1st Santa Cruz Boardwalk panel just about completed

Just about to start on the 2nd panel.  I'll make tweaks to this first panel over the next couple of days, but basically this is it...

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

For maybe a year now I've been wanting to paint the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.   In my head there is this masterpiece of colors and shapes and memories that go back almost 50 years.  Last month I went over to Santa Cruz to take my reference photos.  This was my 3rd trip to do so.  It was a beautiful day and I walked out to the end of the Santa Cruz pier, and Bingo!  I shoot 8 great photos in a panarama that is the boardwalk. 

Now the fun part - how do I render all those great buildings and roller coasters and colors - holy cow!  I need to do a painting 6 feet wide, there's so much there!  Well 6 feet is out of the question, but how about two 3 footers?  OK, I'm in the early stages of my first two pane painting.  And this is tough.  Today I almost pulled the plug - I wasn't sure it was working or that I could make it work.  I am painting in a smaller scale than my reference photos.  My reference photos stretch out to about 7 feet - I'm painting with my smallest brushes - the tip of the brush is the same size as this letter "l".

I'm posting both panels.  I had to paint the sky and the base layer of ocean on both panels at the same time so as to have the same colors.  It would have been impossible to mix the colors for the second panel and have the sky match.

So here you go, the top photo is getting rendered.  I'm working left to right as you face the boardwalk.  I will complete this panel including all the water and beach.  Then I'll move on to the lower panel and hopefully work some magic on that one.  I hope this works - hopefully I'll have the top panel completed by a week from now - please check back to see.  Thanks - Mark

Ted and Fiona

This was a very fun painting.  As mentioned previously this was my first horse painting as well as a rare human portrait.  The setting brings back fond memories of a wonderful hike Elke and I took with our friends Suzanne and Ted.  This work accomplishes one of my main purposes in creating paintings...memorialize a memorable time with friends.

Friend and horse

Over new years Elke and I spent a couple of days with some friends down in San Luis Obispo.  They own a beautiful property just north of there in the foothills - it's fabulous.  On their ranch they have some beautiful horses, a donkey, a goat, chickens, and a bunch of very cool very relaxed dogs.  Anyhow we took a great walk in the hills on their property and I took some photos.  I really liked one photo I took of our friend Ted walking one of their new horses.  I particularly like they way they were looking in opposite directions and just the wonderful setting.  Since I've never painted a horse and I don't do many paintings of people this was even more incentive to try to render this scene.  So, I'm in the early stages of this thing and I am basically working in reverse to the way I normally attack a painting.  As you know from seeing paintings develop on this blog I usually paint the background first top to bottom then whatever is in the front.  With this painting the whole purpose is to get Ted's face and the horses head just right.  So I painted those first.  I would hate to work for two weeks on the background then mess up the faces.  So, here you go, I'll update again next week.  Thanks. mg

Half Dome Reflection

Finally completed my Half Dome painting.   This was more of a challenge than I anticipated.  Combined with the Christmas holiday and being a bit lazy for the last half of December this painting was on my table for a month longer than I expected.  It's all good though...sometimes I just have to stop hurrying.  Well, regarding Half Dome Reflection...all the foliage was a real challenge to depict.  Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop, such was the case with some of the trees both right and left.  When it came to the water and the reflection of the trees, stones, and Half Dome the fun was on.  I love the color nuances of the greens, blues, golds.  I hope you enjoy.

I just started a new painting of a friend walking his horse.  I'll post something soon.  Thanks for coming by.  mg

Crazy chair final pics

Here's a couple of photos of the finished chair project.  You'll note that one photo is of the back, which was fun to try and make look like it was the backside of the snake and frog, etc.  You'll note there are a couple of added bugs both front and back.  My ultimate goal was to create a chair that was uncomfortable to sit in...did I succeed? 

Half Dome in .....

Started a new painting today.  The chair project was completed last week, and I'll post photos of the finished product.  That was a fun project - I painted with acrylics which I never do, and it was fun to kind of make it up as I went along. 

Now, it's good to get back to my small brushes, and small paints.  I'm doing my second Yosemite painting and from the picture below you know that it is Half Dome.   What you don't know is...what season do you think this painting is of?  Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring?  I'm not going to update the photo until I'm about done, so give me a couple of weeks.  Thanks for coming by....Mark