Sergeant Major

"Marching up and down the square not good enough for you? Right. Off with you then." Michael Palin's Sergeant Major in The Meaning of Life always cracks me up.

Sergeant Major
8" x 8"
Oil on masonite

The great stone face

Buster Keaton was a comedy star of the silent film era. I've been enjoying watching some of his clips on You Tube this week.

According to Wikipedia, he made his own hats. His famous pork pie hat is actually a Stetson with the top cut off and the brim stiffened with concentrated sugar water. Apparently he went through at least a half dozen per movie (his physical comedy was hard on hats). He and his third wife Eleanor made thousands during his long career.

This painting is the result of the last few evenings. I'm happy with it but as I mentioned to a friend, I'm ready to try some larger canvases -- especially when painting people. Trying to do facial detail with tiny brushes in a couple of square inches of space can be aggravating.

The great stone face

Oil on canvas

11" x 14"

Vase still life

I didn't feel feel like fussing much over the photo of this one so it's a shoddy photo of a shoddy painting. Making it was great, though. I went to my friend Nick's studio last week. He set up this still life and we had a crack at capturing it. In the early stages I got hung up on the vase detail and was discouraged when it didn't turn out as planned. The rest of the painting is made up of impatiently applied blobs... which ended up being slightly more interesting than the vase. The piece needs more work but I'm walking away from it. I can't be arsed.

Nick is an accomplished painter and a patient teacher. You should go buy something from his shop. At least give it a good browsing.

I don't think I mentioned it yet but I've set goal for myself to do 50 paintings by the end of the year.  I think this one makes 14. So far, I'm on track.

Yes, the crap paintings count.

Fruity bouquet

I couldn't decide between painting an apple or painting a bottle.

SOLD
Fruity bouquet
Oil on canvas
11" x 14"

Ten minute apples

My submission to the Ten Minute Challenge at Daily Paintworks. The idea is as it sounds: paint the same subject repeatedly for only ten minutes at a time. I moved the light and repositioned the apple for each. It was a great exercise! I'll probably do it again.

Ten minute apples

Oil on MDF

8" x 8"

Ill-fated cabbage

This is a doodle from an old sketchbook. I really should have redrawn it but I wasn't up for it tonight. I did, however, add some colour and shading in Photoshop. Based on a true story from the year of the Great Coleslaw Famine. Sad times indeed.

Posted for Illustration Friday's theme, Cultivate.

Studio still

Golden delicious

This one was an exercise in frustration. I had a nice, loose finished apple with lots of character but I kept touching-up to the point where I'd nearly repainted the whole thing and it lost all its zing. So I wiped it out with linseed oil and started again. The result is above. Not nearly as snazzy as the original but an important lesson was learned... don't overpaint!

Golden Delicious 
Oil on MDF 
6" x 6"

New paintings for sale

My most recent paintings are available in the shop.

(Green bottle, Softball Reflection and Zippo have been sold)

Spoons

This one's for Illustration Friday's theme-of-the-week: "stir". (The middle one is actually a spatula... he made a fuss so I had to let him be in it.) This one is available in the shop.

Spoons
Oil on MDF
8" x 8"

Green bottle

This was a quick and dirty effort. The MVP is the shadow.

This bottle came out of the ground of my childhood home. Many years before suburbia set in, the neighbourhood was a city dump. Whenever any gardening took place, some surprising items would emerge. Jam jars, medicine bottles, china fragments... all quite old.


Green Bottle
oil on MDF 
8" x 8"
Sold

Chicken portrait

Chicken
oil on MDF
6 x 6
Sold

Softball reflection

A small still life of the last softball from what used to be a vast collection. My childhood friend and I grew up near a softball pitch... anything that went over the fence we considered ours.

I'm adding this one to Illustration Friday's "Toy" theme. Sports fans may find that a stretch (or insulting) but, to me, it is intermingled with fond childhood memories of banana seat bikes, Rubik's cubes, skateboards and action figures.

Softball reflection

8" x 8"
Oil on MDF
Sold

Tree lino

Last weekend I made a half-hearted stab at a new linocut based on a tree doodle from my sketchbook. The cutting process was great but when it came time to print, I lost enthusiasm. The printing process seemed tedious so after just three proofs, I walked away. I'll just chalk this one up as practice.

Zippo

I thought I'd have a go at the Daily Paintworks challenge.

Zippo
6" x 6"
Oil on MDF
Sold