Vacation out East - circa 1959

After taking a little time away while having guests over Christmas and then a quick trip to South Dakota to visit the in-laws, I’m back on my painting-from-old-slides kick. This is my great aunt Fran with her kids Mary Fran and Jimmy. They went on a trip out east with my great aunt Marge around 1959, here they are waiting at a bus or train station.

Vacation out East - acrylic on 12x12 in. gessobord 

Original photo:

Fran, Mary Fran and Jimmy- from slide collection of Marge Koppi

Rooney

Here’s another Christmas commission I can post now- this is Rooney!

Rooney - acrylic on 12x12 in. gessobord 

Knick-knacks

I'm still on a roll with these paintings from old family slides. Here is another one of my great grandma Theresa Koppi, circa late 1950's.  I'm having so much fun painting these!

Knick-knacks - acrylic on 12x12 inch gessobord

Marge Koppi

I'm having so much fun painting these old slides. This one is my Great Aunt Marge Koppi, from whom all the slides came. She was wonderful at documenting life via photos and super 8 movies, and she kept them all so organized and clearly labeled for posterity. She never married or had children of her own, but she loved all her nieces and nephews and her great-nieces and nephews so much and was very involved and interested in their lives. She was funny and always had a twinkle in her eye. She used to often call me a "little Dickens". When my cousins and I moved away from home and went off to college, she used to make us her signature popcorn cakes (like a popcorn ball, but in cake form, with lots of gum drops), and mail them to us. I wish she were still with us, because I think she'd get a kick out of her old slides turning into paintings.  Incidentally, I named my cat Koppi (pronounced "KO-pee") after her.

I don't think my painting particularly looks like her (see reference photo below), but at this point I'm just excited it looks like a human. :)  Hopefully getting resemblance will come with more practice.

Marge Koppi - acrylic on 12x12 in. gessobord

Original photo. Isn't she lovely?

Great Grandma Koppi

Venturing out with another person painting here. This is my great grandma Koppi, in the '50s. Our lives didn't intersect at all - she died years before I was born. My grandma told me this photo was taken in her sister's basement. (And my grandma still has that rocking chair!) I think it was for a family Easter gathering, based on the other slides nearby in the same box. I have a ton of old family slides from my great aunt Marge, so I'm looking forward to scanning and painting more of them in the future.

I was hesitant (aka scared) to paint the print on her dress and was tempted to leave it plain, but I'm glad I went for it because I think it adds a lot to the painting.

In retrospect I think the wall and the floor are a little too "warm", compared to the cooler/grayer tones of the original photo. Something to keep in mind for the next one.

Great Grandma Koppi - acrylic on 12x12 inch gessobord panel

Reference photo - Theresa Koppi, from the photo collection of Marge Koppi

Mid-Century Christmas

And now for something completely different... I really adore the mid-century style and thought it’d be fun to try painting a mid-century painting. I haven’t painted a person before, it was fun to try! I have a bunch of my great aunt Marge’s old slides from the ‘50s and ‘60s, so up next I hope to try painting some of my ancestors in their natural mid-century surroundings.

White Gloves - acrylic on 12x12 in. canvas

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Pia 2019

This is my little niece, Pia (aka "Peepers"). She was one of the first pet portraits I ever painted back when I started painting, you can see my earlier attempt here.

Pia - acrylic on 8x8 inch cradled gessobord

Wired by the Sea

Happy Thanksgiving! I enjoyed having the morning free to paint and switched gears from all the pet portraits lately to try this landscape.

Wired by the Sea - acrylic on 5x7 inch gessobord panel

                                                                Click here to purchase

Happy hippo

I tried this one a couple times a while back and ended up giving up in frustration, but this time I was able to finish it! Progress! This painting is for sale, visit my online gallery to purchase.

Happy hippo - acrylic on 6x6 inch gessobord panel

Lucy

Here is the fourth and final member of the sibling gang I’ve been working on. It’s felt really good to be painting so much lately, and I’m grateful to have even more commissions in the pipeline.

Lucy - acrylic on 6x6 in. gessobord 

Piglet

Here is the third of four lovely siblings I've been working on. This is Piglet (aka Piggers, Piggy...), who was the brother to Wiley and Lulu until he crossed the rainbow bridge in June.

Piglet - acrylic on 6x6 inch gessobord

Lulu

This little sweetie was so fun to paint, what a cutie! I painted her brother Wiley previously, and stay tuned for her siblings Piglet and Lucy, coming soon.

Lulu - acrylic on 6x6 inch gessobord

Old school

This was my biggest challenge to date as far as reference pictures go - I painted a recent pet for someone and then they wanted one of their dog from about 20 years ago. I just had a photo of an old photograph to work from, but I'm happy to say I made it work.

