Dutch Barns - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Dutch Barns
9x12 inches
Oil on Linen Panel
by
George De Chiara

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To get this painting, I actually used two different reference photos that I took somewhere in the Midwest many years ago. I liked the landscape in one of the images and the building structures in the other. That is one of the few advantages to working from photographs. If I had painted this from life I would have had to choose between the barns or the landscape I liked, but probably wouldn't have been able to use both. I took a lot of photo reference over the years, and, for all I know, the two I used could have been hundreds of miles away from each other. I can't remember exactly where these barns are located any longer, but I think they are along the Illinois/Wisconsin border.

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Guard Duty - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Guard Duty
9x12 inches
Oil on Linen Panel
by
George De Chiara

Contact me to purchase this painting ($230).

 About a year or so before I actually starting painting still lifes, I started to collect things that caught my eye as something I might want to one day include in my paintings. As any still life painter will tell you, we all love our "stuff" and usually have it stashed all over the studio. You never know when you will need just that perfect thing to complete your still life. You'll find us hunting through the thrift stores for that must have tea-cup or bowl or even the odd knickknack. I've noticed that sometimes I use what I buy very quickly; other times, things that looked good when I bought them seem to lose their appeal once back in the studio and are doomed to sit and collect dust until I notice their charm once again. Well, that little statue in this painting was one of the first things I ever bought for my still life collection. I actually have two of them, along with a few other little figures that I got for $2 at an estate auction almost 3 years ago. Then, there it sat on the shelf in the window collecting dust. I tried it in a few other set ups over the years, but it never really worked out so I always removed it and put it back in its place. Well, I'm happy to report after three years, I finally used this little guy in a painting! Hopefully another three years don't pass before I use it again.
 
To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Partly Sunny - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Partly Sunny
6x6 inches
Oil on canvas panel
by
George De Chiara

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One of the unexpected outcomes of the drought we had this year in Texas is views like this one. Normally the spot I stood to paint from would have been underwater, along with most of this scene. I was standing about 20 feet from where the shore line is normally. When I pick this spot for my painting the sun was shining though the rain clouds that threatened the day. After about 10 minutes of painting, the sun ducked behind a cloud and never came out again. Well, that's not totally true. Almost on cue when I stopped painting, the sun came back out for rest of the day. With any luck we'll have a very wet winter and spring to fill our lakes back up again. 

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Last Light - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Last Light
5x7 inches
Oil on Linen Panel
by
George De Chiara

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Mondays are busy days.  I take care of our baby daughter until my wife gets in from teaching and then I have to pack up to get my painting in for the day.  Between feedings and tummy time, I figure out where I am going to catch the last light of the day.  It can't be too far from the house because the sun sets awfully early these days, so I am grateful that we live in an area that has so many parks with leaves that are changing in color.  Last night, I got lucky and stumbled upon this scene just before sunset. There where just a few rays of sunlight reaching the tops of these trees and in the back of the field. I had to paint fast to capture this scene before the sun was gone and it disappeared. Adding to that, even in November, Texas has mosquitoes and they tried to carry me away as I worked.  As for the painting itself, the biggest challenge was capturing the large foreground. I loved the cool colors of the grass and path and thought I could use these to give the foreground some interest.

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Lake Como - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Lake Como
6x6 inches
Oil on Canvas Panel
by
George De Chiara

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 It's been a few days since I've been able to update my website. I've had some technical issues that seem to be worked out now and it looks like I'm up and running again! I painted this on Friday afternoon at Lake Como in Fort Worth. This wasn't the area I set out to paint. I originally had two other locations in mind, but I wasn't able to find either one of them because of a GPS malfunction. Well, it may not have been entirely the GPS's fault. I forgot to get the addresses of the places I wanted to go. Instead, I just had the names of the parks, which I thought would have been good enough, but alas, it was not. So after an hour or so of driving around in the area, I thought the park I was looking for was in I finally gave up and went to this park that the GPS was able to find. I had never been to this park and lake before, but wasn't disappointed at all becaue this is a beautiful little lake. The changing fall color was a very nice addition to the scene.
 
To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Fall At Trinity Hills - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Fall At Trinity Hills
6x8 inches
Oil on Canvas Panel
by
George De Chiara

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We are just starting to get our fall color here in Texas. I'm not sure how much we are going to get this year since we just experienced one of the worst droughts in recent history, but we are slowly getting some. A painting friend of mine suggested painting at Trinity Hill Park, but had to cancel at the last minute. I decided to go anyway and paint. Trinity Hills Park has been described as "the best place to stand in Fort Worth". While I'm not sure about that, it is a very neat place. First off, it's huge! You can hike for hours along the meandering trails. It also has some unique views of the city skyline with rolling hills in the foreground. I was lucky to come across this scene late in the day when those great cast shadows where going across the hillside. I really liked the pattern of light and dark that they created along with the little pops of fall color.

