Delivery Day! A new website and a new blog.

The big news is today's launch of a new web presence.  My wonderful wife Joanna has been laboring over a new website for the past couple of weeks, and it is now time for the birth of this baby.  Also, I have been planning to move away from my existing blog host, so it seems wise to launch a new blog today as well.  So we have twins!

It would be great to get some feedback from you if you have the time to explore the different areas on the site and see if it is intuitive or if you experience any problems.  Any comments will be appreciated.  If you are an artist looking to have a web presence, we highly recommend Leah Markham's how-to video series.

I'm posting a few of my recent portraits as well.

Here is Tami.  Looks a bit grainy as I only load small files to the blog.  Everyone's skin has very subtle hints of green, especially around the nose and mouth, as there is a concentration of blood vessels in those areas.  The greenish-ochre background really amps up the green skin hues, especially when contrasted with this mass of violet.  I had to be careful to pull back on those colors for this one.

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Alison actually started off as a three-quarter portrait.  I wanted to work on her hands and try to compose something interesting . The original painting works pretty well, but  I was limited to painting her face with horrible little brushes; I have unresolved issues with small brushes.  I will have to overcome those weaknesses someday but I decided not to at Alison's expense.  So I worked up this one, and I'm happy, and it is all about me so........

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Kim gave me some great design possibilities with a turquoise wrap and plenty of hair.  Nothing is better than finishing off a portrait of someone with some righteous hair.  You stand back and use the whole brush.  Great fun.

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Jack has a photographer for a mother, so he has had plenty of experience posing for her I imagine. He copped this pose very naturally.  It is tempting to stay with a composition like this and work it up into something that really communicates an idea, but I gotta stay focused on my present project.  All these pictures will inform my more ambitious paintings in the days ahead.

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This is Tula Belle.  Wow, she was very easy to paint.  Her pose is just so expressive.  I was just along for the ride on this one.

  

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I have a show on at Little Straw Vineyards in West Kelowna for the month of April.  You can preview the pieces that are available there on my exhibition section of my NEW website.