Oriental Horse - 16" x 20" Pastel

I bought this Oriental horse statue on Ebay, and I like it alot. It will make a good still life subject, if I get the set-up right. Next time, I might change the tablecloth color. This was my first attempt; I will try again.

Maggie the Shih Tzu Pastel Pet Portrait

This little princess is named Maggie. I know that I captured her likeness...whether I also captured her personality, I cannot say. I know that her owners adore her...I hope they like this portrait.

Coffs Bluff - Pastel Seascape 8" x 10"

Water, rocks, sky. A nice painting exercise.

January Daffodils 2

A fellow artist/blogger, Jo Castillo, made a suggestion to view the painting in black and white and analyze the values that way, as a way to fix what was bothering me. She was nice enough to provide me with the black and white version. Now I have to figure out how to do that on my own computer. It is a good tool, and one I will use to try to improve things here.

Daffodils in January - 12" x 15" Pastel

A cold and rainy day in January...just had to paint some Spring flowers. Ahhh, that's better.

Now for the main problem that I had with this painting. I couldn't figure out how to make the flowers "pop" the way I wanted to. Usually I do it with value contrast (light/shadow) or playing with the colors(ie complements next to each other, etc.) but today nothing worked. Maybe I should make the background darker...ideas, anyone?

Summer Memories- WIP (note: finish posted 9/18/08)

This is a painting I started last Fall, which I intend to finish. The subject here happens to be me, and the reference I used is an old snapshot from my childhood in the late 1950's.
I took some liberties here. I grew up on Long Island, back when Levittown was the model for postwar suburbs. The background in this painting is invented--the setting didn't really look like this--but we did have a metal swingset that I loved.
The snapshot I used is old and frayed, so I am making some of it up as I go along. The colors in the photo are faded, but the memories aren't.

Cool Shades - Portrait Study 18" x 24"

I saw this man hanging out at a street fair in Florida, and something about his style just caught my eye. At first I was going to paint the whole figure, but then decided the head and shoulders offered a more interesting subject. For me, working out the skintones and getting a good likeness is always a challenge that I enjoy.

As an aside, it's always tricky for me to take photos of interesting subjects (people) that I see on the street without their noticing. Is this even ethical? Yet, I see a lot of other artists do this as well, so I guess it's OK.

Lovely Radishes - 12" x 18" Pastel Study

Like Rip Van Winkle, I feel like I have awoken from a long artistic slumber! I won't go into the boring details, suffice it to say that it is a New Year and my plan is to paint, paint, paint!

This study was actually done a few months ago, after a visit to the Pleasantville Farmer's Market. These lovelies caught my eye, and the colors and shapes were so much fun to paint. I don't even really like to eat radishes, and most of them never even made it into a salad. Oh well, sometimes sacrifices must be made in the name of art:)