New Mini Painting - Bay Horse Portrait

I've spent the past several months painting digitally so it's been a really long time since I created an actual physical painting, but you didn't think I could stay away from the paint brush and oils forever, did you? Every once in a while I've got to put oil to canvas. So here's my first oil painting of 2016!

It's a little more painterly than my usual detailed style. But I've decided to reserve my detailed style for digital paintings and loosen up on the oil paintings to give them distinctive styles. I also felt like getting really bold with the colors on this one just for the fun of it. Hope you like it!

Blood Bay Horse Portrait

6"x6" oil

Original Available

Small Artworks Collection

I added a new link to my website menu, Small Works. This links to page showcasing all my mini paintings. While not technically all "miniature paintings" it displays a collection of my paintings smaller than 8"x10" in size. That's just sort of what feels comfortable for me, 8"x10" and larger are "regular" sized paintings and smaller than that are minis.

I haven't fully updated the page. I've been trying to add links for each image that goes to pages where you can purchase prints, greeting cards, phone cases, or other products featuring that image, if available. I have quite a few links up but there are still more to do. In the mean time, if you follow the link of one image, you should be able to browse that site to find prints or products featuring most of the other images.

  Visit the Small Works page here.

Miniature Painting - No 62 - Chestnut Horse

I haven't been doing a lot of small paintings lately because I had been trying to keep up with supplying the gallery, the local public arts program and shows, and the licensing agency with paintings, and they require larger works that are much more time-consuming. Between all that, and maintaining my website, blog, and  online POD (Print On Demand) venues, I decided I was spreading myself too thin, and I missed doing the smaller paintings. Hard as it was, I decided to leave the gallery, quit the shows, and cut back on the public arts displays. Instead, this year I plan to focus on my online stuff, licensing, and getting back to my small paintings. It's easy to get caught up in trying to do it all. But there just aren't enough hours in the day. I found I was spending more time running around delivering paintings to galleries, exhibits, and working my online venues than I was actually painting. It does me no good to have all these potential places to sell paintings if I don't have time to actually create any paintings. I needed to simplify my life.

So, the point of all that rambling is I hope to be doing more small paintings now. And here is my first small painting of 2015, a chestnut Morgan horse basking in the afternoon sun!

"Roasting Chestnut"

Chestnut Morgan Horse

5"x7" oil on Multimedia Artboard

Available here

Miniature Painting - No 61 - Chickadee #4

New small painting of a black-capped chickadee on a branch with autumn leaves. The perfect Christmas gift for the bird lover you know!

5"x7"

Oil on Multimedia Artboard

Available here

Miniature Painting - No 60 - Christmas Bells

I little departure from my usual animal paintings to create a holiday image featuring shiny gold Christmas bells and a bright red ribbon. Add some holiday themed art to your walls along with your other Christmas themed home decor this year.

6"x6" oil on Gessobord

Available

Miniature Painting - No 59 - Red Fox

New small painting of a red fox.

"Looking Back"

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Available Here

Miniature Painting - No 58 - Running Horse

New small works painting. This one is of a galloping bay horse. Because of the warm tones and soft lighting, and the reddish coloring of the horse, I'm calling this one "Evening Fire".

 5"x7" oil on Multimedia Artboard

Original: SOLD

Prints, notecards, and phone cases available.

Miniature Painting - No 57 - Whitetail Buck

Wow, I just realized I have not painted a single deer painting this year. My last painting that included a member of the deer family was an elk painting from Nov of last year! Since deer are my favorite animals, I decided I was long overdue to paint a deer. This is just a small one, painted in a day. But it scratched that itch I had to get a deer painting done! Here it is.

7"x5" oil on Multimedia Artboard

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available here.

Miniature Painting - No 56 - Bay Pinto Foal

6"x6" Oil on Multimedia Artboard

Available here.

Miniature Painting - No 55 - Dark Bay Horse Running

I call this one "Midnight Sun" because the horse is dark and the light behind him seems a bit like the eerie low light of a late summer sunset or early summer dawn.

I also used the wet-on-dry method instead of my usual wet-on-wet, as noted in my previous mini painting post. I think I'm really starting to like this wet-on-dry look better.

 "Midnight Sun"

5"x7"

Oil on Multimedia Artboard

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available here

Miniature Painting - No 54 - Running Buckskin Horse

A new small painting recently finished. I think after 20 years of painting I'm finally starting to "get it"! Haha! I seemed to have struggled a bit with the previous couple of small horse paintings I did, the appaloosa foal and the pinto horse. While I'm not unhappy with the way they turned out, they are different from this one in a fundamental way. I'm not sure how to explain it except that the previous paintings "scratchy" or rough appearance to the brush strokes. In this painting they seemed a little more clean, or distinctive.

Why the difference?

I'm not sure but I think this is a handicap of painting with oils. Or maybe it's the handicap of being impatient. :)

The difference was my appaloosa foal and pinto horse mini paintings were done all at once, wet-on-wet, because I tend to be impatient about waiting days before I can continue working on a particular painting, especially if they are small. I know hours-wise, I can get a small painting like this done within a day ... if I work wet-on-wet. If I wait for things to dry between layers it can take days. Taking several days to complete such a small painting is something I find hard to reconcile, so I force it to be done in a day. This requires wet-on-wet painting when you work with oils. There's just no way around it.

