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.

A Daily Painting

Untitled, 12"x12", Oil on Canvas
I decided to paint this cow as a daily painting. It's not my typical subject matter but I wanted to go for something different with looser brush strokes. I've also never painted animals in oil before so I figured there's a first time for everything. My painting, "Jar on a Windowsill", won 3rd place in the oil division at the Maine Open Juried Art Show. I was actually happy with that placement as this was the first time I had ever entered any of my oils into a juried show.

Mango Painting

"Mango", 5"x7", Oil on Board
I just finished this mango painting this morning. Probably the majority of time was spent painting the antique, paint-stained, wooden box that the mango is sitting on. This is my first mango as I usually like to paint pears when it comes to fruit.

New Banner

A special thanks to my sixteen year old son, Cameron, for designing and setting up a banner for my blog on his school Macbook with Photoshop. Cam, got some help from Casey Klahn's blog on how to design a banner. It's a simple banner but hopefully adds a little more to my blog. Yes, my son is playing Xbox Live and he has a huge biology report due on Tuesday which he hasn't finished.

Pear Study With Pastel

"Pear", 6 1/4" x 10 1/2", Sanded paper
After I finished painting the jar, I decided to do a quick study with my pastels of this pear sitting on a old, wooden box. I used mostly Sennelier, Windsor & Newton and Unison pastels for this as well as a sanded paper from Uart that I had never tried before. I wasn't happy with this particular grit of sanded paper because I wasn't able to build up many layers of pastel. In the future, I'll probably return to my La Carte sanded paper or my own surface that I've prepared with pumice.

Jar Finished

"Jar on Windowsill", 5"x7", Linen on Board
Well, I finally finished this piece this morning...I'm glad! I was getting kind of tired of working on the same piece for such a long time, however, I am happy with the results. Again, some of the problems I encountered working on this piece were in dealing with values. I'd get an area wrong and then have to go back in and wipe it clean and start over. Maybe someday I'll get it right! I am happy with the lighting in this piece though and the shadows and reflections it created. Last Friday I dropped of new work at the Carver Hill Gallery which I'm hoping the gallery director will update her website with my new paintings. I'm not sure what I'll start in on next but I have been thinking a lot about pastels lately so maybe I'll go in that direction.