New Group Painting - Encounter/Yellow Umbrella

A couple meet on a cold rainy day to talk briefly under a yellow umbrella. From the bright colored bag dangling from her hand, it appears she has been shopping in a nearby store. He carries a portfolio and a small bag over his shoulder. Perhaps he is on his way to a business meeting.

This painting is loosely based upon various photographs I took in Paris, France, last Spring (2008). I wanted the image to induce the feeling of a connection between the two figures. Yet it is only a brief encounter, since each has their own agenda. The yellow umbrella links the two together for these few moments.

I am trying to play down the individuality of the figures. I want the viewer to identify the people from their own imagination. The male figure's face is hidden. The female's face is only sketchy - enough to see she is please with the chance encounter.

The composition has been chosen to use a wide range of values, from the dark coats of the figures to the white of the distant light on this rainy day.

30 x 24 inches. Oil on canvas. Unframed with painted edges.

Pretty Baby, Another Painting Completed.

"Pretty Baby" is latest of my new group portraits in the soft story telling style of my recent work.

A young mother, while out walking, is showing off her baby to her girlfriend. The friend looks at the hidden baby with an expression of awe and perhaps mixed with other feelings.

While traveling in France during early 2008, I saw these young women near an open air café. I took several photographs from which this painting was derived.

For a while I thought the woman in green was the mother and the woman in black was the friend - and then I saw the wedding ring on the hand of the figure in black.

The most difficult task was to handle the details of the under side of the baby carriage. There was a lot of detail in the original photographs. It was necessary to simplify yet maintain a structural integrity so that it felt sturdy.

In the end, I used the long supporting posts as visual lines to draw the viewer into picture.

The baby is very present in the thoughts of the viewer, but not seen. The mother's face is hidden, but also is present in the tensions of the picture. Only the girlfriend's face is seen in detail and provides the source of energy to the viewer.

Morning News - Another Painting Finished!

My latest painting "Morning News" (24 x 30 inches) has been finished and scanned. There seems to have been a host of events that have delayed its completion.

Among many things, we have had some work done in and around the house which has needed my attention away from painting. Also, I twice took the partially finished painting to my critique group who each time gave me good advice in steering the painting along more interesting lines of composition.

It is based upon some photographs I took along the streets of France, last spring. The three men are fairly close to the original situation, but the background, the wall and window signs, and the newspapers all came from imagination or other places.

I am happy with the outcome.

Portraits and the Sitter

An issue facing every portrait painter is the acceptance by the sitter of the finished result.

A recent article in the New York Sun by the London Daily Telegraph writer Neil Tweedie neatly sums up this dilemma.

Tweedie outlines various past and recent, famous and less famous portrait painters who have faced this situation. For some the subject just destroyed the work so others should not see it. For others, they eventually learned to lived with the finished painting.

I have just received back a portrait painting that I gave to a couple to celebrate their wedding. The wife has requested that I rework her nose.

I have another portrait that hangs near my studio awaiting the sitter to return for a final sitting. In this case the sitter is embarrassed that I chose him as a subject and so far has not been brave enough to view the nearly completed work.

The dilemmas of a portrait painter.

After the Tour.

Well the Open Studios Tour is over. The summaries written and mailed in. And I am uncertain if it all was worth while.

Saturday we had only ten people come by. On Sunday twenty-nine. And that includes friends, family, and neighbors who saw my signs and dropped by. About of a third of the visitors were other artists who wanted to see how I do things.

There were no sales (I had some eighty paintings on show). There were three people who were serious enough to ask about prices. At least one of which seemed very interested in a specific painting.

Several of my visitors told me other artists they had visited had complained about the few visitors. Since the tour I have talked to several other artists who say they found the attendance thin. Maybe it is a sign of the times. There has been a lot written recently about the slowness of the art market.

The general tour promotion seemed very good. I cannot suggest where improvements might be made. Even the reception was well attended, though I am not sure that I saw any serious buyers or collectors.

It takes a lot of work to put on such an event. At the moment I am discouraged about doing it again. But who knows how I will feel in six to nine months time.

Busy Time - Getting Ready For My Studio Tour

Each Labor weekend I participate in the Santa Barbara Studio Artists Tour. Some 40 local professional artists open their studios so that art buyers and collectors may see how our art is generated.

I will be demonstrating how I develop a painting from multiple digital images - from choosing the source images, developing a composition, laying out my canvas, mixing my palette, to the production and finishing of a painting.

Come and visit my studio and gallery, and see how it is all done. View some of my recent work.

Next Friday evening (August 29) we will be having a reception at the local Arts Fund Gallery. There you will be able to see an example of each artist's work. Choose which artists you would like to visit and plan your tour for the following Saturday and Sunday (August 30 and 31).

Artists' Studios will open from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m each day. The reception is from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

You may purchase maps ($20) at the reception, from any participating artist's studio – including myself, or online at the Santa Barbara Studio Artists website. At the website you may see a complete list of the artists and their work.

See you next weekend?

August has been busy – Retrospective Exhibit

A few weeks ago I heard that a Featured Artist area at our local collaborative Gallery 113 had suddenly become available for the month of August, due to a cancellation.

I quickly signed up and pulled together "A Retrospect of Figurative Watercolors on Paper." consisting of eight paintings from my own collection. They show examples of my work from the period of 1998 to 2001.

Today I mostly paint figurative artwork in oil on canvas. But earlier I created a large body of watercolor paintings on paper. This Retrospective shows selected early works reflecting examples of my evolving interest in the activities of people: the basis of my recent work.

Some works were painted “en plein air,” and finished up in the studio. Others are early examples of my current technique of painting from multiple photographs.

Also, at that time, I was beginning experiments with my palette to find a few light-fast pigments from which to mix my colors. These investigations lead to the limited palette of my recent and current work with its colorful backgrounds and bold painterly details.

In some of these early paintings I began to introduced opaque gouache, the beginnings of my next period where I produced many paintings of gouache on board.

Above: "Feeding The Ducks," Watercolor and gouache on paper. 8-1/4 x 13 inches. June 2001. Painted en plein-air at Los Carneros Lake, Goleta, California.