Day 42 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Changing Lures - by George De Chiara

Changing Lures

6x6 inches

Oil on Canvas Panel

by

George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

I've turned to my tackle box several times during this painting challenge for models to paint. For this set up, I once again called on it, but this time I used the whole tackle box. I wanted this to have the feeling of slightly spilled or unorganized, like the fisherman has tried out many different lures to see what interests the fish. Sometimes he puts them back in the box, sometimes just getting them close to the tackle box is good enough. Hmm... this is starting to sound like some of my fishing trips.

To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here.

To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 41 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Golden Hour - by George De Chiara

Golden Hour

6x6 inches

Oil on Canvas Panel

by

George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

I actually started off the day working on a still life painting while our daughter napped. Well, I should say while out daughter was supposed to nap. Less than an hour into nap time, she was up and running around again. Finally, my wife and I decided that we would go and run some errands since she wasn't sleeping. On the way to our first stop she fell asleep in the car. How predictable is that?! Since I wanted to make sure she got at least a little sleep today, I dropped my wife off at the store and took a drive with a sleeping baby girl. The best way I know to discover new places to paint is go out and explore, so that's exactly what I did while she slept in the back of the car. I found a few locations that I'd like to explore further when I can get our of the car and look around. One of them was this little spot.

To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 40 of the 50 Day painting challenge - How'd Ya Get Up There - by George De Chiara

How'd Ya Get Up There

6x6 inches

Oil on Canvas Panel

by

George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one cent!

I can't believe I'm down to the last 10 paintings for my 50 paintings in 50 days challenge. It makes me want to do a NASA style countdown for the last paintings. 10...9...8...Well, you get the idea.

For today's painting, I again turned to some of the fruit I bought yesterday at our local farmer's market. It took some time to come up with an arrangement I was happy with. I initially started off with some tomatoes and onions, and nope, didn't like that. Next, I tried a few lemons and limes... but, no I just painted limes yesterday. Hmm... how about these peaches? They have lots of great color to them, I especially like the one with the yellow stripe across the top. And maybe a plum to go with them. Ah yes, after an hour or so I finally had something to paint. Now I just needed to paint it!

To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here.

To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 39 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Citrus Party - by George De Chiara

Citrus Party

6x6 inches

Oil on Canvas Panel

by

George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one cent!

Today I found a new source for my models. It's a little farmer's market just around the corner from our house. They opened a few weeks ago, and I finally had a chance today to go and see it for myself. It's a tiny store, run by a very kind older gentlemen who showed my around the place and talked at great length about his produce. After looking around for a little while, I bought a few oranges, tomatoes, lemons, limes, plums, peaches, and a cantaloupe and even a mango. When I got home I was very excited to set a still life with my new models and go right to work. This arrangement came together pretty quickly, as it just needed a few adjustments and away I went.

To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here.

To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 38 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Texas Sunflowers - by George De Chiara

Texas Sunflowers

6x6 inches

Oil on Canvas Panel

by

George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

We've been in a severe drought here in Texas this year. It's been hot and dry for weeks now. Even though I can't recall the last time we had a good rain (it's had to have been at least 6 weeks ago), somehow, just down the road from us, there's a field of wild sunflowers growing and blooming like it's Spring. I have no idea how these flowers are surviving this heat, but there they are, going strong for several acres. Yesterday, I went down and cut a few of the flowers to paint. As soon as I got them home, I gave them a good drink of water and they perked right up. I just knew they would make good models to paint so I set up a still life with them and got to painting.

Then a funny thing happened. About an hour into my painting, I realized I was heading for a bad place so I wiped my canvas clean and started again. Another two or three hours of painting passes, and the only thing I had to show for it was another wiped down canvas. Hmm... somethings wrong, but what? So I thought, I'll change the arrangement of my still life. Okay, good, now back to painting. Another hour or two, and, again, the only thing I've accomplished is wiping down my canvas. Finally, I just took a break. I did everything I could think of to get rid of the heebie jeebies that were killing my painting attempts. I let a few hours go by to try to forget about the day's missteps and then went back to painting. This time I could feel things were different.

