League last week. It was such a lovely pose by such a beautiful young lady that it was hard to fail!  This was my first classic ballerina painting and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

The newest member of Oil Painters of America...

I've decided to really work on getting my work out into new venues this year and I've entered a few big shows and applied for membership in the Oil Painters of America.

Today I received my letter of acceptance!  I hadn't heard anything since I sent in my application one week ago and I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn't get in before the National Juried Exhibition deadline.  

I went to see the show at the Whistlepik Gallery in Fredericksburg last year and was quite impressed with the caliber of work I saw there.  I've now sent in my entry and I have my fingers crossed!

Wish me luck?

 

The Holiday is over!

It's been a long time (over a month!!!!) since I've posted anything on my blog and my friends have been quite merciless in pointing this out to me. 

I'll take the heat!

I had a wonderful holiday season visiting my son Kabe in Tulsa and my old friends in New Mexico.  While visiting the Sandia Mountains where I used to live, I marveled at the fact that I never went out and painted the fantastic scenery there.  I wasn't doing landscapes then (but then, I wasn't doing much else either!)

I took lots of photos while I was there so be watching for them to show up as paintings in the future.

Now that things are settling down and I'm getting things settled in at my new studio, I'm anxious to start painting there. My plan is to get into more shows and do more painting than ever before. I have some new ideas rattling around in my head and I can't wait to see what falls out when I pick up my brushes again.

Thanks for patiently waiting for something new to appear here...  

I hope that it will be worth the wait!

For now, I'll post a painting that I did as a commission.  The painting was made into a print but the original is mine and available if you like it....