Red Apple & Reflecton

Oil on canvas on panel, 6" x 6" -- Click Here to Bid

I've been working on some pet portraits these days. Then I thought I could use some color studies from still life painting for my current projects.I wanted to paint this red apple because it had these green leaves and stem. I wanted to focus on the color, based on "Tangerine Tango," the rich  red-orange.

Tango for Tobi the Sparrow

Oil on linen on panel, 6" x 6"

The Pantane Company chose "Tangerine Tango" as THE color of 2012. This week's Challenge given by Daily Paintworks is to do a painting based around this color. I painted our pet house sparrow, Tobi, in this color theme. First, I pre-mixed my "tangerine tango" with Shiva Red and Cadmium Yellow Pale. After I did underpainting with Terra Rosa and this mixture, I reserved the beak and foot with the pure tangerine tango, which I blended with more colors later to create gradation. Then I painted the local colors which all shares a hint of this orange. I made sure that brush strokes are clean enough to show through the base color here and there, by wiping the brush and reloading color from the palette after each stroke.

Penguin Pears

Oil on canvas on panel, 6" x 6" -- Click Here to Bid

I painted this last night, but didn't have time to post it. These are the pears for my breakfast today. We bought these pears from the WSU fruit orchard in Pullman, WA. I just love those colors and shapes. Since I love birds and painting them, I thought they looked like three colorful penguins, having a breakfast meeting. In order to show verticality in the composition, I used a coffee mug, and a small bowl to help the pears stand still.

Horses in Green Pasture

Oil on linen on panel, 6" x 6" -- Buy it at Daily Paintworks Gallery

These are the horses in the pasture of our neighbor across the street. I was painting this pasture from our front yard, and two horses showed up.

Too Early for Breakfast

Oil on canvas on panel, 6" x 6" --  Click Here to Bid

This is my "Progressive Breakfast" series #1. It's titled "Too Early for Breakfast -- Apple and Pepper Grinder in Dark." Here in Ellensburg, WA, it's still dark in the early morning, and our pet chickens have not laid fresh eggs yet for our breakfast. It's so cold in the morning that our chickens sleep in till around 8 A.M. So there are no eggs in this painting. (They all go to bed by 4 P.M. these days. It's different in the summer, though.)

Field Search

Oil on board, 6" x 6" -- SOLD

This is our Shantie, a Buff Orpington hen. She is very good at hunting bugs, especially grasshoppers, in the backyard.

House with Red Roof

Oil on linen on panel, 6" x 6" -- Buy it at Daily Paintworks Gallery

This is a landscape painting I did from our front yard last summer. Our house is in a quiet rural area in Ellensburg, WA. Our neighbors have pastures for horses, cattle, etc., and we have a dozen of pet chickens. I think I'll do a winter version of our neighborhood sometime soon.