The majority of my paintings are done in oil colors on stretched canvas.
I display my work, for sale, periodically at locations available to our local art association. I have several paintings on permanent display at a local aerobics studio.
There are many mediums available to work in. I have tried my hand at oils, pastel, watercolor, and scratchboard/ink. While I find them all very interesting to work with, I keep returning to oils.
I am currently working in a wet on wet technique which utilizes a toned background and underpainting with acrylics. Some examples are shown in the oil painting page of my paintings album. I have been working on the old masters technique of portraiture. I completed an oil painting of a peasant girl with a swan that I copied from a print. I had no idea what the true title of the painting was or who painted it. I asked the local fine arts library to help me identify this beautiful painting. I hope that you enjoy my rendering. Thanks to the folks at the UVA Fine Arts Library, I located the painting. The title is Odalisque by Lord Frederick Leighton, painted in 1862. This painting can be found among the Old Masters paintings that I have copied as a way of learning to do portraits. My most recent efforts are a portrait of my Zumba dance instructor and my two grand-nieces. A fun portrait was the "Cameo Locket" that I did of my friend Jean and her husband. This was my first effort at doing two people in the same painting and the resulting painting won First Place in the Fluvanna Art Association's annual show in 2009.
After receiving permission to paint the photo of "Ground Zero" to be used as fund-raiser for local fire and rescue,I completed my tribute to those who died on 9-11 and to the many rescue units involved in that horrific day. "We Won't Forget" is shown on the oil paintings page. I am also using Genesis oils in addition to the traditional methods. These paints must be dried with a heat gun.
I have also added some scratchboard/watercolor works. Scratchboard consists of either heavy paper or clayboard coated with india ink which is then scratched with a tool to produce an image. It is either left black and white or color can be added using watercolors or ink. I am particularly proud of the indian warrior. The warrior won an honorable mention at the Fluvanna Art Association's annual show in November, 2004 (Midnight Swim won second place in 2002), Lace-top Hydrangea won First in 2007 and Night Watch won Honorable Mention in 2009. This medium can be very time intensive and exacting if you're a detail person. I consider the Lion and Mate one of my more challenging pieces. This was sold at our art association's one day show held each spring at the Lake Monticello firehouse. The nesting robins was done from a photo that I took through my garage window. The mother bird was very tolerant of me watching them through the window.
I am very interested in trying new techniques. I have done a few animal portraits which I find challenging because you have to get the eyes right to capture the personality of the animal. While I prefer oils, portraits can be done in any medium. When you go to the pastel page, you will find portraits of cats and one of a dog chewing on a slipper. This medium works very well for showing the softness and texture of flowers (as shown on Snowfire which won an honorable mention in 2005).
My friend, Dixie, also my instructor in oils, has piqued my interest in decorative painting. She has been certified as an instructor in this venue and through this introduced me to Genesis oil paints. We started out doing paintings on masonite and graduated to lazy susans and birdhouses, as you will see when you look at the decorative painting page.
The following four pages are a collection of my works done in the past few years. Page one consists of my copies of Old Masters and my oil paintings; page two is works done in pastel; page three is my scratchart pieces and page four is a new category for me, decorative painting. Each page is accessed by clicking on a button below.
As you view the paintings, if you click on a particular painting, you can see a larger version, then simply click the back button at the upper left corner of your screen to return to the album page.
Click Here to see the Fluvanna Art Association's current annual show winners.
Click Here to go to the Fluvanna Art Association's Web Site
