It's now time to add tropical flowers to the upper tier of the painting. I have begun to block in yellow for two different types of heliconia flowers, seen in the upper right and the upper left. The general colors of the flowers that I will paint today will be yellow, red and pink. I [...]
Here is a pic of what my working palate looks like. I mix my colors freely, utilizing the various tones that naturally combine on the palate as the paint is mixed. Color is very exciting and inspirational to artists. As young as age 15 I can remember being excited to put down the first blocks [...]
Now for the fun part—let's paint! STEP 1: I have chosen to begin this mural with the birds of paradise. They compose a large section of this mural and I'm going to use the leaves and dramatic shapes of this exotic South African flower to ground this piece. The image on the left shows my [...]
How did this concept materialize? To make a long story short, I worked with interior designers who liked my tropical flower paintings. They specified the size (roughly 9'x12') for this project. I then presented three different concepts that were mocked-up in Photoshop and one was chosen. I then refined the chosen concept in my studio [...]
Primer, also commonly referred to as Gesso, is fundamental to an oil painting. It provides the ground for the paint to stick to the surface. Priming a canvas requires several coats of thin layers of primer. What is an artist primer? For those of you who are unfamiliar with artist terms, Wikipedia explains the concept [...]
Warning: this is an anti-mini painting...contrary to the name of my painting blog which has chronicled my Mini Master island paintings since 2006, both here and on my former Blogger blog. This is the next step. The canvas is up and is ready to be primed. Pinning the canvas to the wall was a two-person [...]
Warning: this is an anti-mini painting...contrary to the name of my painting blog which has chronicled my Mini Master island paintings since 2006, both here and on my former Blogger blog. I'd like to share the process of creating a large Oil Mural. This will be an intense and large project and will consume a [...]
Painting paradise in oil is what I do best. Here is yet another painting in my series about the Waimea Plantation Cottages. It is a small oil painting. Most of these small oils sell through my spring and summer art festivals in California. They remind my collectors of their homes in the islands and of [...]
This is a beautiful example of how to space three, tall slender paintings on a long wall. The dimensions for each of these oil paintings is 18"36".
This is the time of year where I try to assess when I'd like for my body of work to go. This next year, starting with the fall season, I think I will be honing in on: tropical flowers, island cottage paintings inspired by the Waimea Plantation Cottages and perhaps coastal California scenes. [...]
I wanted to give a thumbs up to all of the great paintings that are showcased every day on Micah Condon's Dailypainters.com website. I've been priveledged to be part of this group from the very near beginning, being 2006. Some of my favorite artists are Hall Groat II at http://www.hgroatii.blogspot.com and Lori McNamara [...]
This will be my third year exhibiting at the La Jolla Art Festival and I'm excited to make the nine hour drive down to San Diego. I love this show because it's fun to visit Southern California. I feel right at home in the sun and the warmth. I love the palm trees [...]
