"The Drive" - Finished!

Not a great photo of this but I'm really pleased with the outcome of the painting. I have a possible buyer - fingers crossed!  I think it will sell, if not to this buyer, then to someone soon.  I have a show coming up for the month of May.  Hopefully I will have 6 to seven pieces for that show.  The show is of the artwork of those of us in Soon Warren's watercolor classes on Thursdays.  The location is the atrium of the North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.  The paintings will be up all month and the reception is on May 5.  Join us if you can and pass the word along to all your friends in the metroplex who might enjoy attending.

A Word in Private finished!

Finally!!! This painting is finished, framed and on display at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center for their biennial art show.  The show is open to any artist who wants to show their work.  Each artist can only show one piece.  The show runs through the Fort Worth Spring Gallery night on March 24.  If you are in the area, I heartily recommend attending this event.  There are wonderful varied art pieces by many talented artists.  There will also be a great artist reception (great food and drinks!) from 6 to 9 PM on Gallery night.  Don't miss it!

"The Drive" progress

I'm pleased with how this is coming along.  I'm taking my time and trying not to make mistakes that need to be corrected.  I want to put sky in the upper background and something resembling ground in the foreground.  Need to practice those on scrap paper first.

Thanks for reading!

A couple new starts

I have started work on a few western pieces to show at our student show in May.  Soon, our art teacher,  reserved a great space and I'm hoping to have 7 or 8 pieces ready to show and hopefully sell!  Fingers crossed!

This first one is of the female drover at the drive of the Fort Worth herd of longhorns that occurs daily in the historic stockyard area of Fort Worth.  I was there recently to take pictures for art subject matter.  I have just started this and have alot more work to do to depict the weathered face and stern gaze she has.  The title of this one "Watching the storm".  Thanks to my son, Freddie, for naming that one.  This is on a paper I have not tried before, W & N 300# cold pressed.  I managed to get a good buy so I purchased 10 sheets recently.  So far, so good.  The size of the painting is 22 X 27.

In keeping with the longhorn drive idea, the next is of a shot I got that same day of some of the longhorns as they were coming at me being driven along Exchange Ave.  As I've stated before, I don't have alot of experience with doing animals but the one I've been working on titled "A word in private" has made me more determined that I can do animals.  So I think that this has a good start.  I have just started laying in the first washes of the brighter colors.  Having these bright colors down first seems to add a glow to the darker colors added later.  On a full sheet of 300# Fabriano Artistico cold press.  Might name this one "The Drive". 

Our annual stock show and rodeo starts today and the parade is tomorrow morning in downtown Fort Worth.  It is an historic parade with no motorized vehicles and huge crowds of spectators.  I have not attended it since Freddie was a little boy.  It was considered a must see when I was growing up and I never missed one of those parades unless the weather was just too bad, as often happens during the stock show.  I'm thinking I might go to the parade to see about getting some good pictures.  Should be lots of folks and animals to catch the interest of my camera.

Hmmmm?

I found a scrap of this picture in a box of old family photos.  It is a small little torn piece that is probably about one and one half inches square, in very bad shape with the bottom of the photo not even there.  It has been folded and refolded over time so there are some bad breaks in the paper.  It intrigues me though and unfortunately I have no idea who it is.  My mom was the last person who could have identified it and she passed away almost three years ago.  I made a copy of the photo and started this painting.  I am doing it in the style of Ted Nuttall and am pleased at the progress.  I have placed it on my bulletin board for now so that I can see if I think it needs anything else.  What do you think?  And if there are family members reading this and you have any idea of the identity of this child, I'd love to hear about your thoughts on it!  BTW, this is on 300# Fabriano Artistico paper. 

A Word in Private

I have not been blogging lately due to holiday commitments.  I know everyone can relate.  The title of this post is what I have decided to title the latest painting I have been working on.  Below you will see four pictures of the progress.  It is not finished but I am very pleased with how it is turning out.  This is my first time to ever do an animal.  Plus even more intimidating, is the fact that this is on a full sheet of 300# Arches cold pressed paper, 22 by 30 inches.  Seems huge to me!  This painting will be for sale when it is finished.  Surely living in Fort Worth, it won't be hard to find a buyer!  Wish me luck!

In this first shot above, I had started working on the figure and laying in warm tones as under coat colors for the horse and saddle.

Then I added richer colors on the horse and saddle.  Sorry I don't have a shot of the rest of the under colors before I started adding the texturing on the horse and saddle.

Above you can see the beginning of the textures on the horse and the saddle leather.  Also there is a pink-coral wash on the background.

More work on the texturing as well as adding a violet blue wash over the background and adding salt for texture.  Still more work to do on the figure, horse, the mane and other parts of the leather pieces.

Absent!

I have been absent a bit lately.  I had a week long visit from a very dear friend who now lives in North Carolina.  We have a great time and I did not paint for that week.  I have done some painting since then though and also got my new camera!  Hurray!  A Nikon D5100 with two lenses: a 18-55MM and a 55-300MM.  Now I can get those great candid shots of folks to use as subject matter.  In fact the camera does so many different things that it will take me a while to really explore all that I can do with it.  Anyway, that is my birthday, anniversary and Christmas gift for this year and I couldn't be more pleased!

I have done a bit more work on this one of Brazos.  I was not liking how the clothing and hat seemed to not be a part of the whole, so I added some loose colors and strokes to the background as well as letting the colors overlap on his clothing and hat.  I like it better now. 

And more work on my sweet little shot of Freddie when he was four.  I really like the way this is turning out.  I want to do a bit more work on the background, add some richer colors to his hair and then call it finished.  I'm going to shock everyone and do a painting of how he looks now soon.  With this new camera, I have lots of motivation to get some new photos to use.

Hope you have all been well and are enjoying this marvelous early fall weather!