"Loyal Friend" 11" X 14" oil

This was done for our dear cousin, Mary Katherine who wanted it as a gift for her son who graduated from East Carolina Univerity. It helped enormously to have little Capone with me as I painted. I was able to work from life as well as a series of photographs I took of different poses. I began a 14 x 26 and after roughing it in decided to start over using both a different pose and blend of colors. The smaller format worked much better. I enjoyed having Capone wandering around my studio looking up at me from time to time with those worried eyes as if to say "I hope you're getting it right." Capone returned home to North Carolina just about the time it was finished. I sat it down on the steps that Capone and I traversed many mornings and evenings with Capone during his visit. I still miss the little fella.

"Nap Time" Oils

"Nap Time"

I've been working with oil on masonite with some good results. Here I sought to emphasize the warmth of the little girl with the puppy by using the surrounding blue swirls.

Still life after Przewodek

Here's a quick value study I did of a still life painting by artist, Camille Przewodek. I'm learning the Cape Cod School of Art approach to light and color and Camille is one of Henry Henshe's students there. There are many others as well who I look too for guidance such as Lois Griffiel and Susan Sarback. My next step is block studies and I hope the weather turns around soon so that I can venture outdoors.

The River Spree after Swimm

Here is my mixed media (acrylic and oil) rendition of John Swinn's The River Spree in Berlin. I tried to use some of Cape Cod School technique. I probably should have waited to try such a complicated piece when just learning to put the shapes together. I just couldn't resist trying this beautiful landscape of Swinn's. I want to try it again after I have worked more on the technique and then do a comparison.

"Spring Hat" revisited

I finally broke down and added some much needed highlights my last April's "Spring Hat." Sometimes it's so difficult to revisit a work but in this case I knew sooner or later I would do what I am some of my fellow artists have encouraged me to do. Thanks to Connie for reminding me to be more conscious of the impact of the light especially on a portrait like this. The difficulty here lied in the fact that model photo had the the eyes almost completely in shadow and I wanted to change it. It's so difficult, if not impossible, to make up light and it seemed to me to be so synthetic to make to attempt. However, since I had changed the light on the eye are in the original work I was rather committed to doing it right and I hadn't done so. Here is my attempt to do it correctly if that's possible. I had to change the highlights in much of the face in order to balance things out and although it took me most of the day I think it was worth doing. I'm pleased with the result although I wouldn't want to have to repeat it.

Katie

Here's my latest venture into the world of colored pencils (Prismacolor Colored Pencils). I found that I very much enjoy working with them although they are quite time consuming. The end result is worth the time. I really enjoyed this one because of the practice I got to with blending to get l specific colors not in a single pencil. The most enjoyment however, came because it was done a very special person in my life; my cousin, Jan. Jan is like a sister to me and we share so many childhood memories; some of them being our love for dogs. This one's for you Jan.