My LPB Donation

 I just donated this painting to Louisiana Public Broadcasting for their annual art auction fund raiser. I am joining the Hammond Art Guild in this worthy cause. I painted this portrait from a photo I took at the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge. I know the artist in the painting and she complimented my work saying that I really caught her focused-on-

painting facial expression.

Little Green Heron

 Every time I go to City Park in New Orleans I see a Green Heron stalking along the edge of the pond. I love his crazy bird eyes and the frilly white crest.
 I painted this with a pallet knife. The paint is very thick and textural. It will take a week to dry and then it is going to the Artisan Gallery in Mandeville.

Loosening Up

Painting this morning in Abita Springs I could really feel and see how much I have improved at painting plein air since January. I have gotten much looser and more painterly.  People are always telling me that they cannot draw or paint. I always disagree and say it is more about working on something than about an innate talent.

House Portrait

I took the photo for this home very early in the morning. My favorite architectural feature is the tower-like structure over the door. The dark cast shadow on the roof next to it helped reinforce that as the center of interest. I did thin paint everywhere else and then piled on the pale yellow on the tower.

Little Flower Villa

 Mandeville, Louisiana does not have a lot of historic homes because of the many hurricanes that besiege this little town perched on the edge of a huge lake. This was historically a place for wealthy New Orleanians to escape the summer heat and yellow fever epidemics and relax on wide verandas enjoying the relatively cool breezes from the lake.
  One of the few surviving homes is Little Flower Villa, which my friends and I painted

. Can't you just picture yourself sipping a Pimm's cup on the porch?

Like a Day at the Beach

I got to paint at the Ponchatrain beach

this morning right before a big storm blew through.

Portrait of Suburbia

 You know how the Impressionists painted everyday life as members of French bourgeois society and it all looks so romantic and beautiful? I asked myself today why paintings of our everyday life don't seem to sell. Especially figure paintings of modern life. Figure paintings may win awards but the bottom line is that selling a landscape is much easier than selling anything that shows modern people and how we live. If anyone has a clue to why only landscapes sell please write.
 I am happy to have received a commission from a realtor to paint portraits of the houses she has been selling. The realtor then gives these paintings to her customer as a thank you. I think it is a very wonderful thank you gift!
 This is my first in the commission series. I tried to make the house very recognizable but with some magic in the shaft of light crossing the front of the house and the slight fuzziness in the background.  I also some unexpected pops of color. If you look closely the orange color I toned the canvas with shows through in many places.

Bert's Boatyard

I love boatyards. All the colors and angles and activity are so interesting. This boatyard is tucked into a  backyard in Madisonville off of a bayou. From the street you just catch a glimpse of the boatyard in this mostly residential neighborhood.  The owner graciously allowed us to set up on his lawn between the house and the work area.

First Things First

fFYesterday I was inspired by the reflections of trees in the local marina. Unfortunately I waited to paint that section last and guess what happened? The wind came up and the reflections disappeared. I had to paint from memory.  Always paint the thing that caught your eye first is my lesson of the day.

Peggy, Ferris, Wanda and I were all painting in the same location. We all saw different things.

Bayou Lacombe

Three of us painted this scene from the St. Tammany

Trace Ranger station balcony overlooking Bayou Lacombe. The amazing thing is looking at our work you would never know it was the same scene. I will have to post all three next time we paint together.

Painting in the Dark

  In a class taught by Mark Chatov we did figure painting in very bad light. I thought it was just logistics, in order to have light on the model with 16 painters gathered around it was the only solution. But Mark told us that he always paints in low light. The advantage is that you see value on your painting more easily.
  I painted at my friend Trudy's studio last week and ended up doing my own set up in a dark corner. When I finished the painting and brought it out into daylight it was like Christmas to see all the bright colors. Trudy's yard was full of these beautiful hydrangeas.