Beanstick Smokehouse

This was painted during the early morning hours on Saturday, 11-26-06. This is an old smokehouse or outside kitchen and is all that is left of the original structure. I wasn't pleased with some of the areas so I have gessoed over this painting and will try again to capture the essence of age this building is showing.

Strawberries

This original acrylic painting was completed Sunday, 11-19-06. It is 6" x 6" on Arches 140 lb. watercolor paper. Strawberries look simple to paint and perhaps for some artist, they are. Getting value changes in reds is a matter of adding greens or blues or umbers. One could even add greys. To acheive the lighter values, I mixed Naples yellow and/or Titanium white with the reds. I used four different hues of red in the berries as I needed cool reds (leaning toward blue) and warm reds (leaning toward yellow.)

Floral Still Life

11-13-06 This was painted over the weekend with corrections done this morning. I like parts of the original version better as it looked fresh and bright. I do like the table part better. So along the line of showing what works and what doesn't, this is one that sort of works but could be much better.

Daisies

This original acrylic painting, using Stephen Quiller Professional Artists' Acrylics, was an exercise in color. The image size is 6 3/4" x 10" on 7 1/2" x 11 1/4" Arches 140 lb. watercolor paper. I used an underpainting of Transparent Gold Oxide, then laid on Titanium White, Primary Cyan, Ultramarine Blue, Pyrrole Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Deep, along with more Transparent Gold Oxide.

Reptant (creeping)

11-01-31 I painted "Reptant" yesterday as my interpretation of insidious, creeping feelings representing fear based thoughts and beliefs. It is an original abstract watercolor painted on 5 1/2" x 11 3/4" Arches watercolor paper, with Stephen Quiller acrylic paints of Primary Cyan, Cadmium Yellow Deep, and Transparent Pyrrole Red Light.

I think of these feelings as fear based simply because they often keep one from going forward, making it difficult to begin a painting or make decisions. While my mind is subconsciously working through these feelings, I read art books, watch artists' videos, or view paintings in galleries and museums. Sometimes, all it takes to overcome these feelings is picking up a paint brush and laying down strokes of paint. That is how this painting began.