Martini with Orange Twist

5" x 7" Oil on Gessobord

$75 shipping included.

Even though we are still in family vacation mode, I was able to get a painting in today. My son is visiting so we have a Marine in the house. I don't know if "he drinks like a fish" or he drinks like a Marine, but he talks about drinking more than a fish does. So, Ryan showed his artistic talent by making the orange twist and I made it the star of today's daily painting.

The orange twist is draped in a martini glass fit for an enlisted marine. It is not one of those high class, slender stemmed glasses. It is a working class glass with a chunky stem.

My daughter actually joined me in painting the subject today, but she didn't feel her result was worthy. It takes a while to get to the point where you want to share your work with the world.

Vodka and Potato - Russian Impressionism?

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7" x 5" Oil on Panel

Today's Daily Painting is probably one of the great lost Russian Impressionist works. :^) Stoli propped up on a potato seemed appropriate, since some Vodka is made with potatos. The painting also needed a shot glass ready to go to work. I'm not really sure why we have a bottle of vodka available for painting, but someone in the household feels it is the best and smoothest vodka. That view is probably dated considering all of the new imported vodkas that fill liquor store shelves and magazine pages. Perhaps we are feeling a little Russian since our daughter has been speaking it lately...

CranApple - Still life of an Apple and Cranberries

5" x 5" Oil on Panel.

$60 Shipping Included.

My personal favorite apple is a Granny Smith. Most people only think of them as good cooking apples (they are), but once you become hooked on eating their tart crispness, other apples are less tasty and many will seem mushy. A friend of ours taught us they are good in salads. My childhood salads certainly didn't have them, but they are probably more common now. If you don't use Granny Smith's in your salads, pies, and for plain snacking, you should give them a try.

I have only more recently become a fan of cranberries. Craisins are a great form for mixing with oatmeal. These whole cranberries are good for mixing with stuffing (stove top stuffing was a pretty good invention in the packaged food category). The mixture of Cran-Apple makes cranberry juice acceptable to drink (barely, IMHO). Cran-Raspberry is even enjoyable!

Today's daily painting is a nice green Granny Smith apple and some rich red cranberries. The cranberries had a wonderful rich color and bright reflection points. They were available in the house to paint for the reasons explained above.

$60 Shipping Included.
5" x 5" Oil on Panel.

Orange Peel and Stein

7" x 5" Oil on Panel

Today's daily painting is a still life of an orange peel and a black ceramic stein. This stein is one of my favorite mugs. It has quite a nice shape and is incomparably smooth. This still life setup was inspired by David Leffel's Oil Painting Secrets from a Master. I avoided the horizontal by slightly sloping the viewing angle of the board. The arrangement reads from left to right. The color scheme is the concept with the orange complemented by the background.

The photo is not quite accurate. I am having trouble with showing the orange color as warm as in real life. I will work on updating it with better light.

Corkscrew and Cork

5" x 2.25" Oil on Panel

It's Friday night, so time for a wine related painting. This one is a tiny still life of our classic corkscrew and a cork. These sorts of things always seem to be lying around on Friday nights!

While I was hunting for a setup I stumbled upon this long composition that happens to work on one of my small panel cutoffs. This little study took longer than I expected, so it is today's daily painting.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

5" x 7" Oil on Panel

Ever wonder what a little kid thinks "A partridge in a pear tree" means? A pear tree is a huge pear on a trunk. A partridge is a bird, but to keep it in the tree, you need to tie it there with some string.

Today's Daily Painting is a visual pun for the famous "first day of Christmas" gift. How far should I go with the Twelve Days of Christmas?

House in the Woods - December

10" x 8" Oil on Panel

We have now had our first big snow of the year. The snow has stayed around for a couple of weeks now. It is heavy enough that we spent an hour helping the Propane delivery truck turn around after our tank was filled. Ugh. I like the snow up at the ski resort better than at our house. When you have to chain up a four-wheel drive, that is too much snow for me. However, it is "beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

Today's Painting is our house in the woods. It is really my other big creative project. We are still working on finishing the interior, so we are to the slow part but the craftsmanship is more interesting at this point. The project is now in its forth year and my wife and I have personally worked on everything but the foundation, framing, plumbing, and HVAC. It certainly adds meaning to this painting for me, since building a house is something my father would do, not me! Well, here it is after all, out in the woods with deep snow.

Two Eggs Over Easy

$75 Shipping included.
7" x 5" Oil on Panel

As a departure from the usual, the DailyPainters site will feature paintings of the subject "Egg" on Monday Dec 4. I decided on a visual pun for my take on egg. Travel over to www.dailyPainters.com to see some eggs on Monday, but you will also see a variety of other subjects just like everyday. If you visit often, you will come to expect the variety.

I love visual puns and enjoyed thinking up this subject for an egg painting. I have plans in the idea bank for more pun paintings. The interesting sidenote here is that we couldn't find any toy blocks around the houses, so I made some blocks for my still life setup. Then added a little imagination. I probably will do a little more touchup later today.

Here is a peek at my setup:

Major Award Nightlight

5" x 7" Oil on Panel

My family is crazy about the movie A Christmas Story (Jean Shepherd is a genius.) We have watched it too many times; for many years with a big gathering on Christmas Eve. Last year we had a family reunion at Christmas after a few years of being scattered around the country. It was great to be together and one of the fun things we did was have a contest for the best dinner. The cooking teams were made up of mixed members from the three families (cleverly chosen by cooking skills.) The team that won earned the "major award" just like in the movie; at least a homemade version featuring a Barbie leg. Well, my team didn't win, but my sister was kind enough to award my family a "major award" nightlight. Today's painting features that nightlight.

Since these 5" x 7" paintings are small, the compositions are fairly simple and often have the subject centered. After painting, I feel that this image should get a penalty for breaking the One Rule of composition. When I decided to paint the nightlight straight on I was thinking about the nice geometric pattern of the shadow on the wall. The end result was not too interesting and the symmetry makes heavy demands on accurate drawing. I felt that the result was unintentionally cartoonish also. I may decide to paint over those initials. NFS.