Lagniappe

What a special treat to be honored with a third place ribbon for one of my miniatures at the Pirates Alley Art Show!   My friend Jane also took home a ribbon. I call that Lagniappe.
 I think there is no greater joy for an artist than to see people admiring their work, well, and selling it too. Ok playing with grandchildren is up there on the list.
The French Quarter Festival was grand. I came home looking more like a crawfish though- red. I am looking forward to attending it again next year. Thanks to all my friends and family who made the special effort to come and visit me. And to my son who took all those great reference photos.

The Old & the New 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

There were several things that caught my eye when I decided to paint this. I liked the idea of the old and new- horse versus car and old buildings versus new ones in the background. It is one of many interesting attractions in New Orleans.

French Quarter Festival New Orleans, La. April 14th and 15th

Come visit me at the French Quarter Festival. I will be one of many artists at the Pirates Alley Art Show which is going on in conjunction with the festival. You will find me at the corner of Royal Street and Pirates alley, behind the St. Louis Cathedral. I would love to see you! There will also be great food, great bands and a great time. Hope you can make it!  Check out the French Quarter Festival website for a full schedule of the bands and their locations.

New Orleans Neighbors 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

What is the focal point? I want to say it is the dog and the lady leaning over to pet it. The woman to the right was intentially painted softer for de-emphasis and the couple in the back, although they are waving do not take center stage. The canopy and the poles initially caught my attention when I looked at the photo. OK the couple in the back wasn't in the photo but I decided to add them because I liked the connection they bring to the foreground.

Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

After I put in the Lafitte sign on the side of the building, my brush got carried away in other areas. I tried to put it down but it would not cooperate. Maybe some people prefer more calligraphy in a painting. I know I love Tony Couch's watercolors because it. I did not use black, I used indigo for the lettering. I think next time the calligraphy will be softened more in other places with lighter values.

Ursulines Street Corner 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

The real building is painted white. I mixed various light grays of pale pink, blue, yellow. I put blotches of that on first and followed up the next day with a whiter tone to give it more texture. No building is all white, with reflections from the sky, overhangs, sidewalk and other surroundings, it is a much more exciting variety of colors. It was an overcast day so not much in the line of shadows. For the street sign, I covered it with indigo first and then scratched out the name using a pointy tool.

Chess Anyone? 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

 I am told that this fellow was already a master chess player when he was starting LSU. He seemed quite at home in front of the French Market.

What a great profile study!! 

Wolfe's Corner 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

I like how the colors in the focal point, the buggy and mule, are repeated in the blue sky and the red canopy & roofs, and the rust of the building. It pulls it all together. The only thing I wish I would have done was to maybe put some more figures in the distance to give it more life. What do you think?

Court Tavern Po-Boy 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

The things that attracted me to paint this were wrought iron work against the intense background colors of the buildings. It screams New Orleans. By the way, the iron work was predominantly done by using an old credit card. It is a great straight edge for fine areas.

Canal Street Car 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

Does the angle of the side of the streetcar disturb you like it disturbs me? I keep looking at my reference photo with the grid lines and it tells me that it is correct but something seems off. Perhaps the tracks and the curb angle needs tweeking. What do you think?

Lucky Dogs 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

The thing that attracted me to paint this, aside from the fact that it is so New Orleans, were the dynamic angles and repetitive "stripes" on the shirt, railing and steps. The shirt was easier to do once I figured out to put the variations of red on first and wipe out the white lines with a rubber gadget.

Meet Me at St. Louis 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

I moved a few things around from the original photo. More of the cathedral is showing and is not blocked by the large post which I placed behind the mule. It could be argued that the right side is heavier than the left in value, but I rather like the progression from dark foreground value to light background. The points of the cathedral, the post and the ear of the mule has a rhythm all its own.

Dumaine Street Stop 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I found out that you can take some pretty descent reference photos cruising down the streets of New Orleans in my car. No, I did not do both. I drove and my son with his super duper camera shot through the closed windows. When all was said and done, he managed to take 1500 photos. Yes 1500. It took me 3 days to go through all of them, crop, recrop, and make the final cuts of what I would like to paint. Twenty two photos caught my eye. This was the first one I painted. I am trying to get the hang of  where to start a painting like this that has so much information. I decided to start from back, the sky and roof tops, to front - the buildings. It was an overcast day so there were no deep shadows.

Downtown Covington,La. 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

This is another view of Columbia Street. Really it could be any typical Small Downtown, USA. Quite charming. I thought the cars would take something away from the charm, but I feel it most definitely adds something to the painting. Perhaps instead of people walking, it still gives the feeling of life around, inside the buildings.

