The Studio - Digital & Traditional Mixed Media Painting

The Galleries

• Home • The Work • The Artist • The Studio • The Store
• Meet The Artist • Press • Work In Progress • Recent Work • Links • Contact •
• The Art Blog • The Garden Blog •

Studio Glimpses

When I am working on a piece I like to surround myself with samples of actual and similar subject models. Since no two objects in nature are exact I create an amalgam of the samples. I'm not trying to duplicate what a camera can do, I'm interpreting in a realistic style how I see the subject.

It is very important that I really like the subject that I choose because I spend so much time with it during all the preparatory drawings and photography, the tonal work, the color work and then the digitizing of the images for reproduction. Not to mention framing them to enjoy around my own home. I wouldn't want to be so involved with a subject if it hadn't originally really grabbed for my attention.

Click on thumbnails for a closer view of the Art Work in the process of being created in the Studio.

Trio of Daffodils on the lower left is a combination of a textured background using rock salt and some images of narcissus from my garden. I used a resist when working on the background in this case.

As you can see from the Brugmansia in the lower right panel, I worked from my own variegated cultivar. I grow a pretty decent collection of these tropical plants by overwintering them inside my home since they'd never make it through the winter in my neck of the woods, Long Island, NY.

The Siberian Iris oil painting on the top row left, has at this point in it's development already gone through the design stage, and a tonal drawing stage. At this point I'm putting a monochromatic underpainting on the canvas. This style of painting was very popular with the old Dutch master painters of the 17th century.

The Amaryllis watercolor on the top right is an amalgam of plant samples drawn from live plants. After the season I bought 10 different cultivars of Hippeastrum for $1. each at a gardening center. What a fun time I had drawing, painting and photographing these beauties.