Paintings With Soul

From 2005, a gallery stretched painting titled "Pleased to Meet You (Introductions)," a lifesized portrait (20" x 18") of three labs.  All week long, I've been sharing older paintings, talking about what I would do differently today. It's been a great process - really reminding me that, despite my own feelings that I don't know much about painting, I actually do know quite a bit more than I did just a few short years ago. Today's painting, well, if I were to tackle this one again, I simply would choose not to paint it at all. The composition is so bad. The idea is fantastic, but I allowed myself to fall in love with the idea instead of the execution. That's impetuousness for you! But I'll critique it anyway: 1. Compositionally, there is a nice central point, but the yellow dog's head is a tough read, and the chocolate's front leg is awkwardly cropped. Furthermore, the black dog's back mim...

From 2004, a gallery stretched painting titled "Pippen," a lifesized portrait (20" x 34") of a miniature horse.  I heard 3 or 4 years ago that this painting was for sale in northern Michigan, although it initially sold via a gallery downstate for a horse crazy little girl's bedroom. I do hope that Pippen has a home now...... Continuing our  walk down memory lane , I'm sharing older pieces and talking about what I would do differently today. Just because I would do things differently does not reflect poorly on my initial effort (well, not always - yesterday's painting was a really bad one! ). Pippen here is a nice example of a fun and successful painting. However, there are still things I would do differently. 1. Hello, photo reference!! How can I tell? well, the darks and inky blacks are even, regardless of their distance from the viewer's eye. And the highlights are all evenly white, regardless of the local ...

From 2005, a gallery stretched painting titled "Bellyrub," starring one of my original studio muses, a rescued and timid calico named Turtledove. I couldn't find a record of how large this piece is, but I honestly didn't dig for that long. I'm guessing it was approximately an 18" x 24" gallery stretched canvas. Continuing yesterday's walk down memory lane , this week I'm sharing old pieces and talking about what I would do differently today. Here is a rather shockingly bad painting, and a few thoughts about how I would improve upon it.  But oh boy, does It burn my eyes to look at this one. 1. Can you tell this was a flash photo reference ? Hard shadows that do not indicate a light source, a "hot spot" of white on her belly, large unnatural reflections in her eyes, and no detail/depth in the shadows. And look at how flat the colors are - there is very little modeling inside her markings.   2....

From 2007, a gallery stretched painting titled "The Red Collar." This piece has been in a private collection for many years (THANK YOU!). You can read about Harley, my muse, and the painting's seed of inspiration here, and then this post includes the story behind the painting's unveiling . Artists are always learning and growing, and it's sometimes hard to remember that those who might be considered accomplished started out learning the same basics as everyone else. So, as requested, this week I'll share a few older paintings, along with a checklist of what I've learned since then. First off, let me say that The Red Collar is a strong painting with a lovely mood as is. However, given the things I've learned the last few years, were I to paint it again (and I'm very tempted to!), I would change some things up. 1.  A direct light source would help accentuate the dog's beautiful form. He is very fl...