Turin, Italy (2014/12/31)

31 December 2014 - Turin, Italy
14" x 18", acrylic on hardboard

Milan, Italy (2014/12/19)

19 December 2014 - Milan, Italy
14" x 18", acrylic on hardboard

Especially since the home renovation is taking a while and will take a while more, I decided it was time that I unearthed my box of painting supplies from all the other boxes waiting to be opened, and painted a "real" painting again.

Milan, Italy (2014/12/14)

14 December 2014 - Milan, Italy
8" x 10", digital art

Milan, Italy (2014/12/11)

11 December 2014 - Milan, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

Turin, Italy (2014/12/04)

4 December 2014 - Turin, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

paintings at Coffee Time

Sean Kalley, curator for Coffee Time art, helps me hang my paintings.

Sean Kalley

Coffee Time, Portland, OR

Thank you, Sean Kalley and Coffee Time, for allowing me the opportunity to show my art!  Some of my paintings, mostly of Northern Italy (and one of Barcelona, Spain), all done late 2013-2014, will be hanging there for the month of December.

Turin, Italy - 43

24 November 2014 - Turin, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

near Avigliana, Italy - 6

20 November 2014 - near Avigliana, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

Milan, Italy - 15

19 November 2014 - Milan, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

Turin, Italy - 42

18 November 2014 - Turin, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

Milan, Italy - 14

18 November 2014 - Milan, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

floral - 4

13 November 2014 - floral
10" x 8", digital art

Milan, Italy - 10

25 October 2014 - Milan, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

Nigel and the Adventure of the Cat. A Story.

Once upon a time, in a neighborhood with big trees and small houses, there lived a dog named Nigel.

One day, when Nigel was in his backyard, not a bad place to be at all, a cat jumped up on the fence and looked down at him.

Nigel had seen cats before and had often wanted to investigate these strange creatures, but he never had the opportunity to.

Now, he thought, might be his chance, since the cat seemed equally interested in investigating him.

“Hello, cat,” he called.  To humans, this sounded like, “Bark, bark!”  (The translation is loose but pretty accurate.)

The cat did not reply, instead looking down at Nigel with a rather disdainful air.

Nigel, not at all discouraged, said, “Want to play?”

The cat still did not reply, just flicked his tail.

“I could chase you,” Nigel helpfully suggested.

The cat seemed to consider this, either that or he was just trying to torment Nigel, as cats do.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Nigel encouraged.

After a moment, the cat replied, “No, I don’t think I will.”  He spoke with a cat accent, which Nigel could barely understand.

Nigel approached the fence, hoping he could inspire the cat to play or at least do something amusing.

The cat’s tail flicked again.

“Why not?” Nigel asked when he realized that the cat was not yet persuaded.

“Because,” the cat said huffily, “you, sir, are a dog,” as if this was an insult.

“Yes, so I am,” Nigel told him.  “Boo!” (which sounded like “woof!”), and he jumped up.

Much to his delight, the cat did something amusing.  He made a funny, indignant “meow” sound and scampered away along the fence with impressive speed.

Nigel ran after him.

The cat jumped off the fence and was over on the other side of the street in no time at all.

Nigel’s only regret was that the game had been so short.

He hoped that cat would come again.

He settled down in a shady area and chewed on a stick, listening to the wind through the trees.  It made him sleepy, so he decided he would take a nap.

The End.

pup art

12 October 2014
8" x 10", digital art

Milan, Italy - 9

8 October 2014 - Milan, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

floral

8 August 2014
5" x 7", digital art

 

Turin, Italy - 42

1 October 2014 - Turin, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

Turin, Italy - 41

17 September 2014 - Turin, Italy
12" x 16", digital art

Milan, Italy - 8

6 September 2014
12" x 16", Corel Painter Lite

Turin, Italy - 40

28 August 2014 - Turin, Italy
12" x 16", Corel Painter Lite

Westmoreland Park - 3

21 August 2014 - Westmoreland Park
12" x 16", Corel Painter Lite

Westmoreland Park - 2

14 August 2014 - Westmoreland Park
12" x 16", Corel Painter Lite

Westmoreland Park - 1

10 August 2014 - Westmoreland Park
12"x16", Corel Painter Lite

All my painting things are packed in boxes right now, while we begin what will be an extensive home renovation project.  If we're lucky we'll survive it with our sanity mostly intact, though maybe we already were insane to want to take it on in the first place.  In the meantime, I hope to continue at least virtual painting.

International Rose Test Garden, Portland, Oregon

23 July 2014 - International Rose Test Garden, Portland, OR
12" x 16", Corel Painter X3

Turin, Italy - 39

22 July 2014 - Turin, Italy
12" x 16", Corel Painter X3

I'm really enjoying using Corel Painter so far.  I was worried that I'd have difficulty using the pen-and-tablet format, but it's worked out surprisingly well.  Now all I need is a bigger monitor.

I'm finding that using virtual paint is easier  - more precise, more predictable - than real painting.  I guess that shouldn't be surprising.  It's also a lot cleaner :).  It was just a matter of familiarizing myself with the properties of the various painting tools.   I've only experimented with some of them so far, and, really, I've only scratched the surface of the software's versatility.  I'll keep experimenting away...

I did a different version of this view 7 December 2013 (Turin, Italy - 9).

Turin, Italy - 38

17 July 2014 - Turin, Italy
Corel Painter X3

Turin, Italy - 37

15 July 2014 - Turin, Italy
16" x 18", acrylic on hardboard

Turin, Italy - 36

13 July 2014 - Turin, Italy
Corel Painter X3

Here's another adventure in virtual art.  I started out using the usual mouse, but today I tried my brand new Intuos Creative Pen and Touch Tablet.

near Avigliana, Italy - 4

10 July 2014 - near Avigliana, Italy
Corel Painter X3

This was an experiment, trying out Corel Painter X3.  I basically tried to use the same stylistic approach and approximately the same colors as when I'm "really" painting.

I thought I'd give virtual art a try because I'm stockpiling way too many paintings.  I'm running out of storage space.  And not painting or slowing down did not seem like viable options.

I can't imagine entirely giving up "real" painting, but I hope this proves to be another outlet for my painting obsession.  It's certainly not the same visceral experience, but it's still a creative process, which is much of the fun of painting.  And right now it's rather a technical challenge, trying to figure out the software.  To be continued...

Turin, Italy - 34

5 July 2014 - Turin, Italy
16" x 18", acrylic on hardboard

for my sweetie :)

2 July 2014
10" x 7", gouache on cold press cotton paper

Turin, Italy - 33

1 July 2014 - Turin, Italy
24" x 36", acrylic on canvas

Milan, Italy - 7

20 June 2014 - Milan, Italy
12" x 16", acrylic on hot press cotton paper

near Avigliana, Italy - 3

18 June 2014 - near Avigliana, Italy
11" x 14", acrylic on hardboard

Turin, Italy - 32

16 June 2014 - Turin, Italy
18" x 24", acrylic on gessoed hardboard

near Avigliana, Italy - 2

12 June 2014 - near Avigliana, Italy
11" x 14", acrylic on gessoed hardboard