Pattern Broken

Pattern Broken
9" x 12"
Oil on panel
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Latest painting completed for the group show "I See a Pattern" at The Vendue, Charleston, SC, curated by Robert Lange Studios. A big thanks to RLS for the selection.

You can view photos from the show here.

In Progress 12"x16" Untitled River Painting

Working through the first color pass. Still in the very early stages at this point. Just trying to get the drawing established in color. Will continue to refine with the following layers. I'll post more progress shots soon.

"One After Another"

8"x8" Oil on panel

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Work in progress

As usual it's been a while since my last post. So I thought it's time to post some progress shots of my current commission piece. I have completed more than what is shown here but haven't photographed it yet.

Close Out

8"x8" Oil on panel

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This painting is heading to Elliott Fouts Gallery. To inquire about this piece contact:

Elliott Fouts Gallery
1831 P. Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
Phone: (916) 736-1429
elliottfoutsgallery@gmail.com

Health Update

I'm back! As you may or may not know I recently had brain surgery to remove a glomus jugulare tumor from the base of my skull. The surgery was a success and I am know feeling pretty close to normal. I say pretty close to normal, because I did sustain some nerve damage as a result of the surgery. My right vocal chord, swallowing nerves and right shoulder are currently paralyzed. I realize that sounds bad, but I can talk, eat and move my arm. Just not as good as I normally would. The good news is that the voice can be improved with surgery. My swallowing is slowly improving and I am starting physical therapy to help with the shoulder soon.

My big fear was whether or not the surgery would have any impact on my ability to paint and draw. I gave it a test run the other day and it felt great. My shoulder has no affect on my painting other than it does get tired, but if I use a mahl stick to prop up my hand it's fine. Now I'm looking forward to getting on a regular painting schedule and covering all of the empty panels in my studio.

Another Wave on the Easel

Here's a quick progression of the latest piece I'm working on. It's coming along nicely so far. I'll post up the final once it's done.

Completed (Wave#3)

Sea Foam
6x6 Oil on canvas panel
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I finished this piece up a few days ago and already have another one on the easel that I'll try to post an inprogress shot of soon.

This piece will be heading to Elliott Fouts Gallery for the 40 and Under group show in August. To inquire about this piece contact:

Elliott Fouts Gallery
1831 P. Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
Phone: (916) 736-1429
elliottfoutsgallery@gmail.com

Work in Progress (Wave #3)

Here is a quick progress shot of how the wave is progressing. I'm getting close on this one. I also started preparing a new panel tonight for the next wave painting that will be going to the Elliott Fouts show in August.

Work in Progress (Wave #3)

I wanted to post up the latest progress on another wave painting that is in the works. This will be paired with the previous one for the 40 and Under show at Elliott Fouts. I hope to finish this soon and get started on another.

Busy Times

Shore Break
6x6 Oil on canvas panel
SOLD

As usual I've gone months without an update. Work has been really busy the past several months. I set personal records for hours worked several times. But it was for a great project which made things easier to deal with. Our team developed a Verizon sponsorship microsite for the movie Prometheus. The main purpose of the site is to feature Verizon's home monitor and control product, but we used the theme of Prometheus to present and demonstrate it in a creative way. It was a ton of work in a short amount of time but we are really happy with the result. You can view the live site here: Prometheus Mission Connect.

So after the dust of the Prometheus project settled I found time to finish up the small wave painting. Which I am happy to announce will be apart of a the 40 and Under group show at Elliott Fouts gallery in August. This is one of 4 paintings that I will be sending out to Sacramento. I really excited about the show and thankful for the opportunity. I've started my second one already which will be another wave. The final 2 paintings will be still lifes. I have a few ideas that I think will work well and be doable in the time frame I have left.


To inquire about this piece contact:

Elliott Fouts Gallery
1831 P. Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
Phone: (916) 736-1429
elliottfoutsgallery@gmail.com

Work in Progress

I'm starting to make some good progress on this latest wave painting. I've got my first color pass done and now I'm starting to indicate a little detail. For this layer I'm starting at the top left of the wave and moving across to the right. I'll leave the whitewater for later. I tend to procrastinate the difficult areas of a painting. I'll continue to post more pics as I make progress.

Drawing Completed

I finished the initial drawing tonight and just noticed that in my eagerness to get something going I started my drawing before I toned the canvas. Oops. Oh well it shouldn't be a problem. I'll seal the drawing and lightly tone it before starting the under painting.

