Category Archives: Finished Projects

Trying to capture the image in my mind

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I awoke a couple of weeks ago to an image in my mind, it was green, with yellow bars. Some sort of military rank insignia. It stuck with me as something bold, something to be shown. I carried the image with me awhile, then researched it online until I found what I believe it was.

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From there I set to sketching it out in the sketchbook, to see if I could grasp the lines properly to put it on canvas. It took awhile as it usually does, but finally I was able to get it close enough for myself and colored it in.

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Then I realized though there are greens aplenty, I hadn’t spent much time sampling them, after all, when 95% of the items growing in the yard have some sort of green, where do you start?

I spent the next 30 minutes or so roaming the backyard trying various plants at random or because their petals had been particularly nice, so why not their leaves?

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After a bit I found ones that would do the trick, or at least allow me to start.

The yellow, which I have been getting from our neighbor across the streets yard is now running in short supply. I had to harvest some more and took what remained of the neighbors offering.

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So does it equal the image in my mind?

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Yes, it has the principal, the balance, the power I was looking for and no, it is neither as crisp or real as the one in my mind, but these are the steps I took to try to get to it.

I originally started this project around the first of September, and now finally decided to get it posted as Veteran’s Day comes to an end.

Purple Spec(ta)tre

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This image came to me one night as I drifted off to sleep. We had been reading Terry Prattchet’s “Mort” a fabulously fun read. I would like to say this wasn’t influenced at all by the book, but there’s really no way it wasn’t, so I guess we’ll call this my tribute to “Mort”

From the image in my mind came a simple sketch
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Then colored in with pencil to get a feel for what kind of colors I might need to find.
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I collected various flowers from the garden and brought them in.
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I spread them out to see the colors on the canvas. I lay the torn petals out in a stream from his eye, just how later I would cast his vision on to a flower. This is one of my favorite images.
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Filling in the background blues.
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The rest of the blues for the background completed. I really enjoyed this part because instead of using the swirl effect I had done thus far, I tried streaking the flowers across the canvas. I enjoy the flow it gave to the painting.

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Nearly Finished

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A close up on the eye

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This was where it sat for quite some time, I used a berry, don’t recall which kind at the moment to get the red and quite by accident it took on a heart shape.

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I maybe should have stopped here, but there were two pieces I desperately wanted to add to this piece. A vibrant red for the flower, I may or may not launch into a multi page epic about how difficult a good red is to find. For now, suffice it to say, it is a lengthy subject.

Second, I wanted to add a layer of shimmer to his robe and maybe the night sky. I had intended to do this by finishing it, spraying the sealer on it and then running the White Hollyhock across it to give it that iridescent quality it gives so well…

However, that failed. I don’t think I did any damage to the overall painting with the attempt, but I could see it was having an undesired effect.

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I am happy with the final piece, but no so much the red.

Here is a close up on the flower

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And lastly, I thought this might be interesting. This is the back of the canvas, where I often prep a batch of petals for painting on the front of the canvas or try out something I am not sure of how it will look.
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Project #6 Blue Eyed Beast

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This piece, originally seen here as a work in progress

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is now completed. While I am still trying to capture the combination of yellows and blues that I saw when I was doing my first test piece, this is where I ended up going.

I realized when I had the above that the yellow pansy was not having the same effect as the Black Lily anther, but I was enjoying the abstract cloud effect of the purple pansy. The swirling arms coming out of the mass gave me the idea of completing the piece in blue and then putting a purple creature over it.

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In the end, it was a little darker purple than I had been going for and it took some playing around to get it to where I liked it. I’d still like to see a little more definition in the beast and I have really struggled to get his blue eye to pop.

I added the planet at the bottom of the piece to give it a nice invasion feel and then I decided his creepy clawed arms weren’t enough so I started adding what I thought would be bombs…turns out I might have been slightly more influenced by our trip to see Sperm! The Musical the night before then I realized as it now looks like the creature is shooting his load at the planet/egg beneath him.

Art is always subjective, so see it as I intended or as it turned out or however you like, I just hope you enjoy it.

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Project#5 Purple Sun, Purple Flowers w/Purple Pansies, Yellow Pansies & Black Hollyhocks

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This is the first piece I am considering completed of sorts. I again set out to accomplish the vision I had of mixing yellow’s and blue’s and seeing what I could do with it, only to put the Black Hollyhock into play and changing the scope of the piece.

Most of the painting is done with the purple and yellow Pansies to create the blue atmosphere, there is a strip of Black Lily along the bottom and then the sun and flowers were done with Black Hollyhock.

In the end I think there are some really cool aspects to it and I am starting to learn more of what certain flowers are going to do, plus I think it shows the potential of the medium to do more than abstract hues and tones.

However, my thumbs were thoroughly sore afterwards.

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The hazy butterfly shape is from a Yellow Marigold, I plucked from the parking lot of Best Buy in Coeur D’alene, my son shook his head when I stopped and opened the car door, reached out, grabbed it and drove away. I don’t have a problem…just a passion.

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