Paintings at Cunningham Piano Company

Hello there, and welcome to my blog. For those of you interested in my work, I have some paintings on display at the Cunningham Piano Showroom located at 5427 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There will be a reception on September 6th from 4pm to 6pm, and the paintings will be on display for around a month or so. I appreciate any support shown to me by stopping by either for the reception, or simply checking out my paintings during Cunningham's regular hours. Thank you very much and enjoy.  I have more work on the way. Here is one painting of eleven you will see at the showroom.

Charcoal study for a painting

This study was completed from life in an hour and thirty minutes.

Catboat -Oil on wood

Painting of a catboat using an impressionist block-in.

Self Portrait stages

I sit down at my easel with a small mirror on my easel as well; the painting will take place during the cool daylight from the north-facing window in the living room.  I start by showing you the underpainting completed with Transparent Red Oxide.  It is a basic block-in to establish the form.  I have used a brush with turpentine and a cloth to wipe out some of the lights.

Next, I start to build up some of the light areas with Flake White, a weak mixing white, to further establish the form.

I continue to build the form by blocking in patches of color that I identify throughout my face.  I have also added a background color to set apart the subject.

I further refine the patches of color by mixing areas wet into wet while continuing to refine the shapes.

Here I have refined the color shapes even further and the painting is beginning to become life-like.  I have also decided against the dark background in favor of the warm wooden crate behind me in the mirror to offset the cool tones in my shirt and face.

Here is a view of the full wood panel.  After another session, this painting should be complete, but I may spend extra time refining and attaining the most life-like expression of the form I can muster.

Here I am further refining the shadows and the hair.

Nearly at the finish.  I think one more session should do it.

Here the portrait is complete after around 70 to 80 hours of work.

Here is a closer look at the detail.

Nude Study

This painting is three hours underway; I will be working with the model to complete this work for around two more session.  The work is oil on linen.

"Nude" Oil on Linen - Work in Progress

Here is today's progress on the piece.

"Nude" Oil on Linen - Work in Progress

Here is the painting after another session of three hours.

Portrait of Ria

This portrait is four hours of work thus far.  I will be working with the model for two more sessions to complete the work.  The work is done in oil on linen.

"Ria" Oil on Linen - Portrait in Progress 

"Ria"- Detail - Oil on Linen - Portrait in Progress 

"Wild" Bill Hickok - Digital Painting

This digital painting was created in Photoshop with a Wacom Intuos 4 and is the first in a series of famous people from the Old West on which I'm currently working.