A new painting and some sketches

Here is an untitled 5x7 purple calla lily flower painting that I finished on Friday. Below are some sketches. On Thursday before doing a master study sketch, I did a warm up sketch of some little Iceland Poppy buds, it's wild that such pretty flowers come from such interesting little buds. Monday's sketches are inspired by a couple of sketchstorm topics.

Wednesday... Iceland Poppies

Thursday... Iceland Poppy buds

Thursday... after Peter Paul Rubens' "Study for Abraham and Melchizedek" (cropped)

Friday... a girl

Saturday... an Anthurium flower

Sunday... a girl

Monday... an ice cream cone and a panda bear

Illustration Friday topic Wilderness & some sketches

This week's Illustration Friday topic is wilderness. I chose to sketch a tiger for this theme. Although it may not be apparent since graphite doesn't convey color well, this tiger is basking in the water. Apparently tigers enjoy spending time in the water.

To see more Illustration Friday themes, please visit http://illustrationfriday.com.

As far as my daily sketching went, I missed Saturday; but did sketch Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. My Tuesday sketch doubled for the sketchstorm topic of hair at http://www.imaginefx.com.

Saturday... Nada

Sunday... A girl

Monday... Calla lily floral flower

Tuesday... A girl, focus on hair

Thursday and Friday sketches

On Thursday I did a master study sketch of a drawing by Singer Sargent. I didn't intend to do another master study sketch so soon, but the Friday imagineFX sketchstorm topic was Gustave Dore and how could I let that go by without giving it a go. I only attempted a tiny portion of one of his works, to try and do more exceeded the scope of time I had available for sketching. Neither of my master sketches are as powerful as the originals, but I enjoyed the attempt. I'm also including a floral from Friday.

Thursday... Flora Priestley after Sargent

Friday... Orchid flower

Friday... Tiny portion of Gustave Dore's "The Fairies"

I had the opportunity to see a Dore study at a temporary exhibit at the Getty and it was absolutely amazing. He is such an amazing artist!

Happy New Year!

On Sunday I decided that I'm going to try to sketch daily, I'm sure I'll miss some (possibly many) days, but I'm going to make the attempt to be as consistent as possible. As you will see, even in this post, some days are better sketching days for me then others... By sketching more often, I'm hoping to even that out some.

Here are some sketches:

Sunday... A Bird of Paradise flower

Monday... A girl

Tuesday... A girl

Wednesday... A floral orchid

Small Works Invitational

This 5x7 original acrylic orchid flower painting titled "Red Abundance" is being included in Elon's Annual Small Works Invitational. All of the works in this show do not exceed 100 square inches.

The show opens today and runs through February 3rd 2010.

It is located at:
Arts West Gallery
Elon University
Elon, NC, 27244

Questions: Michael Fels, 336-278-5597

A sketch inspired by Albrecht Durer

I took too many liberties with it to call it a study, but it is inspired by Albrecht Durer's Venetian painting.

A bit of color...

This is an 18x24 stargazer lily original acrylic painting on canvas entitled "Vivid."

The museum, a sketch, and (untitled).

Above is a photograph I took during my trip to the Getty Museum. She's one of my favorites in the terra cotta room. I didn't manage to get a shot of her from the front that I'm pleased with, but I did like this picture. Although I've know for a while that it's okay to take pictures of art the museum owns sans flash; I've prior to this been to shy to whip out my camera and shoot. I'm not the best photographer, but I did manage to get a few that I liked from the trip.

I also saw the movie (untitled), it's about a pair of brothers who are both entwined with a contemporary art gallery owner. One brother is a composer of very unusual music and the other is a commercially successful painter. The gallery owner showcases very different art. I'm not describing the movie well at all, but it was an entertaining film.

I actually did almost finish a painting today, but I'm not quite ready to photograph it. For the moment, here is a quick partial sketch of the father of the Laocoon Group sculpture:

incomplete bits and pieces

Well, I haven't managed to complete a painting lately, but here are some sketches. The top one is after Raphael. The girl below is a partial of an image I started for the sketchstorm topic hair, but when I was interrupted while sketching, I found I liked this incomplete view. As for the eye, well, it was my favorite part of a sketch that I sketched just to sketch.





Last week I had the good fortune to go to the Getty and see the closing day of their exhibition "Capturing Nature's Beauty: Three Centuries of French Landscape Drawings." I very rarely paint or draw landscapes, but the work there was absolutely exemplary. They also showcased the work of Irving Penn. His photographs of people and their trades was very interesting. We also stopped in and visited some of our favorite pieces before we left. All in all a splendid day at the museum!

Illustration Friday theme sketch: Flying

I had decided not to participate in Illustration Friday this week. Then last night I dreamed of a little girl with curly reddish brown hair and eyes of blue with her hair flying up into the sky. Yes, I know, my sketch looks nothing like that. I decided to take the dream as a push to participate instead of as a direct directive. Also, as these owls hunt at night, I felt this sketch could also be a part of the sketchstorm topic for today of "night." So, I, erm, well, killed two birds with one stone, in a manner of speaking.

To see more Illustration Friday endeavors, please visit: http://www.illustrationfriday.com/
To visit imaginefx online, please visit: http://www.imaginefx.com/