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I have been busy this week shutting down the garden, yessss!!  I always look forward to it when it begins in the Spring, but by Fall, I am tired of weeding, trimming, cutting plants, did I say cutting plants, cutting plants??  This year I cheated and had it done by someone else one time to get it back to down levels that I could work on, not having to climb a ladder as I value my old limbs.  Going to do that at least once or twice a year as it makes it so much easier.  I sure enjoy it when I can sit with my glass of wine on the porch, but have a hate relationship when I am sweating my derriere off (sigh I wish I could sweat it off) Why I went into the above is usually after a couple of hours I am feeling the manual labor so not in the mood to paint.  But something about this picture is spurring me forward and I feel like it is coming together - at least at the base coat level. I don't know what exactly, but something has changed in my mind and it is r...

  OK, I am at it again and am working on a cityscape, the reference picture I took back in 2003 - that was before digital cameras in my world.  So I scanned in the print into my computer using my printer and am taking it from there.  This was taken in early Fall in old town Quebec City and as you can see no cars allowed on this street.  It just looked so European.  I knew when I was coming down the Breakneck stairs that one day I wanted to paint this scene.  I remember the brisk air, the noisy crowd, all the activity, color and sign pollution - and I just loved it.  But it is a pretty intimidating picture, so just keep telling myself to do one layer at a time and trying to keep it loose - yeah right!!  Technically I guess you can paint a building loose and certainly the windows will be looser and of course the people and other things as we move back into the planes will get more abstract and hopefully single strokes.  I underp...

The work on this picture continues.  You can see that I did go freehand now on the windows, but boy it stresses me out and makes me nervous.  Just not my thing I guess. Anyway I have a lot more of the foreground in now and will pretty much for the main portions have just the horse and the carriage to go - but oh, let's don't be forgetting the next challenge is the wheels and those eclipse shapes.  Oh, can't forget there is going to be a lightly leafed tree in there as well and good for me, it should cover some of my windows.  Of course too I will have to put the name on the sign in gold leaf - it is only what should be expected. This is giving me enough confidence that I probably will try some more landscape/cityscape type of pictures.  I have another down in the Lower town of Quebec, a street scene that I always wanted to do.  Maybe I will have a Quebec series heh?  I don't know, I have always shied away from landscapes thinking they just didn't...

Ok so I am deviating from the mugshots for a few days, but got to keep me sane and keep it interesting.  Interesting it is and I am excited about this picture for several reasons. 1)  First I have painted mostly on paper,  not canvas, and felt it was time to make the change as it simplifies framing issues and you can work larger.  Well, I got some deals when I went to the Goodwill store.  I always check for frames with mats or large size frames, but this time I got a bunch of decent sized canvases, 12x15" or larger for $1.91 apiece.  Yes, as you might recall I am cheap, cheap, cheap.  But I am just learning so recycled canvases seem ok to me.  What I did was sand this one down and then recoated with several coats of gesso with the last one being tinted with burnt sienna.  Yellow ochre, burnt umber and white and raw sienna and white are normally used depending on what is going on top.  I have also heard of people using red beneath as ...