Jitterbug - An Original 8 x 8 Still Life Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Jitterbug  ©

8x8 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 This is one of my favorite lures to fish with. I love the way it skips and jumps along the top of the water enticing the fish below to strike it. And when they do, there's no bigger thrill! The site of a large bass breaking through the water and splashing down on the bait is one I don't think I'll ever get tired of. Painting it was just as much fun! It took a few tries to get the lure to stand up like this and balance on its hooks. The whole time I painted it I had this fear of it falling over and being able to get it back into position. Luckily, this never happened and I was able to fishing the painting without any troubles.

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Hill Country Field - An Original 8 x 8 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Hill Country Field ©

8x8 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 This field of wildflowers was bursting with color! It was mostly full of Indian Blankets, but there was also what I think is wild verbena blooming. It had a wonderful purple color to it and is the main reason I wanted to paint this view. I loved the way its slender flowers poked up through the tall grasses and other wildflowers. This was one of those paintings that had to be done from life. The soft purple flowers just refused to be photographed without washing out and losing all of their color. Luckily, there was lots of shady spots to set up in and paint from. A nice relief from the hot midday sun that was pounding down on us.

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Schumacher Crossing - An Original 10 x 8 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Schumacher Crossing ©

10x8 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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While driving between Kerrville and Hunt, Texas, I ran across this little waterfall just off the roadside. I couldn't believe my luck! I love scenes like this, and this one come complete with a picnic area and plenty of parking. I later learned that this area is named after John Randolph Schumacher who, in the 1920's, built a series of dams across the Guadalupe River to provide security from rushing floodwaters for a river crossing and new road to Hunt. To this day, the dams remain, but an improved highway bridge now crosses the river.

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River's Edge - An Original 8 x 8 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

River's Edge ©

8x8 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 I spent this past weekend in the Hill Country of Texas. The first few days were spent painting in and around Kerrville, and, then on Saturday, it was off to Fredericksburg for the Oil Painters Of America Exhibition for some of the most impressive representational art I've seen. What a wonderful weekend! This painting was done in Kerrville at Louise B. Hayes Park. This is a huge park with lot of access to the river. I found this little spot just a few feet up the river from where the locals swam. Here the water was a little more shallow and full of rocks, which is what attracted me to this spot. I got here just when the sun was starting to set behind me and it gave the scene a very soft light.

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Cactus Blooms - An Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Cactus Blooms ©

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 When I came across this cactus, I knew I wanted to paint it. I loved the back lighting, which created an interesting pattern of light and shadow. The bright red and pink blooms where a nice bonus to the scene. I was able to find a nice low location to paint this from, which let me get this rather front on view. The whole time I painted, the cactus was buzzing with activity as bees and other insects flew around it. Occasionally, they would buzz me to see what I was up to and then go back to feeding on the flowers.

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Maytime Verbena - An Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Maytime Verbena ©

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 This is from one of my favorite places in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, and, judging from how many people passed me by while I painted this, I'd say this is a favorite place for a lot of visitors to the garden. This is by the wonderful fountain that sits at the bottom of the cascade leading down to the rose garden. There is so much color in this area right now. Everywhere I looked there was another colorful, vibrant flower blooming.  As a bonus, I was able to paint in a nice patch of shade which is always welcome when the day is full of bright, warm sun.

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Mepps Lusox - An Original 8 x 8 Still Life Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Mepps Lusox ©

8x8 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 Yesterday, I painted a still life of one of my newest fishing lures. That one was given to me by my wife for Christmas. Today's lure is one of the oldest one's I own. I don't remember where I got it anymore. I just know it's been in my tackle box for as long as I can recall. In fact, it's been moved from tackle box to tackle box as they wear out or break, but this Mepps lure has out lived almost every other piece of fishing gear I own. It's a bit worn now, which made it so appealing to paint, so I hope some of that comes through. It was a real trick getting it to stay in this position. It's a bit top-heavy and kept wanting to fall over. I finally had to use a little clay and string to get it to stay like this so I could paint it.

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Purple Tail - A New Original 8 x 8 Still Life Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Purple Tail ©

8x8 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 One of my favorite places to look for inspiration is my tackle box. I love the brightly colored fishing lures that fill it and have painted them often, though not very recently. Well, it's time for that to change. I dug through my tackle box and quickly found myself gravitating toward this one with its long purple tail. I love the color in it and really wanted to try to capture it with paint. Since I wanted to concentrate on the lure to try to capture it as accurately as possible, I kept the background and the surface it sits on pretty simple. I like this approach with these small still life paintings because it lets me concentrate on the things I want to and not get bogged down with other aspects of the painting.

