Flowers for Linda

Hello Friends:

My friend and neighbor Linda is retiring from teaching this week, so to commemorate the occasion, I thought I'd paint her something. This painting started out as a landscape, but I grew unhappy with it and ended up scraping the wet paint off and starting again. My eye fell upon a bunch of flowers that my kids gave me for Mother's Day, and I loved the way the sunlight was catching just the side of some of the petals. I believe it was Matisse who said that a drop of red is more powerful than a bucketful. I had this in mind as I tried to make that small part of the painting the focal point. I think that just this small amount of red is more powerful than an entire bouquet of such an intense color.

Busse Woods Near Dusk

Hello Friends:

Once again, I packed up my paints and easel and headed out into the woods. This time, I was accompanied by many friends and teachers who specialize in plein air painting. Alas, when I returned home and took a look at my paintings, they were once again quite dark and muddy. Painting in bright sunlight is so deceiving! I pulled out my palette knife and went to work. On this one, I layered pink, yellow, and purple over the mud I had created. It gave the painting a rather pleasing twilight effect. I hope you like it too.

Dora

Hello Friends:

Dora modelled for us at Mainstreet a year or two ago. At that time, I painted a head and shoulders portrait of her, but kept my reference photos to develop into a larger painting. I'm so glad that I did so-- her striking features along with the intense reds in the background and the brightness of her top lend themselves to an intriguing composition.

I also wanted to let my artist friends know that I'll be conducting a portrait painting demonstration this Thursday, May 13th at the Hoffman Estates Art League at 7:30pm. If you'd like to attend, contact me and I'll let you know the details. Hope to see you there!

Crabtree Forest Preserve

Hello Friends:

Yesterday's plein aire outing resulted in a painting covered with nothing but dark green paint, since my canvas had bright sunlight beating down on it as I painted. At the time, I couldn't understand why my painting kept getting darker and darker and greener and greener! Now I realize that I was trying to fight with all that bright sunlight. When I got it home, I put away the green paint and added nothing but yellow, pink, and blue. I also tried to lighten it up a bit, and this is the result. I'm liking this painting a bit better now!