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Painting Gallery

I've always appreciated art but prior to 4/05, I could only barely draw stick figures. At that point while stuck on a cruise, I worked through a lot of Betty Edwards' book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Jeez, it works. I then took her son's five day seminar in NY and have taken some other workshops since then. At first it was like the dog walking on his hind legs, it's not that he does it well, it's that he does it at all. But I've continued to progress to where I'm surprised by how well I'm doing (low expectations help a lot here). I've put the whole progression up in this gallery as I've been working my way up the food chain of media. Anyone can do this.

WOOF!

Making this pastel painting on sandpapersolved the problem of the toothy paper. The view inside the truck windows also worked.

First drawing after Brian's class. Done at a Texas motel

First foray into color. I used colored pencils and hoped to incorporate the background color of the paper into the composition. This didn't happen. I also struggled with the tooth of the paper but not bad for a first effort.

Eclipse drawing. The risk here is that it looks too much like a kid's drawing. This version seeks to show the explosive quality of the sun

Another 3 hour class blitz painting, this one in acrylics. I copied a pope from a poster. Little time. Not bad. It could have been an eggplant. Second experience with brush.

First studio acrylic. Same subject as my first pastel. Took a lot longer

On to pastels. Much richer colors. Here I used magenta paper and let the paper supply the sunset and sign reds. This background color coming through gives an agreeable red glow to the whole piece.

I tried to draw a rock and stick in the balcony of a Texas motel. I couldn't get the texture.

I drew Zoya from a photo. It's easier as you don't have to worry about your view changing as you move around.

Back in Roanoke, I went to battle against another rock. The score became Rock 2, Artist 0. It might be easier if I could use color, stay tuned

In this exercise, I sought to draw all in blue shades with colored pencils (I still had to blend) and using blue paper as one of the colors

I hated this one. Second niece, Dania. Is 13. Looks 30. The drawing kicked my butt.

A cactus drawn with colored pencils. I'm still trying to balance the colors: dark beige paper and a range of green/blues for the cactus with violet shadows.

I did this to practice perspective. It's our back deck when we lived in Roanoke.

Pastel on sandpaper. That good old complete coverage. This is less a good painting than a good subject. A real metal art bench. Decent job on the sea of green leaves.

The original Stax sign shown in a Memphis bar. Really. The trick here is to use magenta and black paper on the same painting. I also used white acrylic paint to nail the neon loops.

A pure exercise in color balancing with colored pencils. I found I had to blend each color swatch to get it to look OK. I think abstracts are harder to draw than "realistic" subjects

A trees in the jungle colored pencil drawing. I think the leaf colors are off and I failed in my attempt to depict a mass of leaves. At least there wasn't a rock in the drawing.

Here's the graduation exercise. Compare it to the first drawing. All students were above average in improvement.

Here's a drawing of Sharon, a fellow student. I made her head too big for the paper.

This is how things start with the Betty Edwards method. You draw yourself. Hopefully you get better

3rd day of the workshop. The idea is to draw a chair by focusing on the negative spaces between the wood. And I tried to get the different tone values of the chair

I went up on the roof of Brian's studio in Soho, NY for this perspective exercise

This is a free-hand copy of a drawing done in the first day of Brian Bomeisler's five day workshop. Take it slow, look very carefully and you can make a good drawing. Add Liberal use of eraser.

Next, draw your hand. First cover the paper with a "ground" (medium graphite tone) so you both draw and erase to create the image. Extra credit for watch

My first use of the paint brush. This was a 3 hour complete oil painting class. And I had to knock this out in an hour. Including paint mixing. Sloppy but progress.

Sierra the lioness with fake colors anchored by blue. One of my favorities in pastel although with the same toothy paper problmes.

I drew my niece. OK, her eyes are not that close together and I still struggle with the toothed paper. I went for blue shadows and did OK expressing volumes with pastel colors. My favorite is the hair.

This is a refreshingly complex tree opposite our garage in Roanoke. The trick is to plan the negative spaces in advance (I realized this after I had finished).

Here's my final colored pencil drawing. I feel I began to learn how to use the pencils and overcome the toothed paper. I made no attempt here to alter the colors.

Stuck in a motel in NYC, what would you draw?

Another self portrait with the idea that a violet pencil would agreeably complement the beige tone paper which would form the middle tone of the drawing.

