In Other News...

My friend, Joanne came over to paint with me yesterday. She has painted with acrylics many times, but wanted to brush up on her oil painting skills and asked for a bit of advice. She actually wanted a lesson but I thought that it would be more fun if we panted side by side, and I could give pointers and tips as I remembered them.

Since she's a former art major, she already know many of the basics of drawing, color, and composition. Apparently painting with acrylics is very different than oils. Much of what I was telling her about the oil painting process was in contrast to how she normally paints.


With oil painting, it's advisable to start with the darkest color shade first and build toward the lightest color. I tried to emphasize painting color planes versus painting the actual image, though I'm not sure that I explained it well. Except for her signature, Joanne's finished painting is in the photo below. I'm really proud of the work she did.

Before she came over, I had communicated that we would paint a non fussy still life. We both laughed several times while painting, because the still life absolutely refused to be non fussy. Good grief. Flowers are complicated to paint. Sorry about that, Joanne.


For whatever reason, I was exhausted when she left, and my own painting was as yet unfinished. After a substantial amount of ingested food and an insufficient amount of rest, I got back to work -- a full days worth. The last paintbrush was cleaned just before 7pm last night.


This morning, I took a photo of my finished painting and the set up for the still life. (It's a 16" x 20" oil on linen -- really quality canvas -- I enjoyed painting on this brand. Will go buy some more.) Notice that the lamp (to control the light source) is propped up on four thick art books. See little Skipper resting in his bed. He's always happiest when he's close to me.

In other news, the Amazing Reese and I have been married for 26 years today. Happy anniversary, Reese.

Also, this Friday night (October 22nd) is Lawndale Art Center's retablo exhibit. (See my work here.) And Saturday night (October 23rd) is the opening for the Art Car Museum's Good Gulf exhibit. I have a piece in both, plus hope to have something in HCAA's Greater Houston Open Show -- also opening Saturday night. I won't find out until the last minute on the HCAA show....