Still Life

I set up a few objects around my apartment for doing still life paintings in oil. I'm happy with how the colors turned out and the different light reflections from the metal and glass surfaces.

This one is still in progress

Painting

The Evening of the Her Dreams
18 x 24" oil




Untitled
18 x 24"

Angel of Patience
18 x 24" mixed media





Angel of Humility
18 x 24" mixed media



16 x 20 " oil

This was a life painting done from Richard Hull's figure painting class. The model posed 6 hours a week for about three or four weeks as we painted her.

Still in progress.

Lady with Horn
18 x 24" mixed media

Thomas S. Monson portrait in progress

Heather
16 x 20" oil

Heather was an excellent model. When I made it to this point in the painting, my teacher Robert Barrett suggested I stop and leave the painting alone before I over-worked it, even though we were only at hour three of twelve for this pose. I can't remember what I did for the remainder of the time allotted to paint the model.





Erin
9 x 12" oil

For this and the next painting, I was working with the artist William Whitaker in doing a series of head study paintings. Bill introduced me to using frosted mylar as a painting surface after he photographed both Erin and Anna to use as models. Frosted mylar is more commonly used for drafting or engineering applications. The mylar is great because you can tape it to black gator foam board and have instantly a gray toned surface to paint on and when you're finished, it is thin as a sheet of vellum for storage.

Anna
9 x 12" oil




Young Civil War Soldier
24 x 36" oil




Sam Houston
9 x 12" oil

This, along with the next three, was done from an old daguerreotype where I had to paint in the colors based on my experience from working from life.




Untitled
9 x 12" oil



Untitled
9 x 12" oil



Eliza
9 x 12" oil



Fox Hunt
16 x 20" oil


A fox hunt scene done by commission after Gainsborough.

Plein Air Paintings

This is the view looking out of my in-law's house in Leona Valley, CA.

For this view, I had to sneak through a barbed wire fence, brave some staring cows and climb a mountain. It was worth it.

I did this and the next painting in a plein air painting class taught by Richard Hull. Our location was off Geneva Road in Provo, UT. It ended up that one of days we were out painting that a bull escaped the barbed wire fence and took off down the country road toward us! Luckily, some police reinforcement and the owners of the farm arrived to handle the situation, so no one was harmed.

I really recommend reading "Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting" for anyone interested in learning about how to paint in the great outdoors.

This is off of Old State Street north of Springville, Utah. I did the whole thing with my palette knife, rather than my paintbrush.

Center Street in Historic Provo, Utah

Graphite/Copy Drawings

This and the next two drawings are copy drawings that I did in the studio of William Whitaker. For the first two, I picked drawings by Charles Bargue and spent about 3 months a piece doing an exact replica drawing in graphite. This was an excellent exercise in learning about edges, accurate drawing, sensitivity to value, and persistence. For the drawing of the standing figure, I worked from my own photo.

Museum Art I Love

These photos are taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery and the Getty Museums of Art.