Flapper in a Cloche Hat - sold

Oil on gessoboard panel, 8"x6"

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.

Portrait of a Dance Hall Girl - sold

Oil on hardboard panel, 8"x6"

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.

Monet's Garden at Giverny - sold

Oil on canvas, 11"x14"

This is another view I painted of Claude Monet's gardens at Giverny. His estate and garden are beautifully maintained and walking through his gardens was like being inside an impressionist painting. The dahlias were in full bloom and even the clouds looked perfectly impressionistic and painterly. 

Portrait of a Blonde Flapper - sold

Oil on canvas, 10"x8"

Although she's decidedly a girl of the 1920s, while painting this one she started to remind me a bit of Botticelli's Madonnas. The Cestello Annunciation in particular...maybe something about her golden hair and sweet but uncertain expression. So I went with a hint of Renaissance colors in the coral red of her outfit and the faded blue of the background.