I Break For Irises

Blue Tongued Beauties 8x8 Oil on Linen

And anything else that I think might make an interesting photo that I could use for painting.  I’m loving Kevin Weckbach’s “Master Class” in oil painting but I've learned already that I need to keep taking a lot more photos.  He gives weekly “homework” and it’s nice to have a variety of subject and themes to choose from.

Photography is not my strong suit so I find I have to take dozens of photos to get just that right painting. Last Saturday morning (while visiting a neighborhood tag sale) I spotted these intense blue violet irises. 

In Kevin’s class we’ve been reviewing the importance of strong, unique, specific shapes as well as dark and light pattern in paintings. So I really tried to concentrate on achieving both in this study.  Speaking of Kevin there's a nice article about him in this month's Southwest Art Magazine previewing his one man show opening on May 11 (my birthday) at Gallery 1261 in downtown Denver. I can't wait to see this and Wicked for the first time that night.


The Summer Art Market is (yikes) only about 5 weeks away on June 9 so I’ll be concentrating most of the next month on painting for that. Most of the paintings I'm posting from now until then will be on sale at SAM-- Particularly since I have an entire booth to fill this year which is both daunting and exciting.

Quick thanks to all my Spring students--Hope you all have a wonderful May month of creativity, spring joy, and artistic discovery!

Ivory Kimono

Like many artists, I own hundreds of art books, but only a handful become "must have" favorites. A few weeks ago I ordered Kevin Weckbach's little paperback A Visual Palette: A Philosophy of the Natural Principles of Painting and I've read it twice already.

I've taken only a few classes with Kevin, so it was a treat to have his insights and wisdom handy in book form. I highly recommend it, especially if you like Robert Henri's classic The Art Spirit, another studio favorite. While neither book is heavy on visuals, the information in them is invaluable.

A few years ago, Kevin's wife (then pregnant) modeled for another figure class I was taking and she is the model here. It's one of my personal favorite figure paintings.