Local Artist Show

Two of my works are in the local artist show at the Grinnell Area Arts Center. The show opened yesterday and runs through July 5. Visit it to see Summer Dog and D.C. Yawning (previously posted on this blog). My son also has a photograph in the show, a lovely close-up of an unusual looking mushroom.

Paint My Photo March Challenge

Life has been hectic this month, but I managed to carve out a little time today for a quick portrait in response to Paint My Photo's March challenge, which just so happened to be a portrait challenge.They had 30 photos to choose from. Now back to work on the bathroom remodel. First I need to chase down the cat who got ahold of my kneaded eraser.

D.C. yawning

Had the day off today and managed to carve out about an hour or so for art. I had sketched this out last week, so I could get right to the color today. Practice, practice, practice :-)

This is D.C. again, lounging in the sun and photographed while yawning by my son.

M.N.B. Lion

This lion stands guard at the entrance of the former Merchants' National Bank (now houses the chamber of commerce) in Grinnell, Iowa. I did this one for a landmark challenge at DailyPaintWorks. I really tried to use the paper color as part of the painting this time.Thanks to my son for the reference photo, though it was in B&W because it was taken for a photo class at school, where they processed their film the old-fashioned way.

Summer Dog

This one was submitted to the DailyPaintWorks weekly challenge for the week of February 4, 2013. The dog is (was?) up for adoption from a local shelter.

Primary colors

Inspired by various online painting challenges where you paint a subject using only primary colors (and black and white) ... here's a small (about 5x7) lunch-time doodle. After recently watching this clip from the Leno show (it's a hoot! http://www.lolbucket.com/video/KN5K8Y4S1AMA/100-year-old-Idaho-woman-on-Jay-Leno-show ), I wanted to capture Dorothy in her younger years - Jay briefly shows a photo in the video. I can see I really need to pay attention to the placement of the eye closest to the viewer - it seems a little bit high and too far outside, again!

Girl in the grass

I took some photos along the way on this one. Only took a few days to complete, working on it now and then whenever I found time.

My tiny reference photo.

Yes, I really do only have the set of pastels in the above image, plus a small handful of single flesh-tones. 

Had to darken her hair a bunch more. This is just an old frame I had laying around, it's getting a better one.

What I learned: to tape off the edges, so I don't work all the way to the edge. I worked all the way to the edge of the paper on this one and it was difficult to mat and frame. And that I'm not real good at photographing my work yet either.