Bruised

oil on canvas panel 7" x 5" 

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Would you believe me if I told you I wouldn't consider Andy Warhol one of my favorite artists? Well he's not, although I very much appreciate him. I happened to have a bruised banana I wanted to paint, while also wanting to try out my new 'quinacridone rose' color, which turned into quite the pop art experiment...

OPENING: Larkin Arts

Here are some pics from my opening at Larkin Arts this past Friday! It was a blast! (Photos courtesy of Larkin Arts) 

Lazy Bunch

12" x 12 " oil on gallery wrapped canvas

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After what seems like forever, I've finally gotten back into painting. Last week I was preparing for a show I had at Larkin Arts here in Harrisonburg. The opening was on Friday and went great! So after all the hustle in getting that ready I feel like I can now breathe again and work on something for fun! So this is what came out!

Purple Range

5"x7" oil on canvas panel

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This is another painting I did using some of my Arizona reference photos. I just let myself experiment a little without any specific parameters. I actually do like how it turned out. I think it captures that kind of hazy atmosphere the desert's heat gives off during the day. Perhaps "Purple Haze" would have been a more appropriate title...

Arizona Hillside

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I wanted to revisit a similar style landscape I had done a series with a few years back (click to take a look!). For this particular painting I used a photo taken in March when I visited a friend outside of Phoenix. I love the shapes the sparsely growing brush make against the desert, too enticing not to abstract them!

Christmas Peppers

5" x 7" oil on canvas panel

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Tis the season...sort of. Well, I officially heard Christmas music on the radio the other day, so I suppose that means it's upon us, even though it's not even Thanksgiving yet! Alas. These were also the last of the peppers at the farmer's market from Saturday. Honestly I can't believe they made it this far!

Cool Ridge

5" x 7" canvas panel

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View from Loveland Pass

6" x 8" oil on canvas panel

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Since we've been experiencing very wintery temperatures here in VA. I decided to revisit my snowy Colorado pictures in the spirit of the season.

Commission Landscape

SOLD

Just wanted to post a picture of one of my larger paintings I've been working on. This one is a commission in which my client gave me extremely loose guidelines and just wanted me to have fun with it. And I did! Definitely inspired to work on some more larger, abstract landscapes after this one. I may add a few more details here and there, but this is pretty much the finished product :)

Three's a Crowd

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In today's painting I really wanted to capture 'weight' and dimension; having the objects feel like they are sitting on a surface, not floating in space. I'm actually quite happy with how it came out.

Release from Frustration

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This painting is exactly the title... A release from frustration. I have been working on a large (about 5' x 3.5') figure painting which I thought had been going well. However, as you all know, we always have a slightly different eye when looking at a painting each day. Or if you've given yourself a break and have come back to it. WELL, today was either my most critical eye or most accurate, I began to find so many things wrong proportionally with my painting! So instead of FREAKING OUT and doing something rash on that canvas, I took a deep breath and had a flowy 'calm down' moment, "a release from frustration".

Laura

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I had some interesting moments with this one. She kept having an identity crisis. First, I wanted to try a portrait study that had more realism than I'm used too, then that didn't work so I thought of a smoother more graphic 'art nouveau' look, then that didn't quite work out either, so it became this. Slightly more pop arty than I usually do, yet still in the style of most of my paintings. Failed experiment? Not quite, but I think I may have taken the easy way out. She also had a gender identity crisis during a few moments throughout the process, which was interesting. And I mean that in a most genuine way. It got me thinking about gender and androgyny. I think there is still some androgyny to her which creates a sort of haunting, mysterious quality. I want to play more with this theme, after all what is gender anyway? A socially contrived 'normal'? Once you really start to ask your self those questions, you open up to an entirely different realm of thought.

Riley

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I am going through a weird pink obsession right now in which nearly every background I do I want it to be pink! I have no idea why but it just feels right. So here is painting with yet another pink background. This is my parent's dog, Riley, who has adopted one of the living room armchairs as his own. It's taken from a photo of him in his beloved chair. I want to experiment more with the balance of finished vs. unfinished parts of a painting, hence the loose edges.

Braided River

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This is one I have been working a few sessions on. I was getting a little bored with just doing still life exercises and wanted to get back into doing my abstracted landscapes. So before started a few larger ones, I wanted to work on a smaller scale and get inspired from there! A little different from the paintings I've posted here but I'd be interested in knowing what people think about this side of my work!

Four Avos

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I worked a few sessions on this one. I wanted to keep it simple in composition and in color yet achieve interest with both brushstrokes and line-work; giving each of the avocado halves their own personality!

Carrots

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Since I have been busy building large canvases and working on some more conceptual pieces I thought I'd post this painting I did a little while ago in the meantime! I do plan on doing some more smaller daily paintings next week in conjunction with these new projects!

