Another from New Zealand

I have been back from New Zealand for about a month now and am getting ready for my month as featured artist at my gallery in Breckenridge. This is a little 6x8 called Angry Seas that I did in NZ. It will be on display and for sale at the gallery in June. I am running around picking up frames, framing paintings up and trying to paint new ones too. But I am managing to get some new work done. My sister Adele Earnshaw will be here at the end of June and we are doing an outdoor show together, so with both shows going on, I will be needing plenty of work.

A figurative painting for a change

I have been going through the photos I took in New Zealand as I want to do a few pieces from there, but paintings that could be anywhere.  I watched several little kids with an eye to getting some good reference, and got some shots of this kid as he played with his boat in the water.  I was hoping no parents noticed as I didn't want to have to explain why I was photographing their kids!    It is just a little 6x8.  I really enjoy painting figurative work. 

A quick oil sketch

I have been participating in a group who is trying to paint from life, every day. The every day part is tough and I haven't been good about doing it that often. It is still a bit cold in the mountains of Colorado to get outside to paint. I have three cats, so decided they will be good subjects during nap time. Today I must have been too noisy as they kept moving. I wiped off two starts when my subject left, and started two more which never did get finished. This one isn't finished either, but I liked my start so won't wipe it off. I just wish I had wiped out the sketch lines of the parallel angles in the bottom center. I didn't notice them until I photographed it. It is amazing how many things show up in a photo that you don't notice while you are working on it.

New Zealand in summer, a great time to paint!

We have been in New Zealand for almost 6 weeks now and will be leaving a week from today.

I have loved being here and plan on coming back next year to do it all over again, but it will be good to get home. I have tried to paint every day, although it has been very rainy and I cannot paint inside in our rented house, so it has limited me. Still, I got a couple of dozen small paintings done. I don't necessarily want anyone to see them all, but this is one that came out ok. The photo is a bit washed out and perhaps I should have darkened it before posting, but I really don't like to manipulate the photos and prefer to just post what I get. If I want a better photo, I should get a better photographer! ;)

One more before leaving for New Zealand

A friend of mine had asked me to paint her dog. As we were only a month or so away from leaving for New Zealand for seven weeks, and my to-do list was very long, I didn' t think I could get it done before leaving. I sketched it in, and then it sat on the easel for a week or two, looking at me, asking why it wasn't finished! So one night I decided I was going to get it done and it just fell off the brush. I love paintings like that! This was photographed with my iphone (which takes better photos than my good camera!) but it was still wet, so there is a little glare on the right side. Now all I have to do is frame it and get it to her before we leave, now in less than two weeks.

A dog commission

This is the third dog commission I have done for this family, but it was the toughest! The photo they sent me of the dog wasn't the greatest, and when I tried a close up, I couldn't figure out where the various parts of the dog were within the black blob that was the head! I don't paint from imagination very well, and really do need reference. So I decided that I loved the girl and the dog together, and did that instead. It made it less necessary to get as detailed with the cockapoo. I titled it Best Buddies, as they look like they really are. The painting is a present for the little girl for her February birthday.

For once, a painting without a lot of fall color!

Of course, there is fall color in it as that is what I do, but no aspen leaves this time. This is an interpretation of the view at the top of Lizard Head Pass, near Telluride. I was there in September when the leaves were at their peak, but the pass has a lot of pine trees too. I really liked the color of the distant trees and my goals were to get that color right and to make the foreground interesting, which is something I find difficult to do. This is a fairly large painting at 29x24.