This is a painting of a beautiful man with a distant, dreamy gaze. I gave him a background of deep cobalt blue to complement the warm golden skin tones and add to the dreamlike feeling. I am pleased with the expressive impasto brushstrokes while capturing beautiful features like his dazzling pale blue eyes. It's an energetic, textured painting.
This is a painting of a beautiful nude woman draped in a sheer lace shawl, holding a small floral bouquet in her hand. She is standing by a window gazing out with natural light pouring across her figure. With her long dark hair and slightly mysterious aura she evokes a timeless femininity and nostalgic elegance. There is a lush, romantic quality to this painting reminiscent of Auguste Renoir's nude figures. I used textured impasto strokes to define highlighted areas, particularly in the flowers, and there is great depth and richness throughout this painting.
This is a painting of a beautiful nude woman standing in a lace-draped interior cradling stems of calla lilies in her arms. She evokes a nostalgic, 1920s feel with her finger-waved red hair and delicate profile. She is sultry yet graceful, reminiscent of a Ziegfeld girl in her dressing room enjoying flowers from an admirer. I like the dreamy, romantic feeling of this scene and the unusual tints of green and lavender created in her skin by the moody light. I kept the edges very soft and the background is especially suggested and impressionistic. There is a timeless feeling to this painting and it has an unusual tonalist atmosphere.
In this painting a dark haired woman in a satin gown of pale celery green sits on a gilt chair in a room of deep blue. There is a luxurious yet understated elegance in this portrait. I was inspired by James McNeil Whistler's Peacock room (one of my favorite things here in D.C.) and also his beautiful Nocturnes which are indicated by the tonalist painting behind the figure. She glows within the dark hues, her expression intense yet ambiguous. I enjoy suggesting a story and evoking a timeless atmosphere.
In this painting a pale woman gracefully lounges in an elegant gown of peacock blue upon a green and gilt sofa in a deep turquoise room. She glows within the luxurious jewel tones of her surroundings. I've been interested lately in creating a story and evoking the atmosphere of times past. She is a dramatic, romantic figure, lost in reverie...perhaps an aristocratic lady awaiting her lover. I expressed this mood with soft edges and appropriately painterly and loose strokes.
This is a classical study of a red haired seated nude holding calla lilies. The figure is viewed from behind with a side profile. There is a lovely twist to the figure, and the soft light catches her face and flowers, dropping down her body to a classical sculpture next to her.
Painted alla prima on a colored ground, there is a golden glow beneath the cool blues of the background. This painting is serenely elegant, unusually expressive and detailed for a small figure.
This painting is a study of a sleeping man in a room with light pouring in, highlighting his back and the sheets on the bed. I wanted to present the warm colors of the body in contrast to the pale aqua tints of the surrounding room. I kept the brushwork quite loose and painterly while maintaining a high degree of realism.
Fine quality prints of this painting are now available here.
This painting is a study in serenity and light movement. I wanted to explore cool flesh tones with soft light and edges. There's something very calming about a sleeping figure and this is highlighted by the quiet shades of blue throughout. I've seen many paintings with sleeping female nudes but I wanted to feature a man instead. It's an unusual context that gives a vulnerable and tender aspect to the masculine form.
Upon reflection I think that's what I wanted to capture. That moment of peace. There is no guile or malice in a man asleep. He is free of his conscious torments, childlike and pure. Sleep is a wonderful thing that I rarely get enough of and I like to celebrate these simple, precious things in life.
Fine quality prints from this painting are now available here.
Portrait of a moody flapper in a cafe. I experimented with using cooler, bluer colors than usual for the flesh tones in this painting. I wanted to imply her ghostly pallor and the smoky haze of a bar back in the day.
Perhaps she's waiting for a date who's late or thinking about the boy who never came back from the war. Or maybe she's just wondering what she lost in herself and how she ended up here. I've always been fascinated by the Lost Generation, the seemingly dissolute and world-weary survivors of the Great War who partied their way through Europe in the 1920s. This girl could be Lady Brett Ashley or Nicole Diver, those enigmatic and compelling characters created by Hemingway and Fitzgerald, the feminine personifications of that confused, hedonistic era. These memorable women weren't the most admirable in literature but the flawless seldom haunt.
