Prosperity

Oil on gessobord, 7x5"

After Christmas break, one of the students that I have worked with for the last couple years brought a gift for me from Malaysia, where his parents live. The gift was three statuettes, representing Luck, Long Life, and Prosperity. Since then I've been itching to paint them. I started this one a couple weeks ago, and built up several layers of paint to bring out the shadows and highlights. Hopefully it won't be too long before I paint the other two.

My wife and I are leaving Thursday for Minnesota! The apartment is a maze of boxes and assorted treasures that we have collected over the years and there is a still a lot of packing left to be done. We arrive at our new house on Saturday. Of course, this means that it could be a while before we get settled in enough for me to get back to painting and posting on the blog. We are making one detour on our trip: As we pass through Ohio we'll head down to Cincinnati to see my painting in the show at Manifest Gallery. Should be fun.

Commission-Maple Leaf in Mische

Oil and egg tempera on masonite, 6x6"

This fall a colleague gave me a maple leaf and said she wanted to commission a painting of it. I made a couple attempts that I wasn't satisfied with, and then our wedding and honeymoon pushed the painting to the back burner. Once I learned the mische technique, I thought it would be a great way to capture the depth of colors within the leaf. Thankfully, the client was patient and I had a photo of the original leaf to work from. So here it is, my first commission.

Pensive

Oil and egg tempera on masonite, 6x6"

This is another painting done in the mische technique. It is based on a photo of my wife sitting in front of a window. This is actually the second mische painting that I started, but waiting for all the layers to dry made it take months to complete.