RED BALLOON

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

8"X6.5"

nfs

A painting of our granddaughter which started out easy and quickly took a turn for the worse. I don't remember how many times I wiped and scraped the background. I was trying to put a garden setting in the background but it overpowered the figure. I finally decided the canvas was too large and cut 3.5 inches off the end. We both love to watch Winnie The Pooh so that is where the red balloon comes in.

CLOSE UP AND GALLERY OPPORTUNITY

This is a section of a larger painting that is at Renaissance Fine Art Gallery . The gallery is located in Carmel, Indiana. If you happen to be in the area, stop in and look at all the nice work in the gallery.

I want to announce a gallery opportunity for artists living in my area. Patty Rose is in the process of opening a gallery in Troy, OH. The Art Vault Gallery will be located at 2 East Main St. in Troy. Patty is having an Open House on April 5, from 6-8p.m. Stop in to see the space and hear about her plans for the gallery.

KITE DAY

6"X8"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

SOLD

This is a little girl at the beach on Hilton Head Island. She was out with her family for a fun day of kite flying and running on the beach. What a nice break from painting  still lifes. Still lifes can be very time consuming with the set up, removing and replacing items. With a photo I feel like I have more freedom. I start the painting from a photo but once the drawing is correct, I usually don't look at the photo very often. It's a nice change from all that scrutiny that I give to a still life.

Emerging Artist and New Website

Lily by Ian Blackburn

6"X6"

My ten year old great nephew came to my studio Sat. to do a painting for an art contest and this is the finished product. He was not very pleased with it but I think it is great for a first oil painting. I think his taste is more photo-realism as opposed to impressionism. Last year he entered a landscape done with pastels and won 1st place in his age group and Best of Show. As you can imagine he felt very pressured to do something spectacular.

In teaching another person I always learn something myself. To keep things simpler for him I had him mix the most prominent colors in piles before he started the painting. It worked so well for Ian that I don't understand why I haven't used this method for myself.

My new website is up and running with the help of my friend Ryan Asher. Ryan has been so busy building websites for other people that he hasn't finished one for himself. But you can contact him at ryancasher@yahoo.com if you need some help with a website.

http://www.anitatresslar.com/

CHANNELING ROBERT HENRI

I think I have mentioned in the past that I love the work of Robert Henri so I decided to do a study of this portrait titled AN IRISH LAD, hoping to channel Robert. I don't think the channeling worked but I think I learned a few things.

I believe this painting was done over a rust colored ground. I used white canvas paper which is fine if you are painting a practice piece or planning to frame an oil under glass.


He was in love with the face in this one and gave very little attention anything else. The clothing seems to be an afterthought.

His brushwork is lush. This practice made me realize that I don't mix enough paint at a time. That isn't a problem with very small paintings but it is when you start painting larger. It is something I have struggled with for years. Too much remixing slows the process and is frustrating.

The other thing I learned is that it isn't easy to get in the head of another artist as much as we all try.

This is a photo of the original that I got from the Internet but unfortunately the color is not very accurate. I worked from a book of Henri's paintings. His last name is pronounced Hen-rye. It was an assumed name adopted by him at seventeen. He was born in Cincinnati, OH. in1865 to a wealthy family that developed real estate. His real name was Robert Henry Cozad. The family later moved to Nebraska where his father developed the town of Cozad but there were many conflicts between the developers and the local ranchers. Robert's father shot and killed an unarmed man in a scuffle and as a result was indicted for murder. The family fled and all took assumed names out of fear. He was a cousin of the famous painter Mary Cassatt but couldn't tell anyone out of fear that his family would be found.

IN THE FOLDS

8"X8"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $120

I have friends who belong to a local arts group that moved into a very spacious studio last year. My friend Diane decided to set up a large still life in the main room of their meeting site and she invited me to come and paint with her. The set up is just beautiful. I took small panels since I knew I would only be able to paint one day and this is the painting I did first. I will post the second one later in the week.