Now, there are many cases where wet-on-wet is a good thing, something artists intentionally do to achieve a specific effect. In fact, this works fine for me on my larger paintings because I like the blending I can do on fine detail with wet-on-wet. But for my mini paintings, I think I'm starting to like a wet-on-dry look better. Because such small paintings do not allow for fine detail, I think the effect of having distinctive layers adds more to the painting. The wet-on-wet just isn't as effective on such small works. So, because I was recently working on several small paintings at once, I was sort of forced to wait between layers to work on one of these small paintings. I've discovered it is more efficient and effective that way. That's not to say the wet-on-wet mini paintings are bad. They have their own unique qualities that some people may actually find more appealing. In fact, this wet-on-wet is my own personal preference for larger works but wet-on-dry works better for smaller works for me. Others may or may not agree. What do you think?

 

5"x7" oil on Multimedia Artboard

 

Available here

Miniature Painting - No 53 - Appaloosa Foal

OK, I think with this post I'm finally caught up on my miniature paintings posts. I know, these aren't "technically" miniature paintings. I think I'm above the limit by one square inch. But, to me, anything smaller than 8"x10" is a mini painting because it's hard to paint that small! If it's just as difficult to paint a 5"x7" as a 4"x6" then I think we deserve the same "miniature" painting credit. :)

Appaloosa Foal

7"x5" oil on Multimedia Artboard

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available Here

Miniature Painting - No 52 - Pinto Horse

Bay Pinto Horse

5"x7" oil on Multimedia Artboard

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available Here

Miniature Painting - No 51 - Holstein Calf

My first calf mini painting, a little black and white Holstein.

Holstein Calf

5"x7" oil

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available here

Miniature Painting - No 50 - Bay Foal

I seem to be falling behind posting newly finished paintings. I have a few more to go to catch up. Here's another painting I completed a while back (this one in April) but didn't get around to posting until now, a mini painting of bay foal soaking up the warmth of the afternoon sun.

Afternoon Glow

6"x6" oil

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available here

Miniature Painting - No 49 - Fluffy White Cat

I know there was a little thumbnail image of this painting in my previous post about the Parklane Gallery Miniature Show but, since I like to count my mini paintings, I like to give them their own individual posts.

I love cats. Unfortunately, I'm allergic to cats so I can't have one. But if I could, I'd have orange cats, white cats, gray tabbies, and calicos. They're all so beautiful. And a white cat with crystal blue eyes is especially beautiful. So here is a painting of a white cat with blue eyes, a cat I'd have if I weren't allergic. Having images of them is the next best thing, I suppose. :)

5"x7" oil

Available here

Miniature Art Show at Parklane Gallery

Every year the Parklane Gallery in Kirkland, WA hosts its Annual Miniature Show in May featuring miniature paintings and sculptures from artists all over the country. The show includes artwork from some well-known miniature painters such as Linda Rossin, Beverly Abbott and Wes & Rachelle Siegrist. The show will be from April 29th to June 1, 2014. There will be an artist reception on May 9th from 6:00-8:00PM and usually includes music and refreshments.

I'll have a number of small artworks on display in the gallery during the show, sizes 4"x6", 5"x7", and 6"x6", all oil paintings.  Here's a preview of what I'll have there.

All these mini paintings are for sale and available for purchase through the gallery or directly from me. If you are in the area I invite you to visit the gallery and view these, and other miniature artworks, in person. Photos online never do them justice. If you are in the area, try to make it to the artist reception on May 9th, too. I'll be there, along with many other artists, and we'd love to meet you and chat about art together!

If you're not in the area, or can't make it to the gallery, and would be interested in purchasing one of these paintings, either the gallery or I can ship the paintings anywhere within the US and Canada. So don't hesitate to contact me or the gallery if you're interested. Of course, we'd rather see you in person, so I hope you can make it!

Miniature Painting - No 48 - Nubian Goat

I call this little girl "Nubian Red" even though I'm not quite sure it's a Nubian goat or if they call that color red. Perhaps it's called chestnut, like the horse color? I did some Googling of Nubian goats and this seemed to be the most likely breed, although most Nubians' ears hang down a little more than this gal's ears do. But I kind of like her quirky ears, the way they stick out with little folds and waves here and there. Maybe she's a mixed breed goat? In any case, I think she's cute. I took the photo reference for this painting at the Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park in Redmond, WA.

 

4"x6" oil

Available here

Miniature Painting - No 47 - Sheep

Mini painting #47 here, a fluffy ewe on a grassy hill. This is the first time I ever painted a sheep or any wooly animal so figuring out how to paint the wool coat was a challenge, especially on such a small canvas.

6"x6" oil

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available here

Miniature Painting - No 46 - Buckskin Mustang Stallion

Oh my! I can't believe it's been 2 months since I completed a miniature painting! Well, time to get back to it.

I like to keep these minis coming for a couple of reasons. One, painting larger works can be very time-consuming. Some of my larger paintings can take 3-6 weeks to complete. Working on one painting for weeks at a time can be difficult because, when I don't complete a painting for weeks, I start to feel like I'm not getting anything done. That can be frustrating. With mini paintings I can get one done in a day or less. So it's fun to throw one in once in a while to feel that sense of accomplishment of getting a painting done in less than a day.

The other reason I like doing minis now and then is because, since I can get them done in a day, I can sell them for a lot less than my larger works. That means more art available for you to enjoy at an affordable price. Win-win! :)

So here's my latest miniature painting.

Buckskin mustang

5"x7" oil on Gessobord

Original: SOLD

Other small paintings available here