Oil Painting of Yale Forest

This is a large oil painting created from sketches and previous studies of the Yale Forest in Ashford CT

Wolves for Beauty and the Beast

Completed masks and costumes for "The Beauty and the Beast"

Oil Sketches

More Oil paintings developed from previous drawings in my sketchbooks.

Tug Boat Oil

I have been wanting to develop a few oil paintings, so I have been pulling out my recent sketchbooks as well as going through some my old ones from recent years. This is a 16x20 oil that I created from a sketch. I spent time exploring boatyards with my sketchbook in tow, so I have a pretty good supply of material that I can draw from in terms of developing paintings.

Sketch Studies

I spent some time outside in the cold making studies this past week. I am hoping to have a few quality sketches that I can turn into paintings. Here are some samples.

Progress of the Italian Village

This is the backdrop in progress that sits in my classroom. This is from the sketch I had posted at an earlier date. It is 8'x12'.

Oil in Progress

This is on my easel today. I painted this from a sketch I did over the summer. I'am not sure if the sunset is working. Any comments?

What's on the Easel

This is last weeks painting. I have been going through my sketchbooks from the past summer and working out some of the drawings into paintings. This oil is from a pencil sketch I did on location in East Matunuck RI.

Paintings from Sketches

Last week, I started to go through my sketch books from this past summer. I try to match a goal of filling at least 3 sketch pads through the summer. This really gets my head back into drawing and allows me reference material throughout the year.

I found this drawing and decided to develop it into an oil painting. I have spent very little time working with oils this year. In reflection, I have a love hate relationship with that medium. I suffer the greatist amount of fustration with oils. First, oil painting takes an enourmous amount of practice and skill. The first I have not been devoted to, and the latter I seem to lack. Oils seem to present the most obstacles of the mediums, whether it is the set up, mess (because I inevitably track it all over the place), or just storage. With my love for going big, oils also present an obstacle in cost (my recent $42 purchase of a tube of Cadium light). On the other hand, there is nothing more sensual to my eye, (except my wife of course) than a master oil painting. I love the juicy impasto, the broken colors, the vibrating colors that are orchesrated with this medium. I visit particular paintings like old friends. De Kooning, Cezanne, Gorky; all inspired me into this whole art thing with their masterful handling of oil paint.

Starting Designs

I beginning to work out designs for our schools production of "Beauty and the Beast". This is a sketch of what the French village will look like.

Yale Forest

This is a photo of an unfinished painting I am currently working on. It is a painting based on some studies and photo's I had done of the Yale Forest in Eastford CT one very cold day. I have a tendancy to wait, let a new season(such as winter) soak in for a while, and then get an overwhelming urge to capture it in some way. This was supposed to be an acrylic underpainting, and I planned to layer over it in oil. I was interested in an exploration in mediums. However, now I want to see how it works using exclusively acrylic (which I rarely do).

Can't Stop the Funk

This 48"x65" painting was a result of searching for direction with my skeletal studies. I used acrylic and latex enamel house paint on canvas. I turned to the emotional, dramatic imagery seen in the book from Versailles. Also evident in this painting is the influence of Elizabeth Murray. The way she works with, and features cartoon type shapes sticks with me. It's much harder to create simplistic types of shapes in a composition than it looks! I tend to overwork them. I also, tried to push the negative space in this painting. The title comes from the Neville Brothers song,"Can't Stop the Funk". I like the merging of cultural influences in their work, which I thought was in unison with this painting.

Anatomy Studies

A student had left a book called "On the Fabric of the Human Body, 1543" by the Renaissance anatomist, Andrea Versailles in my classroon. It kicked around for sometime before I paid attention to it. Once I did, I was really intriqued! What struck me was not only the accuracy and scientific discovery of his studies, but the range of emotion presented in the drawings. I created a series of drawings and paintings using this book as inspiration. I used my full model skeleton ("Zippy") as a model. I did quite a few charcoal and acrylic sketches, before coming up with the composition and style of this painting.

Art Shows and Watercolor

After some prompting from my sister, I really focused on selling work. I sold pretty well after a couple of art shows late summer and early fall. I mention this, because, I really had to concentrate on finishing the commissions that came out of the shows. When this happens, I always have the tendency to procrastinate and do something completely different from what I should be doing. Thus, I really got me inspired to get back into watercolor painting which I have ignored for a couple of years. It took sometime to find my way, but now I have really enjoy this medium and hope to have a show of work in the spring. The subject of this watercolor of the Matunuck surf shop that is housed in a small commercial plaza that I own (one can not live on art alone).