The Old Texaco - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

The Old Texaco 8x10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara This week I'm participating in the Waxahachie Plein Air Event with 60 other artists. Starting last Saturday with the Quick Draw event, we have all been busy painting around town. I did participate in the quick draw on Saturday, but in the rush to get my painting done, I forgot to get a photograph of it.  I'm planning on doing another blog post about the quick draw, so for now I'll just leave it at that and talk a bit about this painting. I spent some time Sunday afternoon driving around Waxahachie looking for places to paint. I found a few good-looking spots at Lake Waxahachie, but with the holiday crowds I decided to move on. Heading back into town, I drove up and down some of the main streets running through the downtown area. Then, on a whim, I thought, why not try this side road and see where it goes. Boy, am I glad I did! I couldn't believe this neat old building just sitting there next to the rail road tracks right on the edge of down town. Since it was late Sunday afternoon, most of the businesses were closed and I was able to set up in the parking lot right across the street for this scene. I painted without any interruption except for a few people who stopped by to see what I was doing. I finished this up just as the sun was setting.  This painting will be available at the show and sale starting Friday, June 3rd at Charauqua Auditorium until Sunday, June 6th.    Try as I might, I could not get a picture without glare on it before I had to turn it in. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

I Grew Onions - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

I Grew Onions 8x10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. When my wife and I have the time and inclination, we love to drive to Dallas and go to the farmers market they have there. First off, it's huge! There are 3 sheds for produce,  a couple of flower and plant vendors and an indoor vending area. One of the produce sheds is reserved for local farmers, so this is our favorite place to go. Everything tastes and smells so good. It's hard to walk out there without armfuls of fresh produce. On our of our trips there, I noticed almost all the farmers have a little sign somewhere in their booth that says "I Grew" and then a blank spot for them to write in what ever they grew. Since I picked these onions from our garden this morning, I thought the title seemed appropriate. Tomorrow we are going to harvest the rest of our onion crop.   Now if we can just figure out how to properly cure them, we should have onions for good long while. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Bamboo with Vase - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Bamboo with Vase 7x5 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Shortly after my wife and I bought our house, we decided to put in a garden.  The previous owners had been growing low maintenance, but invasive bamboo, so we painstakingly dug it out and built raised beds over that area. We figured this would be a win- win for us since the raised vegetable garden would wipe out the bamboo, which has jumped it's edging and started to take over a large portion of the yard. For the last three or four years, our plan worked perfectly. This year, however, I've noticed a zombie bamboo shoot springing up just past where the garden is. Hmm... what to do? I like the look of the leaves and I think they would work well in my still life paintings, but I know if I let the plant go it will take over a large portion of the yard before I know it. For now and over Marcie's objections, I'm letting the plant grow minus the branches I chopped off for this painting. I actually had to cut the plant twice today for the leaves since this painting took three tries to get something I was happy with. With all that time spent painting the leaves eventually wilted to the point where they where un-paintable. So I guess if I keep painting them at this rate, I won't have to worry about the plant spreading across the yard. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Heron Flats - Aransas National Wildlife Refuge - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Heron Flats - Aransas National Wildlife Refuge 9x12 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Last week, as a part of our yearly trip to the Texas Gulf Coast, my wife and I went to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge for the day. Even though it was extremely overcast, we had a wonderful time watching all the birds and wildlife. We tried out our new binoculars, which has opened whole new discussion on acquiring more powerful camera lenses. For the first time for both of us,we saw nine alligators in the wild. Luckily, most of them seemed to be content with soaking in the water or sunning themselves on the shore rather than bother us, but it was still a little unnerving to realize the only thing between you and the alligator was some tall grass along the shore. It had rained in the morning and stayed cloudy most of the day, which made for great weather to be outside. I took a few photographs of this spot called Heron Flats after spending a great deal of time studying the landscape because I knew I wanted to do a painting of this area. I really liked the hazy look the rain and clouds produced while we where there, so that's the feeling I attempted to evoke. When we came home, I combined several of my reference photos together in order to create the water pattern running through the painting. I think I'm going to have to take a new photo of this one once the paint dries a bit. This picture seems to have a lot of glare on it. I've update the image with one that has less glare. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Years of Memories - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Years of Memories 11x14 Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara It seems like every few paintings my wife comments that she wants to "keep that one" so I thought I would do a painting for her for Valentines Day. To keep her guessing, I listed the painting for sale on eBay. Since it was a higher priced painting I didn't really think it would sell on there, especially since that, in my experience with eBay, the smaller, less expensive pieces ($100 or less) sell the best. Naturally then, on the very last day of the auction with about 10 minutes to go, someone bought the painting the day before Valentine's Day. Yikes!   Sheepishly, I explained to my wife that I had sold her painting. She was very understanding about it, but commented that for our anniversary she wanted a painting that would not find it's way to auction. Well, our anniversary is coming up this week so I've been working on this special painting just for her. I've had to sneak things from around the house into the studio and hoped she didn't notice them missing for a few days. Plus, I had to keep her out of the studio. There where a few times when I thought she would figure it out, but luckily she never did.   The painting is dry now, safely in her hands, and definitely not for sale. So since I know I can't sell this one, I thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that I do accept commissions. Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss a commission. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

