Posted in Art Class, tagged Art Class, art lessons, daily painter, impressionism, Landscape, Virginia Artist on March 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
“Miss Gaylor”
“Miss Bobbie”
Yesterday at The Southerlands Miss Gaylor and Miss Bobbie finished their paintings. Didn’t they do a fine job? And this was Miss Bobbie’s first painting. She loved the palm tree. (Thanks Linda C. for giving us permission to paint your tree.) Both paintings turned out great. Can’t wait to see what we do next week.
Posted in Abstract, Art Class, tagged Abstract, acrylic, Art Class, art lessons, Blue Ridge Arts Council, daily painting, flowers, impressionism, Virginia Artist on March 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »
At our young artists class this week we painted a representational abstract of a floral arrangement. We called it Spring Explosion. We use brushes but also our fingers to get the abstract effect. And yes, they LOVED that! If you have a young artists ages 7-13 contact us and come join the fun.
Posted in daily painter, Pet Portaits, tagged acrylic, daily painter, daily painting, Dogs, impressionism, pet portrait, Virginia Artist on March 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
A few months ago, my friend Jen posted a picture of her sweet boy Jake with his new bed. I just loved it so I asked if I could paint it. Here is my version along with the original photo. The painting is acrylic on 12″x12″ canvas. I love working with unusual angles and compositions like this. I have painted Jake before with his sister Juneau. You can see that by clicking here. Thanks Jen for giving me such sweet subject matter to work with this week. (And this painting has sold! Yeah!)
Posted in Art Class, Farm Animals, tagged acrylic, Art Class, art lessons, belted galloway, Blue Ridge Arts Council, daily painter, daily painting, farm animals, impressionism, Landscape, Oreo cow, Virginia Artist on March 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »
The kids painted a nice landscape this week with a Belted Galloway. It’s from a photo I took when in Newport a few years ago. I love these Oreo cows. They looks so cool. 
Good job kids with your paintings!
Here is my painting (right) along with the reference photo on the left. I swear these cows don’t even look real with their funny coloring!
Posted in Animals, daily painter, Travel, tagged acrylic, bird, birds, daily painter, Ibis, impressionism, Virginia Artist on March 1, 2013| 1 Comment »
Ibis in the Making 1
Ibis in the Making 2
Ibis in the Making 3
The Ibis is a long-legged wading bird with down curved bills often found in Florida. They are also known as the hurricane bird as they are generally the last to leave an area before a hurricane arrives and the first to return. I saw many of them on my recent visit to Florida but this reference photo comes from Cousin Linda who posted it recently on her Facebook page. Thanks Linda for the inspiration.
Ibis, acrylic on canvas, 36″x18″, $265.
Posted in Little Known Facts, Trivia, tagged impressionism, Luncheon of the Boating Party, Renior, The Barnes Foundation, The Large Bathers, The Phillips Collection on February 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Renoir’s, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
Happy Birthday Renoir! He was a French painter and pioneer in the Impressionist painting style and is best known for his painting of feminine beauty and nudes. One of his most famous paintings, Luncheon of the Boating Party, painted in 1880-81, can be seen at The Phillips Collection in Washington DC. I can recall the first time I saw the painting in person there. I had seen prints of this amazing painting all my life but when you walk into the gallery and see it hanging it is an overwhelming experience. It’s very large, for one thing, and the colors are just gorgeous and no matter how many reproductions you see of it you have to see it in person to truly appreciate its beauty.
Renoir’s, The Large Bathers, 1887, Philadelphia Museum of Art
The last twenty years of his life he experienced severe arthritis and often had his brushes strapped to his hand so he could continue to paint.
He was a prolific artist painting several thousand paintings, many that featured the warm sensuality of style he made famous. Most people recognize his work as it is one of the most well-known and frequently reproduced works in the history of art. The single largest collection of his works—181 paintings in all—is at the Barnes Foundation in Philly. Read more about it here.
Happy Birthday Renoir. We do so appreciate the beauty you have brought to us!
Posted in Art Class, daily painter, Serendipity, tagged Art Class, art lessons, daily painter, daily painting, flowers, impressionism, oil painting, roses, Valentine's bouquet, Virginia Artist on February 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Last Thursday, Valentine’s Day, one of my students brought this lovely bouquet of flowers to me at class. So we immediately set it up on the table and put a solid paper behind it to make it work for us as a painting.
Step 1- Lay in a shape
Step 2- Place some major flower shapes in the vase
Step 3- Continue developing the flowers and work in a background
Step 4 – Finish flowers with details
Cathy’s version of the Valentine’s Bouquet
And the final photo in this post is Cathy, my thoughtful student who gave me the flowers and this is her version of the same bouquet. This is a great example of how different things look when you are sitting just a few feet apart but looking from a different angle. Every painter’s interpretation is different. Thanks again Cathy for the beautiful flowers.
Posted in Art Class, tagged Art Class, covered bridge, covered bridge painting, impressionism, Landscape, oil painting, Virginia Artist on February 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »
This is Pat. She is the most delightful person and a really enthusiastic painter. Pat’s painting of the covered bridge turned out GREAT! Keep up the wonderful work!
Posted in Little Known Facts, Travel, Trivia, tagged impressionism, Landscape, MFA St. Petersburg, Monet, Museum of Fine Art St Petersburg, oil painting, St Petersburg, Travel on February 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Monet’s “Road to the Village of Vetheuil, Snow”
Monet’s “Springtime in Giverny”
One of the best things about going to Florida to visit my friend, Linda, was that she loves art. So we visited many art venues while I was there. And I loved every minute. Right before boarding the airplane
to come home yesterday we stopped in at the Museum of Fine Art in St. Petersburg and what a lovely museum they have! There was a nice Monet grouping there. The winter and spring paintings were hung side by side so you got a nice idea of the versatility of his work and how he viewed seasons and color. But the most interesting was the “House of Parliament”, Effects of Fog, oil on canvas, painted in 1904. Monet did 19 canvas of the same size of the Parliament scene. He did them depicting different seasons and times of day. (Click here to see more info on series paintings by Monet.) He started in 1900 painting the scene of Parliament from his hospital room. He painted most of the 19 canvases though in his studio at Giverny changing the colors and tones of canvas to explore different times of day and seasons. This is one way that artists improve is by exploring light and color. Monet was the master!
Posted in Art Class, tagged acrylic, Art Class, art lessons, impressionism, Virginia Artist on February 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Kids Display Fruit Still Life
We had some great classes last week for adults and kids art. Join us on Wednesday from 10:30-Noon or 5:30 – 7 for Adult Class or on Thursday from 4:15-5:15 for Kids Class or 5:30-7 for Adult Class. Painting is all about the desire to learn. You can paint if you just want to give it a try. Contact me at kwalker@doubledogdesigns.com to learn more. See you in class!
The Studio 