New Acrylic Painting: 'Roseate Spoonbill in the Marsh'

Roseate Spoonbill in the Marsh was finished today.  It is a 20x16 inch acrylic painting on canvas.

I spent more time on this one to build the highlights and the wonderful cast shadows creating some partial transparency effects in the wings.  Keeping focused on the bird's anatomy to get it right was the primary goalt and I changed the background to push the bird forward.  The marsh vegetation at the bottom foreground added a realistic touch to the painting.  Permanent Rose, magenta and aliz. crimson are the dominate colors in the spoonbill and earth tones with greens and blues for the rest.

If you are interested in this painting or prints email me.  Thanks for visiting!

God Bless You,
Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Monarch Butterfly artwork

I am building the background and flowers for the butterfly in this scene.  It may not look like it, but there is still more to do to the butterfly.  The shapes, shades and highlights  of the background scenery are important to make the butterfly the most important part of the painting.  To make this happen, the flowers need to be pretty but not overwhelming and same for the stems and leaves.  Making brights and shadows believable takes a bit of stepping back from the easel and studying the painting at a distance.  Making sure the light source and cast shadows in the painting are consistent.  More painting to do.

Let us pray before we paint,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Another Butterfly Oil Painting in Progress

If you follow this blog, you probably think I am stuck on painting butterflies.  Yes, I really like painting butterflies!  They are colorful and interesting.  I plan to finish this one soon and move on to other paintings for awhile.  I am considering painting a series of Native Indian series next.  I am researching famous chiefs now.  So intriguing.

This work in progress is on a 14x18 inch canvas.  There is a prior post that discusses the start of this one.  Here, the image on upper left is basically where I stopped on it to finish the other butterfly painting with the exception of showing some sky blue spread on with a palette knife to get it going.  (Using the knife helps spread the paint on faster in large areas of canvas.  The evenly spread and detail with a brush.  You may like the knife effects and want to leave them on your painting)  I also penciled in more of the flowers to help the composition.  I didn't follow the photo for the background and flowers, but used it as a guide to create a less busy and more painterly effect.  His antenna got painted over, but can be put back in later.  The flowers are based in and will get more attention later today.  The greenery is the next step.

You are welcome to use the below comment box to enter comments or questions.  Also, if you see the most recent post, click HOME here or in the above bar menu.

Let us pray before we paint,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Second Butterfly Painting in Progress

 For this 11x14 inch oil painting, I have a great picture reference to work from.  Thanks to Janet for the picture.

This post follows the work I talked about in the last post.  I blocked in the black areas and a quick impression of the foliage.  For the foliage, I used sap green, yellow light, white, and some of the black to mix for shady green.

 Amazing how adding the sky background adds so much to the painting.  This was a mix of cerelean blue tinted with titanium white.  I used a small flat brush to block in the sky next to busy spots and a larger flat to cover the rest of the canvas including the edges.

Here the painting is shown with the completed sky hanging from a short wire I put on it for easier handling while it is wet.

The next step will be to add the beautiful color to the wings and body.  I could have done more to this one today, but had a broken chainsaw that also needed fixing.

The other butterfly painting will be more of a challenge as the background has beautiful flowers for him to feed on.  I will work on him tomorrow.  Your comments are welcome.

Let us pray before we paint,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Tall Sunflower Oil Painting

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Tall Sunflower is the oil painting I finished today.  It is painted on a 14x11 gallery wrapped canvas with edges also painted for hanging without a frame, although I think paintings look much better framed.   I wanted the sunflower to stand alone much taller than the rest backlit with a beautiful blue sky.

I used two photos from www.wetcanvas.com reference library of images for artists to make up the composition using the best features of both.  I like to paint flowers especially a single flower in portrait mode so we can focus on the great beauty and anatomy each and every flower has.  When several are bunched in nature, or an arrangement, the view becomes multiple and sometimes the focal point becomes one flower anyway with the rest in varying degrees of importance to the composition.  I placed the flower to the left side of the canvas and located the leaves to maintain the overall balance of the painting.   I hope you like the painting.

Let us pray before we paint,
Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

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Poppies in Blue Vase, Demo/Study

The Poppies in BlueVase painting is a freestyle painting I did for demonstration outdoors at the Burr, Texas Trade Days last weekend.  I paint at shows when possible to pass the time and customers like to see art in progress.