To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here

Day 37 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Jump Up - by George De Chiara

Jump Up

6x6 inches

Oil on Canvas Panel

by

George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

 For today's painting, I wanted to work on reflections, so I put a piece of glass on the bottom of my still life box. The reflections help give the foreground more interest without the need for additional objects. Plus, there just fun to paint! Now I just needed to find something to paint, so I went to my favorite source, the veggie drawer in the kitchen fridge. I quickly found these two apples and stacked them on top of each other to carry. As soon as I did, I knew that's how they needed to be painted, so I brought them to the studio and set up my still life. Still, I thought it needed something else, so back to the kitchen I went to grab a cherry. I liked the difference in sizes between the cherry and apples and how the cherry has a very long stem, while the apple has a very short one.

To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here.

To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 32 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Almost Ripe - by George De Chiara

Almost Ripe

6x6 inches

Oil on Canvas Panel

by

George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

I've waited a day or two for these bananas to ripen a little before painting them. If you live in a part of the country that's getting the same kind of heat we are here in Texas, then you know if doesn't take long for them to go from green to ripe to needing to make banana bread. I could almost see them ripening before my eyes. I even changed the lights I use in my still life box to ones that don't get as warm so they wouldn't brown as I painted.

To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here.

To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 31 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Papa's Pin Cushion - by George De Chiara

Papa's Pin Cushion 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent.   When setting up yesterday's still life, Lost Buttons, I pulled out this pin cushion, but it just didn't fit in with the set up I had so I put it aside for today. My wife's grandfather (Papa) built this in his work shop a few years ago. He's quite the wood worker and loves to share the things he builds with everyone in the family, and, of course, we love to get them. Almost every room in our house has something he has built, like wooden puzzles and night lights for our little girl's room, wooden bowls in the dinning room, candle holders, and even our Christmas tree is decked out in custom hand-made ornaments every year thanks to him.   To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 30 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Lost Buttons - by George De Chiara

Lost Buttons 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent!  I have to admit, I know very little about sewing. I know you have to put the thread through the needle, but that's about it. The few times I've had to sew on missing buttons, I almost always had to have my wife fix them for me. She and my mother-in-law are the sewers in the family. Since my wife and I share our studio space, I see a lot of sewing equipment all the time. I just love these little wooden spools of thread she has. I like to think of them as stringy tubes of paint with irresistible color. Every now and again, I like to take out some of them and use them in my still life paintings. They are a treat to paint since I hardly ever run into these colors in anything else To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 29 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Sunset At Pappy Elkins Park - by George De Chiara

Sunset At Pappy Elkins Park 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one penny! I really enjoy getting out and painting sunsets from life. For me, they are one of the most challenging scenes to paint because of the speed in which they change. I've got to paint quickly since there is less than an hour to get all the information I need. For this painting, this hour timeframe worked out well since that was about all the time I could spend looking at sun before my eyes hurt. When the skies are only partly cloudy, the sun is very intense and hard on the eyes. This is a serious issue so when I set up to paint, I chose a spot a little behind a tree that I would use to block the intensity of the sun while painting. I did the initial study on Saturday and then spent a few hours today adjusting it based on the color notes and information I gathered while painting this from life.   To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 28 of the 50 Day painting challenge - What's That? - by George De Chiara

What's That? 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent!  On one of our trips to the Texas Gulf Coast, my wife and I stopped by a small dock that offers chartered fishing trips just to nose around.  We were looking for some pelicans to take pictures of and this spot had a few. While I was busy photographing them, one of the charter boats came in and was followed very intently by a pod of pelicans and flocks of seagulls. At first I wasn't sure why these birds followed the fishing boat back into harbor, but then they started cleaning the day's catch and it all made sense. The birds knew that fishermen would throw the fish inners into the water for them where they would swoop into the water after the easy meal. It was a sight to be seen, and I quickly snapped off picture after picture. At one point, I glanced up at the top of the little cleaning shack and noticed the entire roof line was covered in gulls. I was struck by the way they all looked lined up wing to wing, and how they seemed to lean over the edge to watch the fishermen as they worked. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 27 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Morning Shadows - by George De Chiara

