Sunday, November 08, 2009

Seekers of the Sun, 3' x 4'

This piece was recently installed in the sun room of a home that is filled with wonderful original art. The couple found me at the Great Lakes Art Fair in Novi where I had just begun to my layout and had gotten as far as an initial wash of color.

After visiting their home, I was able to really make this painting work for them. I used a palette knife to apply the paint so that all of the little facets of the paint surface catch your eye as you walk by the sun room which is seen from a good portion of their home. You can even see it from the front entry. My photo doesn't do it justice as their home and the piece are much more stunning in person!

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Five Grandchildren, finished piece is 5' x 4' oil on canvas














The sketch on the left is the one that was selected. Next, we are comparing two different sized supports. A white 5' x 4' canvas is being held to the wall and I have superimposed an orange square to represent a 4' x 3' piece. Since the piece was not going to require framing, we felt the wall called for the bigger piece. I am glad my friend Wendy had the courage to go big, because look at what she ended up with:



















This is a special piece created to represent each of five grandchildren. People have often said that my years of life drawing has influenced the way I portray flowers, especially sunflowers. This was a nice challenge in that I wanted the flowers to have symbolic representation of the children as well as a subtle physical depiction without making the piece corny. I think we were successful in that pursuit. This grandma has quite an heirloom to cherish!