This is a portrait study of a dark haired man with dramatic features and an intense expression. I focused on loose brushwork and keeping the edges soft. While I often do paintings of my friends, this guy is based on various sources that I mashed up with my imagination. So he's entirely my creation, and just as with the women I paint, I enjoy a vintage look in men. Therefore, I wanted to concoct a man who looked like he could have posed for a painter a hundred years ago. I like inventing people and I think I got him pretty lifelike.
As I have mentioned before a few times, I love painting faces. Actually, I love painting the entire figure but a whole figure can become a big project for me so I often to stick to faces as that seems to be where I focus even when painting a figure. I'm not sure what it is about the face that gets me so involved. I guess because it's amazingly intricate. The eyes alone have such a delicate architecture. While it can be aggravating, I enjoy painting flesh so a shirtless man is a good compromise between painting a face and a whole figure. Getting the skin tones believable is difficult, it's so easy to veer off into a chalky mess if you add white too heavily. Even a very pale person has far less white in their skin tone than you'd think. Women's faces are easier for me to paint than men because the look of makeup can go a long way to highlight features and inject color and visual interest that would look odd on the average man. All this effort is required simply to produce a passable looking human being, to convey something of the human spirit and emotion is an even higher mountain to scale but one I never tire of tackling.
There is a certain intensity to this girl. She's a bit fierce. This may be a result of the slickness of the board surface that results in the paint strokes keeping a certain edge. This makes for a bold look that's a bit different from my work on canvas. I'm not sure I have complete control of the paint on this surface yet but I like some of the accidental results.
This painting is another in a series of what I think of as "creative portraits". They aren't any existing person but are usually inspired by old B&W photos and stories of the past. They start to take on a life of their own as I paint and become about an imaginary character and mood.
This girl reminded me of the taxi-dance girls in the dance halls of the 1920s and 30s. Paid a dime a dance, it was a somewhat scandalous yet relatively lucrative profession for young women in an era where opportunities were limited. I think anyone who was able to make a living that way had to be tough yet charming. This girl looks like she's got a lot of spunk and wouldn't take any nonsense from drunken louts.
Portrait study of a beautiful young man with dreamy eyes. He has a renaissance look about him which I thoroughly enjoyed painting. I love Caravaggio so I might persuade this model to pose for me as Bacchus one day.
While painting this one I focused on the angles and the light falling across the figure. It's a serene seated pose but I like the energy produced by the various angles of the arms and legs. The unusual vintage chair and the paneled interior add to the timeless charm of this painting.
I was taken by the sight of this art lover at the National Gallery of Art in DC viewing Mary Cassatt's "Little Girl in a Blue Armchair". Her yellow jacket was a bright note with the blue of the painting. I also like how this woman, the little girl, and the dog look like they're just hanging out.
I always think of Degas' "Mary Cassatt at the Louvre" when I visit art museums, so doing a painting of someone looking at a Cassatt works for me on many levels. I feel fortunate to live right across the river from Washington DC where there is an abundance of world class art museums, most of which are free. I can think of few things that have been of greater benefit to me as an artist than being able to pop into the National Gallery whenever I want to study the Impressionist's paint strokes or simply gaze in awe at the Vermeers. Yes, our metro system is old and currently sucks, and DC isn't exactly Paris...but it is packed with treasures.
This painting is a classic figure study. Figurative subjects are my favorite and I love the challenge of painting nudes. Especially male nudes as they tend to have more defined musculature. There are few things more difficult to paint than the human body and I have to admit that the contrapposto stance gave me some trouble...but I think I pulled it off.
Experimenting with mood, expression and color combinations. Trying to create a completely new painting frequently is quite a challenge but I love when I find it taking me in different directions.
This painting expresses the essence of a beautiful day at the beach...the brilliant light, sharp shadows and dazzling colors of sea and sand. I like how the golden hue of the sand and the cool blues of the water are echoed in the girl's hair and skin and bright turquoise bikini.
This painting is a combination of figure study and portrait with a water element...several things I really enjoy. The movement of the water was a great challenge to paint, as was the wet skin and hair. There's something calming yet lively about this painting.
Another beach study, this time a man walking in brilliant turquoise water. I love this one because the water looks so warm and inviting. I really got into the wet skin reflections and I was pleased that my brushstrokes stayed distinct and spontaneous.
