Commission finished

I did finish the commission for the choirs at SS Peter and Paul's church. Brian Kapp, our music director, has placed it in the entryway for the past 6 weeks. I have gotten some nice comments about it. Eventually it will move to the 3rd floor where the choir can see it as they go to the choir loft to sing for Mass.

This was a big project  (30 x 40 inches) and took much of my winter working on it. The final touch which is hard to see here was gold leaf on St. Cecilia's crown, the large capital "S" and sprinkles of gold in the angels' hair. 

My new work in abstracts has been much easier and in a way freeing from the constraints of the commission. So onward I move. Trying new and interesting projects.

Cold Wax and Oil Workshop

This past weekend I attended a work shop in Minneapolis with James Edward Scherbarth. The workshop taught the participants how to use cold wax and oil and develop layered paintings-paintings that have depth and character that single layer paintings cannot hope to achieve.

 Jim is a great teacher and shared so much of his knowledge with the artists in the workshop. And the artists in the workshop shared their ideas too. We all came up with totally individual paintings. We used Jim's instructions and then created paintings that came from ourselves.  The following is one of my paintings from the weekend.  11 x 14 on a wood panel. I will have the good final paintings mounted on 1x1 supports to give the painting a good presentation. I am glad that I just started with the flat panel instead of the expense of pre-made panels. Cause I know that some of these are totally going to be painted over.

I worked on five panels over the course of three days and know that I will have many more days of work in on the paintings. They are all works in progress. I find that one of my errors is that my paintings do not have the contrast in values that make a painting interesting and eye catching.

This is the painting above in black and white showing how the values are very close together and have little contrast.

This image shows enhanced contrast in values.  I definitely need to get to this level of contrast.

Onward in my quest for a good abstract using cold wax as a medium for my oils.

Continuing Work in Progress

This is a photo of where the Ss. Peter and Paul commission is heading. I have printed out the psalm and kind of placed it on the painting where I think it will go. The original idea was to letter St. Ceceila choir in this space. We decided that was not right since there are more than one choir at SSPP and we want to honor all of the choirs. I will still use the elaborate capital at the beginning of the psalm. I want to use some of the techniques I learned this weekend at a cold wax and oil work shop with James Edward Scherbarth in the back ground and in the angels dresses. The lettering will be in various shades of the back ground colors.  And the final touch ( I hope) will be some touches of gold leaf.  Onward................

A Commission for our church choir is next on my list of works in progress. It is quite large about 30x40 and will hang in the hallway between the choir loft and the third floor offices at Ss. Peter and Paul Church.

This first photo is a very rough draft early on in the painting. I started with a really loose back ground painting in blue, yellow and orange. The image is St. Cecilia the patron saint of choirs. She was a very early saint in the church. Way back in Roman times. I plan a sweeping line of text from one of the psalms across the lower quarter of the painting that will say something about singing to the Lord. That is to be determined yet. I also want to use some gold leaf on the halo on the saint and a few other places on the painting.

 This second photo is after several days of work. I decided to make Cecilia's gown blue and purple to calm the color down a bit. I have worked on the angels on the right side although the work doesn't show well in this photo. The paper words at the bottom are there for me to determine where I will letter the psalm. They are moved around a bit so I could paint under them. The swirls at the top are an inspiration from Starry Night by Van Gogh. Not sure if I will leve them in or make them darker so there is just a hint of the movement. I should have quite a few days this week to work on the painting. An up date will come later.

I can't believe that I have not updated this blog since November. I suppose that the whole Christmas season totally messed with my mind. It seems like there are lots of pet portraits out there now. Thought I would take a hand at some for my boys for their Christmas presents. Top is Matt's Budica, who is the sweetest pit bulldog you could ever meet. Bottom is Marty's Chaco who has been Marty's bike ride companion for 13 years.  12x12 in acrylic. Love adding really interesting colors to the portraits. I really like capturing the personality of the pet. That is Chaco's favorite resting position and Buddica has those melting brown eyes. I  love how they turned out. And have a few more portraits to paint for other pet lovers.

Harley Chrome Painting

In September I donated a certificate for a chrome painting at a fund raiser for a friend who needed to have his home retro-fitted for his wheel chair. The fund raiser was quite a show and there were hundreds of dollars raised for him. I have been working on it for quite a while now. At least a month a couple of hours a day four or five days a week. The man who won the certificate really is getting a bargain. If you consider time and labor on the painting. (wink)  Here is a photo of the work in progress. There is lots of work to go on the cooling fins. This is the motor of a Harley Davidson. It was fun doing the skull. The cycle is green and the blue shadows are a nice contrast to the blues. I work on the painting one little bit at a time. As soon as it is done, dried and varnished it will find a new home. I hope that the owner will loan it to me for a show later next year.

I do not know how long I have followed the Painter's Keys, a bi-weekly letter from Robert Genn of Canada but I do know that I look forward to each news letter as it drops into my inbox. He is a facile writer seeming to always have something pertinent to say to us. I have put a link to his page here on my blog. Click over and see if you like him as well.
His home page is full of all kinds of information including quotes about art that can come in handy for a none writer like me. For example:

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the ordinary. (Christina Baldwin)

Seeing the miraculous in the ordinary truly is what I feel every day and what I try to put into my paintings. 

My life has been really busy lately and this blog suffered my neglect. With a little perseverance  I will be posting a bit more often. If just for my own record of my work. 

This is one of my plein airs from a workshop that I took in Scottsdale AZ in April with Marc Hanson. That workshop lead to lots of work for me in my studio. Palm trees are way outside of my comfort zone.