Big News: Prints Of My Work Are Now Available At Blake And Taylor!

I'm very excited to announce that prints of my work are now available at the Blake And Taylor shop in Brisbane, Australia!

Let me back up a bit and tell you how this all came to be.  Last winter, Ellie Ramsay, the owner of Blake and Taylor found me on Instagram and as she was visiting New York City, inquired about setting up a studio visit.

Though I live in New York City, my studio is on Long Island.  Ellie, along with her husband and daughter, took the train out to see me.  We had such a fun day together.  They selected five of my paintings to be shipped to Australia, so that Ellie could turn them into art prints and greeting cards for sale through her shop.

These are the five paintings available as art prints and greeting cards.  Ellie has a great eye and we tried out different combinations until she found a grouping that worked together.

If you click over to Blake and Taylor, you will see the prints for sale (with FREE worldwide shipping!).  I also wrote a short piece for each one describing the inspiration behind each painting.  I'm always interested in the creative process, so I hope you will enjoy reading about mine.

I hope you will check out my prints and if you are local to Brisbane, please stop in to Ellie's shop.  It is a wonderful, creative place.

I have met so many wonderful people through Instagram, both online and in person.  It's amazing to me that a few years ago, none of us would know about each other, and now we can connect with people around the world!

Painting Lilacs

Hi All!  I'm glad to be back.  Even though it is pouring rain and freezing here in NYC, the flowers are still blooming and I just finished a bouquet of lilacs.  I've had a lot going on and missed out on some painting days, but the end of last week I picked up two bouquets of and got to work.

Before I started on the flowers, I spent some time getting the canvas ready.  I actually started on this painting back in April.  I knew I wanted to have everything ready so that when I got the flowers I could just concentrate on them.

This was my sad little set up.  I mostly wanted to get a few coats of paint on the background so I would not have to worry about painting around the flowers.

This was the end of the first day.  After this, I just kept painting over the canvas.  I'm not sure how many coats are on there.  It is at least five.  I normally would not do a painting this way, but with certain flowers, it is a lot easier to not have to worry about the background when you are trying to deal with tiny petals and leaves.

Finally, it was time for the lilacs.  I have to say, it was a bit difficult to find them this year.  After running all over the city looking for a decent bunch, I found these at the flower shop on 62nd and Lex.  I put them in the vase and got to work.

This was the first pass at the flowers.  I have to say, they went on to the canvas pretty easily.  Of course, the rest of the painting made me want to tear my hair out, but the fact that the flowers were not an issue is important as they have a deadline.

Last Monday, I spotted these beauties at the farmers market, so I grabbed two bunches.  I figured I would have one bouquet at home and one at the studio for replacements.  Unfortunately, despite being told they were freshly cut, they barely lasted two days.  I ended up using some of them for flowers on my still life shelf.  Happily, the lilacs from the tiny flower shop lasted almost a week, so I was able to get the bouquet done.

Here we are at what I thought was the end of the flowers.  I think I just put three coats on them and I did not really deviate much from the first time I painted them.  However, the glass vase and the shelf were another story.  The vase drove me nuts.  I just could not get it to look like a glass vase.  I lost count of how many times I repainted it.  And I could not get the water line to behave.  Finally, I realized what was wrong.  To paint glass, all you have to do is obscure the lines of the piece.  Mine were still far too prominent.  The other issue is that my vase was completely dark.  I had light on the background, but not in the glass vase.  I wiped the whole thing down, lightened up a good portion of it, repainted the stems and used a small t-square and to draw a new water line. I also had to redo the highlight a few times.

At this point I thought I was done except for the pattern on the creamer, but in my brain I was hearing Gregg Kreutz telling me to lighten the lights and darken the darks, so that is what I did.

