Impressions of Mona Lisa.

                                                     Impressions Of Mona Lisa

                                                                     Oil and acrylic
                                                                    4 x 4 inch canvas

                                                                    For Sale - $99.00
                                          Please send me an Email if you are interested in the painting.
                                                                     I accept Paypal.

VIincent Van Gogh Self Portrait.

 I took this photo Friday night when I went to see the Vincent Van Gogh self portrait at my favorite museum the Norton Simon. The portrait is on loan from the Washington Gallery Of Art. I was speechless standing right in front of theVan Gogh self portrait.. I just stood there for a very long while mesmerized.  I am a huge Van Gogh fan. This self portrait is so beautiful.  I know what it takes to paint a self portrait. For me it's one of the most difficult because you are conveying something of yourself that you want the viewers to know. Self portraits are by far my favorite type of painting to look at.

Portrait commission.

 

Another piece has drawn to a close,  Above is featured my latest commission.  This painting is more intimate than the original because of its closer and simpler arrangement. It was a lot of fun to work on and I think it came out very elegantly. This work was commissioned. The idea for the pose was a mix between capturing the colors and style from Rossetti's  "Proserpine" and my own incorporation of the beautiful woman who commissioned the painting.  "Proserpine" by Rossetti has always been her favorite. Check my earlier posts it you want to see the different stages of this commission.

Words of wisdom from Einstein

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

 –Albert Einstein

The Flower Duet by Delibes

Childhood Revistied "MY TREE".

 

"MY TREE"

These are some older studies I did circa 2002 -2003, learning about shapes and tones. I was working on capturing a mood and telling a story with very little detail in the work, mainly expressing through simple body posture and simple lines,
moods in light and dark. These are works in acrylics. I like acrylics because they don't give you much time to make decisions which forces you to make instinctual decisions. 

 This one is very dear to me. As a child I had this special tree, it was an avocado tree, it was in our back yard. I used to climb it and hide from anything or anybody who was giving me grief. It was a huge tree so I could climb high up and I'd stay there sometimes till it got dark. A few years ago I visited our old house expecting to see my huge healthy tree with even bigger and stronger branches sheltering birds and growing a lot of fruit. But instead I found an almost unrecognizable tree, small and withering. This painting is about a man who goes back to his favorite tree which he loved as a child, and finding it neglected , he realizes time moves on, nothing remains the same, that's life...
I recently spoke with the man who purchased this painting back in 2004. He told me that he has found this painting a fascinating piece to look at over the years and that he sees the man as pensive sometimes and other times his figure looks like a dagger thrust into the earth. 

Ernest Hemingway

Portrait of Hemingway 1923 by Man Ray.

A word to the wise...

One's life does not consist in the abundance of things he posesses.

Rossetti commission progress.

Here is the progress one of my recent commissions. I thought it might be interesting to share my process on this different kind of commission. You can see my initial work a few post below on this page. Here I am working on getting the colors and the softness of the painting. The original painting by Rossetti is quite sharp, with sharp edges which make it look cartoon like. I want my portrait to be a softer and more realistic rendition. As I said before she wanted me to do a copy of one of her favorite paintings but use her as the model. The next step is to add much more detail and apply more color and pop out the light and dark.

Quote of a lifetime.

“If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.”

― C.S. Lewis

Portrait commission color blocking.

Color blocking on my new commission. Working on composition and colors only. First stages, later comes the values, lights, darks and detail.

Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

I do many commissions, especially for portraits. I am working on an interesting one now.  Her request was a unique one. She wanted me to paint one of her favorite paintings and replace the original woman in the painting with herself. I found this to be a wonderful challenge and I accepted. I will share some of the process in up coming posts. This is the painting Lori has chosen. A painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  

Here is the first step, the basic drawing with paint. 

Lucian Freud

16 x 20

Oil on canvas

SOLD

This is a portrait after Lucian Freud

click on photo for larger version.

If you are interested in this painting please email me at

City Of Angels Artist@ Yahoo.com

I accept payment through Paypal only. Thank you.

Portait Of Rembrandt 

oil

8 x 10 stretched canvas

SOLD

In this quick small study of young Rembrandt, I am working out the placement of lights and darks and setting the color scheme for a larger detailed commission.

In The Name Of The Lost

watercolor on watercolor paper

SOLD

Communion With The Sun

acrylic on canvas 24x24 ~2004

I found this photo of a painting I did in 2004. I was really enjoying my work with acrylics at that time. It is very free and easy. I like the combination of colors created when the water mixes on the canvas. I wish I still had this one.