Inspiration

Last time Jeff and I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art I was inspired by some of Van Gogh's tree paintings. His work has so much expression that I want to capture in my own art. I especially loved this painting I found online.


I decided to make my own version of it and this is how it came out. I loved creating it and I think the free brush stokes give it a lot of movement and character.


I'm excited to use this style of painting in my work to come!

Christmas Paintings

Once again I've been busy painting for Christmas presents. Here are some of the finished products.

I love the velvety feel of this Dahlia.

Flowers

I went to the Cleveland Art Museum and found this painting by Piet Mondrian of a chrysanthemum. I loved the outlining of the peddles and the muted color scheme.


So I decided I needed to paint one too. I painted a dahlia instead and used crackle in the background.

Today was my last day of spring break. I really didn't do anything too exciting this week, but I managed to do something productive today. I painted this flower on one of my canvases I've been saving. A lot of times I will make a painting based on an empty wall in my house, but today I just wanted to paint. My art is starting to pile up! I guess I'm just holding on to all of them in hopes of living in a house with more walls to fill someday.

I found some new crackle at the store the other day and I was so excited! I've been looking for one that gives more of a cracked glaze look and this is my first attempt. It is a little harder to use than the weathered wood crackle because you really have to layer it on thick. If there are any areas that have don't have enough medium it makes tiny cracks that aren't as noticeable. If you click on the picture you can see the details better. My next project is to combine the two different crackle techniques and see what happens.

Computer Sketching

I've been doing computer sketches of some ideas I have. What do you think? I want to use my tree image over patterned backgrounds. I'm not expecting the paintings to look exactly like these, but I thought it would give me a good idea before all the effort.

Here are some of my most recent paintings. I was inspired by the simple graphic pictures and logos. You can't really tell, but the one on the left has textured bark from the crackle. I'm not so sure about the flatness of the dark blue background, but I thought I would try something different.