Another Candy Painting

M & M's III, 6"x6", Oil on Board
I finished this M & M painting over the weekend. Although it's not much different from my other M & M paintings I just love painting these...kind of fun with the bright colors.

Just Finished My Martini

"Martini", 5"x7", Oil on Board
I just finished painting this earlier today and had to battle the wind to get a picture of it. I'm not happy with how the painting turned out but I post my failures on here as well. I've also been busy working on some landscapes, but I haven't decided if I'll post those on here on not. At the Art2010 at the Harlow Gallery, I got an honorable mention for one of my pieces. That show ends on the 30th of this month in Hallowell, Maine.

Finished my Teapot

"Old Teapot", 6"x6", Oil on Board
I finished my teapot yesterday and just took it outside to get a quick photo of it. This was painted with a limited palette; however, I don't use pre-mixed greys. I like having the control over mixing my own. In other news for the week, I had two paintings accepted into a juried show at Art2010 at the Harlow Gallery here in Maine. May 7th will be a reception when they will announce prize winners...I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Sneak Peek Old Teapot in Progress

This is an old teapot that I'm currently working on. Some areas have given me grief but I'm determined to finish the piece. The finished painting will measure 6"x6". On a side note, I entered some work in another juried show over the weekend and will find out by the end of the week if my work was accepted. I never really worry about winning awards at these events...I just want my work accepted and then if I happen to win something it's a bonus.

Landscape Study

"Scarborough Marsh IV", 5"x7", Oil
I've been doing some quick studies of the Scarborough Marsh this week and ended up with this study of the area. I'll probably go back in and add some more darks in the foreground because I'm not happy with it. The marsh is really a great place to paint especially if you visit at different times throughout the year. I ended up traveling down south to the Scarborough/Cape Elizabeth area on Friday to paint. It's really a beautiful area and a different place to paint since most of my landscapes are focused on the Bar Harbor/Stonington area.

Landscape

"Albion View", 5"x7", Oil on Board
I've been wanting to paint some more landscapes in oil so I decided to paint this small study. The original image is a little brighter than this photo even though I used the white balance adjustment on the camera. I actually did replace the camera that I was having a lot of problems with and bought a digital Panasonic Lumix. It's a nice camera but I still haven't worked out all of the settings for lighting my artwork. I'm not as comfortable painting landscapes in oil as I am in pastel so there's room for improvement here. I haven't decided if I'll paint more landscapes or move on to a still life.

I Love Cherries

"Cherries in Silver Bowl", 6"x6", Oil on Board
I came quite close to finishing this yesterday; however, I was too exhausted so I ended up finishing it this morning. I'm quite happy with how the painting turned out but the detail is really more incredible in the original. This photo was as close as I could come to the original painting. I also re-painted the background on the Vintage Hamilton Beach Mixer and it came out much better. I've re-photographed that painting and re-posted it below. I'm much happier with the mixer painting now. Let me know what you think!

Another Candy Painting

"Jr. Mints", 6"x6", Oil on Panel

I finished this little candy painting about an hour ago. This is probably about the third still life painting I've done of candy, but I have fun painting them and they are kind of whimsical. The most challenging part of these kind of paintings are the package designs and hand painting the lettering.

I got a call from the owner of the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth, Maine which is near Bar Harbor for those of you who do not live in Maine. The owner of the gallery is interested in showing some of my work at her gallery this summer. She requested to see more images of my pastel landscapes which I sent out to her on Monday. I'll give it a week and then I'll follow-up with a phone call to find out which pieces she is interested in. My biggest problem with this whole process was that all of my Jpegs were not at a reduced size so I ended up having to make my image files smaller. I don't know how my image files are ending up so large to begin with. I'm weak in the technology area!

Vintage Hamilton Beach Mixer

"Vintage Hamilton Beach", 8"x10", Oil on Board
I finally finished this painting yesterday. The past month or so I've been so busy with other things that I really couldn't focus on painting. I'm hoping that I can get back into some kind of routine now with my painting. Please keep in mind when you look at the photo of the painting that the background is still wet in areas and the camera picked up the glare from it. I will replace the photo as soon as the painting has dried. I felt like my subject matter was a little challenging; however, I still enjoyed painting the mixer. The one thing that I kept thinking about when I was painting this was how beat up the mixer was with all of its scratches and imperfections from years of use. The mixer still runs and I've found use for it as a still life object. The mixer reminded me of people in the sense that even though a lot of us have imperfections and life has worn us down we keep going.

