It's Monday morning and I'm going over my goals for the week. One of those things is to take some photos of myself and studio to post on my website. I want people to associate me with my website rather then just see my work and text. One of the things I hear about from time to time is that I don't show my paintings in the frame. The reason is that if I take a shot with the frame on there is always a shadow area around the inside edges that I don't like. To show the frames however, I plan on taking some shots of a [...]

It's Friday morning once again so it must be special time. This week I have for you "Roses" a beautiful vertical work in a matching dark rose red frame. The background is done with brushwork and I did the flowers with painting knives so they really jump out at you. This work would be great in the kitchen over the planning desk or in the bedroom. This work normally $219.00, will be $179.00 including frame and free shipping in the United States. Click "Framed Oil Paintings" below to bring this one home. Thats all for now, have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday! [...]

I started looking for website options for my artwork about 2 months ago to market my work better. I knew it would be alot of work to get things setup, but I had no idea how the "daily things" such as e-mail and setting up links would draw so much time. Before I knew it, I was spending most of my "art" time on my computer not my easel. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I feel blessed to be where I'm at right now. What I had to do was just to sit down and go over my routine and switch some things around to [...]

Today I thought I would share with you some of the things I've been through working on the mural that I talk about from time to time. This project came about from a visit one night to a friends in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. My friends landlord who lives across the street was paying a visit and mentioned that his wife is thinking about buying an "art" wallpaper to cover the back wall of their kitchen. As a serious artist just making a name for myself, I'm sure you can figure out what I said to him. We went over to his house after some time so I could see [...]

For the upcoming weeks special, I decided to share with you one of my larger works. "Outer Banks Sunset" was taken from a photo while on the Hattera's Island Ferry. I was blown away by these three big masses of clouds and the volume of space they were taking so I had to start taking some shots. About two minutes after my last shot the sun dipped below the horizon and everyone on board started clapping. This painting, normally $319.00 is $260.00 this week including frame and free shipping. Now that I think about it, leave a post with your e-mail and I'll e-mail you 3 ways to save [...]

Today I decided to go over my lighting setup, and how light in general effects artwork. I use standard light bulbs along with larger bulbs in reflectors in my studio. I have two coming down from the left side down to my palette and left side easel area. Above me are two standard 60 watt bulbs, and up on the ceiling coming from the right the two big ones filling in the middle and right side of my easel. This setup is perfect for a left handed painter such as myself but a right hander could simply reverse the setup. This produces a very bright work area which [...]

It's Friday morning and I'm just getting a start on my day. I got some cleaning to do in the studio as well as some computer work to do. I want to make sure things are in order before I head up to Uniontown to work on my mural tomorrow. I'm looking forward to finish work on it sometime at the end of summer or early fall. But being Friday it's special time and I have another nice summer offering for you this week. Summer Glory is a work from a photo taken in North Park. If I wouldn't have turned around I never would have seen this, [...]

I was going over in my head what I wanted to post in my blog today when it hit me. I looked over to the right and saw my memory card for my camera. Wow!, what a far cry from the old days, I stick this in the computer and there they are. I can edit them, resize them, filter them, and then print them myself. Ten years ago I had to be fussy about what photos I was going to take, after all I only have 24 shots. From there it was off to get them developed hoping that they came out good. Now I can take [...]

Monday morning again, hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. Today I thought I would go over the decision all oil painters face, to varnish or not to varnish. I myself do not varnish my work for two reasons mainly. First varnish in my opinion has a tendency to darken up as time goes on which will change the look and feel of the painting. Second, varnish has a tendency to crack which of course I'm not looking for. As a matter of fact, alot of the old masters paintings have varnish that cracked and darkened but the paint itself is fine. Don't get me wrong it takes years, and years, [...]

This morning after checking my e-mail I went over in my head what I want to do this weekend. I started blocking out my painting hours and what I wanted to do outside. I decided to go to good old North Park which I see as "my backyard". I've been hiking trails in this one for over 15 years and I haven't been on some for awhile now so they should be "fresh" again to go on. The special this week "Mcconnell's Trees" reminds me of that feeling, expecting to see ( and photograph ) some nice stuff, you just don't know what it is yet. This work [...]

Here we are again into another summer celebrating our nations birthday. Here in Pittsburgh as I write this rain is on the way, and as a result, fireworks might not make it tonight. Doesn't matter, I'm still having a great day feeling blessed for all I have in life. Today I got some work done on the computer but not much art related, I'll get back to that tomorrow. Speaking of which I'll have a new special for you on Friday, and a new framed oil painting coming next week. Reguardless of the weather in your area, enjoy the night, be thankful, and I'll talk to you again on [...]

Monday morning is upon us once again so it's time for me to go over my plans for the week. Tonight I'm expecting company so all my art related activitys will be done this morning and afternoon. One of the things I'm going to be doing is priming canvases our subject for today. After I have 2 or 3 canvases stretched the next thing that needs done is to prime them with acrylic gesso. This is a white "paint" that seals the canvas up because if you painted in oils directly on the unprimed canvas it would start to rot later down the road. I apply 3 coats [...]