Bored Boers

 "Bored Boers" (pastel, 12x16 inches) $925 

This is from a favorite photo of some Boer goats that I caught lazing in a sunny field one morning. I was able to sneak up on them from a dirt road behind a line of shrubbery. So they didn't see me until I started taking photos through a break in the bushes. These two saw me first before they all started standing up and walking away. I love it when I catch an awesome pose like this one!

This painting will be one of my mid-sized works at my Solo Exhibition, Kindred Spirits, at the ARTS for Rural Texas in Fayetteville, March 27 - May 29, 2021. Opening Reception March 27, 5-7pm. Click here to view the show online! 

A percentage of the sale of the paintings will support the free programs provided by Arts for Rural Texas, a 501(C)(3) not for profit organization.

See a slide show of progress pics on this post!

Alfalfa (Warm Fuzzy #53) - Demo for the PSCF

 Warm Fuzzy #53 - "Alfalfa" (pastel, 6x6 inches) click here to bid

Thank you to the Pastel Society of Central Florida for having me do a demo for their December 2020 meeting. You all had some great questions about primers, surfaces, and framing, and thank you for your interest in my Paint-Alongs and Patreon page and the short studio tour!

Thanks also to Deborah who liked his little cowlick, for giving me the title idea! I tweaked a tiny bit of the background colors afterwards, and decided to sign it at the bottom left after all. 

 

If you are a member of the PSCF or any of the Texas pastel societies who were invited to the demo (APS, CTPS, PSST) you can find access to the video from your societies. I'll be sending them the link.

 

Meanwhile, you can see some progress screen shots from the recording on my public Patreon post here.  Enjoy!

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BFF

"BFF"  (pastel, 16x16 inches)  sold

This one sold before I could post it! A client loved the underpainting peek from last week and staked her claim!
Here are some progress shots:

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Hyacinth

"Hyacinth"  (pastel, 6x6 inches)  sold

Hyacinth went out to Frances of the Garden Gallery, who has been so generous with her photos of a neighbor's Highland Cattle, a breed in short supply in my part of Texas.

And for you patient subscribers: Here's a peek at 2 new large underpaintings. I'm gearing up for a couple weeks of intense painting to have some new work at the Bayou City Art Fest later this month.

pastel primer underpainting, 24x24

pastel primer underpainting, 16x16

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.)

3 Little Goatie Goats - day 8

"3 Little Goatie Goats"  (pastel, 10x20 inches)  sold

Day 8 in my self-inflicted goal of 60 Paintings in 30 days! (30-Paintings-in-30-Days-of-November-Plus-up-to-30-More-to-Carry-Over-into-December... Maybe?)

This started as a demo for the Highland Arts Guild in Marble Falls, TX, right before the workshop last month. One of my workshop attendees staked her claim on it before it was even finished! Finally I completed it as part of my November challenge.

Here are some progress shots:

This is as far as I got in the demo..

 A few days after the workshop, worked on it a bit more.

   I had problems with the background and wiped off the horizon line.

 I continued a few days ago... but I didn't like this background, at all! That horrid lime green (which was one of my favorite colors in some other paintings) just was not working here!

So I wiped off the entire background. Actually a frequent occurrence in my larger paintings.

 I decided to go with sky and a distant tree line.

 And light pressure on the pastel to allow the primer to resonate. That worked.

Thanks for watching! Please share!

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Safety Zone

"Safety Zone"  (pastel, 16x16 inches)  $985 framed   sold

Finally, this and my other really large new work are done! (Remember my post from way back in August, when I gave a sneak peek at 2 large underpaintings?) As usual, finished in the nick of time for an art fair. This will be with me at the Bayou City Art Festival this weekend, Oct 11 & 12, 2014. Find me in booth #590 on Dallas Street, facing north!

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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'Lunch Al Fresco' in Artist's Magazine!

"Lunch Al Fresco"  (pastel, 18x14 inches) $975

I'm happy to brag that my painting "Lunch Al Fresco" had an Honorable Mention in the animal category of the Artist's Magazine 30th Annual Art Competition and is in the December 2013 issue (page 48!)

Surprisingly, this piece has not yet sold, and I get to look at it even as I write this!

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Buddies

"Buddies"  (pastel, 15x8 inches)  $475

"Buddies" is one that I thought was finished when it actually wasn't. I was going by the photo and included a hoof of the left goat that I later realized served no purpose other than to clutter the composition. After all, who's to say the left goat didn't have his front legs tucked under him?

...While I was fixing that, I softened up the ground shadows and 'fixed' up the fur a bit... It's so hard to let a painting be done sometimes. But I do like this final better than the first 'finish'. Below is the early finish, the original reference photo and the cropped, color-adjusted photo.

 

"Buddies" is available at Cactus Jack's Gallery in Gruene, Texas through January 28, 2013.

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