October - paintings in progress

I've been tweaking these two paintings for since I last posted them.  Finally am finished and happy with the results.  I submitted for jurying the cycling painting from this summer's Tour de France to the spring show of WSO.  I'll find out in late December if it will be accepted or not.  This was a significant moment I selected after viewing the Tour for 27 days when in Stage 11 Froome (leader of the Tour in the yellow jersey) and Sagan (leading the point count for the Green Jersey which is the sprinters jersey) each broke away from the Pelaton early and stayed away until the finish.  They each had a teammate looking out for them.  I guess it had never happened before.  It was a surprise to see them both sprinting at the finish but of course Sagan took the win.  I hope my excitement for this awesome sport and event comes through in this painting.  I do like to paint action sports. UPDATE: It was accepted and please watch for exhibition details in April at the Museum of Art on the University of Oregon Campus beginning April 7th.

The wine cave painting is part of my latest series of wine related scenes and hopefully I can get these hung in some establishment soon.  I'll keep you posted.  I love how all five of our senses can be awakened in a wine cave.  The smells of wine, limestone, dampness all add to the excitement of finding wines aging in barrels and bottles just waiting for someone to purchase them.  Of course we always did make a purchase.  The walls of the old caves are hard to see in the dim lights but this cave had really good lighting so I wanted to focus on that so the cave walls could be enjoyed as well.

These are two paintings I have started in the past couple of weeks.  I always need to be working on several so I don't get in a hurry and mess up.  

The first painting looks really spooky right now which is why I went ahead and posted it -- HAHA Halloween! I don't fill in the facial features until I have a little more of the background done but I am pretty excited about this one.  I started by applying gesso/mat medium mixture using different rollers and stencils.  When it was dry I could then start applying the watercolors.  I wanted to put some of the darks in to see how much more will be needed to balance the painting.  I am trying to stay in the purples/pinks/grays contrasted with the whites of the main character.  It is nice to take it slower than I usually do.

My boat and nets painting is more complicated and I've tried to work on small sections at a time.  All the details under the nets as they hang had to be painted first and there is still a lot of detail to be completed.  Just wanted you to know I'm still here painting away.

​Comments are always welcome as well as questions.