Bertram W. W.

6"x4" oil on board. Portraits are fun to paint, so here is another one for you.
Posted June 19, 2009
private collection

Toy Tractor

4"x6" oil on board. It's turning out to be a week of toy paintings. If you have ever been to my home, you would understand why – they are everywhere! Stumbled upon this toy tractor, I dig toy tractors, and decided to paint it. It was a great challenge with it wheels and boxy frame. What I had not counted on was the complexity of the shadows. I really try to pay attention to shadows and give them their due, so this shadow dance was another fun challenge.
Posted June 18, 2009
private collection pound ridge, ny

Squirt Gun

4"x6" oil on board. This turbo charged turkey baster is actually a squirt gun. And, according to my son, it is an "antique". They now make much more advanced versions that can shoot a toupee off at 75 feet. The squirt guns I had as a kid looked like, well, squirt guns, not space-age weaponry any army would envy. Anyway, I tripped on it walking through the house, so here it is as a painting. All of its little geometric shapes made for good practice and the colors are fun. Hmm, I wonder if this would work on those cats?
Posted June 17, 2009
private collection glendale, ca

Toy Hammer and Balls

4"x6" oil on board. This painting is painted on top of a wipe. A wipe is when an artist, due to some mishap, mistake or just because they feel like it, scrapes and/or wipes a painting or section of a painting clean. The artist then either repaints or throws the freshly wiped board at the neighbor's cat to keep it from doing its business in my vegetable garden. Since there was no cat outside, I chose to repaint. The first painting was just the hammer alone sitting upright like an upside down "T" and something just didn't seem right to me, so I wiped it and painted this instead.
Posted June 16, 2009

Deuce Toy Car

4"x6" oil on board. And now for something completely different... Raymond is painting insanely detailed toy cars. Yikes! I don't know why I did this. Actually, I do: we have approximately two million of these little toy cars around the house and every single one of them, at one time or another, has been shoved in front of my face accompanied by the statement, "PAINT THIS!" So, I finely broke down and painted this one. According to the microscopic print on the bottom of this Hot Wheels toy, this is a '40 Ford Coupe. Notice how I am avoiding talking about the painting experience. Don't ask.
Posted June 12, 2009
sold • private collection washington, dc

Lid

6"x4" oil on board. Just me playing around with cast shadows. It was fun to take the lid off of this teapot and place it just into the edge of the pot's shadow. It is as if the shadow has a life of its own. The pot's handle was kept out of the picture on purpose. I was more interested in the shadow of the handle than the handle itself.
Posted June 11, 2009
private collection new york, ny

Honey

4"x6" oil on board. Yet another "Let's play with the composition, shall we?" painting. I think the more obvious play would have been to place her on the right, but her stare made me try her over on left and there she stayed. She doesn't look quite happy about it, but I don't care. I'm kinda rude that way.
Posted June 10, 2009

Makeup Kit

6"x4" oil on board. I think this is a makeup kit. Right now it is the sacred holder of small toys and other sundries. Anyway, the subject wasn't all that important to me. I wanted to try out this composition, it just popped into my head, and the makeup kit was there, so I used it. And yes, I know it's leaning. The lean is much more noticeable in this digital picture than it is in real life, really. A slight turn in its frame and – voila! – no tilt.
Posted June 9, 2009
sold • private collection los angeles, ca

Cup o' Tea

4"x6" oil on board. I guess you could call this a limited palette painting. It was created using four colors: yellow ochre, cadmium red, ultramarine blue, and titanium white. All the colors you see were borne of a mud made from the three primary colors listed above. Mud is a nice place to come from.
Posted June 4, 2009
private collection pasadena, ca

Have Another Banana Hanna

4"x6" oil on board. The condition of this banana necessitated a somewhat fast painting session followed immediately by the ceremonial eating of the subject. This made for a fun painting session and a sated artist. As always, the yellow on this made for a challenge – it's so weak that every other pigment on the board wanted to influence it. After several layers and some happy accidents, I think it is holding it own.
Posted June 3, 2009

Celeste #2

6"x4" oil on board. I present to you Celeste #2. Besides the technique being obviously different, it was painted with a different spirit. After finishing the first painting I was just itching to take a different tack and still catch who Celeste is. I hope I succeeded. After the wonderful reception Celeste's portrait received yesterday, I'll have to admit that I was a little reluctant to send this one out to you today. They are two different paintings of the same person and I wondered about the reception the second would receive. And then I thought to myself, "Self," I said, "you know, its what you do, you paint these and send them out into the world to who knows what kind of reception. The reception is not the point, the act of painting is what is important". Besides the fact that that little conversation with myself proves the harmful effects of longtime exposure to hazardous chemicals, it's has truth in it. Why did I paint this painting? Because I wanted to AND I enjoyed it. I chased Celeste's spirit one more time and I hope I caught it.
Posted June 2, 2009
private collection santa monica, ca

Celeste #1

6"x4" oil on board. Oh my dear, poor suffering friends. This is what happens when you have an artist as a friend – you are subjected to having your portrait painted and posted for the world to see. I have no excuse for my actions other than the standard artistic drivel: "I just have to do it" (I'll gladly omit the fact that they are free models, if you don't mind). This wonderful friend is actually the significant other of another friend of mine, the dapper Mr. F., whose portrait I painted and posted earlier. Oh yes, I don't make just one spouse suffer, I get them both. I painted two of these portraits of Celeste in somewhat different styles. The second will be posted tomorrow. Why not post them together? Because I am going to milk it for all its worth. • A note: Sorry for the lapse in posting. If you do not subscribe to my emails, you don't know why this occurred, so let me explain. I hurt a finger on my painting hand and was forced to keep it in a splint. Having a splint on your finger is not conducive to painting, so I didn't. I am back now, pushing the paint here and there.
Posted June 1, 2009
private collection santa monica, ca