Bela et Blanche

 

"Bela et Blanche" (pastel, 10x22 inches) $990

I had this one sketched out quite a while ago, but ended up changing the drawing when I decided to switch the two calves' positions from how they were in the original photo. The larger shadow area on the front calf's shoulder looked ever so much better behind the other calf, and set off her face nicely!

I decided to give this pair French names, since they are Charolais, after all.

Enjoy a little slide show of progress pics Here! 

"Bela et Blanche" will be part of my Solo Exhibition, Kindred Spirits, at the ARTS for Rural Texas in Fayetteville, March 27 - May 29, 2021. Opening Reception March 27, 5-7pm. Karen will be loading new images into the site for the next several days as I finish new paintings... check this page frequently to see the show online!

The Three Bambinas

"The Three Bambinas" (Pastel, 16x16) sold

Here's the other commission for my wonderful decorator client in Fredericksburg. These are third generation longhorns on her little ranchette. The mothers of these three were the models for "The Lost Prince" (and Debi gave me an earful for the 'male' title! She said "You know, they're all GIRLS!" Her personal title for that one is "The Three Amigas".)
She had me paint these three little ladies in a 16x16 to go with a print of their mothers' portrait.

I was happy to be able to make a complimentary composition of the three new calves that works so well with the earlier painting. Her longhorns are really the most beautiful of all I've ever seen. Many of my longhorn paintings have been from my photos of her cattle. I love visiting her when the weather is nice!

Here's the new underpainting with the print of the older painting:

And more progress shots:

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Dawn of a Texan Dynasty

"Dawn of a Texan Dynasty"  (pastel, 36x36 inches)  sold

I actually finished this one 10 days ago, but hadn't taken a good photo of it when it was done. So I had to get the scans put together before I had an image I could post. I scan all my artwork before it's framed, so I can have a good 300dpi image file. Since my scanner is just an ordinary desktop size... yea. You get the picture. This one was about 25-30 sections to be connected up in Photoshop. I have a feeling there might be some program that could do that for me, but who has time to research that?? I'm too busy on my computer, uh, I mean PAINTING! I'm too busy painting. Yea. (Lol)

To continue the techie aspect of this post, I thought I'd show you my compositional thought process. This one was composed from 3 photos - the three cows:

They were all from the same herd on the same day (the same "photo shoot" I call it) so that the light matched. I remember these were on my way up to my workshop in Kansas last spring, somewhere in the north Texas panhandle.

I had a lot more pics from this herd, but as I played with the composition, these three settled to the fore. I also found a webpage online by a guy who talked about composing in a square and using mathematical formulas and circles very similar to how the golden rectangle uses 1.618 and the spiral to create the aesthetic ideal.

After spending more than an hour last night looking for that webpage because I had neglected to bookmark it, I looked again this morning with different keywords and found it! It's a mathematical essay by artist Janusz Kapusta, called The Square, the Circle and the Golden Proportion
A New Class of Geometrical Constructions. You can see it here:

https://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2000/bridges2000-247.pdf

 
Here's one of his square design diagrams overlaying my photo composition:

I did end up tweaking the positions just a bit more for the final painting.

"Dawn of a Texan Dynasty" will be my other largest painting at my show Beauty of the Beast at the Rockport Center for the Arts in Rockport, TX. Reception is this is Saturday, May 16 at 4:30.

Thanks, and please share!

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The Lost Prince

"The Lost Prince"  (pastel, 36x36 inches)  $5000

Here it is, finally! My newest big showstopper just in time for the Bayou City Art Festival in Memorial Park, Houson TX. Find this and all my newest available work in booth #3 this weekend March 27-29, 2015.

When BFF sold so fast, I quickly found another image to fit the frame I had intended for it. Here's the first two layers of gold primer on a 16x16 deer with attitude. ..I hope I'll have time to finish it by Wednesday!

November 31-in-30!

