Hello Kitty - daily painting, portrait,figure

10x10 oil on panel.

After painting her portrait, there was still more time on the clock - about one hour - and I had an extra panel so I painted this.

Love the "Hello Kitty" shirt and wanted to paint more of her than just a headshot.

Much more free with this one and it was fun.

Go HERE to see the first portrait

Saba - monday portrait session

12x12" oil
Saba - a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. It means Cool Morning Breeze in Arabic. She was the model last night at our monday night portrait session - wish I had a photo of her too so you could see the likeness...what fun those eyes were to paint! but as for the spot I love? it would have to be her nose - loving that lighter brushstroke inbetween her eyes -yum

Chris -portraits

14x18" oil. Chris - another portrait from my monday open painting group. First time ive had to tackle glasses and that was a challenge.
So fun painting people...

Nate -portraits,figurative,teens

18x24" oil.
Nate -
the colors in this are much richer than the photo shows but it is toooooo nice out to stay in and fiddle with it... so here it is...

Sofia - portraits

21x18" oil
Sofia - another portrait - just cant stop myself :)
- Sofia in the sun - with that gorgeous head of hair and the most perfect oval face ever
- oh to be 16

Derek -portrait,oil,figurative

16x20" oil. Derek. loving my monday night painting group. heres a link to one of the painters from the group Rob Rey

P#17 - Matt -portraits

8x10" oil

P#16 -Sophmore2 -portraits

16x24" oil Sophmore
have to give a little shout out to my boys - I mean its hard enough to be a teenager these days without your Mom painting pictures of you and plastering them all over the internet!! They are good guys for putting up with me.

And thanks to all of you who have been following my blog and especially those that have been leaving comments! Ive been laxed in responding but want you to know i read them all and love you for them!

P#14 -Jerry2 -portraits

8x8" oil - another of Jerry - broke away from my other painting and did this one to loosen up - much happier with it - more in my groove -

P#13-Jerry -portraits

11"x14" oil -Jerry - went to an open painting session last night and Jerry was the model - I was nervous - being the new girl - but although its a little tight - I nailed the likeness.

P#11 -Sophmore -portrait series

11x14 oil
getting somewhere. but need to do it again with more of the body showing and the hands in the pockets. fave so far :)

P#8 -harrison 2 -portrait,children,do what you love february

9x12" oil
Wasnt feeling the painting love this morning but pushed thru and ended up with this... would never have done it if it wasnt for my feb. goal....

P#5 - Boy - portrait,children playing

8x10 oil

P#4 - beach boy -children playing at the beach,portraits

6x6" oil
Portrait #4 - some quick portrait studies today then spent the rest of my studio time basecoating some larger portraits. - raw umber glaze underpaintings over the red ground.
3 so far - think I will work on them all at once. This feb. challenge was for a portrait a day - yikes its hard! - especially if I go big - but Oh So Fun!

Work In Progress - figurative,oil

12x16 oil on canvas.
Its been a while since Ive painted and must admit a bit of a struggle to get inspired. Those teeny tiny little boards just dont appeal to me right now. But today is a 'painting' day so SOMETHING has to get painted. - and not my basement stairway which is really crying out for a fresh coat...SO after gesso-ing and basecoating all the naked boards lying around, I decided to go back to my roots a bit, back to basics and just paint. Starting with a nice orange ground and washing in an umber underpainting...

then started in on the flesh...some say you should work on everything equally, but thats never been something I could do...love to just dive in to the 'good' parts...this is where I'm at now and ready to take a break. loving how the paint is thin and drippy at the bottom

Note to Self

today is self portrait day over at Daily Painters. A challenge for sure. I havent tackled a self portrait is 20 years!!! yikes. As a student at RISD way back when, I took a portrait class my senior year and it was probably my favorite class. For a semester I had to do 5 portraits a week and bring them in for crit. Painted friends on occasion but mostly it was just me. Only a few survived over the years but everything I learned came right back. Found myself setting up my palette with the same colors and in the same order, adjusting the light and the mirror in the same familar way...everything the same except of course the image in the mirror! hmmmm, it was alot more fun back then but still such a great 'assignment' for any artist. Try One! I might make it a yearly event from now on. :)