It's Not Vacation Unless I'm Working!

Last week my in-laws treated Steve and me to an all-inclusive beach vacation with them in the Bahamas. We stayed at the Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, which includes lots of water sports, restaurants, drinks all day (not that I took advantage of that!), and even an off-shore private island. Of course, I couldn't stand the thought of spending five days without painting, so I brought my pochade box and supplies along with me. I managed to do a little bit of plein air painting almost every day we were there. There was something incredibly freeing about standing there in a bathing suit, barefoot in the sand, doing what I love the most. :-)   Finished painting (about 1 1/2 hours) of rocks and waves along the offshore island at the resort. 8x8" - oil on panel Later my father-in-law e… Read more »

It's Not Vacation Unless I'm Working!

Guy with a Beard

This guy... Michael Mentler. The Infamous 'M'. :-) Michael runs the Society of Figurative Arts in Carrolton, TX. I have known him for almost five years now and have enjoyed regularly attending his Tuesday portrait painting sessions. We have gotten to be very good friends, and I have enjoyed celebrating with him in his remarkable success as of late (he has been hailed as a "modern-day Leonardo" by Richard Schmid himself!). Michael is an excellent artist and teacher, but he also has an overall look that is begging to be painted! He has posed for such greats as Sherrie McGraw and Rose Frantzen . At SOFA, though we work from all different models week to week, we are always begging Michael to sit for us. This week, our model didn't show, so Michael complied, and I finally … Read more »

Guy with a Beard

"Glass Sparrow" - Inspiration & Progression

My recent painting, "The Glass Sparrow", was inspired by a piece I saw at the Meadows Museum of Art at SMU. It was part of the special Diego Velazquez exhibit that I was fortunate enough to attend just before it closed. The piece that really grabbed me was called "Female Figure (Sibyl with Tabula Rasa)". It wasn't the subject matter that attracted me, but rather, the abstract value pattern. An abstract value pattern is what the image would look like if it were broken down into its simplest shapes and values, so essentially, what you would see if you were squinting at it from far away. A successful AVP will draw you in from across the room and make you want to look closer - and that is exactly what this painting did for me. I loved the square composition, the perfec… Read more »

"Glass Sparrow" - Inspiration & Progression