As a painter of realism, sometimes I have to just let go and paint crazy stuff. And then push it as far as it will take me. Here I have a trio of slithy toves dancing around a borogove. While Lewis Carroll (who wrote the Jabberwocky in which these creatures came to light for the first time in 1872) did describe each of these animals, I am suggesting that they are still subject to interpretation. And here is mine.
Enjoy! This fanciful little 3″ X 5″ painting is SOLD
Every now and then someone asks the impossible. Can you paint me a picture from this old black and white photo?
Most of the time, there is plenty of resolution in those old photos, so it isn’t too hard to do.
but this is what I had to work with:
I agonized over this one, the lady asking me to try is someone I really like, but I also didn’t want to paint something awful. So I tried it. Here you can see the result:
I do commissioned paintings, They start at $175.00.
I cannot remember how I got to know this lovely Finnish lady. We were both learning Italian, and we visited on the internet. Then when Facebook became popular, I found her there too and we played scrabble in Italian together, she was one of the few patient enough to do so with me because neither of us were very good. I recently saw a photograph of her sitting with her charming little girl and I just loved the expression on her face. Here is the portrait, just for fun.
Bobcats, nocturnal hunters, can be found in almost every state of the union, but most people have never seen one, except maybe in a zoo. They inhabit the borderlands, hunting small prey like mice, squirrels, possums and rabbits. Unlike the Lynx, the other small North American wild cat, which will only hunt rabbit, the bobcat will eat almost anything which helps ensure its survival. They are a strikingly beautiful animal, but like most other wild cats, they are extremely misunderstood.
The bobcat is not an animal to be feared, experts guess there are a million of them in the USA, they are very skittish and like to chase small things not huge towering creatures like humans.
This is a 4″ x 6″ watercolor painting I did to help a kickstarter project,
The California Bay Area Bobcat Connectivity Project If you buy this painting, I will donate the money to this project.
This painting is for sale, $60.00 all proceeds go to benefit wildcats.
People that are into cars are always seeing cars that they like, people who are into dogs are always running into fun dogs. Well, what I love are faces, and when I saw this woman for the first time, I knew I had to paint her. She speaks very little English, being a native of Mexico, so we never really talked, and each time I would get my courage up to ask if I could paint her, she was gone; having returned to Mexico for the year. This happened three years in a row. Finally this year it all came together. As I sat in her son’s kitchen, drawing her for the first time, I watched as she became more comfortable with me staring at her and sketching her face. Her daughter in law told me that they would have to make a lot of copies of the painting so that her many children could each have a copy. I gave her her portrait today and showing great pleasure, she said “Muy Bien!” “Gracias!”
Life is good.
