Thursday, October 29, 2015



Apple A Day Works

an apple a day helps keeps us in good health - a quick work at the start of each day teaches me and keeps me aware of the color, design and shape of my art.





This morning's quick paint was a bunch of red grapes. I set this up using my cardboard box and white pillowcase. The grapes need to be eaten today, so they're in the spotlight. I started by lightly toning my panel with alizarin crimson, ivory black plus white. Looking at the entire mass of grapes, I used this same mixture to block in the overall shape, including cast shadows. Once that was done, I worked to locate the highlights on individual grapes. This helps me loosely establish relationships without drawing circles or spheres for the fruit. Then it's just a matter of laying in mid tones to suggest transient and reflected light. For this I used warm and cool red, grays that compliment the background and a few greens. I decided to create a ledge in the foreground for the composition. More could be done, but when the hour is up I need to move on...


Red Grapes, oil on 6 x 8 wood panel


 Set up for Red Grapes


Today I'm meeting an artist friend, Trisha Selgrath. She has very kindly agreed to help me get a proper photo of a drawing; a portrait that I need photographed well for a publication in North Light Books, Strokes of Genius 8. Hillary, pictured below has been selected for their 2016 publication. I met Hillary when she and a friend were performing during an ArtWalk this summer past in Marietta, Georgia. She works at a coffee shop on the square called Cool Beans. Her strong facial structure and mass of hair intrigued me, so after a few sketches, I came up with the image below. Needless to say, I'm honored to be included in this publication alongside so many other talented artists. Congrats to all concerned - :)

The RAW photograph has been a hard thing to get right with my aging camera, so I'm turning it over to a professional. I'm really grateful Trisha is taking the time today to do this for me. You can check her work out here http://www.trishaselgrath.com/index.html - my thanks Trisha...



Hillary, 18 x 24 charcoal on paper

Something else I'll be working on today in a larger format. This study was informative...but I think the palette can be improved upon.



White Cottage, oil on primed mat board, 18 x 9 


Here's the value study that got me going. I'll likely do another in a larger size just to get a better idea of the final work. These are helpful to determine values, but also to allow time for thought...how to plan the composition...what to change as needed in order to make things stronger.



White House, charcoal sketch in 5.5 x 8.5 notebook

All for now...thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your time and hope your day is good. Take care -




Peace and Health all -






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