Pine bough chickadees

My mom wanted to do a painting wi5 me to learn how to do pine branches. The painting below is from that afternoon spent painting with my mom. It’s an 11x14 wrapped canvas. The first picture is the finished product. The second picture is the chickadee underpainting in black and white gesso.

Winter moon oil painting

I wanted to paint a night time winter scene; really working the deep blue hues. Rather than use a white canvas, I painted the entire canvas in black gesso (other than a moon masked with tape). One of the canvases was old and had some stray marks and imperfections. It wouldn’t have been a good foundation for a typical painting, but covering it all in the gesso made it a great starting point. Below are the two examples I did this week. One is 11x14 in lascape orientation while the other is a 9x12 in portrait orientation.

Cardinal on Pine Branch

I had a request for a painting that would be a Christmas present. The request was for a lone cardinal with the following sentiment:

• “When a cardinal appears in your yard, it’s a visitor from heaven.” 

Not sure where the phrase came from, but the request was due to a recent death of a young person very close to this individual. So I wanted to do my best within my amateur-skills. Lettering is tedious with oil paints (at least for me it is) because the paint needs to be thinned just the right amount. So I knew adding words to my canvas was going to be a challenge. It certainly would not look like stenciling or die/laser cut. I wanted a close up of the cardinal sitting on a pine bough. I added some pine cones for extra embellishments. The lettering was held off and done at the very end. It was a bit nerve wracking since a bad slip could mess things up on an otherwise good painting. It’s definitely not perfect, but I’m satisfied  how the lettering looks. Ultimately, I like the results and hope it’s what the recipient wanted.

Winter Fox

I got a little bit of painting time between my “taxi” duties tonight. This one is another variation of the winter scene I did a week ago. This time with a fox instead of the deer. The first pic is the fox in gesso for the underpainting (done yesterday). The second pic is the finished product.

Cast iron skillet

I found one of those novelty cookie cast iron pans at a garage sale this past summer. These are usually sold during the Christmas season with an ingredient kit to bake a single cookie. This one is a heart shape. I taped the edges to retain the black iron, and put in a base using white gesso. There isn’t much space; being all of a diminutive 5” pan plus handle. So I thought a sole Chickadee would be a nice oil painting for this tiny canvas.

Vermont Covered Bridge

i painted a covered bridge a few months ago. It was a winter scene. I had a request from someone to paint another covered bridge. This time I went with a late summer - early autumn scene. The bridge was done in a monocramatic style with black and white gesso. Taped over the bridge and masked off the three foreground trees, and got started with the oils on the sky, distant tree line and then the ground over. I removed the tape from the bridge and highlighted the wood sections with varying tones of red/ivory black. The birch trees were done last, with the close-up leaves being brushed on with a filbert and round brush. The painting is an 11x14 stretched canvas. The painting wraps around the edges.

First Snow

Some of my oil paintings start out as a base acrylic underpainting. This is done on the blank white canvas. It’s then covered with masking tape (cutting ever so carefully with a crafting knife) and the oil paints are applied over it. Eventually the tape is removed and the acrylic underpainting is covered with a thin clear glazing medium, and touched up with oils to add detail and highlights. Below is an underpainting I did with shaded wood (brown) and white gesso, with a bit of black too.

The next day I finished the painting. Below is a little background on why I chose this particular scene.

I was out running in the snow a couple days ago. During the run I had five deer pass in front of me. It was dark, quiet, and overall a very nice moment. The deer all walked by me in not much of a hurry. They checked me over and didn’t find me all too threatening. One of the deer was small; I assume this will be that deer’s first winter. I wonder the struggles that they endure as they press on throughout the winter. Will that little one make it to spring? I’m not sure. But they are equipped for the rigors of a northern New York winter. I sure hope the little deer tastes the fresh green grass of spring. For now, there are months of snow, wind, and darkness to overcome.

This painting, “First Snow”, is just a reflection of that moment. There is a lot of wonder and awe out in the world.