Mother's Day Rose

 

"Mother's Day Rose" (pastel, 8x6 inches) bid or buy

Happy Mother's Day! Here's a fresh rose (painting, that is) for you on this lovely day!
Also to be my painting #3 of my 21-in-31 goal for May!
See a quick GIF here!

Day 12 of 28: "Tulips and Pot"

 

Day 12 of 28: "Tulips and Pot" (pastel over watercolor, 6x6 inches) bid or buy here

This was my replacement for missing out of recording "Spring Garden 2" from Tuesday's VOS. It's painted the same way, with a watercolor underpainting on Arches w/c paper.
The real time creation of this little landscape will be available to Patrons on my Patreon page soon, but meanwhile everyone can enjoy this little speed video!

Day 11 of 28: "A Sunny Walk"

 

"A Sunny Walk" (5x5, pastel over watercolor on UArt) bid or buy

This little painting will be the feature of my VOS video Episode 90, Part 2. Part 1 is another little garden landscape that I painted to replace the actual VOS Episode 90 (in which I painted "Spring Garden 2") which, due to technical difficulties, did not actually get recorded!

So I had some fun with watercolor underpainting for a couple days. I really like this image. I clearly remember taking the reference photo on a walk in some gardens somewhere. The happy daisies shooting up and casting long shadows... All around me were beautiful sights, but sometimes you just have to look where you're walking or you might miss something sweet!

Enjoy these progress pics!

Day 10 of 28: "Spring Garden 2"

Day 10 of 28: "Spring Garden 2" (pastel over watercolor, 6x6 inches)

This was a re-paint of a sold painting from 2012 that a client fell in love with. The original of this little landscape was one small part of a photo reference that I had posted way back in 2012 on DailyPaintworks as "The Cropping Challenge". Read all about my adventures with this challenge and the other paintings I did, here!

Cactus Blossom #3

"Cactus Blossom #3" (pastel, approx. 12x9 inches) click here to bid or buy

This was my first warm-up last weekend at The Painter's Cabin in Kerrville. There was a glorious prickly pear cactus growing right by the road, resplendent with flowers and bees (bees not shown.) It caught my eye immediately so I decided to make a part of it my first painting of the weekend.

I've only done two other cactus flowers, those were waaaay back in 2004... Both were done on the rough side of Canson, on red, and black, respectively.

"Cactus Blossom #1" (pastel, 12x9, 2004) sold

"Cactus Blossom #2" (pastel, 12x9, 2004) available

I believe this one was done on a pale gray Pastelmat.

 Pastel under painting washed in with water..

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Petunias in a Glass

"Petunias in a Glass"  (oil, 8.5 x 5.5 inches)  click here to bid or buy

My first oil painting in 3 years, and the first flowers I've ever painted in oil!  (Possibly the first flowers I've ever painted from life, in any medium..) Thanks to Stephanie Birdsall, our workshop instructor this past weekend for the Austin Pastel Society. She works and teaches in oil as well as pastel, and four of us decided we wanted to do oils.

Scroll through my progress shots and see a quick speed video I made of Stephanie's oil demo!

my subject setup... painted from life!

And... Stephanie's oil demo! Very inspiring!

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Spring Garden (my DPW Challenge - 1st post!)

"Spring Garden"  (pastel, 6.5 x 6.5 inches)  click here to bid

This is my first painting from my first Daily Paintworks Challenge that I authored myself! (Click here to see the challenge.) I chose a photo of a driveway of a historical house in New Braunfels that is always in perfect beautiful condition of landscape and mood (complete with a horse-drawn buggy and mannequins in the front yard - not seen in the photo; that would have REALLY been an overload!) The photo is beautiful, but has TONS of information, so I decided to call this the "Cropping Challenge" since what I typically do to find a good painting composition is to hone in on a simpler subject and crop out the rest.
This painting is a view of  the plants that border the side porch of the house, and a bit of the garage in the background.

It's done on Arches watercolor paper with a watercolor underpainting, and pastel on top. I've not used this particular surface before, but wanted to try something different, since this was also a different subject matter than my usual. I enjoyed the process and it was fun to see how the texture of this paper affected the result. I like the impressionist look.

"Golden Glow II" won First in Pastel

"Golden Glow II" (pastel, 10x10in.)

I had 2 entries to this month's special show at the New Braunfels Art League Gallery. Since the show is titled "Art in Bloom," I figured something floral would be appropriate. Florals not being my forte, I decided to try something different and crop WAY in! I found a pretty good composition in this golden tulip, and the judge must have agreed to give it first place!

Below is "Golden Glow I", it's mate. Both can be seen at the New Braunfels Art league Gallery through May 30, 2011.

"Golden Glow I" (pastel, 10x10in.)