Girl with White Scarf

"Girl with White Scarf", 14 x 11 In, Oil, 2023

Contemplation

"Contemplation", 10 x 8 In, Oil, 2013

Portrait
NFS

Margaret in Red Dress

"Margaret in Red Dress", 18 x 14, Oil_2009

A painting from long ago.

NFS

Margaret With Sun Hat

"Margaret With Sun Hat", 16 x 12 In, Oil, Panel

Portrait from years ago.

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Liz in Blue Dress

"Liz in Blue Dress"

My daughter, Liz. NFS

Margaret in Red Print Dress

"Margaret in Red Print Dress"

My daughter in the garden a few years ago.

Portrait Study #7

"Portrait Study #7", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
I spent many days in early 2019 practicing portraits. This is one of them

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Green Dress

"Green Dress", 12 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This is another of the portrait studies I did in early January.

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Girl in Blue

"Girl in Blue", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board

The other day I was out where there were crowds of people, which is not particularly comfortable for me. I like to go to places like Escalante, where I head out in my 4-wheel drive with my artist friends and we never see another soul. But I can get along in most any situations if I can find a definite purpose, and in this case, it was surreptitiously taking photos of the many faces for portrait paintings. This painting is actually from a photo from long ago. And yes, I would rather have a live model, but in the end, its all about letting go and taking liberties--the more, the better.

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White Dress

"White Dress", 14 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
I am fascinated by the portrait, maybe because I find it so difficult. With a landscape you can smudge around--change the design and look to harmony without having to put a structure called a nose in approximately the right place. You can make the sky bigger or move the tree to the left or the right. But maybe, in the end, it is a good strategy to think of a portrait as a landscape--just another interesting set of shapes and planes and darks and lights.

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Woman in Black

"Woman in Black", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
Fascinated by portraiture, I continue to try to re-think my process. In the end, they are all experiments and the question always is, when to simply go on to the next one. I've always found that at a certain point, everything in the painting is dependent on everything else and to change one small thing is often a major undertaking, even if that one small thing stands out as something that needs to be "fixed."

Woman In Black

Framed $1,050.00 USD Unframed $950.00 USD

White Dress

"White Dress", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board

I recently read a blog from another artist who said that value is more important than color and something in me wants to take exception to that. But I also would not contend the opposite. Value and color are like the senses of seeing and hearing, both aspects of the bigger whole. With color there are warms and cools, not dependent on value. And it would be interesting to know if the brain registers color differently than value. And what about other aspects of painting, such as brushwork, which could be related to value (the "rule" says keep darks thin), but is really something different--a matter of physical intention and emotion. In fact, I've never been able to think of one aspect of painting as being more important than another aspect, but maybe I am missing something, and so I am open to your thoughts--readers of my blog!

Price

Framed $1,050.00 USD Unframed $950.00 USD

Meg

"Meg", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board

I am fascinated by the human face but continually question--how to make it a fascinating painting. Sometimes, as in this portrait, I use a bigger brush, #10 flat, to keep from being caught up in detail.

Framing

Framed $1,050.00 USD Unframed $950.00 USD

Portrait Study #30

"Portrait Study #30, 14 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

This is the last portrait--for now! Thank you, all my subscribers, for travelling on this road with me!

Portrait Study #29

Portrait Study #29, 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
Only one more portrait to post after this--then I'm out in the sun and the wind.

Portrait Study #28

"Portrait Study #28", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
I'm almost to the end of my portrait studies for the winter. Time to get out my camera for next year.

Portrait Study #27

"Portrait Study #27", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
I promise I am almost to the end of my portrait studies--a few more postings and then I'm off to the landscape--my goodness--the sun is shining here--after weeks of rain. I probably won't understand what I've learned until I'm off in the distance.

Portrait Study #26

"Portrait Study #26", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
With every study, there is an attempt to try something different, and it may not always be obvious. There are so many variables, and maybe, at some point, more abstraction will become the main variable. But until then, this one is about warms and cools.

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Portrait Study #25

"Portrait Study #25", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board

Ah--yet another portrait. There was an amazing sight the other day out my back window that I wish I had moved quickly enough to capture in a photo. It was nearing dusk when we saw one of our Bald Eagles swimming across the Cove, probably with a catch in its talons too heavy to lift out of the water. Eagles do not float on the water, but they are powerful swimmers. It swam a good 300-400 feet in less than 10 minutes. We saw this once before years ago when we first moved here. Our Eagle pair was on the beach yesterday--brilliant white heads against the dark gray sand.

Portrait Study #24

"Portrait Study #24", 14 x 11 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is another portrait I did a couple of weeks ago. It was a complete second try on a painting that I didn't like. The first one had been "fixed" to death. Strange how lifeless a painting can become with second thoughts. Sometimes even glaring errors have more feeling. I try to go with the idea that what I put down is it--to say it in the beginning--to question the voice that says, "you can fix it later."