Lilacs In A Glass Vase, 20x16, oil

And here we are at the grand finale.  I struggled through a lot of this painting and the reason I write about it is because so many people think painting is easy and when it is not going well, artists who are struggling tend to blame themselves or think they are doing something wrong.  You are not.  Anybody who makes art will have pieces that practically paint themselves and others that are difficult from the moment you start.  The trick is to keep going even when it is not fun and you feel like you want to throw the painting out the window.  I'm already on to a new one, peonies this time!

New Paintings Added To The Drop Down Menus

Hi Everybody.  I hope all of you are enjoying this holiday week.  I've been hard at work photographing paintings, old and new.  My photography skills are better than when I started blogging, so I felt it was time for an update.  Here are the photos of my newest paintings, but please check out the drop down menus and let me know what you think.  I always love to get your comments and emails!

Lilacs, 20x16, oil

Lady Apples With A White Cloth, 12x16, oil

Lemons And Grapes In A Silver Bowl, 16x20, oil

Wine And Fruit, 16x20, oil

The Hexagon Vase, 20x16, oil

Winter Bouquet, 16x12, oil

Fruit In A Glass Candy Dish, 16x12, oil

Red And White Vase With Fruit, 12x16, oil

Fruit In A Blue And White Compote, 9x12, oil

Hope you like them!

The Story Of The Lilacs

It's been a busy few weeks over here, but I did manage to finally finish my lilacs.  I just edited the photos and was stunned to discover that I started this painting back on May 11th!  I was in the middle of a few other paintings, but I happened upon this giant bunch of lilacs at the Union Square Greenmarket and no way could I pass up painting them.

I knew I would have to get the flowers done before anything else, so I painted over an old panel.  This way I didn't have to worry about needing to build up layers of paint.

Once I got my block in done, I immediately started on the flowers.

Sorry for the darkness.  The beginning of this painting was done during a pouring rain storm, but you can see how I did the lilacs.  Shadow, mid tone, light.  Once I had that in, I was able to put down the petals.

I continued building up the layers on the flowers.  I knew as long as they were done, I could finish the rest of the painting later.  Of course, I was breaking the big rule about working on the whole painting at once, but with flowers you sometimes have to do that.

Eventually the time came and the flowers went to the great beyond.  This is the sad little set up that  was left behind.  It was also around this time that I took my painting break.  I just recently got back to work on this canvas.

The first day back,  I redid the background and the color on the vase.  It took quite a bit of doing to get the color of the porcelain right.  I think I did the white colors five or six times to get it right.  I was still having problems when fate intervened and I dropped the painting!  I went to grab it and my hand brushed right across the shadow side and that really helped integrate the colors and it finally looked like a vintage porcelain vase.  Luckily it also fell face up.  Sometimes there are happy accidents in the studio :)

I let it dry for a day, then got started on the blue pattern.  There are different views on whether or not to do the pattern right away, but if I have the time, I prefer to let the painting dry for a day so that I can wipe out the pattern if necessary.  It is too nerve wracking to have to worry about making a mistake.

I always start with the darks.  To make the dark of a blue pattern, I simply add some Ivory Black into my French Ultramarine.

Next up, the mid tone blue.  That is just straight French Ultramarine out of the tube.

Then it was time to deal with the highlight.  If you look at the photos above, you can see that I already had the highlight on the vase.  You should always put the highlight in early so you can properly judge your colors, but I always end up redoing it when the pattern goes in.

Of course, the colors around the highlight will be lighter than the mid tone, so I added some Titanium White to the French Ultramarine.

The key to all of this with the colors is to use different brushes for each color and to be careful about keeping them separated.

This highlight and the surrounding area took quite a bit of time.  I even posted on Instagram that it was taking all day.  But then a funny thing happened.  All of a sudden everything started working and I finished the entire painting!

Originally, I was going to try to find some lilacs somewhere, even if they were faux, but I just decided to try and fake it and after a few layers of flowers on the shelf, the painting was done.

Here is the finished painting.  I'm so happy that this all worked out.  I actually considered waiting to finish until next spring when lilacs will be in bloom again, but I'm really glad I took a chance and finished the painting.  Hope you like it!