Drover paintings

Here are two paintings, almost finished, of two of the drovers in our historic Fort Worth Stockyard area. 

More oil sketches

These are more of the sketches from the photos I took back in March at the photo session at the  home of my sister-in-law.

New work

Here is a recent piece, still in progress. I'm working on paintings to maybe include in the January 2015 show unless they sell before that.

Exciting news!

Exciting news! I have reserved gallery #3 at the Fort Worth Community Art Center for the month of January, 2015. I will have a joint show with my good friend and fellow artist, Mahto Hogue. I will be showing some of my watercolors as well as new works in oil. Lots to do between now and then, especially deciding on new subjects to paint. Thank you, Mahto, for sharing this exciting "first" with me.

New portrait sketches

My sweet sister-in-law invited some friends recently to a photo shoot for me. I photographed 10 individuals in various poses and lighting.  I wanted these shots to use for practice in my portrait painting adventure. 

I am still working on the others but these are the ones I have finished thus far. Each represents about two hours of work. Some of the paintings I really like and in some of the others I see improvements that could be made. I have to keep reminding myself that I am still learning.  Each time I do a painting, I can see improvements in my skill and that is really what goal is, right?

Woman drover

I have painted this woman in watercolor in the past. She is one of the drovers in the historic Fort Worth stockyards, where we have a longhorn cattle drive twice daily.  I started this a few weeks ago and then abandoned it.  I let it sit and dry and then decided to re-visit it and see what I could do to improve it.  I'm not entirely happy with it because it seems to be too smooth and blended. I am really trying to develop a style that is much looser and less blended. That is not the case with this piece but it is what it is.  

Brian

As you know, I am fortunate to have neighbors and friends of neighbors to occasionally come to my studio and sit for me. These sessions are normally 1 1/2 to 2 hours, during which I take lots of photos and also paint from life. Brian came over a couple weeks ago.  This is his painting, which I will give to him once it is dry.