A Little Bit of This... A Little Bit of That

How nice to have a bit of quiet to begin planning some painting projects! I have begun to do that even as I finish up some commissioned work and hang a show of student work at LibertyTown.

We opened the show of work by students of LT teachers on Friday to a wonderfully enthusiastic crowd. The weather was mild and recent First Night festivities didn't keep all of our regular visitors away. Here is the work of a few of my students from 2008 on the right hand side of the arched entrance to my studio. (The painters of the cardinal and the peppers are not my students.)



On Saturday, I resumed my regular teaching schedule after a break for the holidays, and when that was done, began work on a portrait that had been commissioned in early December. It was fun to paint such a cutie! With a little tweaking, I think I am done with it and will show it to the commission-er this week. It is painted on a 5 x 5 canvas in oil. I had a hard time getting a picture that did not wash out the skin tones too much. The portrait has more color in the face than this picture shows.


I got another request for a fall picture, and so worked in oil on a small canvas, also 5 x 5, of a fall scene in the Fredericksburg area. My mother took the photo when she was visiting us one October. My underpainting is a dark green, and this is the first layer of paint with the background colors of the leaves blocked in. When this layer dries, I will add in the actual leaves in golds, reds, oranges and greens and add a white birch tree on the right just in front of the dark trunk you see here. I will also add touches here and there of the sky which can be seen behind the tree in the photo.