Hopscotch

"Hopscotch"

24" x 18" oil on panel

I thought that Ivy looked cute in the outfit that 

she chose by herself (as only a three-year-old can). 

She was wearing this on the day of her 

birthday party. 

Simplifying the background and placing Ivy on 

an outdoor hopscotch seemed natural. It clearly 

made her the focal point of the painting.

Here's the image of Ivy that I used for a reference:

By editing our work we can create whatever we 

want in our paintings. Our references are merely ides 

that help us to catch the vision of what we 

want the viewer to see and feel.

We get to paint what we want!

Water Park

"Water Park"

36" x 48" oil on panel

I love painting images of water during the summer 

months.It was fun to sling the paint around and create 

the look of splashing water!

Here are some of the images I considered before 

deciding on my final composition.

When considering these images I decided to eliminate the 

background information. Instead of going with the tube on a 

white waterslide I put my subjects in a swimming pool. 

The moving water and the splashes were more colorful 

and better portrayed the movement in the scene. I increased 

the contrast between the kids and the background 

by making the sky (actually a waterfall) lighter. 

This is the image I decided to paint: