Grape Leaves with Fruit - Originial Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Grape Leaves with Fruit 5x3 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara First off, let me apologize for the title of this one. It's not very original or catchy, but it's the best I could come up with tonight. I really wanted to challenge myself today by practicing painting very small and detailed by placing a lot of objects into the still life.  The goal is to get simple shapes of color with the largest brush I could get away with.  By going with a small canvas, it made all of my brushes a size or two larger by comparison. 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.

Lake Weatherford Boat Docks - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Lake Weatherford Boat Dock (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara My wife works in Weatherford, an up-and-coming little burg just outside of the metroplex. For most of it's life, Weatherford has been a town that served the ranches that surround it. You can't stop progress though and slowly, but surely, this place seems like it is on the verge of being swallowed by DFW. So this morning I joined Marcie for the ride to work intent on painting the rural sights before they all get developed away. After dropping her off at the college and looking at different areas, I finally settled on Lake Weatherford to paint this view of some of the private boat docks. There's a little curve in the lake where the land goes out a bit and offers this view of these docks. This little spot is public access to the lake, so I was able to set up there and have a great view. I even had a large tree to give me some shade while I painted, so what more could you ask for? 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

Peaches and Plums - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Peaches and Plums 8x10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara  This isn't what I set out to paint today. I was really in the mood to do a landscape, so I packed up the car with all of my painting supplies and headed out to a spot that I thought would be good for painting. After driving around for an hour looking at different places, I didn't find anything that really struck me so I headed home. I found this bowl of fruit sitting on the kitchen counter that I was playing around with last night and decided to paint it instead. I'm not sure how they managed to grow peaches so large, but these are almost the size of a softball. I prefer the both the look and taste of smaller ones because they seem more natural, but these are what were at the store this week. In order to keep them from looking disproportionate to the plum, I shrunk their size a little, making them a touch smaller then they are in real life. 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.

Along the Shore - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Along the Shore (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara This is the last painting in the current commission I'm working on. I've really enjoyed working on this commission. It gave me the opportunity to paint some things that I haven't used a lot in my other still life paintings, like money, branches, and foliage, which I can't wait to use in future paintings. Unexpectedly, I found there is something I really enjoy about painting money. It reminds me of collecting coins as a kid. I still remember the thrill of finding a special coin mixed in with my change from the day, like a silver quarter or a wheat penny and running off to add it to my collection. It's a wonderful thing when I can spend an afternoon painting and be reminded of what it's like to be 12 again. 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

Mums and Daughters - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Mums and Daughters (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara I really wanted to take another stab at painting the flowers that we had for our daughter's birthday party (see yesterday's post). This time, I wanted to have fewer flowers so I could give each one a bit more attention. For me, paintings like this require a lot of concentration and having fewer flowers helps. I need to remind myself to go slowly and paint what I'm seeing. Don't rush it! When I rush things, I notice I tend to have to wipe off and start again. In the great Richard Schmid's video demonstrations, he talks about how a painting should appear loose, but not necessarily painted loosely. In other words, it should be painted with purpose. I find myself thinking about this while I work and it reminds me to slow down and paint what I want my result to look like. 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

Birthday Flowers - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Birthday Flowers 8x10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara My daughter had her first birthday this weekend and we used a lot of pink and white flowers to decorate the house for her party. Actually, we had a lot of pink and white everything.  We had quite the family celebration complete with streamers, balloons, and a cake shaped like a teddy bear wearing a tutu.  Normally, my wife and I aren't into the sea of pink that seems to surround baby girls, but the color really suits her.  Also, my wife thought it would be terribly cute to put the baby in a tutu to continue the theme of the cake.  So we did and now we have a lot of roses and alstroemeria in vases, left over from the celebration. Like any practical daddy/artist, I decided that I would paint a few of them. 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.

Catalina's Pumpkin - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Catalina's Pumpkin (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara A few weeks ago my wife and I took our daughter, who was almost one, to pick out her first pumpkin. Usually she dives into new experiences head first, but this time she was just getting over a cold and wasn't very sure what to make of the different pumpkins and hay scattered around the store. After looking, touching, and considering just about every pumpkin the store, she picked up this tiny pumpkin and held on to it tight. It was hers and she wasn't going to let anyone get it from her. She even took it to lunch with us afterward and fell asleep holding it in the car on the way home. 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

Little Bass' Picnic - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Little Bass' Picnic (SOLD) 7x5 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara This is one more in the current commission I'm working on. This is the third of four paintings that I've been asked to do. You can see the others here and here. It's been pretty interesting coming up with different arrangements of the two main lures (the big blue one in the foreground and the little green and white one on the cup's rim). It feels a little bit like the painting equivalent of a Flat Stanley and I've been tempted at times to take the lures out and paint them in front of famous settings, but have resisted so far. 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.

Last Ranch on Ranch Road - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Last Ranch on Ranch Road (SOLD) 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara I was still in the mood to paint some sort of structure today when I went out looking for a painting spot. I didn't really have any particular location in mind when I set out, so I drove around for a while scouting out different places when I finally came across this old abandoned ranch boarded up at the end of, appropriately enough, Ranch Road. It's the last one left. The rest of the area has long been bought up and turned into some very nice, very expensive homes. Funny enough, there are still a few cows left to wander around the land, keeping most of the grounds in check except for a whole field that was in bloom with these very tiny yellow wild bushes. Because I refuse to trespass on private property, it was difficult to get a good location to paint from. I had to do this from the side of the road, looking through an opening in the brush growing along the fence line. Luckily, Ranch Road doesn't see a lot of traffic these days. 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