Tractor Shed - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Tractor Shed 10x8 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara t seems all this week I've been painting water and trees in one form or another. I was ready for a change today. Determined to find some sort of structure to paint today, I went to several different locations searching for a subject that I could paint. At the end of my search was Cedar Hill State Park where I found this building. Actually, I had picked a different building to paint. I even blocked it in before deciding that I wasn't happy with neither the my view of the subject nor my composition, so I wiped it off my canvas. It was then that I noticed this little building right next to me with an old tractor in it. I was drawn to the shadows and the way that just the front of the tractor caught the afternoon light. With a slight turn of my easel and turning my canvas vertically, I was off and painting. My brushed danced across the canvas and mixed colors as if I wasn't even there. I love days like this! To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com If you would like to purchase this painting visit my auction here.

Pappy Elkins Park - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Pappy Elkins Park 8x16 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara I just love the name of this park. It's not far from our house, which is good since things got to be pretty crazy today and I only had a few hours of daylight to paint in. I had all of the best intentions to get out first thing this morning and get to painting. My plan was to drive my wife to work since she still has problems driving with her cast and then go paint. As soon as I dropped her off, our daycare called and said our daughter looked like she had pink eye. I turned around to get her and take her to the doctor. Luckily, she doesn't have pink eye, but she did scratch her eye, which is why it was tearing and red. By the time I got her back to day care it was just about time to go pick my wife up from work. After getting her back home, I was able to go paint finally! To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com If you would like to purchase this painting visit my auction here

Waiting for a Bite - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Waiting for a Bite 8x10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Lake Arlington has a few piers to fish off of and a pretty amount of shore line that's easy to access.  The water is nice and people speed by on boats and jet skis all day long.  There are a few spots that I think would make good paintings so it was hard to choose what to paint. Then I spotted this fisherman at the end of one of the piers and knew that's what I wanted to paint today. I set up on the shore and got to painting quickly since I didn't know how long he would be there or how much he would move. Luckily, the fishing was slow, so he stayed pretty still for about 20 minutes, which was just enough time to get a good block in before he packed up his stuff and left. After he was gone, I worked on the rest of the painting by finishing off the water and the background. When I stepped back to check my work, I wasn't happy with the head I had painted.  It just didn't look right, so I scraped it off and painted the head of one of the other fisherman still on the pier instead. Between the two of them, it seems to have worked out very well. To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com If you would like to purchase this painting visit my auction here.

Oakland Lake - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Oakland Lake 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Today's painting was a fast one. I only had about an hour to paint this before I had to rush off to pick up my daughter at day care. This little park is only about 15 minutes from our house, but this was the first time I had gone there. It has a small lake, which is what I painted today, and lots of open ground. I want to go back as the fall color starts to change and maybe try a different view. I'm not sure why, but I had trouble with glare today. I tried painting this while sitting on a park bench, but the reflection on the canvas was terrible. I finally went back to standing. For me, it just works better if I stand. I feel I have more energy in my work when I'm standing and I can step back freely and check my progress.  To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com Contact me.

Whisper of Fall - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Whisper of Fall (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara I went to a little park just down the road from where my wife works with a little lake. It was the first time I had been there, so after scouting out the place for a few minutes, I settled on this view of the lake and the trees. I like how a few of the leaves are starting to change color, just hinting at fall! I had some trouble with the computer I usually use to process the images of my images, so hopefully this one looks okay. I had to use a different monitor then I'm use to and different software to color correct it. I hope to can get my other computer running properly before too long. To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Eye Candy - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Eye Candy (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara I picked up these carrots to paint since they still had the large leafy part that grows above the ground attached. These seem to be a lot harder to find in the stores these days. Everything is those prepackaged varieties. I like the ones with the stalks on them still since they remind me of Bugs Bunny; however, the leaves wilt pretty quickly so I think this will be the only painting I will do from this bunch. Besides they look pretty tasty so I think I'd rather eat them, "Ah, What's up Doc?". To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Wild Hillside - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Wild Hillside 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara  I love painting this hillside, which we found while vacationing near Medicine Park, Oklahoma. I've painted it a few time over the last year. My only regret is that wish I had the presence of mind to take more photographs of this area.  It's a wonderful area with a huge wildlife refuge with lots of longhorns, buffalo and elk. We actually got stuck in the refuge for about an hour while a herd of longhorn crossed the road. Well, most of them crossed the road. A few of them just stopped to stare at us! To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com If you would like to purchase this painting visit my auction here