This painting was done without a reference and freely out of my imagination.  I don't mind people looking over my shoulder at the easel, as I can talk and paint at the same time.  After days of painting by myself in the studio, being able to talk with others about art is a real treat.  Especially with people wanting to learn to paint.  Who knows, maybe watching an old guy throw paint on a canvas might inspire them to give it a try.

The palette was:  Yellow ochre, Yellow Medium, Alizeran Crimson, Cad. Red, Prussan Blue, Black, White, Sap Green, Yellow Light, Unbleached White, some tidbit of Purple.

Acrylic paint on 14x11 inch canvas hardboard.


Thanks for looking.

Let us pray before we paint,
jimmie@jimmiesart.com

An Oil Painting of a Mandevilla Reaching Out

  

Mandevilla Reaching Out,  Oil Painting on 11x14 inch gallery wrap canvas with edges also painted.

This was a fun painting to do.  It has nice contrasts of light and shadow and bright colors.  The background is a very dark green.  A mix of black and green I had left over from another painting and decided to paint it on a canvas to use as a background rather than waste it.  After searching through my picture albums I saw this little pic of a mandevilla from several seasons back and decided to use it.  Tthe black green mix had dried on the canvas so I started on it by sketching the image on this canvas with a white pastel stick so it would show up on the dark background.  I started blocking in the color and as expected, the dark background dulls the life out of the first layer.  I let it dry and started on it again the next day.  With a more reflective base to work on the colors started poping out.  I used earthtones and complimentary color to control intensity for shadows and midtones and less toward the brights.  I reserved the use of pure white for the brightest points in the painting.  Also, more detail on the flower and less elsewhere further from the focal point.   The painting is close enough to the reference photo to tell it was used as a guide; but, I like to take some liberties with the painting and include my preferences and tecniques.  I hope you like the painting and my tidbits about the work.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie@jimmiesart.com

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Fruit Under The Lamplight, Original Painting

Fruit Under The Lamplight, 20x16  Original Acrylic Painting

Fruit Under The Lamplight a 20x16 painting done in acrylics. The inspiration for this painting is from the Bible verse Galatians 5:22 "...The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace..." and the lamp represents God's light.  This is a 20x16 on a gallery wrapped canvas.  The edges are painted for hanging without a frame.  This painting would make be great for your fine art collection or as a gift for someone special.


I set up a small area in the studio to shoot still life scenes to paint from.  I went to the market and bought fruit, scrounged around the house for a platter, and cleaned up the heirloom kerosene lamp and took lots of photos of various singles, doubles, combos, and magnum arrangements  of fruit and the lamp.  It felt  good to plan a scene, set it up, and make it happen.  It was also humbling in that it is like going to the candy store and picking out more than you can eat.  I chose the biggest and most diverse of the scenes which really taxed my painting abilities and it took me much longer than anticipated to finish it.   On the bright side, I learned more color mixing tricks and how to paint clear glass objects.  Challenges are a painters best teacher.  Hope you like the story and the painting.

Let us pray before we paint,

Jimmie

Texas Longhorn in Bluebonnet Field, Original Oil 12x18 Inch Canvas

 This is an original oil painting on a gallery stretched canvas.  I painted a portrait version of this longhorn a few months ago and was wondering what it would have looked like if I had done it in a landscape with bluebonnets.  Since the other painting sold, I figured that was enough incentive to paint him again in the landscape setting.  I used both palette knife and brush to do the painting. I enjoyed painting him.  I hope you like the way it came out.
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Let us pray before we paint,

jimmie@jimmiesart.com

Damon, Oil Portrait, and Teaching Art

 

Finally finished the demonstration portrait tune-ups.  I had hoped to get it done and posted sooner, but the work I started on my little fishing boat ate up more time than expected.  Also, I have started working on training materials in preparation to teach art classes.  A workshop for learning to paint portraits is in the planning stage.  Hopefully, we can get it started this summer.  I am excited about the possibility of getting to teach art.  I was an instructor for many years when I worked in power plants and I really miss training and helping others learn.

Email me if you are interested in attending a workshop or taking art lessons using oils or acrylics.  jimmie@jimmiesart.com  I hope you like the way the painting came out.

Let us pray before we paint,
Jimmie