Painting my Boston Terriers

Sophie 2x2 ft. acrylic

Kelli With a Pearl Earring 16x20" acrylic

I spent the last couple of days painting my two Boston Terriers. They have completely different treatments in the paintings. Kelli is much more serious so the "Dutch Master" approach seemed about right. She loves to play, but is also down to business...fetching the ball, barking out the window, watching the birds. Sophie is a little funny sweetheart who is shown as I see her...ready to plant a big kiss (or ten) on my lips.She is a silly girl who loves to play in the hose water and tells time to the exact second when it is time to eat. She is enthusiastic about everything. She needed a loose painterly effect to capture her excitement. Because I know this dogs so well I was able to paint each of them in their own unique way and really say something true to who they are.

Still Life Workshop

I participated in a workshop focusing on still life with Qiang Huang about a week ago. He is not only an artist but also a scientist which made him very sequential and analytical in his approach to painting. His results are painterly and lovely, but his process and thoughtfulness were quite precise. We did a rather traditional approach with a monochromatic underpainting and then the traditional lean to thick application of our oil paint. It was a fun four days. All of the students had their own still life set ups to work from. Qiang made observations and suggestions but never painted on our work, which can be an issue at times. He did some nice demo paintings. These are the paintings I completed. They are all 11x14 on stretched canvas, except the White Rose which is on an 8x10 gessoed board.

Painting the street

Finished this 24x24inch acrylic painting of a downtown street. I tried to keep as loose as possible on it...The yellow sky just seemed like the right color even though it was blue...

Painting the figure

Today painting the model was fun. It was one of those foreshortened poses. The arms and legs were tricky. I enjoyed some of my paint application. This is acrylic on gessoed paper.