Original Oil Painting Broken Barriers

Broken Barriers

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

This painting took awhile. There are so many elements to it plus changing a composition from a rectangle to a square. I use a lot of square gessobords because I find them easier to sell online, I have no idea why.

I used Lisa Cunnington's photo as inspiration. I love the composition but wanted to add my own glowing color feel to it. My goal was to make the strong light behind the center tree shine through to the opposite side of the water way. I posted Lisa's photo below so you can compare.

Original Oil Painting Divided World

Divided World

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Beach Boat

Beach Boat

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord. 

Here is another painting I made using my video instructions from Richard Robertson. 

Original Oil Painting Christmas Tree Truck

Christmas Tree Truck

9" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Should I add a chimney? I will decide tomorrow.

Well it is another day and I decided on this windy, cold, snow day to added the chimney and do some clean-up. What do you think? A little cold, snowy days for Christmas or a plane ticket to Arizona? 

Original Oil Painting Snow Truck

Snow Truck

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord. 

This is a painting I made using video instructions from Richard Robinson. The video was an early Christmas gift to myself. I posted the photo I painted from below. The goal of the assignment was to paint a spot light affect hitting the main focus of the painting. Richard's painting was very powerful so I thought I would give it a try. I added a frozen puddle to the foreground to point the viewer's eye to go behind the truck and notice the path to the field. It does take some attention away from the truck hence weakens the spot light affect but I feel it adds to the composition. I think the compromise was worth it.  

Original Oil Painting Halo Geraniums

Halo Geraniums

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10" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

This is a still life painting in which I used a halo orange and a piece of my last geranium of the season. Right now the geranium is in the garage but I do not think it will last the winter. We had such a warm fall that I did not have the heart to throw it in the recycle bag when it looked so great. This is my way of preserving a piece of it. As for the halo oranges they have become my favorite fruit now (since I can not get fresh home grown strawberries in the winter). The halo oranges peal so easy and taste so good.  

Original Oil Painting Sundown Cabin

Sundown Cabin

9" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Cherry on Top

Cherry on Top

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10" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is back to painting! This is a painting of a still life I created. Getting all those cherries to turn the right way was quite frustrating but in the end they all behaved. They must know Christmas is around the corner and Santa is coming. HO-HO

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and will have an awesome Christmas. Thanks so much for visiting my blog and my paintings. If you are looking for a Christmas painting please do not hesitant to check out my DailyPaintWorks Gallery. 

Original Oil Painting Fog Lifting

Fog Lifting

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Autumn Sparrow

Autumn Sparrow

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8" x 10"

Painted on a gessobord.

There where many challenges in this painting. The background need to recede so that meant overlapping multi-colored leaves that are needed to contrast the sparrow and create the illusion of space. The leaves had to be larger as they got closer to the little bird and smaller and softer as they receded. Choosing the colors for the leaves depended mainly on the sparrow's light and dark body edges. If you look at the beak, tail, back wing and head the leaves are lighter. Even the sky color darken and lighten depending on the sparrow's edge. I kept the lightest sky color for the beak to draw the viewer's eye to the focal point in the painting. That took a lot of creative thought and luck.

The other challenge was the bird. So many layered colors were needed and I found that out by trail and error. I would look at an area on the bird ask myself what was the dominant color. After I mapped all the dominant colors I started to add the little varied colors and feather lines on top. This again require patience and trail/error techniques. I was lucking to have a wonderful photo to work from which helped and I posted it below. Thanks for the super photo, Rodney Campbell!

Original Oil Painting Reaching the Shelter

Reaching the Shelter

9" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

When I first posted this painting it was the small photo below. The tree branches needed adjusting especially the strong white curved line leading the viewer's eye out of the composition. I also needed a better photo. The photo below was too bright or washed out. At first I thought it was my computer screen but when I saw it on my iPad too, I knew it was the lighting in which I took the photo. The sun is much lower in the sky and shines into the studio room like a search light later in the day.  Today's photo on top is much better. I took the photo this morning vs late afternoon the day before.  I fixed the crazy branches and got a much better photo to represent the painting. I probably should not of posted as soon as the painting was finished for the day. It did give me the chance to explain the process of photographing and remind me that viewing the painting on a screen or seeing the painting in  reverse through a mirror can give the artist a fresh look. That way the artist might see mistakes he or she made and fix them.

