Category — Inspiration
On the easel: Unfolding White Flower

This is the first painting I’ve done in 2010 that is larger than 5×7. This one is 12×16 oil on canvas. I am mostly done, but I do have one more session planned for the kind of tweaking that can’t be achieved wet on wet. [Read more →]
June 21, 2010 4 Comments
New Oil Painting: Peeking Pink Petals
I think I am done with this little 5in by 7in painting. I never know for sure…sometimes I decide to tweak things down the road, but I am pretty happy with the result of this one. It was great green mixing practice because other than the pink petals peeking out it is a very limited palette.

$150 | Original | 7" x 5" | Oil on Linen Panel
One of the fun things about this painting is that I actually took photographs of this piece and different stages to share.
April 28, 2010 No Comments
Belated final two weeks of figure drawing
The final two weeks were quite some time ago, so I thought I would finally post the last items so I have a complete set. Here is a photo from the very last class.
April 19, 2010 No Comments
Late March in the Duke Gardens
The following are some photos from my trip yesterday to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Lots of flowers plus some of the dog and some of Robert. I love Spring in North Carolina. Actually, I love Spring everywhere…

March 28, 2010 No Comments
Figure drawing session three and four, plus some daffodils
I am now half way through the winter figure drawing session at the Durham Arts Center so I thought I would post some of the sketches from the last two sessions. Still very much enjoying myself. I acquired some new pencils with some birthday gift money I received and I had fun working with those. I am also finding that I enjoy working with two types of charcoal: willow and compressed. It’s an easy way to get different values as you might notice in the session four sketches.
Before I move on to the sketches, here are some daffodils from my back yard the other day. They seem to come up around my birthday every year, which is a nice treat. However they always seem to get a cold shock and whither quickly. I like the focus in this photo on just one flower thanks to my amazing 50mm prime lens I got for xmas.
February 26, 2010 No Comments
February Eno River Park Photos, Buckquarter Creek Trail
I brought my camera on the Buckquarter Creek Trail last week. My intention was to find the two trees my mom and I saw in October that she wanted a photo of. I could not find them. All I have to say is: you try going into the woods and finding the same trees twice!
February 24, 2010 No Comments
Pistachios and a new class at the Durham Art Center
The other week I felt inspired to paint some pistachios. Not sure if I’m done with the painting yet, but it’s been a while, so I thought I would post my progress. If I work on them some more, I will probably post the revision. But I didn’t really intend this 5×7 to be a drawn out process. Pistachios have an amazing range of color and at the time, the sun was hitting them in an interesting way. [Read more →]
February 12, 2010 2 Comments
NOLA and Audubon Park and Zoo Photos
Took a visit to New Orleans last week. Spent most of my time in the French Quarter, but also visited the Audubon Park and Audubon Zoo.
My only regret on this trip is that I noticed that there was an “endangered amphibians” exhibit at the zoo right before it closed which I wish I had seen. I love painting frogs. Ah well…there is plenty of other great reference photos for painting from this trip…including a couple neat frogs who lived in the reptile exhibit.
In the Quarter

Street Musicians
[Read more →]
October 27, 2009 No Comments


