Tiny Figure

Drypoint Etching, 3" x 4"
SOLD
This really is a tiny figure. I had it
in mind to do a series of these. This
is the first one. It is based on a photo
that I took of woman who used to model
for my classes who was fabulous.
Unfortunatetly, she doesn't model
anymore. She was tall and stately,
and really fun to do gesture drawings
of, because she had really long legs
and expressive hands, and she always
had her hair up, but it was always
falling down into these great shapes.

This was drawn on a zinc plate, and printed
on French Rives BFK printmaking paper.
I only printed a couple of prints today, and I
think I'll probably only get about eight good
ones out of the edition, because the lines are
so delicate. But, I am very happy with the
image.

A Lazy Pear and a Turquoise Background

Oil on gessoed rag board, 6 1/2" x 5 3/4" $100.00
SOLD
I had fun painting these pears. I actually started them
yesterday, so I was able to use some glazes, which deeped
and enriched the colors in the way that I like. There aren't
many shadows, because that is just the way it was set up.

I use bosc pears to teach in my painting class. We do
a really fun exercise, because the class is one in indirect
painting (like they did in the Renaissance and in the early
days of oil painting). The students first paint a grisaille,
which is a black and white underpainting, and comes from
the French word for "gray".

After that dries, they cover that with a very, very thin
layer of a glaze made up of Liquin and Gamblin's Transparent
Red Earth. Voila. Pears! Well, not exactly. They blot the
glaze off here and there, because they have to keep painting,
using a limited palette, and painting into the pears and
background with opaque paint, using little or no medium.
It's amazing the results they come up with, though. Pretty
sophisticated - and some of these people have really never
painted before.

Indirect painting - that's what Jeff Hayes does, if you're
familiar with his blog and all his excellent sequential photos
of his paintings - is really the easiest way to paint. You
basically separate the drawing from the painting part.

Well, it's not quite that simple, but if you're a beginner,
it's worth a try. I'll be teaching it next year at The Art League
School in Alexandria, Virginia, if you happen to live near there.

Tuscan Farmhouse

Acrylic on Paper mounted on Board, 5" square
$100.00 go to eBay

I did this painting as a copy of a gouache painting

that I did in a sketchbook that I had prepared to

show a group of students who were potential

participants in a workshop in Florence. The workshop

ended up getting cancelled for various reasons, but I

was so happy with the gouache painting that I did

another, larger version of it, and here it is.

I love the simplicity of Italian farm buildings. I remember

riding around in the country when I lived in Italy. I didn't

own a car, so that was a very rare treat. The most spectacular

thing was to see the fields covered with red poppies in the

spring. I'll never forget that. It was amazing. Italy has to be

one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Early Evening Boston Studio View ll

Acrylic on Paper, 4 3/8" x 4 1/8", $80.00 SOLD

This one was done from a photo I took out the window

of my studio in Boston when I lived there in the 80's.

I never tired of seeing the different sunsets. I know I

mentioned in my last posting of this view how fascinated

I was by the buildings. The way they seemed to glow here

is not my imagination. There was something about the fact

that they were all made out of bricks, and were up high on

a hill, combined with the fact that the window faced

due west, that created a sort of nimbus around the

building sometimes.

This was easy to create in oil with a glaze of

Gamblin's Transparent Earth Red. This is acrylic, so

I just sort of did the best I could with some burnt umber

mixed with some orange and acrylic medium. A different

animal completely....but I'm developing a fondness for them,

I have to admit.

I'm planning on trying oils over acrylic. I think

that ultimately I'll like the range that will give

better than just straight acrylic.

I'll keep with the acrylics for awhile, though, just

to really get the hang of it. They are fun.

Sketch of Potomac River in the Summer

Gouache and Watercolor, 4" x 6" $100.00

This is actually right near where I live. It is nice to live near the river.
I love to see it in every season, but my favorite is definitely the
summertime. It isn't so great when it floods - which it did a few years
ago, wiping out a lot of my neighborhood. That was not pleasant.
But, we must be crazy. We all know we live in a 100-year flood plain.
And we haven't left ......yet.

I did this in a Canson sketchbook. I have several of them for different
themes. They are great if you keep your pictures rather small. But, if
you do anything larger than 5" x 7" the paper starts to buckle, so it's
better to keep the compositions on the small side. That's OK with me.
I enjoy working small a lot of the time. Everyone's different!