My Blog

My Dog Painting

I decided to paint a majestic hunting dog since I have a Black English Setter, Victoria and a Pitt mix, Roxanne. I first chose a brown sanded pastel paper so that the brown paper would act as a under painting and pull everything together.

Starting with the Head of the dog and emphasizing the details of the eyes I laid in the basic tones of the body and the wash of the background done with a flat smooth sponge which spreads the pigment in the background allowing the brown paper to show through. In this segment of the painting I was much more spontaneous and fresh in my approach. I then added several tones of blue for the sky giving the dog a sense of drama with darkened areas suggesting trees and bushes.

Lastly I added the brown patches and tonalities  in the body of the dog to give it shape and form. To really finish the painting I put in the detail of the fur joining it to the background and the blades of grass around the feet to pull everything together.

Man’s best friend which deserves a majestic painting !

This is a painting of Jeff daughter Nicole’s cat that is an outdoor cat that she befriended during the harsh winter and built a home for it outside and now the cat comes into her house and trusts her.

I realized that in order to portray the proper impact of a painting the artist must step back and visualize the finished product in a frame.  In the case of “Road to Cartaret,” after the piece was framed, I saw imperfections and identified adjustments that had to be corrected.  So, I took it back to the framer, Manny at Picture Framing Warehouse in Fairfield, and he opened up the piece, I made the corrections there and they reframed the piece.  It’s very difficult to be objective when the piece  is on the easel and you’ve looked at it for so long.  It’s better to step away for awhile put a temporary frame around it which blocks out the background and light it as it would be on a wall to view it as it will be once framed so you can make corrections before framing.

We invite you for The Pastel Society of NJ Membership Show hosted at Studio 7 Fine Art Gallery, Bernardsville, NJ.  Reception June 5th from 6 – 9 p.m.

“Road to Cartaret” will be shown for the first time.  Offered at $2,500.

Art represents a very a unique way of seeing something special in the world we live in and the everyday occurrences that we take for granted. The common place, ordinary even mundane subject matter has always intrigued me and comes alive in my art.  It’s easy to paint a beautiful object but way more exciting to depict and ordinary object in a fresh creative way.  Seeing through the obvious and into the essence of the subject matter drives me to create through art.