Quiet Contemplation

This painting was my second summer challenge in that I wanted to try painting human skin tones in hopes that at sometime I would paint a portrait. Many artist friends have told me that portrait painting and human skin tones are the most difficult to attempt because of the many values (color variations) and shadows. I am reasonably pleased with the result which I call "Quiet Contemplation". I thought for my first attempt at this subject I would choose a side view and not attempt to paint a face straight on. Currently I am working on a painting of Block Island Light after another painting by Thomas Kincaide. This work is being done in my weekly painting group supervised by the same artist, Marie Stabile, that I worked with last winter.
I feel that working on this seascape with lighthouse has many possibilities for learning values, brush strokes and composition. As usual there is a great deal to learn. I continue to attend my weekly Nashua Artists Breakfast Club meetings where I am like a sponge absorbing tips and ideas from the varied and more accomplished artists in this group. Conversation is always lively and the pastry and cappuccino is a bonus reason for attending. I hope either late this summer or early in the fall to attempt a "plein air" painting as another challenge... I will post a picture of the lighthouse when I am finshed with this latest challenge.

Well it has been a while since my last post, not because I have stopped painting but because I have procrastinated posting. In summer that is easy to do and I have been busy officiating at weddings in my other role as Justice of the Peace. As I mentioned in my last post I was working on a painting of my two toy daschunds, Gracie the small brown female and Budso the black and tan male. I found this task more difficult than I expected but it was a challenge I wanted to accept. I found that painting the eyes was particularly difficult for me. The end result is that I think I produced a reasonable representation for my first try at animal portraits.