The Caregiver Oil Painting

 This oil painting originated with the wonderful, loving kindness shown by Terri to my father-in-law.  She is his primary hospice nurse.  With her's and dad's permission I am painting a picture of her taking some of his vital measurements.  The reference photo is shown on the right and the painting in progress is shown below.  There is much more of a golden, Indian yellow sort of a flavor to it all.  The yellow really does bathe the room.  Maybe next time.  Maybe even a glaze in some areas.  Still some work to do, but I thought I would put a WIP here.  John

Enjoyed some Drawings -- Airplane Sketches

I have really enjoyed creating some airline sketches of faces recently.  There are a couple of them here in the blog...way back one of my cousin Guy.  A couple of others.  I will go ahead and add some as I get decent images of them.  Here is one of my niece and her daughter, grandniece Ari.  It is an 8x8 from Jan of 2018.

Two to Q - Agility 1

In photography class I thought agility photographs might be dynamic and captivating, but the difficulty was that there was too much noise and clutter in the background and the light wasn't quite like I wanted it to be.  Consequently I have a batch of older pictures that were possibilities for painting.  This is more like a study on canvas pad.  Here is a fellow with his dog...I have another I like more, Agility 2 is coming up.

What I like about agility is the saying it Takes 2 to Q -- that is to qualify both the dog and the handler must do their job.  I love that the best handlers never scold or become angry at their dogs.  Never.

Redo of Therapy Dog with Veteran

I was never quite happy with this painting, so ... with help in class, I resized the canvas -- smaller, and did some repainting to get a new painting.  Here you can see it in it's repainting stages.

What did I learn...this was an awkward original composition and angle.  I learned that high value shifts should be reserved for the areas of the most interest -- hence less contrast back on the wheel chair.  I think with right sizing of the canvas, he is a better fit and it is a better painting.

The Las Vegas Two Some -- Alone in Vegas 1 and 2

This pair came about through two pictures my niece gave me permission to use related to a recent trip she took to Las Vegas.  Thank you Jessica. 

I felt like they both had a strong narrative about isolation and vulnerability.  I enjoyed painting them.  They were both in exhibitions this week -- one with the Veteran's in Waco and a second in Bass Hall in Austin with VSA.     Motel 8 - Alone in Vegas 2 is framed on canvas.  Alone in Vegas 1 is on a panel and intended to be hung without framing. 

Pure Heart

This is a painting from a photograph I took of my friend Anita Anderson a few years ago.  She was trying on her Flambeau Parade costume in her front yard.  This was a good compositional exercise and it helped me see how to be more light-handed with the brush in an unstructured garden.  Inspires me to get out and paint in the actual garden.

I call it Pure Heart because I feel like she sees God in the beauty in her garden.  

Fall on Lake Dillon Looks like Early Feb of 2018 this was Finished

This turned out to be a great learning piece working with Janice Hindes my oil painting instructor based on one of my photographs from Lake Dillon.