The guilt over neglecting this blog has finally become too much! I’m trying to catch up with so many things in the past year. After a lengthy period of sharing caregiving duties with a sister for our mom (who had dementia) the “new normal” is requiring some adjustment. Furthermore, there were other things that have happened in the last year, things that kept me from painting (or updating this blog) as much as I’d like.
I can’t say that everything is now perfect and normal, but when is it ever? All I can say is that things are gently pushing upward. For that I am grateful.
Anyway, I have done many paintings in the last year. I’ll post many of them in future posts, but just want to share a select few here:
I’m going through a “tiger phase.” This is just one tiger example. I’m not done yet! I’ve got many more tigers (and other big cats) to paint! If painting tigers is wrong, I don’t want to be right!
This is one of my most recent paintings. There was a limited palette “feel” to the reference photo—mostly oranges, ochres, blacks, and some blues. I mixed my paints from a fairly limited selection of colors—mostly white, yellow ochre, transparent red oxide, ultramarine blue. Another challenge was the deep shadow on one side of the cat’s face, and the colors and color temperatures needed to capture that shadow. The whole thing was a learning experience!
This is one of my current favorites. I know I’m known mostly for my cat paintings, but I dearly love painting portraits too. I used a reference photo from Posespace.com (of a favorite model named Cesar). This painting doesn’t look that much like Cesar, but I like how it turned out anyway!
Another portrait study from a posespace.com reference photo. This was mostly a value and color temperature study and a good learning experience. I liked her direct gaze and the complex shadow patterns on her face.
I’ve been also working on a series of landscape studies. Typically I don’t do a lot of landscapes and I feel this is a weakness in me. The results of these studies have been mixed in my opinion, but this painting of Monument Valley was enjoyable to paint and I think turned out okay.
“Jelly beans” is a nickname for the cat’s paw paddies (so Google tells us). This kitty was particularly adorable. I tried to paint a little looser in this one. That’s one of my goals, to have a more spontaneous and loose painting style.
I have also been working on a series of “mini paintings” (3×3″ and even a few that are 2×2″!). This study of a grey cat head is one of my favorites. I love the expression on the cat (so disgruntled-looking!) and I also enjoyed capturing all the values and color temperatures in the fur. (Cool, almost blue-grey, then warm, almost brown-grey, all in the same cat.)
Some of these paintings have already sold, some are still available for sale. You can find them on DailyPaintworks (though some DailyPaintworks listings will redirect to somewhere else like Etsy or UGallery).
That’s it for now! I plan on writing more about other media (mainly acrylics) but that will wait for a future post. So glad to be back! I missed this blog!
