This is a 12″x12″ oil on canvas painted from life of a model with his trumpet. This is an 8″x10″ oil on canvas of a man with his trumpet that I painted from life. It was so much fun to paint a figure from life, but it was also so enjoyable to be with a

Today I painted a man holding a trumpet, this is a photo of my painting in progress with the model in the background. I have a little more work to do on the 8″x10″ painting and then it’ll be finished and I’ll post it. This set up was a bit of a challenge just because

Yesterday I bought an inexpensive 20″x24″ canvas mounted on board to do some ‘thumbnails’. I don’t think they are true thumbnails because they are bigger than what I normally think of as thumbnails, but the idea is the same. I had some ideas in my head for larger paintings so I sketched each one out,

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about which direction my painting is going. More thinking than painting, actually. And when I think about my work it always helps me to put my thoughts down on paper. I have been doing this for a few years now, I’ve taken a photo of some

I was going to call this either “Distant Shoreline” or “Quiet Morning”. Earlier this week I went over to the Arboretum and took pictures of the pond over there, it was an overcast still morning, and that’s what I had in mind when I painted this. In one of my earlier posts I wrote that

Here I am at the reception last night standing next to my portrait of the Mayor of Bellaire. The Houston Civic Arts Association hosted a reception and auction of 12 portraits of the mayor, these are portraits we did from life back in January and February. Here is the mayor next to my painting of

I’m experimenting. My goal right now is to paint a subject but not be so literal about the subject. But it’s important to me that my painting still be “representational” and be a painting of a particular subject. I’m not sure why, but I’m not ready or I don’t want to make the leap to

Before I talk about my latest painting I want to THANK everyone who has commented on my blog these past few weeks. I appreciate all the comments very much and I apologize for not being very good about answering the comments. Our daughter is a senior in high school and the process of applying to