Pastel Portrait from Life

Greg came home from college with a new haircut. We had him model for us.
Pastel 11x17 on Wallis paper.

Gregory Pastel Portrait

I have a few commissions coming up and thought I would do a quick portrait of my son to warm up a bit. He looked at it and said, "Why so serious?"  It is hard to catch him in a serious photo. He usually has a goof off face.  I think he was surprised to see that I had a good photo of him to use.
He comes home from his freshman year/university in a few weeks. Can't wait to see his goof off face.
Check out his blog              17x17 inches on sanded paper
UPDATE--- Just found out this painting won Best Portrait in the Associated Artists of Butler County Spring Show!

Sky, Water and Waves Demonstration

This is the demonstration I did for class today. We talked about cloud shapes, how this cloud was backlit and how the water color is a bounce off the sky. We also talked about calm water and rippled water and how the colors reflect off the angles of the ripples/waves. We looked at many examples and it was good to observe and learn the form/shape of things and how the light sits on the shapes.

and here is a small 5x8 inch demo I did of waves.

Church Roof Lines, Southside of Pittsburgh

I was invited to be part of a show called 89, the Neighborhoods at Gallery Sim in the South side of Pittsburgh. The show has images from many of the 89 Neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. My 10 x 10 inch, acrylic, is of the roof lines of St John the Baptist, Ukrainian Catholic Church in the South side neighborhood. Churches are an integral part of the neighborhoods and give a history of the population there. SOLD

Sketches at the Zoo

We went to the zoo on Friday. Both of our sons are into art/animation and we all took sketchbooks.  I follow James Gurney's blog and have wanted to get a little sketch kit together like he uses. It was wonderful in size and supplies.  I started with pen and ink on the moleskin watercolor book and did the watercolor washes at home. Next time I will do the watercolor washes on site and draw bigger.  Here is a link to one of my son's gestures from the day. And here is a link to my other son's blog. Hopefully he will get his sketches up soon. Lots of links today, but the info is good.

Summer Camp Schedule is here!

http://www.room101art.blogspot.com/p/summer-camp-info.html

We have plenty of new projects and plans for students to explore different mediums, styles, techniques...
Registration is now open. Please email to get the registration form.
Room 101 is located in Mars, PA north of Pittsburgh.

Ukrainian Egg Class

I had a wonderful day teaching the art of Pysanky, Ukrainian Easter Eggs at my studio yesterday. One of my students posted pictures and an interesting description of her day so I though I would share the link.

http://jeudaly.blogspot.com/2012/02/pysanky.html

The traditional eggs are beautiful, but I especially like the ones where the students go their own direction.

Ball Jar in Acrylic

Acrylic Ball Jar on 8 x 10 inch canvas panel.

This was done as a demonstration for my teen class. 

This was a good lesson in observation for them. 

A great project to do using just values.

Garlic Pastel Still Life

Yay, I got to paint today! 

This is not quite done. If you want to see the finished piece it will be at the Culinary Show at Galley Sim on the Southside of Pittsburgh 

from February 3 to March 26. 

This is pastel on mounted wallis paper 8 x 16 inches

Here is a link to another artist's version of the same still life set up. 

Hey, Hey You!

I imagine this gentle dog has a gruff voice.

Watercolor on quarter sheet. sold