Last of the cavaliers

Last of the Swan House Gallery show cavalier series. All done. Of course, these are my favorites.  Thankful for this quick, happy series.

oil sketches

This morning's effort
It won't be dry enough to take to the gallery tomorrow, but maybe by Thursday.

Flirt, 5x7", oil on board

Daughter gave me a ride to Binders to find frames, then we took turns throwing a ball to Maddy the dauntless tri-color. I have begun thinking of these as little oil sketches. I love what their body language expresses, more than the hair-perfect portraits.

Seven spaniel paintings

Since November 7th,  I've spent four days in hospital and two weeks post surgery quietly recuperating. Here I am with spaniels and my Nook.

Last week the news came that three of the four cavalier paintings sold before the show opened.  Would I do more?

I went straight to the studio and mixed paint. Glad I did that little drawing the other day, a profile of a Blenheim, my first dog. I plan to do three more total and see how it goes.

And here they are. All 5x7. oil/board. Robert is framing them for me tonight, and I'll deliver them to the Swan Coach House Gallery Tuesday.  I have one more drawn but we'll see how these do. So far, one of life's simple pleasures.

Wait


Blenheim Profile


Watch

Moochie in the kitchen

Home alone in the post-Thanksgiving day peace and quiet. Ah.

Here's what I painted today. Moochie in the kitchen.

Cavalier - Blenheim

It's pretty much done. There's actually some gradation in the background that aren't showing on this photo.

I was back to work on South of Eden today. I mostly mixed paint, as everything leftover from Hambidge had turned to rubber. I did a tiny bit of painting on the green apple and the sunflower seed packet. Not enough to register on a photo. I mixed the paint for the brick and the moss beneath it. The moss is going to be a learning experience. I have a new yellow, a transparent oxide, that is just fabulous mixed with some sap.

Cavaliers

I spent today drawing and painting a Blenheim Cavalier, but it just didn't do right. At the end of the day I washed all the paint off with turp, which has left me a nice toned background. I finally put my finger on the problem, which is scale.

I was going to do a few drawings to test my theory and start again tomorrow. butended up doing a detailed redrawing on paper, and saw that it worked. I turned the canvas (already dry from its bath) upside down, drew the grid in white chalk and did the new drawing. Then I painted in the negative space with Paynes gray thinned with Liquin.

Two reasons: a Blenheim is mostly white and I wanted the value contrast, and I needed to cover up the traces of the earlier drawing. That blue gray color will do well with the orange gold of the ears, and orange red of the back. The official name of that color in the Cavalier standard is 'liver'.' Not the right word if you ask me.

It's a companion painting to this one, of my Black and Tan Cavalier