Original Oil Painting Wading In #2

Wading In #2

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8" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

I added some glazing and soften the bottom edge of contrast on the seagull's chest. It really helps round the seagull's body. Then I noticed I forgot to post it on my blog. That is a first!
I posted what it looked like before the glazing below. I think it makes a big difference.

Original Oil Painting Lemon Cherries Kiwi

Lemon Cherries Kiwi 

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

I painted this from a photograph of a still life I created in my studio. When I sent up a still life I would use several different compositions before deciding on one. I take photos of each to view and compare. The Fruit Maze was the one I choose to paint first. This was a second choice I saved for later. It is more complicated and I wanted to practice with the fruit alone before adding my orange flowers. I am not sure what the flowers are called, a student gave me some seeds along time ago. They come back every year and transplant very well. Thanks Abby for the seeds. I enjoy the flowers every year! 

Original Oil Painting Autumn Pumpkin

Autumn Pumpkin

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Rose #3

Rose # 3

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8" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

My goal with this rose was to capture the strong light and dark contrasting areas. It is the areas in-between the highlights and shadows that I found to be very challenging. The pink petals have tints of orange and violet. The leaves have a wide variety of yellow green and blue green not to mention the hints of red and orange lines. I thought for a second to leave the hints of red, orange and yellow lines out but it creates this wonderful unity with the petals. Challenging but fun. 

I love color!    

Original Oil Painting Toppled Apples

Toppled Apples

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord. 

This week I got out my Indian corn and apples to create this autumn painting. Every subject in this painting has multiple colors which was an eye and mind super challenge to say the least. (I think my eyes were ready to pop out of my head at times.) When you are dealing with so many colors it is extremely important to stay calm, take many breaks, slow down and do a lot of pre-mixing of colors. I think tomorrow I will take a break and hopefully get outside and enjoy the wonderful fall colors.

After posting this painting on Facebook and seeing it everyday, I decided to make some subtle changes. The not so subtle change was the table top. It was way too bright, light, grey violet. I felt it was competing with the apples. I am much happier with a tone down table. I posted the first version below. See if you agree with me. Did I make the right changes?

Original Oil Painting Rose # 2

Rose # 2

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8" x 10"

Painted on a gessobord.

It has been awhile since I posted a painting. Fall brings added yard and clean up work: plants need extra care or trimming, garage needs cleaning and basement needs organizing. About the same chores as spring but in a different way. Spring, I always get excited about the up coming warm days. In fall I dread winter, so I savor every nice day. 

Today I told myself no more excuses, PAINT!

It was a great day! 

Thanks for viewing my little rose painting. 

Original Oil Painting Grandpa's Bird Feeder

Grandpa's Bird Feeder

9" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

This is a painting of a bird feeder outside my Dad's room at the nursing home. I took a picture when his chipmunk buddy was visiting. I added the red cardinal and yellow finch because those are a couple of his favorite birds. 

Original Oil Painting Autumn Sunflowers

Autumn Sunflowers

8" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Wading In

Wading In

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8" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Rose #1

Cream Rose

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8" x 10" 

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Golden Harbor

Golden Harbor

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

I decided what was bothering me about this painting so I re-worked it. There was not enough contrast and the golden light was not on everything. The first version looked too illustrative and story telling. It was not my goal originally. I wanted to add a glow that I see when the sun is near the horizon and I felt I missed my goal. The changes I made helped a lot to convey what was in my mind. I re-posted the first version below titled: Going Fishing. I think you can see the changes and understand why I  re-titled the painting: Golden Harbor. This title captures my main goal I was after.  I hope viewers like the changes. Thanks for viewing this painting again.

Original Oil Painting Kingfisher

Kingfisher 

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9" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Going Fishing!

Going Fishing!

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

I used a reference photo from Margaret Buttye. Changing the composition to a square from a rectangle was a challenge enough but than I decided to change the lighting, too! I was walking one day and I noticed how the sun affects objects when it is close to the horizon. Everything's highlight would take on a yellow orange tint. I could not resist playing with this idea so I incorporated it in. Hope it doesn't look too imaginary but if it does maybe that is not so bad? I am hoping to do another painting of this on a larger size and rectangle. It is such an outstanding photo. Thanks Margaret for posting it on PaintMyPhoto!

This is Margaret's photo posted below.

Original Oil Painting: Low Tide

Low Tide

14" x 18"

Painted on stretch canvas.