At Least There's Cheese - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

At Least There's Cheese 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. I sent this last night, but blogger seemed to be down and it never made it. Hopefully this doesn't show up twice. When I saw this broccoli in the store, I was struck by the wonderful color in it. Full of greens, blues, and purples, I had to buy it to paint. I knew I didn't want a lot of other items in the painting so I could concentrate of the broccoli. Still, the set up needed something else to give it a bit more color and to contrast the organic shape of the broccoli. And what goes better with broccoli than cheese? This was a nice painting for a couple of reasons. First, there was the result of the painting itself. Secondly, it solved my dinner dilemma for the night. Two birds with one stone, I guess. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

At Least There's Cheese - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

At Least There's Cheese 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. When I saw this broccoli in the store, I was struck by the wonderful color in it. Full of greens, blues, and purples, I had to buy it to paint. I knew I didn't want a lot of other items in the painting so I could concentrate of the broccoli. Still, the set up needed something else to give it a bit more color and to contrast the organic shape of the broccoli. And what goes better with broccoli than cheese? This was a nice painting for a couple of reasons.  First, there was the result of the painting itself.  Secondly, it solved my dinner dilemma for the night. Two birds with one stone, I guess. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Cascading Zinnias - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Cascading Zinnias 8x10 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid.  Yesterday my wife and I took a walk to the nursery right up the street from where we live. We wanted to add some new flowers for our garden. Feeling confident with our new-found ability in keeping flowers growing and alive we walked around the whole nursery looking at all of the possibilities. After about an hour, it was time to make some decisions. In our minds, we must have picked out about 30 plants, but we had to narrow that down a bit. For one thing, our garden isn't big enough for all of those plants. Plus, we walked there and would have to carry back what ever we bought. After a bit of a debate, we settled on 5 or 6 plants, plus two new strawberry plants to help rebuilt our crop after a harsh winter did most of them in.  Once we had them home, I couldn't wait to paint them. I brought them straight into the studio and set up my still life. Once the painting was done, we took them all outside and picked out planters for them, transplanted them and set them in the garden. I'm already looking forward to painting this new batch some more as they grow and continue to bloom (here's hoping).   Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Almost A Pair - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Almost A Pair 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid.  I have to admit I came up with the title for this painting well before painting it. It came to me the other day while preparing lunch for my daughter (18 months). I had cut up about a half of pear for her, and, when I looked at the other half laying on the cutting board the title popped into my head. I knew I had to paint it, so today I got the left over pear out of the crisper draw and set up this still life. I tried a few different things for the background but really liked the idea of the plate and painted tin top since it sort of played off the title as well with both objects being circular.   Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

American Beauty - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

American Beauty 9x12 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. With this painting, I really wanted to work on sky and clouds, so I looked through some of my photo reference from a trip my wife and I took to Port Aransas. I remember the clouds being very full on this trip, which is perfect for my goals. After an hour or so of looking at my reference, I settled on 2 images, one for the sky and one for the boat and water. After working on a few thumbnail images to work out my composition and figuring out how to combine my images, it was time to paint.  I gave myself two days to work on this painting for a couple of reasons.  Primarily, I spent the whole morning looking at images and doing thumbnails so I didn't think I could finish it in one afternoon.  I was really able to relax and paint slowly, which was a prime advantage of my timeline. At the end of the day, I was a little surprised to see that it was just about done. The only thing left to do today was to finish the water, add the masting to the boat, and make a few corrections to yesterday's work. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Oranges with Glazed Clay - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Oranges with Glazed Clay 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. I've had some problems with my ankle and have needed to stay off of it for a few days, so right before the weekend, my wife and I went to the local thrift store looking for crutches. It turns out, thrift stores are flush with barely used crutches. So with that task conquered,  I just had to look around for some new still life items. Among the new finds is this great glazed clay pot that I just couldn't pass up. I like how it is dark, yet colorful. I'm not sure why, but as soon as I bought it, I pictured using it with a few oranges. I've also been thinking about trying to plant a few bright flowers in it that would really pop against the dark glaze. I guess that contrast is I thought oranges would look good, too.   Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com