Yesterday's Harvest - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Yesterday's Harvest 5x7 inches Oil Painting on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara When my wife came in yesterday with the peppers she picked from the garden with some of the leaves still on them, I knew right away they had to be painted before they were eaten. I asked her not to touch them before I had a chance to use them.  She muttered something about pico de gallo and dinner, but without too much fuss agreed to my request. So, I set them up and painted them. The colors in the peppers where so rich that I found it  quite a challenge to try and replicate them with paint. We have a lot of peppers growing in the garden right now so don't be surprised if you see a few more of these before the season is done. To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com If you would like to purchase this painting visit my auction here.

Orange Wedge - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Orange Wedge 5x3 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by Gorge De Chiara While I was trying to come up with a name for this painting, I started thinking that the orange wedge looked like a little Viking boat docked along the shore line of the blue land.  The white area is the water and the blue cloth is reminiscent of the land. See how it kind of makes a little cove where the blue cloth just barely gets back on the canvas? The problem was I couldn't think of any title that would sum this idea up in a few short words, so I had to go with the slightly pedestrian Orange Wedge. If anyone out there has a better title let me know. I'd be happy to change it. To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com If you would like to purchase this painting visit my auction here.

Hanging With Big Blue - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Hanging with Big Blue (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara This is another one for the commission I'm working on (see yesterday's post). I wanted to try to capture a brighter feel, so I placed this whole set up on a white piece of matte board. The matte board reflects light, so I could see many details in the shadows. I always find the reflective quality inspiring and I find painting the details in the shadows very enjoyable because the shadows have surprising, wonderful color when I look and then "Squint and compare", as my instructor Bill Parks use to say. Today's painting rearranges a lot of the same elements I used yesterday, like the tin and coins, but the difference the reflections and shadows makes the effect strikingly different. For the next one, I will need to gather up some supplies over the weekend, so tomorrow I'll probably paint something else, maybe.... To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com Contact me.

Working Lunch - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Working Lunch (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara This is part of a commission I'm working on. The only requirement was that I use the two fishing lures; how they are used and in what context is up to me. This has turned out to be an exciting challenge. I spent a couple of hours thinking about how I wanted to try and set these up and then messing around with different things. I knew I wanted the lures to look like they where diving through the water and I had this idea that everything else in the painting could be things laying at the bottom of the lake, which is when the idea really came together. I liked the idea that this is a perfectly dry still life done in my studio, but it could almost be a scene found in any lake. When it came time to name this I asked my wife if she had any title ideas (truth be told a lot of the titles come from her) and she said "Working Lunch". I asked what that meant and she explained how the lures were lunch for the fish. I liked that, so Working Lunch it is. To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com Contact me.

Tea Party - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Tea Party 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara  I must admit I've been building up quite a collection of tea cups in the last few weeks. It seems like I've been buying almost every one I've run into at the thrift stores lately. True be told, I'm running out of space in my studio for all of my "things" and need to start looking into some kind of shelves soon. In the meantime, here is one of the tea cups my wife bought at a garage sale a while back.  She says it's apart of someone's divorce china, which is why it is very nice and was priced very cheap. Anyway, it is a very reflective white and has a rather wide mouth, which proved to be a more challenging shape to draw then I thought it would. To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com If you would like to purchase this painting visit my auction here.

Plum Stories - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Plum Stories 8x10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara It's funny how these still lifes evolve.  This was originally a painting of carnations! Now, I won't bore you with all the details of how a painting of carnation turns into a plate of plums, but it took a series of eight major changes before settling on this one.  Normally I have a pretty good idea of what it is I want to paint and I may even have some sketches of the idea to help me, but not this time.  I did manage to work in the cookie jar I bought a few weeks ago at a local thrift store. I've also been toying around with this vague idea to somehow use some books in a still life. Books are fun to paint because there is such a variety of size and color so I'm sure I'll use this idea again at some point. To read more about this painting please visit my blog. http://georgedechiara.com/blog Visit my web site to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com Contact me.