Chilly January

Winter has taken over Middle Tennessee and between the snow, cold temps, and ongoing pandemic, we have pretty much been hibernating indoors. That's given me some very decent painting hours and cheery results:

Three little 5x7 paintings of our oldest grandson, age 7, enjoying his favorite summer sport and blowing us away at his skills! I'm giving these to him for his birthday this weekend. My favorite part about figurative paintings is capturing the cast shadows; a bright, sunny day and white uniform pants really helped me out.

Shifting to a less animated, but still adorable, figurative subject: this cheerful piece I painted from a photo reference I took in Mexico a couple of years ago. I worked on a smaller earlier version which helped me immensely to get better drawing skills so the VW wouldn't look wonky. This 12x16 did go through a couple of wonky stages, but I learned a little trick that helps me see problems as they arise. Taking a photo of the painting and flipping it horizontally allows me to see it in a fresh way, because the human eye and mind get so used to the painting that it just doesn't see the odd mistakes. Here is "Hot Little Cool Bug" 12x16 oil on panel:

Unfortunately, my painting hours have recently been curtailed by a gimpy arm :(  The sore right shoulder that I've been nursing along the past few months turned out to be more messed up than expected and I had to have surgery on it last week. So this is my fate for a few weeks...and I don't think painting left-handed is a good idea🥴

Thank you for reading my blog and Happy New Year!