Northern Neck Artisan Trail · oil painting · Step-by-step · Technique

The Cannoneers: Veteran’s Day 2019

It took me a while to screw up the courage to tackle this painting. Part of me wants to do it again bigger. I actually think it would be easier if painted larger… like twice it’s current size. It is 10″ high by 30″ wide. There are just so many little bits to this thing.… Continue reading The Cannoneers: Veteran’s Day 2019

Materials · Northern Neck Artisan Trail · oil painting · Step-by-step · Technique

The Right Surface

When I started painting many, many years ago in school, I was taught that there was really only one surface acceptable for fine art paintings: canvas stretched and primed with acrylic gesso. I’ve learned since there then are a whole lot of other options and so long as you approach the issue in a logical… Continue reading The Right Surface

Materials · Northern Neck Artisan Trail · oil painting · Productivity · Reference Photos · Step-by-step · Technique

Ballerinas Day 3

I’m in search of a title for this painting and I’ve posted some of the progress photos on Facebook and I’ve gotten some interesting ideas. I just haven’t decided yet. My Daughter-in-law, who provided me with the reference photo, advised that the girls were in a Ballet called The Carnival of Animals and they were… Continue reading Ballerinas Day 3

Materials · Northern Neck Artisan Trail · oil painting · Productivity · Step-by-step · Technique

Ballerina’s Day 2

As you saw from my last post, I spent the first day (well, actually the second if you give me a day to choose the reference photo and makes notes and sketches about any composition changes and enlarging the photo) transferring the photo with my notes to tracing paper. I also stained the canvas. In… Continue reading Ballerina’s Day 2

Historic Sites · Materials · oil painting · Productivity · Step-by-step · Technique

Another from Colonial Williamsburg: Limited Reveal

I did finish another in the Colonial Williamsburg series and again, I’m just going to tease you with some progress photos and a close up or two. You’ll have to attend the show in May to see the full, finished painting. The photos above are my value block-ins. Below are close-ups of parts of the… Continue reading Another from Colonial Williamsburg: Limited Reveal

Emotional Struggles · Galleries · Historic Sites · Northern Neck Artisan Trail · oil painting · Productivity · Step-by-step

Fast or Slow: It’s Relative

I visited my local Farmer’s Market a couple of weeks ago and ran into a number of folks who follow me on this blog, on Facebook, or Instagram and have been excited to see the Colonial Williamsburg Series continuing. I was gifted with a lot of positive feedback but one comment was repeated by a… Continue reading Fast or Slow: It’s Relative

Galleries · Historic Sites · oil painting · Productivity · Step-by-step

One Veteran to Another

I got a bit off track with posting, but the painting continues in the Williamsburg series. So, in a nutshell, here are the progress shots (I didn’t take one every single day, but you can get the idea of the steps here: The photo I took from some distance away using a long lens of… Continue reading One Veteran to Another