Morning Shadows 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one penny! This morning, I went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to paint with a group of other painters. This was the first time I've painted there, so I spent part of my morning walking around looking at different locations to paint. There are a lot to choose from, but I finally settled on this view of the trellis that ran though part of the rose garden. I really liked the contrast in horizontal and vertical shapes and the light against the shadow. Since we where there early in the morning, I was able to paint without much interference from people walking through. As the day went on though, more and more people started walking through here and taking pictures. It seems to have been a pretty popular spot. To read more about this painting visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 26 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Book Worm - by George De Chiara

Book Worm 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! I didn't realize it at the time, but we have a Christmas ornament that looks almost just like this still life arrangement. My wife is a teacher, and somewhere along the line someone gave it to her. Every year when we decorate the tree, I always seem to notice this one more than any other ornaments. I'm not sure what me think of it today when I was setting this up. I know it wasn't intentional and I didn't even realize it until I added the apple to the still life. Then it hit me, it's the ornament! I was just trying to make an interesting arrangement with these books, and it's funny how the subconscious works sometimes. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 25 of the 50 Day painting challenge - White Pelican - by George De Chiara

White Pelican 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! Day 25, I can't believe I'm half way through this painting challenge! It's been a great time so far and I've really enjoyed hearing from so many of you. Now it's time to buckle down and get through the next 25 days.    The inspiration for today's painting came from one of the many trips my wife and I have taken over the years. We usually try to go to a bird sanctuary or wildlife refuge for a day or two on each trip. We spotted this white pelican while we where in Corpus Christi last year at a great bird refuge. It was hard to choose between this white pelican and the roseate spoon bills, herons, seagulls and ducks of all kinds. I must have taken a hundred photographs while we were there. I settled on this shot because of the way the light was striking the pelican and just loved the way it fell across his beak and neck. For this painting, I videotaped myself painting. Visit my blog here to see all of the videos! To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 24 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Sunset on Lake Arlington - by George De Chiara

Sunset on Lake Arlington 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! I love painting outdoors when I can. While I can handle heat most of the time, I do have my limits. Here in Texas it's been 100+ degrees everyday now for more day's than I care to count. The last time I went out in that kind of heat, I was literally wiping the sweat from my eyes every other brush stroke. For a good sunset though, I'll put up with these conditions. Unfortunately, we don't always get very exciting sunsets. For most of the summer, the clouds burn off before the sun sets, leaving us with a blinding, mostly colorless sunset. So when the mood hits to paint one, I have to spend days watching the clouds for one that I think will be good. Many times it looks promising right before dinner, so I quickly eat, pack up my painting supplies, kiss my wife and little girl goodnight, and dash off to try to catch the last light of the day. Sometimes I get out the door and take one look at the sky and know the clouds have burned off; other times it looks more promising, so I head out. I have three or four spots that I like to go to for these types of paintings. All of them involve water since I like to catch the reflection while I'm at it. When I headed out for this painting, I thought we where going to have some good clouds with lots of color, but as soon as I got to my spot on Lake Arlington and took a look, I was staring into a blinding sun with almost no clouds.  There was nothing to catch any color or block the sun. I figured I had two choices - I could go home without a painting or stay where I was and make the best of it. I choose the latter, and while it was hard on the eyes trying to look out on the lake long enough to paint it, I'm happy I stuck with it. In order to paint this, I had to glance at the horizon for just a second or two and then look away. Otherwise I would see sun spots when I tried to mix my colors and paint. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 23 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Night Light - by George De Chiara

Night Light 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent!  When I first decided on doing this challenge, I made a rough list of ideas for paintings.  Among the general ideas I jotted down was to do a few nocturnal paintings. Even though I paint outdoors, I've never tried a nocturnal painting before. I wasn't too sure what to expect painting in just the light of a nearby porch light, but I was anxious to give it a try. For this painting, I played it a little safe and set up in front of my house.  The street light a few houses away made for an interesting subject for the evening. After about five minutes of painting, I was glad I had set up so close to home. I had to run in and get something to keep the mosquitoes away. Note to self: Don't forget the Off next time!   By the way, my wife doesn't think that the richness and velvety look of the painting has translated very well into the photo, which is a good reminder that the painting almost always look better in real life. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 22 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Why Can't We Be Friends? - by George De Chiara