If you want to make a detailed drawing while traveling, pick something that goes with you. I'm not happy with my color choices

An acrylic where I tried to make the yellow and pink color planes interesting and only managed to lay in a gradiant. Unhappy result

First oil painting. I asked myself, "what would my dog paint?"

An oil version of the pastel water scene. I had great struggles to get the oils to work "wet on wet"

Pastel on oil. A reproduction of a radar image of sand dunes on Saturn's moon, Titan. Extreme Plein Aire.

The five paintings in this row were done at a week long outdoor painting workshop given by Albert Handell and his wife, Anita West. Check Albert's website.

A freehand copy of a Courbet masterpiece. Remember "Black is Black" by Los Bravos? There you go.

Began as a plein air pastel of a Georgia Waterfall. Finished indoors.

From a photo of a Beduin girl taken in Egypt. Her clothing was that layered. It was a challenge to paint a credible face in small scale.

The same work as the one above after I took more time to improve it at home. It's not really possible to finish a painting in one session outside.

Desert scene turned into swatches of color

Good pastel portrait depicting volume and expression. I didn't draw in the white garment as it would have detracted from the face

Flamingoes from the San Antonio zoo painted with oils in a realistic style

These three paintings were done at a three day oil painting workshop led by Vicki McMurray given at a local art school www.wenmohsranch.com

Vicki is particularly strong in color (check her website)

Compare this one to the same subject done 6 months earlier. Progress!

An oil painting of Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. I'm pleased with this.

Between flights at the San Antonio zoo. I painted the background out of focus

Purple and Crimson worked into the shadows. Watch out for cholersterol!

My first studio oil. Castle overlooking Loch Ness. Bad color balance

The beginning of dawn as we walk our dogs

Different angle of dawn view done in pastels

A tiny (6x8") painting of the entry to Petra from a canyon with Jordanian coins pasted on the shadow areas

An improved version of a previous oil (see above)

Rock painted with impasto (thickened) effect

Painted for a San Marcos city exhibit on "science"

Sunset done in pastel but with the silhouette tree layered in after, with acrylic

Oil painting done in "plein aire" (outside)

A pastel done in small format (9x12") to force attention to detail

A pile of rocks at sunset in Terlingua, TX

The Starlight Theatre in Terlingua, done with Watercolor on canvas

A diptych done with Acrylic on handmade paper

A decaying bus seen in Terlingua, Acrylic

Imagined pair of pears done in oil using heavy glazing

Moon and Venus over a Spanish Castle, oil on canvas

A colorful truck wreck parked in Terlingua: oil on panel

Abandoned church in Terlingua at sunset: oil on panel

Oil on canvas done solely with two pallette knives

A small (9x12) pastel of a volcanic beach in Hawaii

Pastel over gouache depicts blurred people moving forward. It's called "meeting the relatives after 3 hours in the airport bar"

Pastels portray the action and blur when quails take flight

A second painting of the black bleach done with impasto acrylic

A watercolor on cold press paper done of the Terlingua church

A small (8x10) pastel of the Blanco River at flood stage

A second small (8x10) pastel of the Blanco at flood stage

A large oil painting ((30x40) The composition is driven by the huge asymmetrical dark background

A 12x16 acrylic. You've got to work fast to get a mottled surface with these fast drying paints

Same as above but bigger (14x18) and in acrylic

Biggest painting done so far (36x48) for a commission in oil

A 12x18 pastel with colors supplied by the artist

Impasto effects were used on this 36x36" oil on canvas

Pastel on sanded board with artificial colors

A 16x20 acrylic done in an impressionistic fashion

The red church painting (see above) improved and finished

Multi-media Triptych. The center is watercolor, the ends are acrylic

Small (8x10) pastel deliberately done in muted gauzy style

OIl portrait of LZ Love, gospel singer. Also done more poorly on Bobcats page

An acrylic rearrangement of an industrial scene from South Texas

Updated watercolor of red grasses against snow

4th painting of my eqyptian buddy. Oil on panel 11x14

12x24 oil. An attempt to employ muted, cool colors

16 x20 oil on panel with narrative: called "oversight"

Quick pastel. I didn't like this one too much. The strokes look choppy

Large (30x40) oil on panel done with lots o' glazing

16x20 pastel of Chinese Hibiscus (or most of one)

18x22 Watercolor: details rather than washes