Prickly Pear Fruit

"Prickly Pear Fruit"

10" x 10" oil on panel

When I saw this fruit in the produce department of the 

grocery store I wondered what they were. They 

displayed so many beautiful colors 

and felt plump like a full water balloon.

I cut through the leather skin to see what it looked like. 

Brilliant pink inside! Their juicy fleshy tasted mildly sweet. 

No wonder that they are called succulents. The seeds are 

hard like kernels of popping corn. Fascinating!

The Odd Couple

"The Odd Couple"

18" x 18" oil on panel

Since I share my studio with another artist, 

I can't control the lighting on my still life set up while 

the overhead lights are on for my studio mate. 

So, I placed a backdrop around the still life table 

and hung two black shower curtains to block 

the light from the fluorescent overhead lights. 

It works pretty well.

Gray Pot and Bird Nest

Gray Pot and Bird Nest

14" x 11" oil on panel

I found this little bird nest and couldn't resist painting it!
I edited it by placing two oranges in the background.
It feels like the pot is nestled in a little more.

Frosted

"Frosted"

8" x 8" oil on panel

Mrs. Backer's Flowers

"Baker's Flowers"

12" x 24" oil on panel

I bought these cupcakes at Mrs. Backer's Bakery 

here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Not only are they 

beautiful to look at, they are delicious!

Let's look at layers...

Think of painting on your canvas as a series of "layers." 
An artist makes corrections and adjustments on each 
layer until their painting looks the way they want.

Below is the first layer of my pond painting. This is when 
I adjust the shapes and simplify the color masses. I want
the rain clouds to be dark so that I can scumble* lighter 
paint over them in the next layer to add texture to my sky.






















*Scumbling is a technique of applying paint across 
the surface of your painting without pressing the paint 
completely down into the texture of your canvas. A 
scumbled stroke looks "sketchy" and "see-though" 
allowing the color over which you are painting to still 
be partly visible.

Notice how the second layer over the storm clouds is 
softer and lighter in value. When viewing this painting up 
close you can see how layering introduced color and 
texture into my painting.

Now I am ready to drop in some detail.























I can put algae on the water, highlights on the willow, 
and paint the flora along the bank of the pond.

So, back to Layers...

When first blocking in a painting, I like to think of my first 
layer as the "idea" stage. It's easy to look at that underpainting 
and say, "This looks pretty bad." 

Try to speak positively about each layer - knowing that as you 
make incremental adjustments and corrections - a beautiful 
creation will emerge! Be nice to you.

After all, it's just a layer... 

Here's the Process...

After sketching in my subject with a colored pastel 
pencil, I start blocking in the big masses of color.

Next I begin to define my subject (the two girls
and the kayak).

Now it's finally time to put in the details such as
the ripples on the water, the planks on the dock
and the paddle. The foreground is the last thing
to paint.

"Strolling the Snake River," 36" x 36" oil on panel.
J'ai finis!

Pumpkin Patch

"Pumpkin Patch"

16" x 20" oil on panel

When I visited this pumpkin patch I noticed that the orange 

pumpkins were sitting all together on the bare ground away 

from the greenery where they grew.

I snapped some pictures of the vines and leaves and took

the large pumpkin (on the right) back to my studio where I 

painted an image of it into the greenery.

Sometimes combining photography with painting from real

life creates a more interesting painting. Even artists can

enhance their work by editing.