The Shoe Factory Art Co-op 2012 August Art Exhibit "Crow Show"

"Crow Show" Call for artwork relating to crows and ravens.

Well I have been thinking of entering this show even though I will be up in Canada. Perhaps I can drop any accepted artwork off before I leave?

Well I have done one quick painting of a crow.

Crow

Now I'm working on another idea so more on that later.

For Katy

Now that I finished up the paintings for Cara, it was time to have some fun. I remembered that Cara had mentioned that she wanted to get Katy a painting of skulls that she saw at the last art show I was in. Since Katy is getting her PhD.  in anthropology and is specializing in bones, People bones that is. I thought that I would jump in and do a painting for Katy that would fit the bill.

Katy's Skulls - 12" x 5"

 More work.

Katy's Skulls - 12" x 5"

Final.

Katy's Skulls - Done -12" x 5"

Lots of work going on. Here is the first piece.

I promised my very dear friend that I would do primitive paintings of her children many years ago. Painted her son back in 2010 in Nov. and when Katy (older daughter) saw the painting she stated she wanted to be a Queen. Bother Matt could stay a General for all she cared.

Matt as General 13" x 13"

I pulled this painting idea from the following painting.

So for Katy I decided to go with a Scottish Queen since she got her Masters at Edinburgh University.

Here was the starting point.

Mary Queen of Scots 

  Had some photos of Katy taken last summer and I used photo shop and got the following.

Love Photoshop!

Then I got the rough tracing done on my 13" x 13" board and blocked it in.

Didn't like the smile so I  looking at the painting I did not think that Katie's smile would be appropriate for the Queen of Scotland. So I decided to change it out for a different mouth. Needed to keep the everything else, so I found another pic of Katy that I took and then cut and pasted the new mouth over the smiling one.

A little tweak here and there and now I have a new design to use. 

Old picture new mouth ready to be moved about and into place

New mouth in place and sized right. Now to blend it in.

Ready to go!

Then I reworked up the rough painting and got to here.

It just painted its self!

I forwarded it on to my friend's husband and he asked that I use Katy's formal name "Kathryn". I translated her name (Greek spelling) to the Latin version to suit the paintings age ... but not a biggie and I fixed that and finished it off.

Kathryn Queen Of Scotland - 13" x 13"

New painting

Well I've been busy painting but have not been able to post any updates since the subjects of the painting were not to see it till it was done.

So here we go.

My Sister-In-Law and Brother-In-Law's son (Joseph) is engaged to be married to Gabriella. So they wanted me to do a portrait of them. I agreed and they sent this picture to me.

OK, well I had some issues with the background so I made a couple of changes with Photoshop and then we went back and forth a bit. I was using Sylvia Shap's portraits as a starting point. You can find more of her work here Sylvia Shap Contemporary realist portraiture

I liked the figures floating on a solid background of color but everyone seemed to like them to be sitting on something. Needed to add a bit of discordance to add more action to the painting I found a picture that had a niffty couch in it and decided to use the couch as a base for them to sit on.

So Photoshop to the rescue, lopped off the couch and flipped it so the pillow would be next to Gabriella and changed out the background color.

Felt that there might be some concerns with the Gabriella's hair being up so I found some other pics of Gabriella with her hair down and did a quick edit to see if they wanted hair up or down.

Hair up was chosen so the painting started.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Final 24 inches by 16 inches

Long time no post.

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in posting but... been busy cleaning up from our trip down south and finishing off the kitchen rehab.

In between all the tasks I have been working on four pieces of art for the RoCo 6x6 art show coming up next month. More posts on the trip down south will end up on the Prius Camping for Three Blog later today.

In the meantime here are the 6x6 art bits that I have been working on.

Skull 6x6 inches

Boy's Thoughts 6x6 inches

Girl's Thoughts 6x6 inches

Acrobat 6x6 inches

Hanging out at the Sands of Islamorada

Well we found a nice place that would take dogs here in Islamorada, and Boo loved being off leash and running with other dogs and swimming in the ocean. We checked in at the "Sands of Islamorada" at 11:30AM this morning and got to just hang out all day. Going off to an outside restaurant called the "Islamorada Fish Company" tonight and they will let Boo stay with us on leash at the table. BONUS!

Here is an Osprey her chicks that is roosting on the boat house next to hotel. Really cool. 

Close up zoom.

Here is a quick painting I did of the boat house and the nest.

"Islamorada Fish Company"  

Well not much art work getting done on this road trip

No work but lots of fun!

The pics should speak for themselves but more information can be found at my other Blog:
http://prius-camping.blogspot.com/

Heading down south for a change of scenery and sun

So we are heading down south this week and most of the fun stuff will be on the
Prius Camping for three (Us and the Dog) Blog site but I'm bringing my old college pochade (fancy work for painting) box. So I can use 12 x 16 inch 1/4 inch luan panels to paint on. The night before we left I used the table saw to cut out a bunch at the right size and then gessoed the lot of them.

Here is a pic of them stretched out on the easel to dry.

More later as time and free WI-FI permits. Engoy!

Kitchen Renovation

Well here we are two months into this project and I can really see the end now. I just finish installing and wiring the last of the recessed lights. Then crawled around and used painters caulking to fill any of the gaps in the floor trim and then onto the latter to to the same to the top of the cabinets where the trim touches the ceiling.

Old house painters trick. Then you paint right over with your colour.

Here are the three new recessed lights right by the cabinets 

Here are the three new recessed lights by the Patio door
  

  So the counters are coming in on Thursday and then back splash goes in and .... paint goes on.

Can not wait till this is done so that I can get back to my art work. 

Award! Traffic Control Box project

Got an email today that says "Congratulations on having your robot artwork chosen for one of the Neighborhood of the Arts traffic control boxes and iris artwork chosen one of the green Neighborhood of the Arts utility boxes. You have been chosen to do robot artwork and painting on the GleasonWorks traffic control box and yellow/red/ multicolor tropical flower artwork painting on the 1033 University utility box. "


Yeee Haa!

What a month! Next ... the Louvre! 

And ... now an update on the Kitchen Renovation.

Here is where we are after day one of Kitchen Cabinets going in.

Day One after 3 hours the uppers are in with trim work to be done

The pantry cabs are in and I was quick to get the new microwave back in action

Half Bath redone and working again

End of the second day the base cabs are in and now to wait till tomorrow

All in and semi back in use. Microwave in its spot and dishwasher pushed in out of the way

Different view.