Ed in the Hat

11" x 14" Oil on Linen

Not for sale.

A great photo from what must have been a fantastic trip to Spain was the source for this painting. Thanks to Bob for the use of the image. I painted Ed with a bit of exaggeration that is not quite caricature. 

Five Stages

8" x 10" Oil on Linen.

Peter Sagan collected a literal hand full of stage wins at the Tour of California this year. It will be interesting to see him head to head with all the other top sprinters at the Tour de France. I can see him giving Cavendish a run for his money since he continued this dominance in Switzerland. I cropped my composition to put his hand at the upper left sweet spot. The shoulder to his left is Boonen.

Christmas Catus Bloom at Easter

10" x 8" Oil on Linen.

On auction at DailyPaintworks.

Our Christmas Easter Cactus is blooming. It is an amazing plant that we have failed to kill and it blooms twice a year. The flowers are very interesting a real challenge to capture.

Crumpled Paper Airplane

10" x 8" Oil on Linen.

On Auction (Click here.)

This is a painting for the Crumpled Paper Challenge at DailyPaintworks. It was a fun study to make it read correctly from across the room, while keeping it loosely executed. Crash and Burn?

Eggbeater Drill

12" x 12" Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas.

On auction at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

Grandpa's old "eggbeater" drill is still running very smooth. This is my take on the You Know the Drill Challenge at DailyPaintworks. I set the tool in the composition with a cool to warm background in the upper portion of the square. 

Old Faithful #2

Approx 7" x 5" Oil on Linen.

On auction at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

My painting of Old Faithful can make me stop and look after 2 years. I liked how the pink underpainting gave the sky some liveliness. So I decided to revisit it today and let a little more undertone show through. I still like the effect. It is a little unusual to come back and execute a smaller study after the big painting, but maybe this is just another in a series. 

Here is a peek at what it actually looks like on my easel. 

Note that I plan to cut and mount this at 7" x 5" so not much of the pink border will show.

From across the room I really like how the image pops with the surrounding color, so I am thinking about going further and visiting it again with am extreme vignette.

Spring Snow

10" x 8" Oil on Linen.

On auction at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

Our second full day of Spring came with another blanket of snow. It soon melted off of the trees, but for the morning they sported an appealing flocking against a shocking blue sky. This is the top of one of the towering specimens behind our house.

Cycling Photogs

11" x 14" Oil on Linen.

In a Private collection.

Leon Z allowed me to paint from his photo reference. He said, "This shot just says something..........I'm not sure what, it just speaks to me!" I agree.

 I really liked the contrast between Jono and Beth as they wait for the approaching racers at the US Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado. I thought at first this was Liz  since she is always wearing some pink. Beth Schneider confirms it is her in the comments. She is about 4 ' 10" and Jono is well over 6ft. 

Mt Index Through the Clouds

14" x 11" Oil on Linen.

On Sale at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

Mt Index was playing hide and seek while wearing a brand new coat of snow on Sunday. Of course, the view was changing minute by minute, but it produced a dramatic effect as it went in and out of the clouds. Mt Index is my favorite and it's on the way in and out of Seattle.

Mountains Leader

11" x 14" Oil on Linen.

On Sales at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

Here is a closer composition of the Polka Dot Jersey. The lost edges and exaggeration are pushed a little farther. I wanted this one to more closely match the Green Jersey painting.

Polka Dot Jersey

11" x 14" Oil on Linen.

On sale at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

The Polka Dot Jersey in the Tour de France and several other stage races is worn by the leader in the climber's classification. I expect that we might see Andy Schleck  in that jersey as the attacks to take time out of Cadel Evans. It might look like this.

Cavendish Winning

10" x 8" Oil and Linen.

On sale at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

I think we will be seeing the rainbow jersey in this pose a lot this year. Mark is not succumbing to any World Champion Jersey curse. Mark won the sprinter friendly World Championship Road Race last year, so this year he gets to has to wear the rainbow stripes in road races. He might be wearing a classification jersey (like the Tour de France Green Jersey.)

For this painting, I used photo reference from 2010 (that I have permission to use) and dressed him in the rainbow stripes. 

Tea with Cream and Sugar

14" x 11" Oil on Linen.

On sale at DailyPaintworks (click to bid.)

I still like this china pattern after many years. I wanted to keep this painting loose with the silver cream an sugar set pushed back in the composition. I am still working on the lost edges here, but I like the "shine" effect on the cup.

Two Gala Apples

8" x 6" Oil on linen.

For Sale at DailyPaintworks (Click to bid.)

A little still life setup concentrating on lost edges, shadows, and the wonderful color of these Gala's.

Grand Prismatic Spring

14" x 11" Oil on Linen.

For Sale at DailyPaintworks (click here to bid.)

Grand Prismatic Sprint is amazing when you see those National Geographic aerial shots, but in person it is even more stunning. The colors are an amazing rainbow made by different bacteria living at the various temperatures out from the center of the spring. My most memorable view was this one from the hill to the south east (as I remember) that has an unofficial trail. Along the top of this painting you see the grey boardwalk that gives visitors a closer look at the spring.

I am considering whether this or some other composition would make a good larger painting.

The Green Jersey

11" x 14" Oil on mounted Linen.

