Sister Susan

Another portrait in the style of Alice Neel, this time using her portrait of Andy Warhol as reference (view the New York Times linked slide show to see the image referenced).

My biggest critic says of this 12x16 oil painting "That doesn't look like your sister.  I think you should give up on portraiture."

I agree Susan is better looking than this painting (as can be seen from the photo below) and she was never in this hotel room in Paris (I was, in 2003) but I kind of like this painting!

Running Boy With Dog - Anatomy of a Painting

This new 12"x16" oil painting has a unique history.

I first scanned a painting done by my mother in the 1960s or 1970s of a beach in Santa Barbara (see below), then digitally added the following:
1.  A cut-out of a boat also painted by J.L. Autrey
(see further below)
2.  A cut-out of Newfe the dog running (a rare event) photographed in Portland this year (see below)
3.  A cut-out of one of the neighbor Smith kids I played with in the 1950s (see polaroid photo below taken in our El Sueno yard  in Santa Barbara). 

I put all the pieces together and printed out a digital composite to use as reference.  But when I tried to paint my digital composite, I hated it so I painted over most of the background and then added some houses and smoking stacks from a painting by Hungarian artist Tivadar Csontvary Kosztka of Castellammare Di Stabia

Without the computer, it would surely have been harder to combine paintings and photographs of Santa Barbara, Portland and Hungary to come up with a new painting in the old medium of oil on canvas.

Amber

As an assignment in Chester Arnold's painting class at the College of Marin, I chose to paint a portrait in the style of Alice Neel.  The original image (see below) was a B&W photo of Amber taken in 1984 before a ballet recital put on by Virginia Stapleton's ballet school.  The photo was taken by the very wonderful Art Kaye who sadly passed away this year.

Poppies in Ceramic Pots

The final version of this painting is now live with some other new oils at Redcrow Artworks.  I repainted this background three times! 

Missing You

I painted this picture titled "Fred and Myrtle" in Greece in June of this year.  I must have known subliminally that Amber, Matt and the twins were going to move away and Lucy (Myrtle) and Sam (Fred) would soon be pining for them.  I guess Myrtle is just going to have to fly north to visit.

Longbow Soda Anyone?

I did it!  I managed to replace my old video card with a new one by myself (with some help from the incomparable Paul Matwiy) and now, finally, my new CS5 Photoshop software works.  So, the first thing I learned how to do was make 3D soda cans out of photos taken at Longbow.  What to do with them?  Well, who loves food more than anything else but the infamous, fabulous Newfe.  So, here he is pointing for a hamburger with 4 cans of Longbow soda pop at his heel.  Perhaps not a great image, but testament that my new HD3650 ATI Radeon AGP 8x video card works.

Longbow Camp

New pen & ink & watercolor done at Longbow Forest Camp in Willamette Valley, Oregon on a recent camping trip.  It was hot the first few days so swimming in the freezing water was wonderful.  It got cold after that but stayed beautiful.