Old School - acrylic on 10x10 inch Gessobord 

Recent kitty commissions

I'm behind on posting, but I've been working on some cute kitty commissions lately. The ladies who commissioned them were both so lovely to work with, it's part of the process that I really enjoy- interacting with clients and getting their portraits just right. With no further ado, here are Floyd, Elmer, and Jack!

Floyd - acrylic on 6x6 in. cradled panel

Elmer - acrylic on 6x6 in. cradled panel

Jack - acrylic on 8x8 in. cradled panel

Bear (cat)

This is my friends Nick and Jessamyn’s cat, Bear. I saw the photo and just had to paint it- the cat has such attitude! I left a little more of the pink showing through here than I usually do, mostly because I was trying to keep it a quick warm-up painting. I like the effect though.

Bear- Acrylic on 6x6 hardboard panel

Flamingos!

Here’s a few warm-up pieces I did this weekend. They’re done on 5x7 card stock and I plan to donate them to Art4shelter for their 2020 sale. The reference photos are from Paint My Photo.com.

I’ve been trying to scheme a way to expand my home studio space. Right now my easel is in a small corner of our “office”, but we really don’t ever use the big desk in the office. Maybe move the desk to the basement? There’s not really space for it down there but there could be if I cleaned off a table full of painting stuff and took it down. Hmmmm.....I’ll be sure to post pictures if my studio takeover works out!

Flamingo 2- Acrylic on 5x7 in. paper

Flamingo 3- Acrylic on 5x7 in. paper

Snowy Sunset

I painted this one a while back but forgot to post it. I was really drawn to the yellowy sky of the reference photo. I tried to keep this one fast and loose.

Snowy Sunset - Acrylic on 5x7 paper

Callie 12

I was feeling rusty after not painting for a while, so that called for another Callie painting. I'm feeling better already! It was fun to do her crazy mane in this one.

Callie 12 - Acrylic on 6x6 in. gessobord

Dos Habaneros

I'm a little behind on posting (a little behind on everything, to be honest...) - I painted these from life after returning from a lovely vacation in Oregon. The cute little peppers called out to me at the supermarket - they are so tiny and light they only cost 24 cents! What a deal.

Dos Habaneros - 6x6 in. acrylic on paper

Cutest planter ever

I saw a photo of this planter on Instagram and just had to paint it. It didn't turn out quite as planned - the planter in the photo is white!! Clearly I need some work on assessing darker shades of white! I started with the darkest areas of the planter and then worked my way subtly lighter - next time I'll try starting with the lightest areas and working my way subtly darker instead.  I think the back half of the body is kind of ok-ish, but the front half and the head are way too dark.  I have the same problem when trying to paint my white cat - I make the darker areas waaaay too dark.

I'll probably try painting this exact reference photo again in the near future because I think this is the cutest planter ever!

Cutest planter ever - Acrylic on 6x6 in. hardboard panel

Many thanks to Belinda at @plantloversonly for the use of her photo.

Athena

This was a recent commission, in the reference photo the kitty was sitting very near a window and I tried going a little more blue-grey than just plain grey or white for the light reflecting on her dark fur, something I've seen other pet portraitists do.

Athena - Acrylic on 8x8 in. gessobord

Practice paying off and DPW spotlight artist

I attempted this dog once or twice a year or two ago and wasn't able to successfully mix the right coloring for its fur. The look in its eyes made me want to keep trying. So I pulled it out again recently and finally had success!

Also in some exciting Daily Paintworks News, I am their spotlight artist this week - click here to see the interview. And I was a Judge's Pick in the May DPW painting contest, judged by none other than Carol Marine! Woo-hoo!

Pleeease?? Acrylic on 8x8 in. hardboard panel

Painting from life (peonies!)

Our beautiful blooming peonies inspired me to go out of my comfort zone and paint from a still life set-up. I almost always paint from reference photos. Truth be told, I did snap a picture of my still life set up to help with sketching it out, but then I painted from life. It's amazing how much more color and definition there is in life than there was in the photo I took! (though granted I was just using my phone camera).  I need to work on the subtly of my shadows, they are too dramatic.

Peonies Day 1 - Acrylic on 6x8 in. gessobord

Through the viewfinder

Peonies Day 2 - Acrylic on 6x6 in. hardboard panel

Annie

This is another kitty I couldn’t resist painting. I usually do plain solid backgrounds, so it was fun to try some furniture and throw pillows. I may touch up the chest fur a bit, I’m not sure it’s quite right.

Annie - Acrylic on 6x8 in. gessobord 

Zoey

This was a tricky commission. The photo the owner wanted to use had lighting that made the dog look like a chocolate lab, but the other provided photos showed - and the owner confirmed - the dog was actually charcoal gray. I guess the old "value is more important than color" held true, by trying to keep the values consistent but change out the color I was using I think I was able to pull it off! And as a side note, I really should learn Photoshop or some photo editing magic tricks to modify the reference photo up front rather than having to do the conversion in my head. :)

Zoey - Acrylic on 8x8 inch gessobord

Irresistible Focus

I saw this kitty and just HAD to paint it, such great light and focus! I’ve had a few paintings I’ve felt very “meh” about lately so I was really happy to feel excited about how this one turned out. It was also really fun to paint on a black background again, it’s been a while old friend.