Well, I didn't do my original 60-in-30 personal challenge (see my Nov. 1 post) but I did have a painting to post every day of November, and even with using two posts to brag about older paintings getting published, I still created 31 works of art in November. Two of them were portrait commissions, which I couldn't post the actual works yet, but instead posted older portraits. And that left 3 extra 'dailies' which I posted in the first days of December!

This poster is late because I was out in Del Rio TX over the weekend to show my work during the First Friday Art Walk at the Lee-Bunch Studio Gallery (Her site will be updated soon!) A large selection of my work will stay there through most of January 2015.

Tomorrow I will try to post pics from the weekend, it was a fun time!

(btw: the poster collage above was created on picmonkey.com.)

Double Trouble

"Double Trouble"  (pastel, 36x36)  sold

My newest showstopper for the Bayou City Art Festival in downtown Houston TX, this weekend, Oct 11 & 12, 2014.
Find me in booth #590 on Dallas Street, facing north!

30 Paintings in 30 Days - September 2014

Here it is! My collage of my 30 paintings in 30 days of September. OK, I left out "Bull Profile #1" since he was the one that wasn't painted with this group and I had posted him before.

Leslie Saeta, host of this semi-annual challenge, is a wonderful Marketing Adviser. If you are an artist and want to make the most of your career, I highly recommend subscribing to her blog!

To see a closer view of these, my most recent paintings, CLICK HERE to go to my DailyPaintworks Gallery of available paintings. Many of these are still on auction for a limited time... at least until they are framed and packed for the Bayou City Art Fest in Houston later this month...

Here's a peek at what will be keeping me busy for the next week until I must rush to frame this up and ALL the little minis I just painted. Takes a couple days just to do that!

Latest work in progress, 36x36 inches:

 Here's what I've done this week so far... several more hours to go!

Chick Profile #2

"Chick Profile #2"  (pastel, 4.25 inch circle)  click here to bid

Here's a little something to tide you over while I finish prepping a new load of dailies. I started this one a few weeks ago so I put the finishing touches on it for today. This one will be auctioned in this cute little yellow frame (including glass)...

I've also primed my underpaintings for a new large longhorn painting (36x36) and a medium piece with goats (16x16). Here's a sneak preview of the progress so far:

 For those of you not familiar with my underpainting method, I use two pastel primers. The first is Golden (brand) Fine Pumice Gel with quinacridone nickel azo gold Fluid Acrylic Color added at about a 2/1 gel/color ratio. This is slightly transparent because of the gel, so gets darker on each application. For the darkest areas of the composition I use Art Spectrum Pastel Primer in the terra cotta color, and occasionally, for black subject matter, the black primer, as you see below.
My support of choice is 3/16" Gatorboard, although this method would work just as well on mounted or stretched watercolor paper. I like the Gatorboard because it won't warp.

These two underpaintings are ready now for the pastel. I'll be working on these for the next couple weeks, in between my 'dailies'. Stay tuned!

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Timid Twins

"Timid Twins"  (pastel, 36x24 inches)  sold

Finally! This will be my newest large showpiece for the Beachcomber's Art Show and Sale, South Padre Island, TX, Convention Centre, this weekend July 26 & 27, 2014.

My large paintings have sold fairly well over the last 2 years. "Nibbling Sibling", which was slotted to go to The Gallery at Round Top since they sold "Familial Bliss", just sold to a client from Cactus Jack's this week! So I'll be trying to compose some new large works before October and the Bayou City Art Fest in downtown Houston. This one will probably go to Round Top if it doesn't sell this weekend.

Here are just a handful of the progress shots for Timid Twins (the background gave me the most trouble!):

 Above was my first stop to analyze. Thought it might be done. Looked just like the photo (!) but something wasn't right. (Probably because it 'looked just like the photo'! Duh!)

 Not enough contrast behind the calves' white hides. Also too even a distribution of lights and darks. It had no 'strength'. So away went the photo, and away went the background!

 Instead, I put in a barn wall and another grassy shadow. Also subtly neutralized the shadowed sides of the hides using violets and greens.

 Leaving just the one streak of light to illuminate the calves.

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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