 I used a photo from Jim Humphrey on PaintMyPhoto. He called his photo Staithes Beck 1. I posted the photo below. I made a few changes : I flipped the image because I like my focal point on the left side. I added several seagulls which seems appropriate when painting boats and adds to the whimsical aspect of the painting. I also changed my original title: Waiting to Low Tide thanks to my Facebook friends and Paint On friends!

 This painting was quite a challenge because the photo was too bright on the right side so I used my imagination quite a bit on that part of the painting. Shadows in photographs can look flat and darker than in real life, too.  I have painted outdoors before so I made allowances for these things but found that in Jim's photo there was enough info. to draw from in the shadows which helped a lot.  Hope you like my painting and please feel free to check out my online gallery by clicking on the DailyPaintWorks icon. 

Thanks Jim for the wonderful photo!

Original Oil Painting Sparkle

Nature's Sparkle

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

My main goal in this painting was to make it sparkle. I used a reference photo from Valerie Bassell of Sacket Brook, I posted it below. I love the strong white light on the water and large rocks. I thought it might be too intense so I added small hints of light on the tree above and the right bottom foreground. I also intensify the water color to draw your eye to follow it as it falls off the edge to the water below. This was a little harder than most landscapes I have done but I feel it was well worth it. I know how much our eyes follow light and that is so important to create a nice flow in the painting. This was great practice for that. Thanks Valerie for the inspirational photo!

Original Oil Painting Foggy Autumn Morning

Foggy Autumn Morning

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9" x 12" 

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Rocky Stream

Rushing Stream

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9" x 12"
Painted on gessobord.

I used a reference photo from Cindy Deadrick Crooks. She posts her photos on Photos For Artists a Facebook page. These are free references for artist. Thanks Cindy again for an awesome photo to paint from. I posted the photo below.

Original Oil Painting Pelican

Pelican

8" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

This big bird is for my sister, Deb. Happy Birthday Sis!

Original Oil Painting Rambling River

Rambling River

12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

I used a reference photo from PaintMyPhoto to paint from. The photo is posted below and belongs to Lynn Quinn. Thanks Lynn for an awesome photo to paint from. I love how Lynn captured the details in the water so clearly. My goal was to capture that splashing water coming towards the viewer and Lynn's photo really helped.

Original Oil Painting Hollyhock Hummingbird

Hollyhock Hummingbird

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Original Oil Painting Morning Glory Butterfly

Morning Glory Butterfly

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10" x 10"

Painted on gessobord.

There is only one thought that comes to mind: This was a tough one! It took a lot longer to paint than I thought at first. I thought of chucking it out the windows many times. Instead I would just took a break and come make to it. I was painting from a photo of a butterfly which was terrific except the flowers were hard to make out. In fact I ended up changing the flowers completely from little pink flowers to large purple morning glories. The purple is a compliment to yellow and would help contrast the butterfly. The large flowers and leaves really helped balance the whole painting out. The photo I used is posted below and I hope that helps you understand my problem with it. 

Thanks Robin Brad for an awesome butterfly photo. I hope you do not mind the changes. 

Original Oil Painting Relax Honey Dew

Relax Honey Dew

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12" x 12" 

Painted on gessobord.

I painted this from a still life in the studio. I like the blue green honey dew with the red strawberries such a nice compliment. I kept the rest more neutral in color to show off the compliments more. It has a calmness to it that I don't fully understand why but I like it. I thought about adding some seeds and leaves to the table but my gut said no. I would loose the stillness and calmness that I liked about the still life.   

Original Oil Painting Peppermint Lily

Peppermint Lily

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12" x 12"

Painted on gessobord.

Here is one of my last lilies that will bloom this summer. It is an oriental lily with a less potent fragrance than my other oriental lilies so I can bring it into the house. I put the final touches on it today: brighten areas, added more color to the lower petal and open the background with lighter areas. During the final stages of my paintings I look mostly at the painting not so much at the reference subject. I am looking at the flow of the painting, the balance of light and dark and any where my eye gets stuck or avoids. If my mind's eye gets stuck it is usually on an area that is structurally wrong: repetitive or the wrong value, etc.. If I avoid a spot it is usually boring, not enough to hold my interest. Thanks for viewing my Peppermint Lily! 

Original Oil Painting Pepper Corn

Pepper Corn

14" x 18

Painted on linen board. 

I painted this from a still life I created. I posted a photo of the still life below. I really like the contrast textures the items have and I hope others do too! It was so much fun painting the kernels and hair of the corn cob and the bold colors of the peppers.