Crumpled Cotton

This was a piece I tried when I was playing around with creating something with a more abstracted feel. I've been driven to abstraction lately by the fact that my blog has been inaccessible for days, and gives everyone just a plain blank screen - so I'm seeing what happens if I try to add something to it.

Male Torso

In life drawing class we are equal opportunists and have male models as well as female ones, LOL. This painting was a departure for me as I did it using oil pastels rather than the dry pastels which I generally use. They have a very different feel to them. I like the dry pastels the best so far, but would like to try more with the oilies when I have time.

As with the previous nude, you must go to Wet Canvas to see the original.

Comfy Pillows

I truly don't think an artistic nude would be considered obscene or harmful to minors, or violate any terms of service. But I already was censored by a previous blog for posting nude paintings on my blog, so I guess I just had better play it safe. However I still enjoy painting these pictures in my life drawing classes at the art museum, and will share them this way. If anyone wants to see the complete image you must go to Wet Canvas to see it.

Snickers

Snickers was the first pet portrait I tried. He came out a little misproportioned, and ended up looking more like a cartoon cat or a stuffed animal! LOL, it did suit his personality since there does seem to be a bit of the cartoon cat in him indeed. He is such a funny little character. But I decided that I would try him again today and see if I could make him look a little more like a real cat and not a toy, and this is the result.

Deer Lake

One need not travel as far as Canada, however, to find lovely scenery. This image is right here in New Jersey in the early autumn. Deer Lake is a lake club my family used to belong to when I was a teenager and I still have a special fondness for it.

Port Elgin Pond

Landscapes are still quite a struggle for me, but I love trying them anyway. There are just so many gorgeous things out there to try to depict, and I'll never be able to do it unless I practice. This one is a picture of a lovely bird sanctuary area in the town of Port Elgin, New Brunswick, Canada. My family owns a summer place near there and I have been going there for vacations for more years than I can care to count!

Honey

I guess I should give homage where homage is due. The end of February my sister had a birthday. It was one of those "big" birthdays, the kind that have a zero on the end of them! I wanted to do some special things for her, and I had the idea that I would paint a portrait of her dog. I had never painted a portrait of a pet before so it was a bit presumpuous of me. However Honey is one of those photogenic dogs who just looks so darned cute no matter what view you get of her, so she seemed like a good candidate to start with.

So this was my very first pet portrait. I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out, and it looks just like Honey indeed. Now I'm practicing painting my own pets, and if I get successful at it maybe one day I'll paint pets for other people too.

Amber

Amber is the second of my three cats. Her colors are tough to capture, so I struggled a bit with her, but it's all a good learning experience.

Ming

Lately I have been taken with an urge to paint pictures of my pets. This is a new direction for me, as I have never painted animals really. But I do love pets and think it would be a fun thing to try. With five pets of my own I have plenty of models to start with. This is my cat Ming. Her name surprises people, who expect her to be a sleek and haughty Siamese, not a fat calico cat.

Seashore memories

This is from my last Tuesday night art class with Roy Kinzer. I love Roy but don't think I can continue to take two classes a week in the spring session, and I really want to continue with pastel tips from Alex. I think I'll have to skip the Tuesday class this spring, but that will be sad.

Purple Remnants

Starting later this week Alex Piccirillo's students will have their works on display at the Montclair Art Museum for six weeks. This is the one I chose for the show. It's fairly monochromatic in its colors, but I like the play of shadows. These objects were leftover paper goods from a meeting I attended at church. As I sat there with them in front of me I thought how much I enjoyed the different shades of purple, so instead of tossing them in the garbage at the end of the evening, as everyone else did, I brought them home and set up a still life! Another reminder that art need not be grand, but can be created from humble images too.

The Last of the Wine

This is from my most recent Tuesday night art class. The instructor cancelled the live model for the last three weeks, so once again we had the chance to set up a still life. I had a little more time to think about it this week, and more time to work on it too! I found a lovely piece of polished cotton that I liked, and after starting with that was able to find a few objects I liked as well, and this was the result.

Having a chance to set up still lifes has been a lot of fun, more fun than painting live models actually, LOL. But learning to paint people from life is one of those things I feel is "good for me" as an artist, rather like taking my medicine or eating my broccoli. Not much fun but I feel I should do it!

Tango Rose

In my Tuesday night art class we usually do life drawing from nude and clothed models, but two weeks ago our model never showed up. We waited around for a while, but eventually realized she was a "no show", so the instuctor told us we could investigate the storage cupboard in the room, and set up our own individual still lifes.

I started out quite tamely with a traditional bowl filled with (fake) fruit, but decided it was boring so put it all away and started from scratch again. Unfortunately most stuff in the cupboard was pretty boring, but I finally would up with the objects I have here.
Once a month the art museum has Tango Night, and so many tangoers show up that it's hard to find a parking place to get in for my lesson! At any rate these objects I chose make me think of the tangoers, so that's where the painting's title came from.