Cat 62 (new version of Cat 45)

 Cat 62, Toby Chester (version 2 of Cat #45)
Acrylic on canvas. 14" x 11".

This is a second attempt at Cat # 45.  The original (at left) was done in response to a story that was written about this cat by a friend. In both versions I chose to depart from the reference photo (a kitchen floor) and invented a background- something I find challenging, if not outright difficult.
 I was not entirely satisfied with how I handled the foreshortened cat in the first version, but I did like the background textures and colors.

The general composition was problematic, placing the subject dead center within the frame, and the mirror image balance of background elements- a little too predictable. Another bothersome element was having the chin nearly touching the edge of the canvas, which created too much visual tension.
I decided to tackle it again, with the goal of paying attention to getting the proportions correct, adjusting the placement of the cat in relation to the frame edges and incorporating some forest type foliage which related more to the story written about him.
   I am much happier with the proportions on the new version, and the less repetitious background. It may have been a better solution had I offcentered the cat more to one side, but I think this also works with the head angled to the right, and the tail angled to the left. The idea was to lead the eye from center of interest (the face), through the highlights in the foliage up to the focal point (the high contrast of the tail) and back around to the face again.
Did it work?

Cat 61 (Reworked Cat 50)

       Cat 61 (rework of Cat 50)

       Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 20".

   I recently went through my accumulation of  paintings. Some I really like, but a few struck me as truly horrifying.
   In particular, this painting (Cat 50, at left) from September of 2013, which had been done in a rush to come up with enough pieces for a show.
The form of the cat was badly executed- I did not pay much attention to the proportions and contorted it to fit the canvas. The tail would've worked great on a Lemur. The background was indecisive, although I liked the stripes.

Instead of trashing it, I decided to rework this painting in hopes that would get me past the creative block I've had for nearly a year. My primary goal was to correct the form of the cat. I also wanted to tone down the hyper-saturated colors, soften some edges, and let brushstrokes show instead of the continuous smooth blending. I took my time, made preliminary drawings until I was satisfied with the form and placement before picking up a brush, and I'm pretty happy with how it came out.
   A ways into the painting, I abandoned my usual colors and limited myself to red, blue, and yellow, and white. I used a little raw umber to deepen a few dark areas. This really forced me to mix colors in a way that I don't normally use, and I like the results.

After the initial attempt at painting on top of the original to make corrections, I concluded it was not salvageable. The paint layers were thick, there was no canvas texture left, and the new paint was not seating onto the surface- it was pulling off with every other stroke.
So I tried scrubbing off the layers of paint, mostly to see if I could do it. Running hot tap water over the surface and scrubbing with an old, worn stiff paint brush worked to remove the layers- although I think the heat did most of the work.
   Watching the annoying image slowly disappear was cathartic- until I scrubbed a little too hard in one spot and also removed the gesso and sizing layer, exposing the warp and weft of the canvas- I could literally see through the canvas. Which meant removing the remaining layer from the rest of the surface to keep it even. After scrubbing it down and letting it dry out, I applied gesso to the raw canvas to create a new base. The downside is that the frame warped a little while it dried out. If I ever try this again, the wet frame and canvas should be weighted down on a flat surface while drying, to keep the frame straight. Probably not worth the trouble, though.

Two Pullets

Two Red Pullets
Acrylic on canvas. 12" x 16".

The exasperating painter's block continues... another extended period of not painting, followed by a longer period of fiddling with paintings, but not completing anything. I had started this over a year ago then set it aside. The young, awkward pullets have since matured into sleek, plump hens.

The Rhode Island Reds next door are always getting into some sort of mischief. As young pullets they were looking like cartoon characters- dinosaur legs, skinny necks, craning their necks around. These ladies were on top of a dog house, trying to look through a window of the house next to it.

The background went through numerous changes, starting with detailed vertical siding and window frames, then that was replaced by a forest of alder trees, then a stormy sky... all of which proved to be too busy or distracting.  I ended up with so much paint loaded on the surface that there was no canvas texture left. I opted to cover everything up with a lighter colored layer of brush strokes, as I have been wanting to include more visual texture going forward. At first it was a little disturbing to cover up all the painstaking details I had labored over, but I really like this much better now.
Sometimes less is more.

Tessie and Kloey

Tessie and Kloey
Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 20".
(sold)

It's been a while since I've produced a painting... life got in the way again this past year, and then I had "painter's block" on top of that.
I recently agreed to do a painting of two small poodles, working from a photo taken with a cell phone several years back. (Here I will whine a little: cell phone shot = less than stellar focus and color balance). Tessie is the chocolate poodle with a more reserved personality; Kloey is the more outgoing apricot poodle.

