Zoo Flowers - An original floral oil painting by George De Chiara

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Zoo Flowers © 

10 x 10 inches  Oil on panel

George De Chiara

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 Recently while visiting the San Antonio Zoo with my family, I spied this rose-bush. I instantly fell in love with the color of these roses with the way they were moving in the breeze. While our kids played in the children's area and my wife and in-laws took a much needed break on a near by bench, I snapped a few photos for reference to use back in the studio. After looking at these images, I decided that I like parts of several of them, so I took them into Photoshop and did a little creative editing to turn four of five of the images into one reference image I could use to paint from. While this is my least favorite way to work, sometimes, you just can't argue with the results.

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Dutch Branch Park - An original plein air landscape painting by George De Chiara

Dutch Branch Park ©

12 x 10 inches   Oil on panel

George De Chiara

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 It seems like the wild flowers are slow to pop up this year, but now we are stating to get a few. It's been a very dry start to the year and I'm sure that's contributing to the lackluster color so far. Some friends of mine discovered this small patch of blue bonnets and invited me to go paint them. Although the weather was mostly cloudy and very windy, I had a wonderful time painting with my fellow artists and spending some time catching up with everyone. Hopefully now that we've managed to get a bit of rain, we'll get a lot more wild flowers blooming in the fields.

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Where The Road Bends - An original plein air landscape by George De Chiara

Where The Road Bends ©

8x10 inches   Oil on panel

George De Chiara

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 It seems like forever since I've been able to get outdoors and paint. I've had a few projects in the studio keeping me busy lately, but I was finally able to find some time to get out. I found this scene along the back roads in Weatherford, Texas. I painted almost this same view once before, that time I was looking a little more towards the right and didn't have the road in it, but this time I felt the road added a nice element to help lead the eye into the painting. Plus, I didn't want to just repeat what I've already done.  It felt good to be out with the sun shining on me while I painted. I can't wait to get out again!

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Reflections - An original still life oil painting by George De Chiara

Reflections

10 x 10 inches  Oil on Panel

George De Chiara

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Reflections is the latest painting to come from the studio. I didn't set out to include so many reflective objects in my scene, but as it evolved more of more shiny objects seemed to find their way in there.  Some of them were easier to paint than others.  I must have wiped off and repainted the bronze planter three or four times before I was happy with it, for example. The biggest struggle I had with painting it was keeping the color harmony correct within the bronze. Finally, I remembered one of the things Richard Schmid talks a lot about in his videos, using your color charts when painting. I must admit I've let mine collect a little dust over the last year or two, but I don't think I'll let that happen again. As soon as I pulled them out and studied which ones had the colors I was seeing in the bronze things came together quickly with the painting. Lesson learned. Thank you Mr. Schmid!

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Moo - An original farm animal painting by George De Chiara

Moo ©

8x6 inches   Oil on panel

George De Chiara

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Being the father of two young kids, a four-year old and a two-year old, I hear my fair share of old Mc Donald being sung around the house. Sometimes I'm also privy to variations of the song including "Old Mc Daddy had a farm", one of personal favorites. I must have heard the song quite a bit over the weekend because without thinking out it I went to my studio today and  painted this cow. The whole time mumbling to myself E-I-E-I-O.

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Pom Poms - An original floral painting by George De Chiara

Pom Poms ©

6x6 inches   Oil on panel

George De Chiara

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 Anyone out there good at identifying flowers? After painting these,  I spent sometime online trying to figure out what type of flowers these are, but couldn't find them. If you have a guess, let me know. I believe they are some type of wildflower, but I'm not sure. At one point during the painting process my wife mentioned that some of them sort of looked like pom poms, that's where the name came from.

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Beach Flowers - An original floral painting by George De Chiara

Beach Flowers ©

6x6 inches   Oil on panel

George De Chiara

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For the last several years, my wife and I usually take a vacation to the Gulf Coast to enjoy some time on the beach. It's become a tradition we both look forward to each year because the sun shines, the water is warm and you can walk for miles on the beaches. On one of the first trips we made, I came across a small patch of morning glory flowers blooming on one of the sand dunes. I snapped a few photos of them, but never did anything with them. Recently, I stumbled on the photos again and decided they sat in my photo reference draw long enough.

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Then There Was One - An original still life painting by George De Chiara

Then There Was One ©

5x7 inches  Oil on Panel

George De Chiara

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This winter weather has really challenged my usual plein air habits. The unusually cold, wet outdoors has kept me in my studio looking for inspiration around the house. After a few minutes of rummaging around the kitchen, I noticed this one tomato still on the vine and knew I had found my subject for the day. It took a little fidgeting to get it to stay in this position. I really wanted the stem to go up at an angle toward the top of the canvas. I actually had to use a small piece of putty to keep the stem pointing where I wanted and to stop the tomato from rolling over.

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Winter Blooms - An original floral painting by George De Chiara

Winter Blooms © 

8x6 inches   Oil on Panel

George De Chiara

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 A couple of years ago, my wife went to a baby shower for a good friend of hers. As a thank you gift, the hostess gave everyone a small potted flower. When she brought it home we added it to our garden plants and over the years it's continued to grow. We've transplanted it into a larger pot every summer and every winter I bring it into the studio so it doesn't freeze. Last winter, I noticed the oddest thing, it actually bloomed when I brought it into the house. It kept the flowers all winter, but as soon as I put it back outside in the spring, it quickly lost all the flowers. It stayed this way all summer and fall. Again this year when the weather turned cold I brought it back into the studio and again it bloomed. Not sure why this happens. It seems backwards to me, but I'm not complaining, I love having fresh blooming flowers in the studio to paint!

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Avocado - An original still life painting by George De Chiara

Avocado ©

6x8 inches   Oil on Panel

George De Chiara

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 It's been sometime since I've posted anything on this blog, so please accept my apologies. Not to start a pity party for me, but the last few weeks have been...well, full of surprises. First off, my main computer crashed a few weeks before Christmas. After several attempts to revive it, I finally had to just let it go. Luckily, I had backed up its content to an external drive fairly regular, so only a small amount of data was lost. Then after the new year I got pneumonia and was laid up in bed for several weeks. Not a fun way to start the new year, but finally I'm feeling well enough to get back into the studio and paint.

 I've noticed on sunny days that there is a small window of opportunity where the sun shines into my studio in a most wonderful way. I've never been able to find a light that can illuminate my still life set ups in the same way the sun can. Unfortunately it doesn't last for very long, maybe 2 hours at the most and it moves quickly, but if I'm ready for it I can paint a small painting like this one under the natural sun light. I do have to move my still life once or twice to keep the lighting the same, but other than that it works like a charm.

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