Bed and Breakfast Uptown N.O. 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

My daughter came in with a group of architect students from college one weekend and we walked the streets of Uptown New Orleans taking photos. So much wonderful architecture here! This was a bed and breakfast that I think was on Prytania street. The blue steps were quite overwhelming in intensity but with the sun shining and also deep shadows on them, I was able to get them calmed down as to not overpower the rest of the painting.

Prytania Street Home II 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

 

I was debating on whether to add foilage on the upper left area of the painting. Magnolia leaves or such. But I decided to stay purely archectural instead. I like the division of space when I cropped a larger photo into this closeup view

Musical Trio 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

 I thought this painting was going to be a challenge but it turned out to be really fun. I still have memories of the night I took the photo at Paton's Restaurant at an art openings which I shared with several other local artists.

The Courtyard 6" x 6" oil on gessobord

This is the photo that I cropped into a square using my computer program. Notice the red pen marks that divide the photo.

"The Courtyard"   6" x 6" sketch

Going through photos that I had taken some time back, I made a folder on my computer with all the ones that I thought had good composition for a potential painting. This was my favorite. You can see the grid that I drew on the canvas, which helped me to sketch from my photo. ( I put the photo in a sheet protector and divided the photo in the same manner as the canvas.)

"The Courtyard"  6" x 6" oil

This was a study in pastel shades of color. The day was overcast when I took the photo.
 You can see that when I took the photo of the finished painting, my camera plane was not the same as the canvas, so the edges are off after cropping for posting. OOPS.

"Columbia Street" sketch

This is the sketch the I did in vine charcoal first. Yes I have a heavy hand when it comes to sketching, but after I paint over the lines with my cerelean blue, I wipe it off with a towel and the charcoal is basically gone. Notice again the grid that helped me to copy from the photograph.

"Columbia Street"   6" x 6"  oil

I like the depth that I was able to achieve by using both linear perspective and color perspective. The red "open" sign and the red shirt in the distance helps give this the depth. The front window is the sharpest edges.

 I think the original painting looks nicer than this photo that I took. I might give it another go on a sunnier day.

"Prytania Street" Sketch

This is only a sketch. Nothing is in stone if I don't like it. For instance that front column is angled slightly too much.

"Prytania Street Home"  6" x 6" oil

I like the angle of this shot. It gives me the feeling of the magnificence of this beautiful home.

Next Best Thing to Heaven 5" x 9"

This was a commision that I recently finished. It is only 5" x 9" but took as long as a large painting. I wanted that sky to sing.

Larger Paintings

No I did not fall off the face of the planet. I know it has been a while since I posted. I have been busy with "larger" paintings- 16" x 20". I thought I would share some of these with you. They are more time consuming of course to paint than the smaller ones. The 6"x6" paintings have been such a tremendous help in fine tuning my value skills and color mixing. I will be getting back to them very soon.

"Morning Thoughts"

I enjoyed doing this painting I think because I like the architecture of old buildings. I hope to get into New Orleans soon and take some more reference photos.

 "State Your Business"

Thanks to my elder son and his photography, I was able to get a good reference photo for this painting. Those roosters would have been hard to paint on location!

" Madisonville Boat on the Tchefuncte"

My youngest son already stated claims to this painting. He is my biggest art collecter of my work in the family. I am so fortunate that all my children have an appreciation for art. I guess I dragged them to enough galleries and shows when they were younger.

 "My Girls and Honky Donkey"

I keep changing the faces. Help! I am afraid to show this to my daughter yet. She is so much more prettier than the painting and my grand daughter also! Might need to hide it in a closet.

P.S. Honkey Donkey still resides with us, a favorite stuffed animal of my kids. Well two of them anyway.

These are some changes that I decided to make. The foreground water is more constrasty and has more interest, the fishing pole was added and I put some birds in the trees and in the sky to add more life to the landscape. Yikes the faces are giving me challenges. But for now they will have to do. Time to move on.

"Hillcrest Memories"

This one is still in progress. Several additions needed like a fishing pole in Paw Paw's hand, some facial changes and also I want to work more on the forground reflections and water image. Even though there are three people in the painting, I still feel the painting is serene.

The White Filly 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The little filly was painted using various shades of light grays. From cool pinks and violets to warm yellow ochres. It helped tie the bottle and the flower together.

Stage Left 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

Breyer horses are so great to paint. They are the next best thing to a live model.

After a few minutes, I wiped out the whole thing with a clean cloth. It left a toned canvas and the image as a line drawing. It seems sometimes that it is a lot to go through but I wanted to make sure I got a better feel for the direction of lines and form of the subject. Now for the color.

This is the finished line work using burnt sienna oil on a paint brush.

