Female Nude

Last night at Fleisher Art Memorial I completed this painting in 2 and a half hours. I had missed the 2 previous nights for this pose so I had only one sitting to work on it. I think it turned out nicely for such a short amount of time.

Painting an Artist

This portrait of Michael Cole is the most photo realistic painting I have done in my most recent series of paintings. Though Photo Realism was not my intension, with this painting it just seemed to happen. I think that it is attributed to the environment around the figure rather than the figure itself. The 2 paintings previous to this painting, patterns and pure hues flattened the space and distracted the eye. In this painting (with the exception of the checker board floor), the figure is surrounded by a limited palette of neutral grays. This painting depicts the artist, Michael, painting a portrait from life of me.

Drawing Emma

Emma came to visit me in Philadelphia this past weekend and since she is so wonderful, she is always willing to pose for me. This was a 3 hour drawing done with pencil on bristol board.

Classes at Fleisher Art Memorial

These two painting studies were done during a still-life and figure painting class held at Fleisher Art Memorial. Every Thursday evening I go to this class to relax and get more practice painting from life. The painting above was completed in one 3 hour session and the painting below was completed in two 3 hour sessions, if you can't tell it is the same model. The below painting was a great set up, because almost everything on the figure and surrounding the figure was either black or red, it created an interesting challenge. I would have enjoyed spending more time on this painting.

Joco

Joco looks sad eventhough he is surrounded by green....

Aeriel and Rebecca in progress

My most recent painting project is a portrait of Aeriel, her dog Joco, and her sister Rebecca. My favorite part of this painting so far is the couch, lots of intricate patterns and freedom to play with color. The color is exaggerated mainly because it is mid way through February and I miss the color green. All the green reminds me of Sullivan County where I spent my childhood.

gladiator

While I was doing freelance production work for The Theme Factory of Philadelphia; this large gladiator and chariot sculpture was under construction. I did not work on this project but my good friend Atom Gunn (http://atomgunn.com) sculpted the entire gladiator as well as doing some of the detail work on the horses and chariot. It really was quite impressive and was created to sit outside of a hotel chain in Michigan; it stood at least 13 feet tall.

Emma in progress

The painting of Emma is coming along nicely and will probably be finished this week.

The Mako Tree

One of the talented muralists I worked with this past summer, Jaime Pearlstien, handed me this small illustration job for a children's book. It is a clever little book about a grandfather planting a tree and naming it after his grandchildren. It is a nice metaphor for passing love on for many generations to come. I used gouache for these small paintings.

Emma

In my mission to complete several paintings this winter, I started this portrait of my best friend Emma. She is a very willing model and it is easy to get something beautiful from her poses. My plan for this piece is to have an even more dramatic contrast from light to dark than the previous painting of Amanda.

Adventure Kitty

This is a painting I did of my cat Adventure Kitty; unfortunately she passed away this week. I will miss her very much. She was my best friend and a perfect pet companion in every way.

Almost done with Amanda

I am almost done with this portrait of Amanda, just a few more details...

Painting Amanda

I have plans to do several paintings this month of family and friends. This portrait is of my dear friend Amanda, at the time I took the reference photos for this painting she was about 8 months pregnant. The focus for this series of paintings is light. I prefer to challenge myself to create complicated lighting situation and make these paintings look authentic.