Friday, October 19, 2012

"Strokes of Genius 4"



Strokes of Genius 4 is a collection of drawings published by Northlight Books. Here's a photo of me holding the page with "Urban Still Life", one of my two pieces selected for inclusion in this edition. The other drawing is "Oak Tree".
I'm obviously gratified and flattered to be included.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

"Vineyard Still Life"


"Vineyard Still Life", acrylic on canvas, 12 by 9 inches.
This is a painting based on a sketchbook drawing, shown below.


This drawing was originally done for another version of it, shown below, in the "Neo-Retro" style.


Below is a version done in a "wash off" technique. A drawing is made on board, then the parts to remain white are masked with gouache, which is water soluble. A coating of india ink is applied, then the piece is put under a faucet and the gouache is washed off, leaving the ink in the areas intended to remain black. In this case I applied color with markers before I masked the areas. Some of the color washed away and some stayed, giving the piece a distressed look.



As the image developed I added the vase, flower and the hummingbirds.
I based the wine label in the painting on my niece's and her husband's current label for their winery in Santa Ynez, California. It's called Sandoval Ranch Vineyard and we had the pleasure of visiting for the first time this past summer.
Here are the actual bottle and label.



The painting is going to Copper Moon Gallery in Taos.