Early Stages

Getting started on a new painting. It's been to long since I've done any work. With my recent move and health scare I've just had a lot of distractions keeping me from working. So I'm really anxious to get the brushes out and start laying down some color. I'm still working on the drawing at this point. I'll keep posting pictures as progress develops.

A lot going on in my head

It's been almost 3 months since my last post. Things have been pretty crazy around here. Good news is we put our house on the market and sold it. We have also found a great house that we are moving into on November 15th. I will now have a true studio to work in. My current studio is small and has no heat or air. So it makes working in the middle of summer and winter tough. The new studio is in the main house and is considerably larger. So I'm really excited to get in there and start working.

Unfortunately I haven't been feeling well for the past 3 months. While working on my last painting I started to develop dizziness. I went to the doctor and he performed a number of blood test which all came back fine. After a few more weeks of feeling light headed he did more test which also came back normal. About this time I started to hear a whooshing sound in my right ear. So I was referred to an ear, nose and throat doctor to check out the cause of the tinnitus in my ear. After several test he determined that there was something pushing on the nerve that leads from the ear to the brain. He ordered a MRI of my brain which showed a 1 inch glomus tumor that is putting pressure on my jugular vein and is restricting the blood flow. That is what has caused the dizziness and the whooshing sound in my ear. Thankfully it is not cancerous. The doctor said that it is slow growing and has probably been there for about five years. The next step is to have it removed within the next few months. The surgery will be pretty extensive (6-8 hrs) and require 3 different surgeons working as a team to remove. If all goes well I should be back to myself within 6 weeks.

With all of this going on I just haven't had much motivation to paint. But that is starting to change and I'm getting the bug again to start something. I have several paintings in my mind that I want to start so to keep me occupied I might begin drawing out the next piece. I'll post up progress once I get it started.

Uncorked

Uncorked
9"x12" Oil on panel

I finally finished this commission piece a few days ago and it only took me five months to complete. Jeez I'm slow! This was a fun piece to work on though. It was quite challenging at times, but I learned a lot on this one and I have conquered my fear of painting letters.

Now that it is done I'm looking forward to starting something new, but it will have to wait a few weekends as my wife and I are putting our house on the market. So I'll be busy preparing for that. Hopefully sometime soon I'll be painting in a new studio.

A Week in Seabrook Island

My family and I just got back from a much needed week at the beach in Seabrook Island, SC. This was our first time to stay on the island and it was a blast. This was also our daughter's first trip to the beach so it was a lot of fun watching her experience everything for the first time. We had a lot of time to relax and play with the kids.

In my downtime I put the new camera through it's paces capturing tons of reference material for potential paintings. The shot above was taken just after sunrise on the morning we left. It was hard to leave after such a great week.

I also got a chance to break away one afternoon for a few hours and visited the M Gallery of Fine Art and the Robert Lange Studios in Charleston. I was able to see some amazing work on display by Sadie Valeri, David Gluck, Robert Liberace, Amy Lind, Ali Cavanaugh, Robert Lange, and tons more. Truly inspiring.

New Camera

I just got a new camera (Nikon D90) that has HD video capabilities. So I decided to record a little bit of video and test it out. I threw this together in iMovie pretty quickly. This was my first time using the program so it's pretty rough.

In Progress Still Life

I just finished painting the first layer of the corkscrew this morning. Above is a detail shot of where I finished up. There are a few spots that have sunk in since I haven't oiled this out yet, but I wanted to go ahead and post up a shot of the progress. I will move on to painting the cork tomorrow.

In Progress Still Life

Untitled
9"x12" Oil on panel

It seems more often than not I start my posts off with "It's been awhile" or "Progress has been slow". I'm sorry to say that is the case once again. Work has been in full swing recently, requiring me to often work nights, weekends and even a holiday recently.

In hopes of gaining more studio time I recently started waking up early to paint before I leave for work. So far this has worked out well. I get about two hours in and on a good day I can also paint in the evening for a few hours. I hope this will help boost my production time a bit.

Now on to the painting. I'm currently working on the screw pull. The first pass should be done after another morning session or two. Since my last post I've painted in the first layer of the table. Right now it's flat and monochromatic. But once I have added in the details (reflections, scratches, wood grain, etc...) it should have a good bit of character. I've also left the bottom of the glass unfinished so I could have painted table around it to paint into. I'll move back into that section once the screw pull is done.