FIGURE 41, NUDE STUDY IN BLACK AND WHITE

Oil on hardboard

5" X 7"

MAN IN HAT

A study in black and white

Oil on canvas board

9" X 12"

 QUICK HEAD STUDY IN GREY TONES

Another fast one

8" X 10"

Oil on paper 

SECOND QUICK STUDY

Oil on Paper

8" X 10"

QUICK HEAD STUDY 1

I saved some recent 15 minute quick sketches. I like this one.

Oil on grey paper

8" X 10"

FIGURE 40

Working in greys to challenge myself to try to portray the light on skin and paint a black hat in light and shadow without color. This was done in one session- so working quickly. I was learning  to start with an overall light tone and an overall dark tone, in the medium range. Then there is room to push the darkest darks and lightest lights, while keeping the overall dark-light pattern distinct. If that makes sense!

5" X 7 "

Oil on board

QUICK HEAD STUDY    

This is more tonal quick study work. The idea is to do 'lots of starts' and cover many square miles of canvas in order to make progress. This was a 15 minute study and while a little rough, I like it.

Oil on board    

                                                                                  

8" X 10"

TONAL PORTRAIT STUDY

The next several postings I make will be of the tonal studies that I painted while taking Alfredo Tofanelli's class. In this study was trying to find the darkest darks and lightest lights, the movement of light. The lightest light was on her earlobe, but I had to tone it down for the sake of the painting looking 'right'. This is always an issue in painting- whether to be true to what you see, or true to the correctness of the way the painting reads.

Oil on board

9" X 12"

'FIGURE 39'

It was an interesting coincidence that we set this up with drapes as prop- and the model, who is also an actress, looks like she is posed on stage. Its rare to find a figure model who is willing to stand in a pose for 2 hours. Bravo!

Oil on canvas board

11" X 14"

'FIGURE 38'  

I was working on the gesture and flow of the model seated with draperies and pillows surrounding her. 

Oil on canvas

11" X 14"

BOXER AT REST

This was painted from a live model. He brought the 'props' for the part of a boxer. His muscularity and warm skin tones were a pleasure to paint. He told us that his ancestry is African and Native American.

Oil on board

11" X 14"

'YELLOW PEAR'                                                                                       

The pear and its reflection on the kitchen counter  caught my eye and so I spent the  morning with my paints and tried to re-create the sense of color and light.

5" X 7"

Oil on board

'MEHER'

Meher Baba 

The word Meher means compassion. This painting was created for a fundraiser to benefit a rural free clinic in a remote area of India. The clinic was established by Dr. Goher, a close disciple of Meher Baba. She devoted her life to Meher Baba both as his personal physician and through her work attending to the medical needs of the very poor villagers who came to the clinic. Although Dr. Goher has passed on, her clinic continues to serve in the loving way she established it, and relies on donations. Small donations go a very long way.

http://www.meherfund.org

14" X 18"

sold

"MEHERANA ROAD' Landscape  Cathey's Valley, California

This was painted on location last spring in the late afternoon. When the sun is low the colors on the ridge across the road become a riot of oranges and reds. 

Oil on board, unframed

11" X 14"

'RED HILLS' 
 Carquinez strait landscape

I was experimenting with inventing a composition using thicker paint, lots of color and working some with a palette knife. This was done during a workshop with Jerrold Turner- a wonderful painter and generous teacher.

9 "X 12"

Oil on linen covered hardboard

ROCKS AND OCEAN

The Pacific Coast near Asilomar

I saw this view of the ocean from a sea-weedy bluff just south of Asilomar. The composition looks like a Chinese brush painting... I used to own some and looked at them at lot- so they influenced the way I saw this scene.

9" X 12"

Oil on linen covered board

CLOUDS & WATER

This is the small quick painting I did after 'MAUVE CLOUDS'. The fog was rolling in over the horizon by then.

Oil on hardboard

5" X 7"

'MAUVE CLOUDS'
Asilomar Seascape

Another painting day at the beach. The fog bank hung over the horizon, making the colors all purply.

9" X 12"

Oil on hardboard

WAVES CRASHING

Seascape at Asilomar beach 

This was the small study I dashed off after OCEAN WAVES. It was one of those overcast summer mornings, so the colors appeared intense without the very deep shadows of a sunny day.  I believe that is because the pupils widen to let in more light when the sky is darker. 

Oil on hardboard    

5" X 7" 

'OCEAN WAVES'
The waves rolling in to the shore at Asilomar, California

I observed the waves rolling in for a long while before beginning to paint. They are moving so fast that you really have to paint from memory when on location at the beach. I like the way the blue-green intensifies in saturation just under the curl of foam. Paintings is always about edges, color, brushstrokes and relationships.

Oil on linen mounted on hardboard

9" X 12"