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Wood Duck - A New Original 10 x 8 Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Wood Duck ©

10x8 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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We had a few days of rain in our forecast, so before the weather turned, I went down to the lake not far from our house to take some reference photos just in case I was stuck in the studio. Normally, this lake is full of ducks, geese and all type of water fowl, but on this trip there was just a hand full of mallards playing in the water. None the less, I began to take a few photographs of them because I was in the mood to paint some ducks anyway. While I was taking my pictures...Read more on my blog here.

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Researching Roses - A New Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Researching Roses ©

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 Yesterday, before the arrival of today's storms, I took advantage of the light and painted at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth. It's an amazing resource and I go there often because there's plenty of room and it's a free public space with so many eye-catching scenes. Although the gardens are quite large and varied, I usually go to the same general area when painting there. This time, however, I decided to try the other end of the gardens where they have a large research building and gardens. I'm not really sure what they are researching with the garden, but the whole thing was in full bloom. I found this rose bush with hundreds of buds bursting open. I loved the contrast between the shady background and the sun drenched flowers.

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Cloud Puff - A New Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Cloud Puff © 

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 Last year, while out on a drive, I discovered this little park. There's not really all that much there. Just a few sidewalks, a lot of open fields and trees and a very tiny pond. I remember going there once to paint, but didn't actually produce a painting. Sometimes that happens when plein air painting. I go somewhere, haul my gear in and never find anything to paint. After that, I sort of forgot about this place until I was looking at google maps for potential painting locations. For what ever reason, it showed promise again so I decided to give it another chance. This time I noticed this view of the field around the pond and the sky with just this one tiny puffy cloud. I loved the idea of painting a sky with just this tiny cloud in it and knew I had found something to paint here finally. I actually noticed a few other things that I might want to try at some point too, so it looks like I might be going back again. Lesson learned...sometimes it's good to give places a second look.

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Blowin' In The Wind - A New Original 8 x 8 Plein Air Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Blowin' In The Wind ©

8x8 inches   Oil

George De Chiara

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 Just down the road from where I live, there's a little nature area. I often go to it to paint since it's so close and I can usually find something that piques my interest. Every Spring, the park blooms with wild flowers like bluebonnets, purple verbena, buttercups, and pink evening primroses. Last year's show was unbelievable, and I must have done 4 or 5 paintings there! This year is starting off a little slower, but slowly, things are picking up. Right now the Indian Blankets are starting to come in. If we can just get a little rain, the while field would light up over night. For now though, there are a few really going good. This painting has several of them in it. It was windy while I tried to paint these, which made for an interesting painting experience. I had to look at the one I wanted to paint while it was still and then try to paint it before the wind blew it around. Fun indeed!

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Rocky Shore - An Original 8 x 10 Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Rocky Shore ©

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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This morning while I waited for the weather to warm up a bit outside, I decided to paint in the studio. I took a look through some of my photo reference and found this picture I took a few years ago at the lake just down the road from our house. It was during one of the worst droughts we had experienced since buying our house in North Texas. We had heard on the news about how low the lake levels had fallen, so my wife and I went down to see for ourselves. I took this image of the rocks that now made up the shoreline. This is normally a spot that is totally under the water. In fact, just behind us was a dock that was land locked at the time with a boat stranded on it. No water within 50 feet of the dock. Thank goodness that now the water levels are back to where they should be and this spot is once again hidden under the water. Hopefully, this is a view I never get to see again.

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Last Road Home - An Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Last Road Home ©

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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I had gone out to paint wildflowers when I discovered this scene along the back roads of Weatherford (Texas). While there where plenty of wildflowers to paint, this view kept calling me back until finally I gave in and found a safe place to park my car while I painted. It was a very cloudy morning with just spots of sunshine making its was through for a few minutes at a time then disappearing. I just had to roll with it and paint the scene the way I saw it, without much direct light. Of course, about 30 minutes after I packed up my painting and started to head home, the sun came out and stayed out for rest of the day.  

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Yellow Poppies - An Original 8 x 10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Yellow Poppies © 

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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While out driving around looking for places to paint I ran across a patch of yellow poppies. I don't think I've ever seen these before, so I stopped to do this painting of them. I love the color of these! Very bright and saturated. This is a great time to just drive around Texas and discover all the flowers in bloom along our roadways and in the fields. Its like fireworks growing out the dirt! I'm still trying to track down exactly what type of flower these are. So far the closest thing I can find is called a Mexican Poppy, but to be honest I don't think that what these are. I'll have to keep looking.  

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