Focus 2 - Acrylic on 6x6 in. hardboard panel

Sunlight

I've been obsessed with Holly Lombardo's tree paintings for a while now,  I love her use of color and simplification of the nature scenes she paints.  I've been inspired to try some tree scenes of my own. This is from a reference photo on Paint My Photo.com.

Sunlight - Acrylic on 5x7 in. gessobord

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Cadmium Comet

This was a paint rescue mission! I mixed some paint for another painting that ended up going south, and I realized the colors were right for this boat I’ve been wanting to paint. Lots of cadmium colors in this one.

Cadmium Comet - 6x8 in. on gessobord

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Lance

This sweet boy is Lance, he crossed the rainbow bridge in December and the painting was commissioned as a Mother's Day gift.  I was glad I'd painted a few German Shepherds before, their variegated (is that the right word?) fur can be tricky and I felt more confident going in.

Lance - 8x10 in. on gessobord panel

Happy birthday Kari!

I painted this little guy (gal?)  for my friend Kari's birthday, she loves bats. Thanks to Piotr Naskrecki for the permission to use his beautiful reference photo.  I'm still diggin' painting on a pink background.

Kbat - Acrylic on 5x7 in. gessobord

Adventures in palette knife painting

I gave palette knife painting a try, I think I overdid it in a couple areas but it was really fun and I mostly like how it turned out. The tree was from a reference photo I found online but I could tell it was a grand old thing, and was sad to see parts of it were dying.

Portrait of a tree - Acrylic on 6x8 in. gessobord

 Here's the under painting, prior to attacking with the palette knife. I like the simplicity of it.

Under painting - Acrylic on 6x8 in. gessobord

Puppy eyes

Here's a little pup from the Paint my Photo.com site. After I posted the painting to the website, the photographer followed up with a comment to say that this little pup grew up to be a champion show dog! I felt kind of proud, as if by painting him I somehow know him now. :)

Puppy Eyes - Acrylic on 6x6 inch hard board panel

Duck Reflections

I've never seen a duck quite like this... it's a Mandarin male. The reflections were a bit of a challenge but I'm happy with how they turned out.

Duck Reflections - Acrylic on 6x6 in. gessobord

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Callie 11

I started this one at a First Friday Painting Party at Kat's studio, so much fun! I finally had time to finish it up. I wish there was a market for Callie paintings, they're starting to stack up. :) I can only hang so many on my wall without looking like a crazy cat lady. Maybe I could start a rumor that having a Callie hanging in your house brings good luck?

Callie 11 - Acrylic on 6x8 inch gessobord

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Best Pals

I've always loved Gumby and Pokey, it was fun to try painting them. I painted this from a photo off Pixabay, but I have the figurines (along with some of their colorful friends), so maybe I'll try painting them from life sometime.

Best Pals, Acrylic on 8x8 inch gessobord

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Still loosening up

Here's another one trying to keep it fast and loose, with the ol' studio acrylics.  Giving myself permission to err on the side of sloppy.

Shade - Acrylic on 5x7 archival paper

Loosening up

I've been feeling kind of stuck with my recent paintings and like I need to loosen up a bit, so to shake things up I pulled out some old studio acrylic paints, which are more opaque than I usually use and behave just differently enough that I can more easily go into a different mode and do some quick, loose studies. (If I would have been thinking, I'd have done this on carton paper to donate to Art4shelter, will have to dig some out for the future 5x7's!)

Fish study - Acrylic on 5x7 in. gessobord

Profile Pic

This little cutie has such a professional pose.  I accidentally made the dog look older than it is, I need to work on lighter shading without it looking like aging white fur. Luckily this is just a practice piece so I'll just pretend it was an older dog and be done with it and try a different approach next time. :)

Profile Pic - Acrylic on 6x6 in. gessobord

On the River

I believe this is a scene from Wyoming. I have a pile of landscapes I want to try painting, this was one of them. There was a big dead tree in the original reference photo, it was so satisfying taking it out of my painting! Artistic license, whoo-hoo!

On the River - Acrylic on 5x7 in. gessobord

Bird on a Wall

I really liked the green-looking water in this reference photo, and I'm happy with how it turned out in the painting. I think that's my favorite part.

Bird on a Wall - Acrylic on 6x8 inch gessobord

Friend

I struggled with this one, with all the variegated fur! I'm happy that I've still been finishing more paintings though, and not abandoning so many half-way through.

Friend - Acrylic on 6x8 inch gessobord