Why Can't We Be Friends 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just ONE penny! Every now and then, I come up with the title of a painting before I even start painting it. It's pretty rare, I think in the last 3 years it's happened maybe 5 times. Usually I settle on a title either while I'm painting it, usually towards the end of the painting or after I'm done painting, but today was one of those rare days where I had a title before I started. I woke up this morning with this song line running through my head, Why can't we be friends? Over and over again, I just couldn't shake it. Then it hit me, that's what I'm going to call today's painting. I was planning on painting these bell peppers, but I didn't know what I was going to do with them until that song line got stuck in my head. Then the idea came to me pretty quickly. That little banana pepper is trying to fit in with the larger bell peppers and he's asking them, "Why can't we be friends?" Silly I know, but that's how today's painting idea came to me. To see my step-by-step demo of today's painting visit my blog.   To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 21 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Texas Wild Flowers - by George De Chiara

Texas Wild Flowers 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one penny! Today I once again turned to some of my photo reference for inspiration.  Last year, I took some photos of the south Texas wild flowers blooming and decided to do something with them today. Spring of 2010 was an explosion of color everywhere I looked. My in-law's house is surrounded by fields that all bloomed. One had these yellow sun flowers as far as the eye could see, and another had these little white and blue and purple flowers everywhere. I just couldn't decide which one to paint, so I did the next best thing. I took  the two images I couldn't decide on into Photoshop and combined them.   To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 20 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Hey There Little Red Rooster - by George De Chiara

Hey There Little Red Rooster 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just ONE CENT! The other day on Facebook, some of my fans made suggestions of some things to paint during this challenge. I loved the suggestions and feedback from them. While I have a pretty good list of subjects already, I really like a lot of the suggestions and plan to use what I can.  One of my fans mentioned they would love to see a painting of a Rhode Island Red Rooster. It just so happens that I have some pretty good photo reference from our grandmother's chicken coop of her rooster. I didn't know it at the time, but her's is a Rhode Island Red. Since I was thinking about doing this for the challenge anyway, things couldn't have worked out better. If you'd like to join my Facebook fan page you can do so by clicking here. FYI: I haven't really announced this yet, but when I reach 200 Facebook fans I'm planning on doing a drawing for a free 6x6 inch painting. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 19 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Cisco Kid - by George De Chiara

Cisco Kid 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! It seems like every time I pull out my fishing lures, I have to do two or three paintings of them before I'm satisfied. For those of you not keeping score, I did one yesterday with 3 of my lures in it and now one today. For today's painting, I wanted to explore how I could make an interesting painting with very few objects. In this case just two, the lure and a small branch. I wanted to lure to be as large as possible and still have an interesting composition. To achieve that, I was going to need a good cast shadow, so I placed my light is such a way that it would produce a strong shadow. I had to play around with my arrangement of the lure and light for a bit to get something I was happy with. I think the key was getting the lure to rest on the branch. The helped give the painting some depth and movement. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 18 of the 50 Day painting challenge - The One That Got Away - by George De Chiara

The One That Got Away 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one penny! Recently my in-laws came by for a visit. They have an old hickory tree that's falling down and have cut it up to use for barbecue wood. I've wanted to try some of this out next time we cook, so we asked them to bring us some. They brought a pretty good sized batch of wood and I was anxious to look through it and see what we got. While checking it out, I ran across one piece that really caught my eye. I knew I wanted to use it in a still life, but what would I use with it? Well, my fishing lures of course! When I'm setting up a still life scene like this I always think about what it must look like at the bottom of the lake. How many fisherman have lost their hooks, bait and lures to mysterious objects under the water's surface? I know I've lost my share of tackle, never to know what grabbed on to it. To see my step-by-step images of this painting coming to life, please visit my blog. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 17 of the 50 Day painting challenge - One Hot Number - by George De Chiara

