Emily

Since I was Erin's "Secret Santa" I painted this picture of Emily and kids for her especially to go in her pink room. I was having some trouble with this and time was getting short, but then there was a giant snowstorm giving me an extra day off before Christmas so I was able to pull it together - another Christmas miracle!

Arrangement in Orange and White

When visiting the family portrait gallery I noticed that there were no portraits of the matriarch - so I painted one. The title is just a play on Whistler's Mothers painting which he called an Arrangement in Grey and Black.

Lona Art at Oktoberfest

I have donated my "Bee Yard" painting (seen a couple of posts ago) to be auctioned at the Hard Bargain Farm Oktoberfest silent auction, in Accokeek at Hard Bargain Farm, on October 10. This event is lots of fun so if you haven't been to Oktoberfest before you should check it out.

Accokeek Creek

I found this older painting that I had forgotten about while I was cleaning up so I decided to post it. The scene is Accokeek Creek just after sunrise. My art show is down now and it is taking me a little while to figure out my new direction.

Bee Yard

I hadn't painted a landscape in a long time but this morning I went out and painted the Bee Yard at Hard Bargain Farm. Below is my setup.

Opening a Success!

Leo demonstrates accessing this blog on his iphone while at the event. Leo, you don't need the blog - you are there! Many thanks to all the notable culture lovers who showed up from far and wide:

Thanks also to John Massey whose sculpture was a great complement to the art on the wall and to Jon Powell and Bill Winter for the great entertainment and to John and Cristal from the center.
I think 'have an Art Show' was on a list I made of 50 things to do before I die. I lost the list a long time ago which allows me to totally wing it. Where do I go artistically from here? I am thinking of a smaller series that will be suitable for Artomatic. Stay tuned!!!!

Art Opening July 10

Blog followers should mark their calendars for the Art Show opening reception! Details are below:
Lona Powell and John Massey Art Opening
Opening reception and art show
Host: MNCPPC
Type: Music/Arts - Opening
Date: Friday, July 10, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Huntington Community Center, second floor art gallery
Street: 13022 8th St
City/Town: Bowie, MD

Phone: 3014643725

Please join us for a fun filled evening with live music (performances by Jon Powell and Bill Winter), poetry, visual arts (paintings by Lona, sculpture by John) and refreshments. Art on display through August 25.

Art Appreciation

I love this picture that Piri snapped when we were hanging the show of Linnea admiring her portrait.

Art Show is UP!

Yesterday I hung the show with the help of Piri and Linnea. A couple of the walls are shown, but there is more! Plus John Massey will be bringing in his work in a couple of weeks. Because the gallery was empty I went in a month early. The opening reception will still be on July 10 from 7 to 9. I will post the directions and address soon. The show stays up until August 26 th!

Princess Sofi

This is from a photo I snapped at Erin's wedding. I can't believe it took almost a year for me to turn it into a painting. Now that I think about it, a lot has happened in that year!

The Group Painting

This group painting project turned out to be a lot of fun. The finished work is shown above, in progress is below.

Julia, again

I did another small portrait of JuJu today, trying to remember what I was taught in the 80s by Danni Dawson. The inspiration is a portrait by Thayer that I see often since it lives at the Freer Gallery which is across the street from my work.

Group Art Project

Lately I've been preparing a large canvas for a group art project to be completed at the Spring Farm Festival at Hard Bargain Farm on May 2. Blog readers should come by and help see this to fruition! The inspiration is a large 'Oceans' mural that was briefly set up on the Mall outside the Smithsonian, with one section being completed at the time.

Pops Teaches Julia how to Draw a Goat

I like that this captures a starting point to becomming an artist - learning from a master.

Annie

Luckily, I have no shortage of beautiful nieces to practice on as I work through the Klimt thing. For this one, the fun was in taking progressive photos along the way so I could make a movie of the process, but then the computer crashed and I can't start up my movie software anymore. Maybe this will happen later.

Tara final

So I did end up putting more color in the background.
Below is the inspiration picture from my Klimt calendar.

Tara

After painting Andelle in a Klimt style, it seemed like fun to give Tara a similar Klimt-like treatment. I'm not sure if this is done or not; I'm debating whether to put some more work into the background.

Andelle

Now that I joined facebook I have new source material. The portrait of Andelle is from her facebook photo. My treatment of it is inspired by this Klimt portrait in my 'Klimt's Portraits of Women' Calendar.

Shooting Gallery

What I liked about this kid is his red hair and that he was shooting at clowns.

Kids

This is the second picture I've painted of the kids at Simon's wedding.

Young Violinist

I actually painted this once before but this time the background is a simple burnt umber/ultramarine mix. Last time there was a room interior and I think I even threw in a teddy bear.
The model is Ysa several years ago.

Check this out

My friend has started a painting blog at http://grnaylorpaintings.blogspot.com/ . His work is really lovely.

Soren with Duckling

Soren with Duckling used a pre-dreadlocks reference photo. Everytime I paint Soren, I am sort of striving for something like the Henri Fantin-Latour self-portrait below. That is where the gold background came from anyway. Because my only gold paint was acrylic, the background was done in acrylic with the forground in my usual medium: water soluble oils.