Curtain

"Curtain," Acrylic on Board, 20x16"

Here's a small landscape I did today as an exercise to create material for my next newsletter.   I took a series of photos while I was working that I assembled into a time-lapse video of my process.   It's a bit embarrassing to show the world how much my process resembles paint-by-number, but I thought people might be interested.  Subscribe to my newsletter if you'd like to see the video!

Dew

"Dew," Acrylic on Board, 40x40"

I'm usually drawn to the trees, but in this case it was the dew on the grass that caught my attention.  It's the simple things you see that are the most beautiful sometimes.  I'm glad that February is behind me. Somehow the shorter span of days makes me feel stressed.  I'm glad to be in a more normal month again.

Window on Shoal Creek

"Window on Shoal Creek," Acrylic on Panels in Vintage Window Frame, ~31x34"

Here's the latest addition to my windows series.  If you look at it up close, it's very loose/abstract, but when you step back, it looks fairly representational.

Huntress

"Huntress," Acrylic on Board, 30x40"

This one is much looser than some of the previous figure paintings and I like the effect.  I also like  how her face is at the far left of the composition, as if she can't be bothered to pay attention to the viewer.

Shadows on Snow

"Shadows on Snow," acrylic on panels in vintage window frame

It's odd to be painting images of snow when it's nearly 80 degrees outside.  As a child of the Midwest,  I miss having a 'real' winter.   Having a window on snow, without the cold, is a good compromise.

Caught

"Caught," Acrylic on Board, 40x30"

This is a new model and I'm pleased with the results.  In the original reference photo, her look is more challenging and less "deer in the headlights".  Looking at this small, it seems crazy that I spent the time to put so much detail into the background.  I like the contrast of the natural foliage w/the sporty jack and sneakers though.  I'm getting better at painting dark skin tones too.

One thing that I struggled with on this one is that I didn't sand down the previous painting well enough resulting in ridges on the surface.  If you look closely, she seems to have subtle scars running diagonally across her face.  It's actually kind of a cool effect, but was not my original intention.

Fall View

"Fall View," Acrylic on 4 Panels in Vintage Window

Here's my second piece in the window's series.  I played around a bit with the window finish.  I though gold would look good, but I was wrong.  The piece is much better set off by a simple white frame.  I did however add a new coat of white paint. Vintage can be good, but yellow water stains, not so attractive, imo.