Filigree

6" x 8"

oil on panel
(Sold)

Another ocean detail...

Tracery

oil on panel

6" x 8"
(Sold)

Today I rejoiced in the electrifying patterns in nature.

Pacifico

oil on panel

6" x 8"
(Sold)

There just might be something here...

Broken Wing

11" x 14"

oil on panel

My good friend Keith, who I have been friends with since the sixth grade, owns one of the largest prop rental companies serving Hollywood. His father started it when we were kids by renting out his antique toy collection to advertising agencies for print media, which eventually grew and expanded into television and film. I've watched this company grow for decades and always enjoyed walking through the warehouses of antiquities when I could.

Keith has a lot of his dad's toy collection at home displayed in just about every room of his house. Last Christmas, we paid a visit to Keith and his family and of course, I had to rummage around and take pictures, because things constantly change with the collection. I found these two tin articulated birds, dusty, laying in a box that was not quite unpacked. The pair spoke to me immediately not only as subject matter for a painting, but also as having some sort of narrative dialog between the two. They were friends (or enemies?) and one has lost both wings and is in a vulnerable state. I could go on about all the possible metaphors to life and art, but I'll simply leave that to you, the viewer, and let you draft your own story. I will say, however, that there seems to be some poetry in the mood of these colors and I'm happy about that.

Today I'm taking a short break from the oils to put the finishing touches on my rendering of this designer chair.  I presented a photo of this chair to my class last night as a warm up exercise .

It was  a challenge for them but they worked hard at it.  After, I went over the techniques of blending markers and color pencils to render form  by  observing light and dark areas.  This drawing uses Prismacolor markers and premium pencils.

 

Tangent

oil on panel

6" x 8"

We're well into the New Year and I've got several paintings in various stages in the works. I'm still focused on learning traditional techniques that I missed in college and in my own struggles with painting. As I get older, the more traditional my painting has become and within that discipline many, many, challenges arise. Currently I'm in the middle of reading James Gurney's Color and Light, a fantastic treatise on effectively using- well, color and light, -in one's work. I've taken on some of James' challenges on my own as exampled in the study above. In this painting I'm trying out two interesting lighting techniques: edge lighting and subsurface scattering. Edge lighting is self-explanatory, an aura of light illuminates the edge of an object for dramatic effect. Subsurface scattering is light that passes through a translucent object, illuminating it from within as in Tangent's ears above.

There is just so much to learn still and a thousand hours of practice ahead, but every now and again there is progress.

Happy New Year, everyone,

D

December Beach
oil on panel
4.5" x 16"
(Sold)

Okay, I thought the cranberry painting was to be the last one for this year, but I was able to get one more painting done today. This morning our family went to the de Young museum in San Francisco to view the Post-Impressionist show and I guess I got inspired. Of course, as an artist, one thinks one is never producing enough work or putting in enough hours. So many head games come with this vocation. After my nap I sat down to my little table top easel and got to work.

This location is just north of the lighthouse at Pigeon Point, about 45 minutes south of my home on the San Mateo coast. I was there last week with my friend Shawn to take in the winter sky and coast. We sat for hours watching the approaching storm, I took a few pictures and notes of the colors and contrasts of our surroundings. A few beers and sandwiches were sacrificed for the occasion. I love the coast during the winter months, it feels like stepping back in time- like maybe a million or so years.

Peace.