New painting images

Here are some details of a painting I'm putting the final touches on. This will be in my show at Panza Gallery in May. There's a lot of glare on the one, but the idea is there. Thanks for checking these out!

Still-life class

I'm teaching a still-life class at Touchstone in April - here is the info:

http://www.touchstonecrafts.org/Default.aspx?pageId=464806&eventId=255961&EventViewMode=EventDetails

The surroundings at Touchstone are beautiful & it's always a great time! Come on out!

The joy of painting (with lead white).

Here are two more detail shots from a painting I've been working on for a while. There are a lot of light, pastel-like colors in this one which I'm really enjoying working with. Also, I've probably used at least a whole 150ml tube of Williamsburg's Flake white on this. I was introduced to lead white several years ago by my good friend Bruce Erikson. Although my main white has been Titanium for quite some time, I have fallen in love with lead. There is no other pigment like it as far as texture, color, feel, etc. You can't see the surface texture in this, but some of the lightest lights are pretty thick. I love the look of thick, loose brush strokes and lately I've been "training" myself to work more in this manner, while still retaining the accuracy of the drawing as best I can.

Here are some details from a different painting that show some of this lead texture close up :

Drawings, Details, and Bouguereau

For some of the paintings that I've been working on recently, I've been doing fully developed drawings of some of the figures and then transferring these to the canvas. Some of you may be familiar with the article entitled "Bouguereau at Work" (available at the Art Renewal Center's website). Reading about how Bouguereau went about building up a painting from initial idea(s), to sketches, to more detailed studies, to the final painting is very inspiring and I know that in my case, it gave me a greater appreciation of his amazing work. I tried to apply some of these ideas to my own work in the best way I knew how. It's an involved process, but it's worth it to at least try it. Here are some of my drawings as well as details from a couple of the larger pieces I've been working on.