Danielle in Front of a Japanese Print

Oil on board, 9" x 14", NFS

This painting was obviously not done in

one day, as a matter of fact, it took me

about two weeks to paint, but, I had so

many family obligations today that I

didn't have the time to paint, so I decided

to post an example of the type of work I

used to show in galleries.

I do love this painting - it is a painting of a

friend of my daughter's, but I didn't love the

amount of time it took, the intense detail it

involved, or what it did to my right hand.

I ended up with no cartiledge between the

bones of my thumb from painting so much

with my fingers pinced together to create

the detail.

I absolutely love color! And, I think what I

am facing now is a way to achieve the coloristic

complexity of this work while doing it in a looser,

quicker manner, which is more enjoyable and

certainly more relaxed. Right now I am experi-

menting - proving that one is never too old to

experiment!

This is painted over a grisaille underpainting

(a black and white underpainting). This actually

makes painting easier, but it is a long, drawn-out

process which I seem to have lost the patience for.

Daily painting has changed my attitude towards a

lot of things...

Thanks for visiting today.

Venus #1

Pastel and Carbon Pencil on White Paper

8" x 9 3/4" SOLD

I don't know why, but I have always been fascinated

by classical sculptures from ancient Greece and Rome.

I have spent a great deal of time doing drawings of

them in many different media. My favorite is pastel,

however, which I usually do on acid-free sketch-weight

paper, using veils of color, vine charcoal, carbon pencil,

and several different types of fixative.

I start out with a layer of Nupastel (hard) in some color that

I like, and draw into that with a very skinny piece of vine

charcoal. The great thing is that if you don't like what you

draw, you can just keep covering it up with more pastel

until you get an image that you think you can work with.

At that point I will usually spray it with Workable Fixative.

Not too much, but just enough to make changes if I want.

Then I start adding more colors, more drawing, more vine

charcoal. I use the carbon pencil (Conte), because it doesn't

smear like charcoal pencil does.

After awhile, I will deliberately spray this with Crystal Clear

or Matte Finish, or other Krylon Fixative (outside of course!!), or

even Sennelier Fixatif Latour, which, being made from a citrus

base, I can spray right in front of my face, but it has a tendancy

to wrinkle the paper, as it has some water in it, I think (it can also

deposit some spots, but this can be a very happy accident sometimes!).

At this point I am deliberately trying to make the picture darker.

Then I continue to work on it with the same materials, until I have gotten

to a place where I am happy with it.

Next to my post is a small example of a larger drawing that I was very happy

with that is not for sale, because it is part of my private collection.

Thank you for viewing my work today.

Tiny Pre-Raphaelite Sophie l

Oil on Board, 4" x 4" $50.00 SOLD

This tiny painting of my daughter was done from a

photo I took of her quite a few years ago. I manipulated

the photo in Photoshop - something I love to do - using

the lighting options, so that I vignetted her into this

circle. I just thought it had an unusual, "times past"

look. With her flowing hair, pensive expression, and

colorful kimono, she struck me as very similar to some

of the models used by the Pre-Raphaelite painters, who

seemed to favor extremely pale, long haired, pensive

women. My daughter is actually bright and and happy -

she's just a good model. I've done many paintings and

prints of her. She wanted to be an actress for a while,

and can be quite dramatic, which makes her a great

person to draw and paint!

This is just a quickly-done

painting, but there are things about it that I like.