I Finally Finished This

"Cherries and Plate" 5"x7", Oil on Board
I finally finished this the other day but I didn't get it photographed until today. I took too long on this painting but I think a lot of it is just the time of year and the fact that a week ago I didn't have any heat in my studio so that certainly put me behind. I'm hoping I can get more work done after the new year. We shall see because it really depends on how much pain and swelling I have in my hands. As for the cherry painting I just finished, I'm happy with how the cherries turned out but that's about it. Hopefully, my work will continue to improve the longer I stick with it. If I don't post again before Christmas, then Merry Christmas to all of you.

Tomatoes Still Life

"Two Tomatoes", 6"x6", Oil on Canvas
I finished this last night but decided to wait for natural light this morning to photograph the painting. I used a few different reds, cad. yellow light, thalo green, white and some greys to create this small painting. The biggest challenge for me was getting that dull shine on the tomatoes. I think I'll continue with more still life paintings.

Small Paintings

"Maine Marsh", 4"x 6", Oil on Canvas
I've painted a few miniatures over the past couple of weeks and decided to paint another marsh painting because it's such an incredible area.

Schoodic Point Pastel

"Schoodic Point in Fog", 5"x8", Pastel
I finished this pastel landscape of Schoodic Point last night. For those of you who are not from Maine, Schoodic Point is downeast on the coast in the town of Winter Harbor. That whole region is one of my favorite places in the state. The day I visited was foggy but I thought it was beautiful. I'll be working on a landscape in oil today and will get that posted as soon as it's finished.

It's Snowing!

Well, we are getting our first snowfall of the season here in Maine. We're supposed to get 3 to 5 inches with sleet and freezing rain but I don't think it's going to amount to much. This is only the beginning of a very long and cold winter here. I'll try to keep you all posted with wintery pics. Most of us here in the northeast heat our homes with heating oil and at $310.00 for 100 gallons of oil (and rising), I'm afraid it's going to be a very expensive winter. Ok, enough about the cold...I've been working on some pastels, one of which I've already thrown away because I wasn't happy with it. I do have a pastel landscape of Schoodic Point that is almost finished and an oil painting ready to go on the easel. I'll post pics as soon as it's finished.

Olive Series

"Three Olives", 5x7, Oil on Board
Sorry I haven't posted in a week but I've been taking care of some art related items. Friday I went to the Westbrook gallery to drop off new pastels and an oil landscape. They seemed to like the work. I've also been preparing my entry for a juried show which is always fun. I finished this quick olive painting to go with the series. After I finish posting, I plan on working on my pastel that I had started and working on a new artist statement. There is always so much to do and very little time.

Pastel Continues

The photo of the my pastel came out a little dark but I wanted to give you an idea of how far I've gotten on the piece. I decided to work the piece from top to bottom to eliminate smudging. On some pastels, I'll work on the piece all over. A taped edge is left around the perimeter for ease of handling at the frame shop later. I'll hopefully have this completed soon!

Pastels Again

It's a miracle that I was able to upload these photos because I've been getting error messages every time I try to load a photo. Apparently there is a known issue regarding uploading of photos within Blogger. I hope they get this bug worked out soon. I haven't worked on any pastels within three months so I thought it was about time. I'm using Reeves BFK paper with a pumice ground that I created myself. I usually pick out the pastels I need from my cases and put them in a try etc... so they don't roll off onto the floor. At $3.00 - $4.00 a stick I can't afford to break them on the floor. We'll see how this goes because I've never made my own pastel surface before. I typically use Sennlier La Carte sanded paper. I also have another olive painting started in oils for my olives series.

Windy Day

"Accidents Happen", 5"x7", Oil on Board
Yes, I'm finally finished but not without problems. Yesterday when I took the painting outside to photograph, a huge gust of wind blew the painting down on my garage floor while I was setting up my tripod. HOT TIP: Never photograph wet paintings outside on windy days. I actually cried when I picked the painting up because the background had dirt, debris, etc...stuck to the wet paint. It took me about three and a half hours to clean off the ruined paint and then repaint the background and the upper part of the glass. Yes, I know I'm an idiot. Since Halloween is pretty serious around here, I'm not sure how much I'll get done tomorrow.

Plugging Away

I've gotten a little more finished on my demo painting although this painting should have been finished by now. The bottom of the glass is missing some reflections and those will be added towards the end when surrounding paint has dried a little. Tomorrow I hope I will have the spoon finished and maybe the top portion of the glass. The background should go quite quickly.

Demo Continued

I didn't get as far as I would have liked on the painting but it's a start. I'm not sure how much I'll get done tomorrow because I have to go to an artist reception at the gallery in Westbrook tomorrow. I look forward to attending gallery events but at the same time feel frustrated when I can't spend enough time in the studio painting.