One Hot Number 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! When I was setting up my still life a few days ago (Day 15), I had an idea for another still life with my peppers. Today's idea was a little simpler, with just three peppers, but I think it has more impact. The small size of these challenge paintings works very well with small, intimate arrangements like this. It gives me a chance to really concentrate on accurate drawing, values, and colors. I also had another opportunity to use sheet music for my background. I've done this on several still life paintings in the past. I think the sheet music gives the background some interest and uniqueness, while not detracting from the main objects. Besides, there's something really interesting about painting the notes on the paper.  I don't really remember how to read sheet music anymore, it's been too many years now and I take a lot of liberties with it when I'm painting it. I'll move the notes around to give it more of a pattern. To see a step-by-step demonstration of how this painting came to life visit my blog. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 16 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Indian Blankets - by George De Chiara

Indian Blankets 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! My first spring in Texas, which was a mere eight years ago, I was struck by all the wildflowers that bloomed along the highways and empty fields. At the time, I didn't know the story of why we had so many wild flowers or where they all came from (thank you Ladybird Johnson!), but I was instantly hooked on the color of them. From that point on, I looked forward to each spring and the blooming flowers. Sometimes I'm able to go out and paint these wonderful flowers from life, but other times I have to capture them in photographs to be painted at a later date. That's the case with today's painting. These Indian Blankets grew in our back yard last Spring. We only had one plant with a few blooms on it, but I was still very happy to see them right in my yard. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to paint them when they where blooming, so I took a few photographs of them. Today I remembered about those pictures and pulled them out to paint. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 15 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Five Fingers of Peppers - by George De Chiara

Five Fingers of Peppers 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! Happy Fourth of July everyone! I hope you all had a great day with family and friends. I spent a few hours of my Fourth painting, and, of course, working on this blog. My models today came straight from our garden. A few evenings ago, I picked a large bunch of ripe, red cayenne peppers. During the spring when I planted these, I had high hopes of being able to get a few to paint, but I had no idea how plentiful our harvest would be. Now my wife and I are talking about how we are going to dry and grind them. I can't wait to use a few for our barbeque rub. I hope they are as tasty as they look. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 14 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Little Poppers - by George De Chiara

Little Poppers 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! Somehow, in all the heat we are having here in Texas, our tomato plants are still managing to produce and ripen handfuls of tomatoes just about every day. Every evening, I go out when the sun is setting and check on the garden, do a little weeding and pick everything that's ripened during the day. Last night, I picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes and  yellow bells, along with a large handful of cayenne peppers. When I brought them into the house, I laid them out in the kitchen in piles to show my wife the harvest for the day. While waiting for her to come and see I was struck by the way the tomatoes looked scattered across the counter. I knew I had found what I would paint today. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 13 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Beach Reflections - by George De Chiara

Beach Reflections 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent!  Today, I still felt inspired to paint more water, reflections and the beach, so I again turned to my photo reference from Mustang Island. This painting actually has the boat from yesterday in it. I'm just pulled back a bit so I can also paint the catamaran next to it. To mix things up a bit today, I used my palette knife for a large portion of this painting. I'm slowly getting better with my palette knife and I can control it much better these days. Having used it to paint my color charts last month, the practice is really paying off now. The knife tends to put the paint on very thick, which is one of the nice things about using it. The colors mix in a very unique way that can only be achieved with a knife. When I needed to use a brush, I made sure to load it up with thick paint too so the style would match. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.

Day 12 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Beached Catamaran - by George De Chiara

Beached Catamaran 6x6 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Opening bid just one cent! Yesterday's painting got me thinking about painting more water, specifically reflections in the water. I'm not sure why, but I really enjoy painting the reflections. There's something about the symmetry that puts my mind at ease. I often find myself getting lost in thought while painting them and when I finally look up, hours have passed and huge portions of my painting are done. This is one of the true joys of painting for me, that zen-like state where you can lose track of everything and just relax. To see a complete step-by-step demo of how this painting came to life visit my blog here. To see more of my paintings and all of the 50 Paintings in 50 Days Challenge Paintings visit my web site here.