Painting Customized

This painting originally had a plain background - but my friend got me to personalize it to give to her son's violin teacher. Thus, a black and white cat, a StarTrek reference and the stained glass window were added. And now the background is light instead of dark.

Cousins

This is a painting of some of the Carlson family cousins. Hat tip to Innes for taking the reference photo at Thanksgiving. As soon as I saw it I thought it would make a good painting - I think because it reminded me of John Singer Sargent's painting Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1883) (which in turn is thought to be inspired by Velazques' Las Meninas (1656)). It seems like every time I do a multi portrait, I have a lot of trouble with one of the figures. In this case, the Haven figure was very difficult for me.

Skateboard Park

I went to an art demo by Rogers Naylor yesterday and I thought I would complete a painting using his technique before I forgot what it was all about. I cheated a little here and there but managed to finish this one of a skateboarder at the Greenbelt Skate Park. Rogers has an ongoing art show right now at Susan Calloway gallery in Georgetown. People should check it out!

The Parade

This painting commemorates the only time I ever saw a parade go down the main street in Accokeek. At the time it was pretty exciting! I think the inspiration for a painting featuring flags comes from this Childe Hassam painting:

Naturally, the Accokeek version is a little scaled down.

Snowman

I'm sure I would have done some great paintings during the mega snow storms if I had had some canvases of the right size. Instead I worked on a snowman.

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.