I haven’t posted in a while, my daughter is home from college, my son is in finals, I have commissions going, we had a racoon family living in our chimeny, blah blah blah, lots of things were keeping me from painting. But I couldn’t take it anymore (!) so I found the time to paint

Since I’ve had more than the usual amount of portrait commissions lately, and I wrote about portrait commissions yesterday, it seemed a good time to post this early self portrait. I did this when I was 17. Not sure what kind of style you would call that, I didn’t have much in the way of

I decided there was too much blue in the skin on this painting so I toned down the blue. I still see the cool blues in her skin but now I think the skin looks more natural.

Whew, this little painting took longer and was harder than I thought it would be. Good thing it’s only 9″x12″. I am still working small while I try to figure out . . . well I’m not sure what I’m trying to figure out. I have a plan in my mind of some figuratives so

I am still focusing on stopping earlier rather than later with my paintings. I am enjoying leaving more of the brushstrokes visible. The Abstract Expressionists appreciated paint for paint’s sake and not just for what was represented with the paint. I’m a long long way from abstract expressionism here but when I make a beautiful

This morning I painted this young woman. It was a beautiful day and I went out in the backyard to see if there was a place where I could paint her outdoors, but in the end I decided painting her in my studio was best. We spent a delightful three hours together. This painting is

This is 16″x16″ oil on canvas, I finished it yesterday in between all the other stuff I had going on. This young woman turned out a little quirky with some attitude, I’m not sure how that happened but I like it. I was thinking I wanted to paint a figure who exuded confidence. I’m also