Spinner - An Original 7 x 5 Still Life Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Spinner ©

7x5 inches   Oil

George De Chiara

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This was a pretty fun one to paint. I totally changed up my approach with this painting. I toned the canvas very lightly and let it dry. Then I very carefully drew a rough outline of the shape of the lure, just enough so I knew where everything went and that it was going to fit on the canvas. My goal was to be able to paint the lure without having to repaint the background. This meant I needed to really make sure of every brush stroke I made. I'd love to able say it want like I planned, but there were a few edges that I had to clean up. Rather than adding color to the background, which would have been my normal approach, I used a piece of paper towel dipped in turpentine to wipe off the paint I didn't want. This left the appearance on the background that I was after. I was also able to use this technique with the case shadows to soften the edges of them.

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Summer's End - An Original 8 x 6 Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Summer's End ©

8x6 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 Yes, I know summer is not officially over yet but with school starting back this week it feels like it is. You may remember from yesterday's post that I went out to paint the setting sun a few days ago, well, this is the painting from that trip. There weren't many clouds by the time the sun started to set and the glare off the water was too much to look at. I managed to find a spot in the shade of a few tall trees and noticed this scene across the lake from where I was standing. I loved the look of the last few sun rays striking the tall grasses and edges of the trees. As I painted these things, the bit of sky I had room for turned the most wonderful shades of pink, red and purple. What a treat!

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Flight - An Original 5 x 7 Wildlife Goose Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Flight ©

5x7 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

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 A few days ago, I went out painting at a nearby lake. I originally went to paint the sunset, which was still a good hour off, so while I was waiting, I noticed a gaggle of geese walking along the shore line. I was struck by what I saw and quickly set up my easel to try to capture the scene before me. Well, I don't know if any of you have tried to paint wildlife from life, but they don't stay in one spot for very long. Most of what I was able to get was nothing more than color notes. In the end, I wiped off my little study and painted the setting sun instead, but that hour or so of trying to capture the geese from life gave me some valuable insights when I painted this one from a photograph. In fact, the only thing I use the photograph for was the drawing of the goose. All of the color notes came from my memory of painting them from life.

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Wind Swept - An Original 8 x 10 Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Wind Swept ©

8x10 inches  Oil

George De Chiara

SOLD

 If you are a regular reader of this blog, no, you're not seeing double posts. This painting is the twin to the painting I posted yesterday. It was painted so the two paintings could make  bookends around a larger painting. I had to paint this one from my photos of Ready...Set...Bloom (yesterday's painting) and my memory of the scene. The collector who commissioned this one wanted it to feel like the other one, but not be an exact copy. I have to admit this turned out to be a really fun challenge. If you would like to commission a painting please feel free to contact me here. 

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Ready...Set...Bloom - An Original 8x10 Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Ready...Set...Bloom ©

8x10 inches   Oil

George De Chiara

SOLD.

I painted this toward the start of summer at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. It went straight to The Dutch Gallery in Dallas and I forgot to post it. Today I got the wonderful news that it sold, along with its "twin". Such great news to start the day with!  This was painted on a piece of masonite that I covered with Gamblin's oil painting ground. It's a little different from gesso and it makes the surface very slick.  I actually had to be pretty careful when painting on it, because if I hit the canvas with a dry brush I actually took paint OFF the canvas, which made for fun day of painting. I've done a few others on this type of support and I'm slowly getting use to it. On the next batch of boards I make, I'm going to try to get a little more texture with the ground and see if that gets rid of some of theslickness.

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Hot Dogs - An Original 8x8 Cityscape Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Hot Dogs ©

8x8 inches    Oil

George De Chiara

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 I felt like doing something a little different today. After looking through some of my old photo reference for inspiration, I found an old photograph of a hot dog street vendor in New York City. I love these little corner vendors and take full advantage of them every time I in the city, so why not paint one? I also change my approach a bit just to keep things interesting. Normally, I start in one area and work my way out. This time, however, I tried to keep the whole painting going at the same time by jumping from shape to shape to create interesting edges and texture. This actually help me keep things a little on the loose side of things, something that's often hard to do when working from photos.

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