Guarding the Castle - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Guarding the Castle 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid.  Every now and again when I'm setting up a still life, I get these silly little ideas in my head about what could be happening at this moment in time if these object where actually alive. Today was one of those times. While setting up my still life, I had this idea that the little lemon was fending off the tomatoes who were trying to get past it. I'm not sure what triggered this thought, but I think it was the way the vine on the tomato looked. Then I thought, well, if the lemon is a guard he needs a shield, so I went outside to our lemon tree and picked a couple of leaves off of it. I figured the one leaf leaning on the lemon is his shield. The other ones are various weapons that the tomatoes knocked out of his hands. Once this story played out in my mind, the title was pretty easy to come up with. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Make Like A Tree... - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Make Like A Tree... 5x7 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid.  Last night, I was watching Richard Schmid's DVD "The Capital Collection." This is a wonderful DVD with artwork spanning most of Schmid's career. He narrates the DVD with stories and the history of each painting while throwing in a lot of interesting little tips along the way. During the presentation of one of his floral paintings, he talks about the importance of painting leaves and how they can make or break a painting. A few slides later, another floral painting come up, and, again, he mentions the how the leaves really make the painting. With this in mind, I thought I would practice painting leaves of various types and colors. I have to admit this is one area where I usually struggle.  Sometimes I try to get by with more of an impression of the leaves then an accurate rendering of them. By doing a painting of pretty much nothing but leaves, I was forced to concentrate on them and learned a great deal about painting them. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Out for the Day - Original Oil by George De Chiara

Out for the Day 6x8 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid.  This is a painting I did out at Lake Weatherford just a few days ago. I actually paint this same spot last summer. The water level is much lower now and I was able to paint these docks from a little further in from of them then last time. I also took a few progress pictures as I worked on this painting. Check out my blog to read more out this painting and see how it came about. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Rocky Shore - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Rocky Shore 6x8 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. Yesterday I found this spot at Lake Mineral Wells while exploring and returned to paint it today. The lake has several little docks scattered around for fishing, or painting in my case. Almost all of them are somewhat hidden and require a short hike to get to. This one was no exception. It's about a 10 minute hike straight down the rocky hillside. This gave me a chance to try out my new backpack straps for my easel. The straps worked great and made traveling with a french easel much easier! Luckily, no one was fishing off of this pier so I was able to set up my equipment and paint in almost totally seclusion. The dock was just further enough out that I could turn around and get a nice view of the shore line. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Spring Trio - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Spring Trio 6x8 inches Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to bid. These are the same flowers I painted a few weeks ago. They are thriving so I decided to paint them one more time, only this time, I used them all together. How can I resist when they are growing so well? I did take them inside to the studio so I could arrange them a bit better and I'm glad I did. It took almost an hour to come up with something I was happy with. This really surprised me, but I hadn't consider when I planted them that I used almost the same pot for each one. This meant when I went to set them up they where all about the same height which makes for a terrible composition. In the end, I wound up having to put different size object under each pot to offset them a bit. I guess next spring I'll be sure to vary my pots a bit more when I do my planting. Live and learn.... Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

South Texas Hills - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

South Texas Hills 6x8 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George  De Chiara Click here to bid. I spent a few days in south Texas visiting with my in-laws recently. While I was there I managed to get out one day and paint this view of the Hill Country. Just outside of Hondo is a picnic area that is at the top of a hill and has this great view of the surrounding area. The sun stayed behind the clouds almost all day, right up to the time I put my brushes away. Naturally after I was finished, it came out and shone for rest of the day! Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Weatherford Ranches - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Weatherford Ranches 14x11 Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to purchase through paypal ($330)  I've wanted to paint a view like this since last summer. This is from the outskirts of Weatherford, which is full of ranches and valleys with these great views. I've always thought it would be a great lesson in aerial perspective. I've gone out a few times with the intention of painting these views, but I could never find a safe place to park and paint from. The roads in this part of Weatherford are strictly 2 lanes with no shoulder or spare room to park. They are also full of hair pin turns and hills leading to lots of blind spots. Today I finally found a place that I could pull off the road and have a great view to paint. I can't belive I didn't find this spot sooner since it's literally down the road from where my wife use to live. I could have walked there from her old house. When I started this painting I thought it would be a horizontal view, but I really wanted to include a lot of the sky since we had such great clouds today. After trying a few compositions horizontally I flipped my canvas vertically and everything just seemed to fall into place. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Waiting on Spring - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Waiting on Spring 11x14 Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Buy now with paypal ($330). I can almost always find something to paint around Lake Weatherford and seem to return there often. In the past, it's been the many hay bales in the farms that surround the outer edges of the lake or the boat docks or just the views of the water and shore line. When I went to paint their last week, I already knew this was the view I wanted to paint. I had stopped by the day before while on an errand and this image just stuck in my mind. All night I thought about how I was going to paint this and had a very clear image in my head when I got there shortly after sun rise the next day. It was a cloudy morning, but when the sun came through it had this wonderful light about it that really made these trees come alive with color. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com

Last Light - Original Oil Painting by George De Chiara

Last Light 8x16 inches Oil on Canvas Panel by George De Chiara Click here to purchase though paypal ($275). Recently, I was sick for a few days and unable to paint. While laying in bed, I had some time to look at a watercolor painting of this subject that I have hanging in the bedroom. I remember when I painted the watercolor how much I liked it, but after spending some time looking at it again, I felt I wanted to give it another try. I usually don't like to paint the same thing over again, so this time I changed the proportion of the canvas and the medium. I also wanted to get the time of day a little more accurate to my reference photo, which I took at the end of the day when there was just a little light left as the sun sunk below the horizon. Visit my web site and blog to see more of my work. http://georgedechiara.com