  I began as usual by trying to recreate the photo and pretty quickly abandoned that idea as many of the elements were not reading well as a composition. It's odd how elements can look reasonable in a photo, but look very strange in a painting.
Working with the strong tile grout lines dominating the image was more challenging than I expected as they continuously lead the eye away from the subject and off the edge of the picture. Trying to set them in correctly using a ruler to measure the perspective angles resulted in an odd perspective- it worked much better to just use my eye to determine the placement of the lines.
 At one point I had included the kitchen cabinets lining the background, but they added nothing to the picture other than visual clutter. The vertical cabinets also pulled my eye off the top of the picture and away from the subject. After changing the angles and heights numerous times, I gave up and got rid of  the cabinets, leaving an expanse of tile floor which became disturbing (look at the image with the solid blue rug covered up- yikes!) Including and re-positioning the blue rug stopped the grout lines from shooting off into infinity.
  The tile floor was virtually the same color as the lighter dog.  Adding an overlay wash mix of white, raw sienna and cadmium red, and a touch of ultramarine blue over the light tiles to darken them and push them back helped define the lighter dog.

I'm pleased with the textural contrast of the hard floor behind soft throw rugs and soft dogs. I also like the warm/cool tones repeating throughout the painting. Incorporating the blue colors of the rugs into the dogs helped pull the image together although I am still not satisfied with how I handled the dogs fur textures, and need to find a better solution. The dogs look a little stiff to me, and I did not work out how to make them look more fluid. In retrospect, I should have adjusted more areas of their contours to blend in more with the background values of light and dark to avoid the "cut out" effect.

Red Hen

Red Hen
Acrylic on canvas. 14" x 11".

This is a composite done from shots I took of the Rhode Island Reds next door. I like their boxy bodies, rich colors and dinosaur legs and toes.
Here I tried leaving most of the image in soft focus, except for the head. I like the effect, but feel the legs and toes might have been more interesting with a sharper focus/more detail. I may go back in and try that.

Rooster Jake

Rooster Jake
Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 12".
(sold)

Jake belonged to my neighbor until he tangled with a predator one night and met a sad end defending his hens. Nothing left but a trail of feathers.

One goal I had with this painting was to pay more attention to using texture and directional brush strokes. I rearranged some elements I didn't care for from the original photo, like the position of the fence. Still ended up with an awkward group of elements.
I immediately got into trouble with the the background so bright that it competed with the intense colors of the rooster. Graying down the colors in the grass, gravel and fence lines helped make the rooster appear brighter than the surrounding ground.
And once again commenced a long battle trying to articulate grass. Here I experimented with various brushes, and found the older, stiff beat up brushes were good tools to use.

Looking at this now, I think it could benefit from toning down the background even more. I may fiddle with it again later.

Talia & Barnie #3

Portrait of Talia and Barnie.
Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 12".
(sold)

Much earlier this year I was asked to do one more painting of the girl and the dog.
Shortly after starting this  I managed to tear muscles in my lower back, which was coupled with a severe pinched nerve in my hip. The end result was, I was sidelined from doing much of anything that involved sitting or standing longer than a couple minutes at a time.

Months later, I picked up where I had left off.
From the photo's provided to work from, I chose a an interior shot in a car with the brightly lit background and darker foreground, with reflected light bouncing off the interior surfaces. I liked this shot because the dog was in it, and thought the complex lighting might offer an interesting challenge.

I had to reinvent a lot of the forms around the perimeter that weren't included in the actual shot, and rearrange elements that were just plain unfortunate composition. The dog was in such deep shadow, there was virtually no detail to work with, and took some guesswork.

No matter what I tried, the painting continued to look disjointed. It finally dawned on me that I had ended up with areas of isolated colors, instead of integrating the different colors throughout the surface. Bringing the green of the vegetation outside the window into the foreground instantly helped to pull it together.
I'm a little disappointed with the muddy flesh tones in the face, but was not able to find a good solution. At one point I tried having the face in heavier shadows, and that ended up looking strange.

I came away from this thinking I need to push myself more to mix colors- I still have a tendency to want to use it straight from the tube.
The colors shown in the photo were not particularly engaging and in retrospect, a better approach might have been to keep the background elements more in a grayscale range, with the subject in more saturated color.