FINALLY BACK TO THE EASEL

PRIMROSE

6"X6" OIL ON PANEL

PRICE $100

It feels like I have been away from painting a very long time and the start of this painting felt a bit awkward. A brief moment of "OH where do I start"? Primrose always starts showing up in our market at the end of December and I can't resist them. If I can keep it alive until time to put it in my garden, it will be a miracle. I'm better with cactus.

BERRY REFLECTIONS

6"X6"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $100

Thank you California for strawberries in September. Not only are they beautiful but also delicious for snacking.

WINESAP

6"x6"

OIL ON CANVAS

PRICE $100

It's apple time in the midwest and winesap apples are my favorite. I bought two of them at the local farm market and couldn't wait to taste that typical sweet, tart very crisp apple. What a disappointment. Mushy is the only word for it. So the second one is in this painting.

VERBENA 2

6"X6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE$100

There are still a few hardy flowers blooming in the garden so another try at Verbenas.

FALL FLOWERS

6"X6"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $100

These are Woodland Sunflowers that I picked today on a small road north of our neighborhood. I have been going there for several years to get them for painting. They are abundant on many of the country roads this time of year. I discovered today that manganese blue with a yellow makes some very nice greens. I'm always looking for alternatives to ultramarine blue.

ARRANGEMENT IN BLUE AND YELLOW

11"X14"

OIL ON BOARD

 

This is another painting that will be hanging at The Cloud Nine Cafe on August 30. The cafe is located at

102 West Auglaize St. in Wapakoneta, OH. If you live close by, stop in for a great lunch and enjoy the paintings.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROL

6"X6"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $100

SOLD

The title of this painting comes from a Daily Paintworks Challenge. CAROL MARINE'S husband David has issued a challenge for fellow bloggers to do a painting for Carol's birthday. So here are some flowers for Carol. Carol is one of the original daily painters and bloggers. She has a huge following by now and is quite

successful.

BACKLIT

8"X6"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $100

This painting is for the DAILY PAINTWORKS CHALLENGE. The challenge is to interpret a black and white image in color. In this case it is a photo of a window with light coming in and back lighting the objects in the window. I chose a small area of the photo with this one plant and added the cherry for more color.

VERBENA

6"X6"

OIL ON BOARD

PRICE $100

This is another painting of flowers from my garden. The garden is not looking so great this year between the scorching temps and the deer eating all the hostas, it is in sad shape. But these flowers seem to tolerate the heat a little better than others. That said, I would rather have this than snow.

OVERLAP

6"X8"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

I'm finally back to blogging. My daughter-in-law and I decided to take part in a neighborhood garage sale last week. It was held on the two hottest days of the year, so far. This was my first garage sale and it was exhausting. I'm still tired.

For this painting I decided to try a small circular composition of flowers from my garden. I like the movement and pattern created by overlapping the flowers and leaves.

DAISY WITH CHERRIES

6"x6"

OIL ON CANVAS PANEL

PRICE $100

I have so many flowers blooming right now that it is hard to decide what to paint next. The daises were starting to fade from the heat so I brought in one of the better ones to paint.

SUMMER

7"X5"

OIL ON PANEL

PRICE $100

Zinnias, a sign of summer in the midwest. They seem to thrive on our heat and humidity. I have been using up some of the black masonite panels from a workshop last year. They are great if you plan to use dark background colors but I find the black is a problem when painting the lights. I prefer painting on white, burnt sienna or yellow. But it is always fun to experiment with different grounds.

MUSTARD FIELD

5"X7"

OIL ON MASONITE PANEL

PRICE $100

This is a cornfield near our home that is now a wild mustard field. The flowers are beautiful but very invasive.
These weeds are showing up everywhere now including my flower garden. I leave them alone until the flowers are ready to go to seed then I get rid of them. Inevitably they will be back in my garden next year until I toss them out again.

JUNE LILIES

6"X6"

OIL ON PANEL

PRICE $100

Two types of daylilies from my garden. I have painted lilies so many times and I am always surprised at how hard they are to capture in paint. There are so many nuances of color that it can get confusing to the eye.