Sunday, August 28, 2016

The Horse

For this next piece, I wanted to paint a horse. But, I wanted a modern feel to the painting. My neighbor has more than a dozen horses and one really caught my eye several years ago.
What if the painting focused on the horse and gave a sense of its movement?
How would I do that?

My first thought was to have an elongated format. Then it came to me that if I had the horse in three positions, I might get a feeling of the horse moving, like consecutive frames of a moving picture.

How can I create the dividing line between the different frames? Rather than experimenting on my gessoed board, I played around in Paint Shop Pro to see how several effects and widths would look. I finally decided to paint a border which would incorporate colors of the background at an angle to give an updated look.



Friday, August 19, 2016

New painting

While my niece Audrey was working on her tiger painting (see previous post), I was also painting stripes.

Nakuru Stripes
Original Oil
7.25" X 14.5"

This piece is inspired by my trip to Lake Nakuru, Kenya. If you look closely, you can see a line of pink flamingos in the background. We saw more than 100,000 flamingos there.
Note: I have done a number of paintings with flamingos but don't think I have painted each one ...yet. 

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Painting with my niece

For many years, Christmas has been the time when I could paint with my nieces. This past Christmas we were not all in Spokane so we could not paint together in the studio.
But, my 16-year niece from Texas made a week-long trip here from July 26th - August 3rd. While we didn't paint all the time, she had enough time to complete a painting.
This is an oil painting which she really did on her own. She chose the subject from my reference, decided on the size, drew it, then painted it. Occasionally she would ask me for color advice, but that was it. She then chose the frame.
In the meantime, I was working on my own painting. (next blog post.)





                                        Audrey painting





 original oil painting by Audrey Besse
9" X 12"

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Birds in Art postcards

The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum's major event, Birds in Art, is coming up in September. My piece Fontana del Pantheon was selected for this prestigious show and I am thrilled to have my work invited for the 11th time in 16 years.

One of the fun events the Museum created for the Opening weekend is the Postcard program. Artists are invited to create works of art which are 4 inches by 6 inches. Leaving no signature on the front, each donated piece is offered for only $50. The buyer has a mere 60 seconds to look at the works and select a piece from the group. (The line of purchasers starts 20 feet back from the selection wall so a buyer does not have a chance to preview the art before his 60 seconds begins.) Once the buyer's choice is made, the artist is revealed. Only one work can be selected at a time and if the buyer wishes to purchase a second piece, he must go to the back of the line so everyone has a chance to participate. The Museum uses the Postcard Program funds to purchase art from the show for their permanent collection.

I have just completed two original oil paintings for the Postcard program this year, but they are a secret!  Below is a distorted image of one of my pieces.
I'll post the unaltered painting after September 10th.


Thursday, August 11, 2016

International Guild of Realism

The International Guild of Realism is a group of artists dedicated to using realism in their works. This year's juried annual show is hosted by Gallery 1261 in Denver.
My painting Shore Leave is included in the show.

To see the selected works go to:   http://gallery1261.com/html_shows/16-igor/
Or, drop by Opening Night, Friday August 26th. I'd love to meet you.

Gallery 1261
1261 Delaware
Denver, CO
(303) 571-1261


Friday, August 5, 2016

Finished

Day
Original Oil
18" X 32"


Day might seem a strange title for the painting but the piece is 1/2 of a set titled Night and Day.
Night features a leopard with his evening dinner. I'm still working on that oil painting.