December 23, 2015

Yet another painting I turned into a holiday card.

I brought this over from the artists site.

Canvas and acrylic paints. My palette was limited to mostly paynes gray and chromium oxide green.

I’d always wanted to do my own version of “Bringing Home the Tree”.

The background is the Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. My brother, however, was bringing a tree to my mother’s home in Raleigh where there was no snow on the ground. The clouds and sunset are taken from photos from the same area. I used a photo of a Victorian home I found in a real estate ad in my local newspaper. The bird feeder is my own.

November 11, 2015

Laughing Gulls

Acrylic on Masonite.

If you live on the Atlantic coast, you know why these guys are called laughing gulls. Their call sounds like boisterous laughter.

I worked from a photo taken on a foggy day in Atlantic City. For balance I added the gull in the background taken from another snapshot.

Unfortunately the photo of the painting didn't pick up the shades of deep green I notice in the ocean off the mid-Atlantic states, which is evident in the original painting. I've been told that New England waters are more gray. In my mind Florida waters appear to be more turquoise. The Pacific Ocean appears to be navy blue to me in the photos I've seen.

October 12, 2015

Halloween Anticipation

I wanted to make a whimsical, somewhat cheerful Halloween card. The house I used for a model was a townhouse in Charleston, SC. I simply "chopped off" the other houses, and decided to haunt the one I had chosen.

My mom, being the good sport that she was, modeled for the witch. She wore a rain hat which I put a point on and a nightgown with a belt around it. Her prop was the kitchen broom.

All the little details like the squirrel, spider, trick-or-treating mice, and pumpkins in the window were all part of making it more "Halloweeny".

The cat was my own Maine coon tabby, Matthew-Pufftail.

Media used: colored pencils with magic marker blender, pen and ink.

August 18, 2015

Illustration I converted into a Christmas card

"Beggar on the Windowsill"



This was done with mixed media: pen and ink, a little water color—both translucent and opaque. Latex paint spatters for snow. The windowsill was done with prismacolor pencils (hard lead). Colors I used were dark brown and indigo blue -- something I thought was more exciting than if I used just a gray colored pencil.

I should mention that the windowsill emerged from a detailed drawing I did from a Victorian home in Philadelphia—didn’t want to use the BORING windowsills in my own home in North Carolina. The squirrel, however, lived in Raleigh, N.C. He visited our kitchen windowsill every day while we were eating. We encouraged him 'cause we always gave him a peanut when he appeared. His name was “Tommy”.

April 23, 2015

My grandfather's "selfie" (circa 1898)

When I was about 8 years old, I'd often ask my granddad, "Tell me about the olden days." He would always answer, "Well, let's bring out the photo albums."

When I saw this photo, I remember saying, "Granddad! That's YOU in the mirror!" He laughed and said, "Well, I wanted to do some experiments."

Thank you, everybody, for talking about scanning old photos. My brother was able to do this for me.

Does anybody know what kind of camera this is?