Monday, January 28, 2013








How important are the visual arts in our society?  I feel strongly that the visual arts are of vast and incalculable importance.  Of course I could be prejudiced.  I am a visual art.

                                          Kermit the Frog

Although this painting is not finished I thought I would take a few minutes and post some "in progress" photographs.  I am finding this one to be quite challenging as far as the shadowing goes.  The photograph I am working from is almost a monotone as it was taken with a strong flash eliminating practically all the shadows.  At any rate there is quite a bit of modeling left to do on the pots and more deepening of the shadows behind them.  Couldn't resist the Kermit quote!

Thursday, January 10, 2013








Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.

                                                                    Albert Camus

Well, it is 2013 and a lot has been going on.  First of all the three paintings above are the ones I completed for my course at the Crealde Art School in Orlando.  While, of course, I think they could all three use a little tweaking it is almost time for another course to begin so I have been busy picking out subject matter for three more oils.  I like my paintings to have a bit of drama in them and I find strong contrasts help to bring that about.  One of the photos I have picked for the next session is mainly shades of brown so we will see how that works.

Another interesting project I have been working on is a drawing challenge started by Paul Foxton, an artist living outside of London.  I subscribe to Paul's emails which arrive sporadically with wonderful thoughts and lessons on the art of drawing.  Paul has managed to corral about 180 of his followers from around the world to join in a 30 day regular practice event.  We each are encouraged to draw every day and then post about how we are doing.  Today was day 10 and so far, so good.  I grab my sketch book every morning after I check the news and work on a few exercises.  It has been a lot of fun so far to keep up with people from places as far away as Australia, South Africa, and Scandinavia. 

Finally, I am working on a few pieces I hope to submit to the Orlando Museum of Art as a part of their First Thursday Member's Exhibit.  While strongly cautioned not to advertise that any work that is accepted is not to be misrepresented as work that is part of any other exhibit of the Orlando Museum of Art other than the Member's Exhibit, just to be accepted will be fine with me!