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Winter Tracks - An original oil painting be George De Chiara

Winter Tracks
9x12 inches
Oil on Linen Panel
by
George De Chiara

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This painting started off as a demo painting for the Ellis County Art Association last night. I had a great time painting and talking with the artists there, but, despite my best efforts to paint as fast as I could, I didn't have enough time to finish this painting. In fact, I would say in the hour I painted last night I made it to only about the block-in stage. Nothing had any detail to it and a few areas had some drawing mistakes that would need to be corrected. Since I was happy with the start I had made, I decided today I would take the painting into the studio and finished it off.
 
To see what this painting looked like at the end my demo visit my blog here.

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Tea Rose - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Tea Rose
6x8 inches
Oil on Canvas Panel
by
George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

Believe it or not, the Botanical Garden in Fort Worth is still in full bloom this late into November. In fact, in some places it looks more like spring than fall as flowers bloom and reach for the sky. The Rose Garden is no exception with every rose bush full of fragrant full blooms that are all popping with amazing color! This morning I met a group of fellow painters out there and it seemed like almost everyone fixated on the flowers today. I chose to paint these Tea Roses between the fountain and the lake. These are just a few of the many flowers blooming on a very large bush. The whole time I was painting this I could smell the roses, even over the oil paints! What a lovely surprise.

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Homestead - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Homestead
5x7 inches
Oil on Canvas Panel
by
George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

 I have a few demos coming up this month. On Monday night, I'll be doing a painting for the Ellis County Art Association and while thinking about what types of subjects I wanted to paint, a scene like this one came to mind. Since the time frame is relatively short, about an hour to an hour and half, I wanted to do this little piece for a number of reasons. First, it gives me a chance to work out how I might approach a subject like this without the pressure of a crowd watching. I could also time how long it takes to paint and make a few mental notes about how far I should be in the painting at a few given time intervals. Normally, when I'm not under any time constraints, I may take a few hours to complete a painting like this, so trying to complete it in a relatively short period was a real challenge. Luckily, I made it with a few minutes to spare. With any luck I'll be able to do the same on Monday night. If you're a member of the Ellis County Art Association be sure to come by and watch my demo. It should start around 7PM.

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Purple Basil - Original oil painting by George De Chiara

Purple Basil
6x6 inches
Oil on Canvas Panel
by
George De Chiara

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My wife and I have been experimenting with our green thumbs for the last few years. Slowly, but surely, they are getting greener, and, every now and again, we hit one out of the park. We are lucky that in Texas, we can garden almost year round and try to make the most of that by re-planting after we pull up the old crops. This year we had one whole bed of onions that we harvested early in the summer. Afterwards, we planted a bunch of plant seeds we had for a while. We weren't sure if they would still be good or not, but we figured we take the chance and see what happens. Almost everything we planted sprouted up, some faded fast or never produced fruit. Others, like this purple basil, took off beyond our dreams. I'm not sure how much for sure we harvested, but below is a picture of the plants pulled up and placed in a bucket so I could get them all in the house. Tomorrow we'll make basil ice cubes for the winter. If you're a gardener and haven't tried this for your herbs, it's totally worth it. They are very simple to make. Just chop up your basil or any other herb. We've done parsley and oregano, in addition to basil. Once you have it chopped up, mix in either a little olive oil or water and fill up an ice-cube tray. Once they are frozen, you can pop them out and put them in plastic bags to store. Then when ever you need some just throw a few ice cubes in what ever you are cooking. I think it tastes much better then dried herbs.

To see more of my paintings visit my web site here.

Fruit Stack - An original oil painting by George De Chiara

Fruit Stack
5x7 inches
Oil on Linen Panel
by
George De Chiara

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Opening bid just one penny!

 Back in the studio today. It's been a few days since I've painted indoors. My last few paintings were done outdoors, but I had set this still life up a couple of days ago and really wanted to paint it once and for all. I actually attempted this one right after I set it up, but about half way through that painting, I wasn't happy with what I had. Today I started over with a new approach. Okay, that's not totally true. I tried this new approach the last time I attempted to paint this still life. Like I said, it didn't go well, but with the knowledge of where I went wrong last time I approached my easel once again hoping to get a little further this time.
 
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 visit my web site here.