I sketched the setup onto my gessoboard using vine charcoal. I smudged for halftones and used a kneaded eraser to lift the lights. Yes, a thumbnail sketch on a sheet of paper would have done the same but now I can just do the line work right over this with burnt sienna to get started with the painting.

This is the set up using a box open to the right, the light comes from that direction. In front of the set up is my clamp that holds a frame that is cropping the area I want to paint. I use this until I get it sketched on my canvas, using marks on the mat and canvas to get the positions and proportions accurate.

Granny's Closet 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

Ok, why the title? I remember my grandmother with a navy blue dress with white polka dots.
This feather stuff is getting kind of fun to paint. Haven't quite figured out the best way to layer it yet.

Designer Clothes 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

If this rooster didn't look like it belonged down a runway, I don't know what rooster would. His pose formed an abstract design that cried "paint me".

I chose a dark gray green background to complement the focal point of the head and provide a nice contrast.

Fancy Feet - second attempt 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

Today was still overcast but a bit brighter so I decided to make another go of it and take another photo. For those eagle eyes, yes I did change a couple of things.
The thing I like best about this painting is that it plays the light against dark, and dark against light. The shadowed bottom of the rooster plays against the brighter green ground and the lighted top of the rooster plays against the darker background.

Fancy Feet 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I usually take a photo of the finished painting in a hall that has a high window. The ambient, natural light usually gives the true colors of the painting. Today was rainy and overcast. It was more of a struggle to take the photo than paint this fancy fella. The glare washed out some of the more delicate areas of the painting. If tomorrow is a nicer day, I will try to photograph it again. Really, the painting looks much nicer. Really.

Everytime I looked at this fella's "feet", it reminded me of a Clydesdale. (It's just the way I think.)

Here A Minute Ago 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

This poor rooster got separated from the rest of his family who decided to find a safer area on the other side of the fence in order to escape the paparazzis (namely my son and I). We took dozens of photos but I have to admit his turned out better. This is one of his photos. More rooster paintings to come since I have enough reference photos to last me from now until next Christmas.

Back In the Saddle Again 6"x6" oil on gessoboard

The Line Drawing

This was a more complicated composition for me because of the horse so I wanted to play with it a while by using vine charcoal. Very forgiving. Just wipe it out with a tissue and start over if you don't like it.

The Value Sketch

After doing the line drawing with vine charcoal, I smudged areas with mu finger or pulled out whites by using a kneaded eraser. I used a heavier hand using the vine charcoal to show the dark areas. A thumbnail sketch on a sheet of drawing paper would have done the same thing. I will use my still life to hone in on this for the final painting. The practice was important before I got started.

An Underpainting of Burnt Sienna

In order not to lose all that hard work, I loaded my brush with Burnt Sienna and did the line work again. Letting it dry somewhat, about five minutes, I took a rag and wiped the board. This helped eliminate any whites and toned my canvas.

The Finish

I started by painting in areas of  the horse, moved to areas of the background and foreground, tackled the bottle since I had the surrounding area colors chosen and pretty much ended with the grapes. Then I jumped around filling in areas to tweak adding deeper shadows and highlights.

Two Apples for Two Birds 6" x 6" Oil on gessoboard

I painted the background first. The bird was the next thing I focused on and then I put spots of color on the apple to relate it to the bird with similar color. The metal pot gave me fits until I realized putting in the tablecloth and finalizing the apple would make it look more like metal by showing what it was reflecting. The bird shadow was next and the rest of the ceramic tray.

Orange Reflections 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The still life of the orange reflecting on the mayo bottle was incredible. But I decided to tone everything down a bit because the orange really did overpower the painting at one point. That delicate pink flower didn't stand a chance of being noticed if I had left it that way. It took me a while to come to that realization.

Harvest Gold 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The joys of autumn! I loved the way the bottle softened and magnified the pumpkins. Almost ghostly.

Blue Bottle with Lemon renamed To the Rescue 6"x6" Oil on gessoboard

Well what it lacks in name, I think it makes up for in form. I really liked the way this painting developed. I didn't fiddle too much with stuff so it kept its' freshness. After I set the still life up, I kept moving the light fixture around until I got an interesting composition. It is amazing how when that is right, it will motivate me to follow through with painting it. I guess the old saying is true- you can't paint what you are not excited about.

Delf Creamer 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I started this painting as I usually do using a value sketch on the board using burnt sienna as my only color. I feel I could have eliminated corrections during the painting process had I spent more time either using the vine charcoal or even a pencil and paper to get more familiar with the form of the creamer. The direction that the creamer faces proved to be more challenging than I had realized. It is one of my softer paintings-not too much contrast in value. Sweet. The value of the creamer was first painted in before evening thinking about the windmill scene. That was the fun part!