Art Opening: King Street Coffee

Last night I had my first art show in Leesburg, VA where I am originally from. It was at King Street Coffee (what used to be the Coffee Bean) and it went so well! I was so incredibly thrilled to see all the familiar faces of old friends and their parents whom I've known for YEARS now, (over a decade for some!). Wow, such a positive and supportive crowd, it was awesome. I even ran into my old high school art teacher who was playing music during the opening! Not to mention there was a cake tasting from a local bakery too...yum! Anywho, just wanted to give an official THANK YOU to everyone who came out, it really meant a lot to me. Pictures to come!

The Lineup

SOLD

More avocados today!

Lazy Avoacados

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I found inspiration for this piece through one of my favorites, Wayne Thiebaud. I wanted to capture the creamy texture of the avocado like he does in so many of his pastry paintings. I also wanted to try something I don't normally do and that's patterning. I know this one is just a simple stripe but I think it brings a little bit more to the table then just a plain color like I have been doing.

Kevin

I've been meaning to post this one for a while. This is my 'Art Lotto' entry, which was an art show here in Harrisonburg where artists got to do portraits of one another. We picked names out of a hat for who to do and likewise got a portrait of ourselves. The show was a big hit! You can see highlights of it on Brandy Somer's blog (she organized it!) at http://ilovemyburg.com/2012/08/08/making-faces-art-lotto-2012/

The Orange

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After yesterday's still life I wanted to do something completely true to me. I've been struggling with whether or not I should go for more realism and dimension in my work and that left me frustrated. So I decided to take a deep breath and just paint; letting it flow naturally. And this is what happened, which I'm actually quite happy with.

Gomphrena Still Life

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This was a bit of a struggle at first. I was getting very frustrated with the gomphrena flowers and couldn't quite get a loose, yet believable flower. So instead of wiping everything out and starting from scratch, I let myself come back to it the next day. And it worked! I approached it with a new, clear mind and I think it came out how I (more or less!) originally intended.

The Watch

Oil on Wrapped Canvas 12" x 12"

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This is the brother counterpart to 'Abbott', aptly named Costello. I like capturing a moment like this, when he's been lazing around and suddenly something catches his eye (mostly likely his younger brother getting ready to pounce). I've really enjoyed working on cats recently!  Each one has such a distinct personality.

Over the Hill

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This was the first plein air study I have done in a while. I've been feeling very inspired by several plein air artists lately and wanted to get back into it. I'm actually quite happy with how this one turned out. Considering my subject matter was constantly moving!

Colorado Study I

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I had the opportunity to visit a friend out in Colorado and was blessed to see the Rockies for the first time. Amazing! I'm fascinated with capturing the three-dimensional quality of mountains in a painting; all the ridges and valleys that go into creating the larger form.

The Yellow Sky, Pink Barn and Two Ponds

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One of my most favorite subjects to paint is abstracted landscapes. I am constantly striving for a more dynamic, colorful and cohesive approach. I haven't worked on a true landscape in a while and I couldn't resist jumping back into it with this scene. This particular view I pass when going out to the farm where my horse lives. I always drive by thinking of all the ways I want to paint it. So here's one way I could have done it and I'm sure more interpretations will follow!

Abbott

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This is a portrait of one of my family's cats, Abbott. His brother is (you guessed it) Costello. Abbott is the less dominant of the two and slightly smaller, yet he embodies the stereotypical "younger sibling" attitude. He's ALWAYS the one to start wrestling matches with his brother, yet as soon as Costello fights back in the slightest, Abbott starts yelling and meowing like it's the end of the world. I wanted to capture his bright, alertness in this painting as well as his playful demeanor.

Blue Cows

Blue Cows 8"x10"

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I'm really interested in shapes! Especially the shapes cows make when they clump together. I had done a series of larger paintings with this similar theme: blue cows forming a larger ambiguous shape while handling the rest of the landscape in a whimsical, abstracted way. So I wanted to revisit that idea- it's fun!

Summer Squash

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I wanted to work with texture in this one, emphasizing my brushstrokes and paint thickness. And I do love the shapes of squashes that you can get from the farmers market. They can be so 'original'.

Redrock at Sunset

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I just finished this one today. I went to Arizona this past March and the redrock near Sedona were simply BEAUTIFUL. Super inspirational! I did a large painting using one of my reference photos but have recently wanted to revisit them.

Onions

Hello everyone! Today marks the start of my daily painting and art challenge. I have been painting for 8 years and creating art every since I can remember. Despite art's integration in my life, I always seem to find myself asking the same question. Why don't I create more? I find constant inspiration in just looking at the world around me and have a million and one ideas that rarely make it to fruition. Why not? Well, today marks the day when I will no longer ask myself that question.

For Sale $60 Onions 8"x 10" Framed (Black) 

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With this first painting, I was trying to achieve a slightly softer style than what I'm used to doing. However, I wanted to keep the background pattern behind the onions, simple and geometric while using the bright cadmium red for some pop!