…practice

… more metallic surfaces. Adding colors is purely fun.

Wee bowls

My step-mom, Betty, was a potter. People now say ‘ceramicist’, but I will use the term she used. She made many useful items, including all of the dishes we used every day. She also made decorative things, vases, and even a full chess set once! No other potter I had seen the work of carved into their pots the way she did. She made many interesting patterns.

Here are a couple of tiny paintings I did to record my step-mom’s sweet little bowls.

metallic surfaces

Stainless steel-yikes! This one actually metal. I was hesitant to try it, definitely fine over an old painting. ‘You have to start somewhere department’ as my mother might have said.

#allaprima #allaprimapainting #twohourstilllife #paintingpractice

Differences

When the King tides photography project came up, I remembered these rocks painted during a normal high tide. It was a foggy, grey day, but these rocks jumped out strongly while everything else was in the background and soft. I felt a little bit of color would make it feel more “welcoming”. Hey-it’s my painting, I can do whatever I want with it!

#landscape #landscapepainting #waterscape #oilpainting #hightide #contemporarypainting #californiacoast #bayarea #shorebirdpark

a sunny outlook!

Only a loving family can create that glow! Sorry for double post. #oilportrait #childrenportrait #oilpainting I had created a time lapse of the painting start, and it is fun – although much fussing has to be done to set it up correctly–balancing the phone, positioning the light, and painting while trying to stay out of the frame… While I can’t post it here, you can see it on Facebook or Instagram (posted around end of August 2022). Here’s a photo.

Pontessieve Village from a Winery

This distant view of Pontessieve Village was one I started while on my last trip to Italy. There were a lot of foggy, overcast days, but they sometimes make surprisingly interesting moods. This day had started out with a complete whiteout, but then lightened a bit as the day went on.

You can buy this little painting on Daily Paintworks, it is featured today https://bit.ly/3uhZLEM

a portrait series…

This has been turning into a series. Not a series related to each other in any way other than that they are all of children loved by others, who would like to see their dear faces frequently. I feel a bit Beatrix Potter saying “dear faces”, but that is kind of how you feel, especially as a grandparent. While in the midst of parenting, I know it is much more difficult to see the forest for the trees. Sadly, but there it is!

a young lady

While I often paint using a limited palette this young lady required more colors. She is so fair and blonde, her features become just mildly prominent. I like to try to get a feeling for the person while painting, and, to me, her face seems to shine kindness, fairness, even-temperedness, and I’m sure she is all of those things!

sketch—shadows of large objects

Ha! Shadows can be so much fun – something not really there which is visible! In this case, the Carquinez Bridge provided the structure to obstruct the sun. This bridge is composed of an old trestle-ish looking bridge for going North, and the new graceful Southward bridge. I might add a few more pencil lines.

oil sketch of the Carquinez Bridge and shadows

tooth archeology

Maybe someday, someone will find a cache of baby teeth and wonder what it was all about. This little guy lost two in two days — I think he’s happy the tooth fairy will come but even more than that, it’s just fun to wiggle them out!