"Kitty" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

"Kitty" is for Melissa.  Sebastian, usually called Kitty, is a six-year-old flame point Siamese.  He is a rescue cat and was found by a police officer on a street of Chicago.  Melissa and her husband purchased him the day after they got married, so he is their honeymoon baby.  At the age of three, his bladder became blocked; he was close to death several times before finally going through surgery at a veterinarian hospital.  It was a traumatic time, but completely worth it.

Kitty is a scaredy cat and is slow to warm up.  He is also the sweetest cat Melissa has ever owned.  He loves to snuggle and follows her and her husband from room to room.  He talks a lot, especially when he wants food!  He is a master at finding the most comfortable place to take a nap.

The client sent me 10 photos, of which I picked this one.  I cropped and Photoshopped it, and decided which elements to keep and which to edit out.  I transferred the image to the Belgian linen panel I prepared (I use Claessens #66) with raw umber paint.

The transparent underpainting.
  

I started with the easiest colors in the opaque painting stage.

I mixing colors, I always look for the subtle warm/cool variations as well as light/dark ones of a certain color family (hue).

"Sandcastle Builders" (oil on linen; 11" x 14") sold

sold

Sandcastle building is a big deal at Prince Edward Island, Canada.  I even saw a park ranger doing a demonstration of how to build one at Cavendish Beach.  You need wet sand.  The girl in the painting is about to go get some sea water with her bucket!

Watercolor sketch for "Sandcastle Builders"; I cropped it for the painting and got rid of the beach bag and blue bucket on the right.

The transparent underpainting.

I started putting down opaque paints.

As usual, I developed the figures, along with the umbrella, last.

Girl with a Straw Hat (oil on linen; 12" X 12") sold

sold

A glimpse of a girl in a blue dress with a straw hat on a sand dune in Prince Edward Island, Canada led to this painting.  I have always been attracted to landscape paintings with figure as the main interest.  Now my skills have improved to such a level that I feel confident in trying out my own vision onto canvas.  What do you think of my efforts?

Watercolor sketch for the painting

Transparent underpainting

I often develop a landscape from the faraway things first.

Developing the middle ground and foreground.  Do you get the feeling that I am avoiding the figure?  It's partly that, but it's also because I want to create a believable and livable environment for the figure first.  

"Beach Boy" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

sold

I saw a boy carrying a big yellow bucket filled with water for sandcastle building on Cavendish Beach at Prince Edward Island in Canada.  I took a picture, which turned out so well that I had to paint him!

The transparent underpainting.  Yes, I start a figure painting in the same way as florals and landscapes!

I started laying down some opaque paints.  

Now it's time to work on the figure.

"Stargazer in the Sun" (oil on linen; 7" x 7")

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I am used to seeing the spectacularly beautiful and fragrant oriental lily, "Stargazer", at the florist shop.  So I was delighted to come across a lone stargazer blooming in a garden park.  The sun was in the perfect angle to enhance its sinuous form.  I think I made the right decision to leave the rich dark green transparent background untouched.  The flower pops out, don't you think?

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The transparent underpainting.

I decided to leave the dark green background more or less untouched in this painting.

Here I am mostly done with the opaque layers; I started adding some dark dots on petals.

"Yellow Swallowtail" (oil on linen; 7" x 7")

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I do not know which is more beautiful: the yellow swallowtail or the backlit purple flowers.  I am captivated by the sunlight shining through the translucent wing of the butterfly.

" Covered Bridge of Yesteryear" (oil on linen; 10" x 8")

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I saw this charming bridge somewhere in New Brunswick, Canada.  After trying many shots, I finally found a perfect angle when I crouched down.  The field of white daisies, purple clovers, and other wildflowers, taking up two-thirds of the frame, sweeps up to the bridge!

The transparent underpainting done.

I started building up the opaque layers and foreground wildflowers.