Pam's Beach

Pam's Beach

9" x 18"

oil on panel board

This one has some hints of another painting that I got some ideas from. It's in no way a copy and I doubt anyone would recognize it. I gave this painting to my sister. But it still shows taking photos of paintings is a difficult process. But I enjoyed painting this one because it was calming and the colors in the sand came together easily. Some might say, "it's just sand", however, most artists know that the complexity of making visible textures like sand is often more difficult because you can't just spread down one color and call it sand. There is a blending of light sienna's, dark sienna's, and blues that are not as easy as one might think. If you smear all those colors together, you get grey. Keeping them seperate is key.

How I work

I paint solely on wood panel now because I don’t like the way canvas presses in. I painted on canvas for over twenty years until discovering panel and other boards. I usually apply 5 to 15 layers of various thicknesses of glaze mixed from oil paints and alkyd from the famous art supply manufacturer Gamblin. It makes for more transparency and helps the oil paint dry faster. I keep applying layers with either a palate knife or flat brush until the right colors are obtained with a balance of mixing and separation of colors. That means I try to use pure colors without mixing, but then blend when necessary to achieve colors that can’t be purchased.

First Post

"California Beach 1" Oil on Panel Board

24" x 9"

This is the first painting that I have posted. I can see there is a lot to learn about taking photographs of your paintings. Lighting is extremely difficult to get right, but that will come with practice.

Will post more paintings later, just created this blog on 03-03-09.

Below gives an idea what it really looks like in a room.