acrylic

This is the first of two commissions which have occupied all my painting hours recently. Normally I would not take on a project like this, since human faces are always a struggle for me. Maybe it’s just a mental block, but faces are my biggest challenge. In this case, it was hard to say no. The couple who asked me to paint this scene with their three grandchildren have been great supporters of my art, buying several original paintings over … Read More

My third portrait of my sweet cat Jethro illustrates using Golden Fluid Acrylics on a white Claybord™ panel. Each of my nine portraits of Jethro presents a different art medium on a 3.5″ x 3.5″ Claybord™ Tile, created and manufactured by Ampersand Art Supply. For this painting I posterized my reference photo in Photoshop to reduce it down to a handful of values. I used just four colors of acrylic paint, with Paynes Gray as the darkest value. I mixed … Read More

Pet lovers everywhere know that their companions’ lives are too short. Over many years, I’ve painted more than three dozen pet portraits. My first three pet portraits (shown below) were done in charcoal in 1980, of my own first pets, Cleo, Ernie, and Pluto. Paintings of my own dogs and cats trigger precious memories, especially after the pets have died. I am grateful to be able to do this for other pet owners as well. My portrait of Mango was … Read More

Dog portraits are one of my favorite subjects, so when I was commissioned to paint beautiful Bandit it was a delight. We decided on an acrylic painting on an 8×10 canvas. My customer Erin sent me a few reference photos and I was immediately drawn to the one with the tilted head (#1 in my photo collage shown below). But on closer inspection, I didn’t particularly like the glare on Bandit’s nose and the reflections in his eyes, caused either … Read More

One of my most popular paintings, “When She Was Three,” has been selected as one of 105 winners out of 900 entries to AcrylicWorks 7: Color and Light. This is my first entry into an acrylic fine art competition, so the recognition is a new milestone in my fine art pursuits. AcrylicWorks 7 will be printed as a 100+ page special publication by the editors of the Artists Magazine. Each selected painting, chosen for strongly capturing the theme of “color … Read More

The word “commission” has a few different meanings in regards to fine art*. A commissioned painting is one where an artist is hired by someone to paint a specific subject of that person’s choosing. I’ve done many commissions over the years, and they present some interesting twists, as opposed to creating a painting for myself, based on my own ideas and photos. As often happens with a commission, painting “Jordan Fishing with Grandpa Tim” has stretched me as an artist … Read More

My love of spring wildflowers may be genetic. When my maternal grandmother was a high school senior in 1912 she wrote “We hail the approach of spring… our pulses are stirring as the odor of the arbutus and the violet is wafted on the gentle breeze….” I hope my new acrylic painting “Showy Orchis” celebrates the glory of spring visually as elegantly as young Emma Fox did verbally. My usual step-by-step progress is shown below, but I will divert for … Read More

I started doing art as a kid and never stopped! As a fine art painter, my learning curve has often been accelerated by tips and hints I’ve learned from other artists. Sometimes ideas come from workshops or demos, not only from the instructor but from other attendees. Other times they come from creative friends in art groups or other gallery exhibitors. Blogs, newsletters, social media groups and old-fashioned magazines are loaded with good art info. Often a fellow artist simply … Read More

I feel like I’ve been a bit spastic with my art recently – jumping from watercolor to acrylics, working on paper, canvas, and panels. Whatever I am working on at the time is my favorite. There are so many different art materials and methods I want to try, and it’s a continuous learning process. Perhaps someday I’ll settle down and concentrate on one medium and one surface; I’m still figuring out what kind of artist I want to be when … Read More

For my newest painting I had two goals in mind: (1) to use acrylic paints in a highly transparent way, and (2) to use an odd shaped canvas I’ve had among my art supplies for too long. The canvas is three feet wide and a little over a foot tall, so I decided to use it horizontally and create a painting of a big backlit red poppy from my garden. To begin, I reviewed many poppy reference photos in my … Read More