Bell Pepper 12" x 12"

I think I have found where the wallpaper fits into my work. (And maybe a new avenue for the still lifes as well.) I like the combination of observational painting: the pepper, and painting something that has more to do with design and illustration: the wallpaper. It is allowing me to determine a color scheme within the piece and break away from painting straight local color. When we were at the Barnes in Philadelphia I was struck by the colors in Van Gogh's work. Among all other painters he seemed to deliberately pick the colors in his painting rather than simply reproduce what may exist naturally in his subject. Perhaps I only noticed this because he consistently produced color arrangements that struck a chord with me. But seeing the work reminded me of my own fascination with color and I think I'll spend a little time exploring it in this way.

Portfolio

I added a new link in the right hand column of my blog: Portfolio. I haven't been taking final photos of my paintings especially of the pieces which I work on over a longer period. But I need photos of finished works for my portfolio to submit to grad school. Also I was looking for a way to view my finished works in one place, rather than sort through different blog entries. So I will be assembling final photos of paintings under this link. You will have seen all of these images before - although perhaps not in their finished more refined state. So if redundancy doesn't bother you, or you have been losing sleep wondering if I lightened the shadow in the bottom left hand corner of my last piece, you can now put your mind at ease and click on the link.

More self portrait

Am I overworking things?

The Barnes Foundation

No, this is certainly not one of my paintings. It is Van Gogh's Postman and I saw it last Sunday when I visited the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Self Portrait

I am getting some good work done on this piece, and I am very excited about it. Today I worked a pattern into the portrait's background.

Self Portrait again

I have gotten a couple of more hours work in on this portrait, and am currently working into the face with glazes. I hope it will give me a subtly of color and help mask the texture of the underlying canvas. After photographing the image I notice something strange in the shape of the right eye. It probably has to do with the dark I layed in below and to the right of the eye. Also I haven't articulated the folds in the eyelids yet.