Aspen Path 2012

Saw this type of picture in a gallery, after being triggered by a friend who liked it.  Since it portrayed the best of our Colorado mountain scenery, it just seemed like an obvious subject for a painting. Our friend liked it so much that is is now in their beautiful home.

When it was finished, I really liked the colors, especially the multiple yellows in the aspens.  I also love painting the aspen tree trunks, as each one is different, with a different "personality". Most of this work was done with pallette knife.  The chunky paint adds another dimension to the work.

The week after finishing this one, we went up to Summit County for a Fall golf trip.  I saw numerous places with a similar scene.  Could this be the start of a series?

Taco, The Dog

The Daytons from California recently got a new dog, Taco, named after the dog in the Taco Bell advertisements of old - possibly not politically correct these days.  Anyhow, we met Taco earlier this summer and, while he and we aren't the best of friends, yet, we decided that he can be a member of the family. So, he gets his own portrait for the Dayton-dog Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

 





Colleen's Wedding May 2012

 In May of 2012, we attended the wedding of my only niece, Colleen, in Virginia "horse country", held at a beautiful winery - yes, they have wineries in Virginia!  It was a very nice event, the wedding party looked great, and all attendees had a great time sampling the wines, as well as groom, James' home made beer. Quite a nice event  !

The colors that Collen selected for the wedding were white and purple, and these colors were prominently displayed throughout the event, especially in the flower arrangements for the bridal party. Each of the male participants
also had a boutineer made of a bachelor button of the same color.

As I have done a number of times in the past, I decided to paint the bridal
bouquet and the bride's Mother's flowers, and send them as a delayed wedding present. 

The finished pantings are shown to the right, here.  They came out very nicely, I think.

Tuscany Town

This is an image of the Tuscany town of Lacoste.  Since I love shadows and perspective, it made a natural painting for me.

I decided to do most of the foreground parts of the piece in pallette knife, to add depth and a texture more like the stones in the building.  It went on nice and "chunky" and allowed me to play with various different color combinations on the stones and the walkway.

Lastly, I decided to make the time of day, just after sunset, with the boulangerie (bakery cafe) closed for the day and the lights in the apartment above coming on.  This adds a little luminance of the focal point.

Lady In The Forest

I saw a photo of this scene in a newspaper recently. The whole scene, with the meandering pathway and the umbrella caught my attention.

As the photo was in black and white, we decided to do it in sepia tones, to make a bit more fun.

 

Then, at the last minute, I decided that a bit of color would add even more interest. So, with apologies to the life insurance company, and Schindler's List, I made the umbrella red. It really adds a clear focal point and even more interest, I think.

Make up what ever you want for the message.

Deer in the Woods

I saw a photograph showing several deer hiding in a forest, probably Colorado from the Aspen trees in the background. I loved the colors, but also liked the concept of the "hidden deer". How many can you find?

Somehow, I have always liked the look of Aspen trees. They have so much character, with the scars along the trunk. Each one is differentsand seem to gain even more character as they age

Breast Cancer Auction 4/2012

Every year, we have a Breast Cancer Golf Tournament and event at our Florida golf club. In many years, they also have a silent auction to raise more funds for the Susan Koman charity.

I usually try to create something that has some meaning for this event, and always with a "pink" theme. So, this year, since I am in a "vase" theme state of mind, I created this piece which adds a pink tulip to the pink vase, bathed in light. It is similar in genre to one of the previous vase pieces. At the end, I added the breast cancer ribbon to memorialize the event.

I'm happy that this one received a lot of comments, and bids, and we were able to raise even more money for this cause.

Easter Morning

This image shows a Greek woman exiting from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It comes from Easter, 2011 and was the lead photo in our local newspaper on that special day. I found the scene very moving and decided to put it on canvas.

A year later, a friend in Naples, who happens to be of the Greek Orthodox faith, who's members manage this church, saw it and made him remember his Greek heritage. I'm honored that he now owns this work.

Vase with Bamboo

This is another addition to the vase collection. This vase is in our home.

This piece will be donated to a charity auction for the hospice chapter in Naples, Florida. I hope that the participants in the auction like this style as much as I do.

Two More Vases

These are the other two from the first collection. Both vases are from our life. One is a vase in our Denver loft and the other is from another vase that I saw.

Two Lighted Vases

These are two of the vases in the collection, which now includes five pieces. The one on the left is from a restaurant in Naples, FL and caught my eye at dinner one evening.

The second is one that I made up from several photos that I had seen, one of a vase, and the other from a Japanese garden and a bonzai plant.

Vase Collection

After seeing a vase painting on a trip, I decided to paint a "collection" of vases that I had seen. Most were vases that are somewhere in our life, like in our home, condo, or somewhere that we had visited.

But, I also decided to use the same genre for all of the pieces, using light as an atttention getter, making all of them the same size, 20" X 20", and adding something to the top to even out the composition. When displayed together, they make a pretty impressive 4 foot by 4 foot piece.

I like the way these came out and plan to use this idea for some future pieces.