Thorns on Paper

Thorns on Paper

12″x12″ (30 x 30 cm) – oil on gessobord – commission

Thorns on Paper is a second commission for Mostly Glass gallery and another painting for the Crinkled Paper show planned for this year end.

I’ve been working on this painting since April, it took nearly three months, longer than I hoped. I am happy to finish and sign it. And it did not help the matter that towards the end a scratch  appeared on a finished background. Could have been Elvis’ work, or I might have gotten careless for a moment – hard to tell. I could not repair it and had to repaint the background.

About the title: Everyone who talked about this painting so far calls it “Caravaggio”, which seems to be an intuitive thing to do given the book title painted in the front. Natural that it may be I find it a bit presumptuous. I titled the painting Thorns on Paper to reflect on the painting on the book cover Crowning with Thorns.

The White Wave – all finished, framed and gone

This is my final parting shot of The White Wave painting. I am packing it to go to Mostly Glass gallery.

The White Wave

The White Wave

9″x12″ (23 x 30 cm) – oil on gessobord – commission

Here’s a new painting titled The White Wave. A couple of years ago, when I first painted crinkled paper, the complexity, the chaos and the lack of logic or reason of it has got to be too much, and I promised myself that I would not paint crinkled paper again unless I would be paid for doing it. HA! I broke my promise in less than 3 months, just to see if the first painting was not a fluke and if I can really paint wrinkled paper. I could 🙂.

The real thing happened in the beginning of this year. A gallery that I worked with some years ago suggested a solo show later this year, the theme being crinkled paper. I am working on a new collection of works for this show. The first two pieces of this collection the gallery has commissioned – that’s the right way to support art! The White Wave is the first piece of this new series.

As far as good news go, this is pretty much up there!

Eggshells

Eggshells

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD

The last one! Number 6 of 6!

I had several subjects for this painting, some were planned for a long time. But that one evening, right before I was to start a new board, Lou decided to make an omelette and as we know – you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs :). He threw the eggshells into the sink. When I picked them up to toss them into trash I marveled at how perfect they were. Out of the window went my planned compositions, I couldn’t sleep that night waiting for that morning light to hit my precious eggshells.

Now that this one is finished I am taking a much deserved break. The house got overtaken by entropy while I painted, I abandoned my sketches, a portrait promised to a friend is still in pencil… I am going to be busy doing all that :).

And then I am planning something new :)! Stay tuned!

Plus Two Dollars

Plus Two Dollars

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD

The second painting for the second show I am painting for. This one in California.

But let me tell you a story. I have this church down the block,  I am sure many of you have heard of it by now. Every year they have a rummage sale, and every year I go to hunt for props, and every time I hunt I score. A winning proposition :).

This year I went again and found a basket-full of mismachted bone china, bent silver spoons, a large shell with an ocean sound inside, and a set of 16 prints by Toulouse-Lautrec. Every object was a dollar or two. The fun started at earnest when I went to pay for my loot. The nice elderly gentleman was a singularly wrong person to manage the cash box! He decided to do the sums in his head and kept making mistakes in my favor. By the time he had 9, I had 11  and corrected him… by the time he had 14, I had 16 and corrected him again. All the while he wanted to talk about Lautrec, American realism, painting in general, and modeling for life sessions. In the end he got 18. I no longer believed him and gave him 20 – God bless!! 🙂

Here I have for you the three cups from the rummage sale… Plus the two dollars difference in our sums.

With Cherries on Top

With Cherries on Top

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD

This was supposed to be the last of the three paintings for the Buck County gallery show. After this one the plan was to relax, go sketching, catch up with planning the USk Chicago Seminar, maybe do laundry… But while I painted it I heard from Randy Higbee about his spectacular 6″ Squared Show in December. I managed to miss it last year and promised myself to make sure to be in it this year. And so I need two more paintings to make it into two different shows. Pressure! Stress! Deadlines! I thought I left that kind of stuff behind when I left the corporate rat race – LOL!

I am rather pleased with this painting. The idea occurred to me in early summer, when Rainer cherries were in season. I composed my setup, but wasn’t sure of it. So I sketched it first and showed the sketch to my Sketckpack buddies. They liked it. With that I felt better and painted it :).

The Trumpeter

The Trumpeter

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord

The second painting for Buck County  6 x 6 show later this fall. Two down – one more to paint. I had fun with new textures I had to play with – leather, suede and velvet.

Being curious I Googled John McCormack and The Trumpeter and to my delight found a recording – from a vinyl – of John McCormack singing The Trumpeter in 1915 – 98 years ago. It is so good – it gives me goosebumps!

John McCormack sings The Trumpeter in 1915

Six and a half

Six and a Half

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord

It seems that every realist painter worth his or her salt paints eggs at some point. It is almost like a rite of passage. Can I or can I not?!… I noticed this phenomena some time ago and knew that I too would have to paint eggs sometime.

And now I have. It was damned hard, just as expected. They have to be perfect, I discovered, and curve perfectly in the light or they will not look like real eggs – and that’s the whole point!

Eggs are an excellent assessment of one’s current skill as a realist painter. I know I will paint eggs again in the future – to see my progress if nothing else.

Tea for Three or The Rummage Sale

Tea for Three

6″ x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) – oil on gessobord – SOLD

This little painting started last summer at a rummage sale at a church down the block. I always go and always get some great props there. That time I found 3 mismatched cups with their saucers. Mismatched and all, they still worked together very well, probably being from the same era. I asked the lady to keep them for me so I could pay for everything together and went to a books section.

When I returned to pay for them, there was Father John, the Rector of the church, standing there with these cups in his hands, and the lady explaining to him that the cups were put aside for someone else. Oops!! I don’t belong to this church, but I know Father John (and his schnauzer), just like you know people in the neighborhood. I almost had him sit for a portrait for me. Besides I did not want the wrath of God on my head… you never know 🙂 … So I said – please Father John, have these cups. And he said – no, no, you got them first! And we went on like that – back and forth – for a while, but in the end I got the cups.

Every time I look at them I feel a little guilty, but not too much. After all I did get them first. And nothing bad has happened to me either – Father John really is a nice guy :).

Flemish Technique – a workshop

I opened another can of worms and started teaching oil painting. I know, I am amazed myself, lol!

But it is true – a new workshop on Flemish Technique or 7 Layers Method of oil painting is now available live in my studio in Chicago or … wait for this … online via Skype for long distance students!

I am totally lucky and blessed with the greatest students in the world. Two students – Tom and Paul – attend the In-Studio class, and we are currently working on our 3rd (out of 7) layer – the Umber layer.

Tom painting

Paul painting

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One brave soul – Jana – is taking an online version of the class, and we are currently working on the 4th layer – the Dead layer. Jana takes an active part in streamlining the online class, which for various reasons cannot follow the same format as the Studio workshop. We held several sessions on Skype and tried Google Hangouts. Google comes with an added benefit of recording the session, which we have done.

Skype session with Jana and her completed Umber layer

Everybody is working very hard, and some fantastic paintings Flemish style will soon be available for viewing !

For workshop details, outline, hours and prices – comment here or communicate via email/fb/phone or homing pigeon :).