I was so excited to have this painting chosen for the Casselberry Rotary Club Calendar for next year.  The inspiration for the painting was a photo of my brother from his fishing trip in Alaska a few months ago.  Actually sold him the original, but had a number of giclee copies made first.

I started this painting by drawing in pen and ink followed with a wash of blues and reds to establish shadowed areas in the scene.

Next I added the local color, enhanced areas of interest and developed paths of lights and darks for the eye to follow through the painting.  The photograph I used for reference was taken at the Cherry Pockets restaurant and fish camp near Lake Wales, Florida.  I had a number of giclee prints made of this painting that I can sell for less than what I charge for an original.

MBF

Here is my painting that was selected for this year's Central Florida Watercolor annual show.  I called it "MBF" with an attempt to shorten a lengthy but descriptive title.  It is of course from a photo of our lovable dog, Sherlock Holmes.  The inspiration for the color scheme was from an article I read about selecting three primaries and working only with them throughout.  I like doing that as it pretty well insures a degree of "unity" in the work.

This watercolor is on display in the gallery at Florida Hospital, Altamonte.  I used a photo taken on our Hawaii vacation last year as inspiration.  Love doing rocky lighthouse scenes.  It's called "Leaving Kauai."

Published painting on Missouri County Register

My painting on the cover of the Missouri County Register

Acrylic on canvas paintings

  

These paintings are both worked from photos my daughter in law, Carla, took on a mission trip to Italy last year.  The canal one is 24" by 36" and the vertical bridge scene is 20" by 24."  It's been fun for me to experiment with acrylics again.  Instead of framing I painted around the edges of the gallery wrapped canvas.  It takes a little more time on the first stages of underpainting, but doesn't require much detailing.

Cactus Flower 2

 

This is the second time I worked from the same photo of the blossom from my cactus that blooms only at night.  After working with layering transparent washes to do a deep dark background (in the workshop with Soon Warren)  I like the effect and the contrast it offers for a painting like this.