In a Private collection.

Is this how Mark Cavendish is going to look this summer? He captured the green jersey last year with HTC, but this year will be more of a challenge with Sky and the fact that they have a contender for the overall victory. He has already won with these shoes this year, but he doesn't have the dominant leadout train.

Ruger and Tye

11" x 14" Oil on mounted Linen.

Sold.

Ruger is the big black soft pushover and Tye is more feisty. They love to come visit since it is great fun to tear around in the forest. 

Trappist Apple

11" x 14" Oil on Mounted Linen.

On sale at DailyPaintworks (click here to bid).

This painting features a souvenir from Belgium. The Westmalle Trappist Ale glass is trapping a Gala apple. I like painting shiny glass and fruit, but I don't think I have combined them like this before. I really like the shiny bits here.

White on White Coffee Cup

10" x 10" Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas.

On Auction at DPW.

This coffee cup painting is in response to the White on White Daily Paintworks Challenge.

I wanted to go with a more graphic painting so I picked a square format with a lot of cropping on the subject. I did manage to get my favorite heart shaped handle reflection. I decided between this oblique angle and looking down from the top. That may be coming up.

The challenge was interesting, but I think I would sneak in a little more color with some warm/cool lighting if I started again. Still, it makes me think it is time to fill the cup with a latte...

Dancer

11" x 14" Oil on Linen.

For Sale at DailyPaintworks (Click here to bid.)

Mike Gladu shared a nice photo of  his niece Madeline dancing. The frozen moment of time made a great painting subject. 

Cold Morning Sun at the River

14" x 11" Oil on Linen.

For Sale at DailyPaintworks (click here).

This is a cold look into the blazing sun at the Wenatchee River in Leavenworth, Washington.

Stovetop Espresso Maker

10" x 8" Oil on linen.

On auction at DPW.

This painting stars our new stainless stovetop espresso maker. In our household it makes sense to use this since we heat with a wood burning stove. It makes okay coffee and saves our off-grid battery power.  The new pot has an interesting shape that is quite different from the typical Moka octagon style pot.

I enjoyed the shiny reflections including the wood and the edge of the cup that peeks out from behind the pot. The fuzzy, lost, glowing edges also worked out well.

Coffee Cups - Big and Little

10" x 8" Oil on Linen.

On auction at DPW.

This is a pair of our newest coffee cups. The big one can host a nice sized latte and the little one is perfect for a double espresso. I must admit I am fascinated by the heart shape that the handle reflection creates since my wife pointed it out in a previous painting. I do love coffee, even if this morning's was a bit off...

Hang On

11" x 14" Oil on Linen.
On auction at DPW.

After painting Orange on a Perch, I thought of this more anthropomorphic idea. So, I staged this somewhat unsettling still life of a banana holding on for dear life to a slightly sloping board.

Apple and Not Orange

10" x 8" Oil on Linen.

This painting is in response to a DPW Challenge from Carol Marine to paint using other colors from the original after establishing the correct values. The idea is that the result will still read as correct 3-dimensional objects. I think it works in this case except the green orange is a bit strange. Changing the Granny Smith to a red apple came out quite natural.

Here is a bigger look at the finished painting:

Orange on a Perch

8" x 8" Oil on Linen.

Available.

I've enjoyed depictions of partially peeled fruit in other people's work. I wanted to try the same with a slightly unusual staging. Within this composition, I looked to keep the lines and focal point off of the center lines. Working through getting the right values to get good modeling is the fun part here and was a good warm up for my afternoon painting session.

Chris Horner Detail

This is an in progress detail from a larger painting on which I am working. This first pass is incomplete, but I wanted to share my current project. More detail is available on my other blog at http://shootinginthechute.blogspot.com.

Fan Dancer #4

10" x 10" Oil on Deep Gallery Wrap Canvas.

In a private collection.

Wayne, Pa

This will be the last dancer, for now. I saved the most dynamic to finish the quartet. I think they would  look great hanging together. 

Fan Dancer #3

10" x 10" Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas.

In a private collection.

Wayne, Pa

For the third in this series I picked one of the most dynamic standing poses. The pronounced wrinkles and interesting line made this fun to paint. I worked at keeping some hard and lost edges in the figure. Finally, there is the hint of her form in the shadow in front of her.

The next in the series is going to go in a different direction.

Fan Dancer #2

10" x 10" Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas.

In a private collection.

Wayne, Pa

This second fan dancer offered a solid pyramid to work with in the composition. I placed her slightly off center to avoid too much symmetry. I worked carefully with the narrow choices of color.

Fan Dancer #1

10" x 10" Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas.

In a private collection.

Wayne, Pa

This is the first in a series of "fan" dancers that performed at the Beijing Paralympic Games. My wife captured part of their performance in snapshots and I love their poses. I'm not sure how many I will do, but there is some good material from which to work.

Swan Reflection

10" x 10" Oil on gallery wrap canvas.
On auction at DPW.

This swan has been in my photo reference for a while. It has nice wild reflections and is romantically from near Chillon Castle in Switzerland, I believe. The swans I recently painted reminded me of this one, along with looking for a good reflection to paint.

I hope to be posting more regularly now that the holidays are over and I seem to be on the mend from a very persistent bug.