Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon
8" x 10" oil on board
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Fedor Zakharov might be my new favorite painter. Of course that distinction changes from week to week. But what strikes me most about Zakharov and the Russian impressionists, aside from vibrant color schemes, super thick paint and brushstrokes, is the confidence that it takes to paint the way they do. It takes a lot of confidence to put down a stroke and leave it, knowing that while it may look out of place at the moment, you will bring it all together in the end.

I'm not comparing myself to Fedor Zakharov, but I think this painting and some of my recent work is a step in the right direction.  I'm starting to do more than just replicate what I see in front of me. I'm making decisions about value and tone, color scheme and temperature that go beyond recreating what I see. I can see a little more confidence when I look at this painting.

High Noon on the Patio - Forest Edge

High Noon on the Patio - Forest Edge

5" x 7" oil on gesso board


My camera had a hard time with this photo, distorting values and colors as usual...Either way, this is an interesting little painting.  I used a palette of quinacridone purple, cadmium orange, and viridian green because when I sat in my lawn chair, eating lunch and thinking about this painting the day before, that's what I saw. I took a photo and did my best to premix values before I went outside because I knew the light would change quickly. I painted this between 12 and 1pm. The color combination made it tough to match the variety of colors, especially the greens, but I think it worked and it was more about the values anyway. The round thing in the lower left quadrant is a soccer ball that my dog, Riley, has been slowly chewing through the last two years.  That's her water dish just above the ball. I really like the greenish shadow on the flower pot in front and the mid value orange on the ball.  The chair is actually black, and I could have made it nearly back, but I felt like that would distract from the ball and the flower pot.

Springtime on the Piankatank

Springtime on the Piankatank
8" x 16" oil on board
Not for sale

I painted this to hang over Camlin's crib (if it ever arrives).  Interestingly, I painted this over another painting that I didn't love and had never posted. I like working over paintings because you wind up with nice textures and you can let some of the original painting peek through, providing spots of color to break things up.

Counter-y Things

Counter-y Things
16" x 20" oil on board


My brain's a little fried at the moment from lack of sleep, so if you can think of a better name for this painting, I'm open to suggestions. This was one of those times when I was drawn in by an arrangement of objects that just had to be painted. All objects except for the cactus in the top left were positioned as they appear in the painting.  I felt like I needed another mass up there to balance things out, so I grabbed a cactus and went to work. I like the looseness of this painting.

Yellow Tomato with Glass

Yellow Tomato with Glass
5" x 7" oil on board


As usual, I had a hard time getting a good photo, but I really like the color scheme and simplicity of this one.

Mango

Mango
5" x 7" oil on board


My camera may have over-saturated the colors a bit, but this is close. Lately, I've been working exclusively with ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light, and cadmium red light just to simplify things.  However, I couldn't make the green that I needed for the mango with those colors, so I added viridian for this one.  I attempted to paint this mango one stroke at a time and then leave it.

Has Been

Has Been
5" x 7" Oil on board


I'm managing to squeeze in some quick paintings between screams.  This one is really simple, but I like it.