Tuesday, February 12, 2008


This painting has been a long time in the making. Our home is always had at least one goldfish bowl, and I've been captivated by the beauty of fantails as they circle through their fantastical world of reflections.

I moved my two black moors from the kitchen into the studio a couple weeks back. I spent a few days playing with different background fabrics, various sized shells, and other oddments. I bounced light off different walls, the ceiling, colored boards. Finally I found a setup that captured my fascination with the goldfish, yet retained a fresh and whimsical quality matching my vintage toy still life paintings.

The image at the top of this blog is the work in process right now. Working title "Fish out of Water," the painting is 26" x 18" on gallery stretched canvas.

I am concentrating on capturing a limited number of values at this point, establishing the weight of the forms and placing them firmly within their space on the canvas.

I also want the light to feel tangible, and that has been a tricky, as this setup is a high contrast one by nature, and therefore the light itself becomes more transient, and those value shifts aren't really value shifts at all, but color temperature changes.

I'll continue working on this painting in preparation for a March exhibition. I'm also finessing a handful of smaller paintings that will be going to the art show held in conjunction with the Grand National Rodeo Championships near San Francisco California in April. And I continue to paint the dog-a-days, which are now booked into March 2009.

I already have my next still life setup - a couple of hand carved wooden vintage horses that were once children's toys, but have seen better days. They definately have that "Velveteen Rabbit" feel to them. I'm excited to start that piece, once I get these fish out of my system!!