Finished

Acrylic on canvas 24 x 36in

Amelia and I painted a fish tonight!

Complements

5x7 Acrylic on paper

5x7 acrylic on paper
This is an update to an earlier painting - redone with a better sense of the color and feel I am looking for.

Detail Images

I am entering the roughest part of the painting process for me - finding a finish. I am really happy with the overall design, and I am starting to work into smaller spaces. Each individual area feels like a separate painting that I could spend hours on, but I want to avoid overworking and throwing off the overall balance. At this point I am going back and forth between textured layers of dark an light values followed up with light glazes of color to enhance the depth and texture.

Color study

I have been talking to a friend about complementary color combinations and felt like messing around with some mixes. I started plugging some into the landscape I sketched this morning.

6x6 acrylic on paper

Another day

The hardest part is taking a decent picture. These stink but it is too late to try again ~

On the easel

Well not really on the easel - more like on the table

Progress! I started a second 24x36 canvas. The plan is to work on both at the same time, funtioning as one image. I am going to catch up work on the second image so the two can develop together.

Canvas 24x36
A commission for a large canvas - started tonight with a warm brown base coat, followed with the initial "sculpting" or rock formations with the knife.

March 11
Acrylic on 5x7in hardboard panel

5x7in acrylic on paper

Thoughts from the Wildflower Show

Today wrapped up the Michigan Wildflower Conference at MSU. It was really exciting for me to be able to show all the progress that I have made through doing this blog. It is bittersweet to see many of my favorite paintings go to new homes ;)

This is an updated photo of the last canvas I was working on before getting so sick a few weeks ago (its hard to believe it was that long...). To me it is a really important piece - kind of a synthesis of so many of the things I have been working on over the last few months. I watched many people at the conference spend long moments staring into this painting. It seems to evoke a sense of familiartity - a feeling that you have been to this place before, perhaps many times over, but it is not exactly clear when and where.

4x10 acrylic on panel

I finished the road canvas, but forgot to shoot it before packing it up and heading to the wildflower show today. I enjoyed showing the body of work I have put together through this blog. As I updated and signed paintings I can really see a lot of changes.

Still Here!

Ok I havn't given up painting, I just got sick again this week - worse if you can imagine :( - and life has pretty much been in survival mode. The plan is to get back to working this weekend.

Sick...

I havn't posted in a while! Sara and I had some kind of stomach flu at the end of last week - the "might as well just sleep on the bathroom floor" type of flu. Really terrible. The kids seem to only have mild issues, so I hope that keeps up. Anyway, I felt like myself today and spent some time signing and "updating" some of my old daily paintings... not huge changes but it is cool to be able to apply the new things I have learned over the past months.