Step-by-Step Oil Painting Continued

Here are the next steps in the creation of my new oil painting.

My apologies for the crummy digital shots. Totally my fault. When I’m in the painting groove, it’s tough to stop and set up a proper digital shot.  The light was changing fast and I was rushing and hand holding the camera, which is why the colors are a bit different.

This hood ornament is back lit, so you can bet that the subject will be much darker in the following steps. At this point the biggest challenge will be to get that light to flood around the edges of the subject making those edges softer than the rest.

By the way, the answer to the question of, ‘what car does this hood ornament sit atop’, is a Rolls-Royce. The hood ornament from the previous post (below) comes from an old Ford Roadster.

I like to paint hood ornaments.

JoeWinklerArt.com

Another Start of Another Oil Painting

Perhaps you’ve figured out what vehicle's hood ornament was the subject of my new oil painting in my previous post. Perhaps not.

Either way, along those same lines, here is step one of another new oil painting I’ve got going on:

Come now, you must know what vehicle this beauty sits atop!

Answers to both will come next post.

JoeWinklerArt.com

New Oil Painting Started

Last spring my oil painting “Packard” won the top honors in a juried group exhibit of about thirty paintings. Pretty sweet.

                                       “Packard” 16x20 inches, oil on canvas

Since I greatly enjoyed doing that painting, not to mention enjoying shooting so much reference for it at various local classic car shows, (see post below) I’ve decided to add similar paintings to my body of work.

Here is the first stage of an oil painting which I began over the holidays:

                                        step one!

Yes, it is another hood ornament. Can you guess what vehicle this one comes from?

JoeWinklerArt.com

Art Photography and Flickr

I’m an oil painter not a photographer. However, I do enjoy creating images through digital photography (who doesn’t these days) and since I use Photoshop almost every day, own three cameras, and have a large back log of images, I took the opportunity in 2011 to start my own Flickr page.

Here’s a few of my images from the past year, that now live on my Flicker site for all to see (and comment on):

               Grand Canyon - found in the “Las Vegas and Arizona 2011” Gallery.

                                 Tennis Player - found in the “Tennis” Gallery.

                            Nature shot - found in the “Land and Sea” Gallery.

Flickr, in my opinion, is the best photo site to use, even if you’re not on the pro level, because it’s where you get the widest exposure (photo pun intended). Within hours of posting my first few galleries I had page views and comments from people in other countries.

I can only imagine what would happen if I were to let Flickr suck every ounce of spare time out of my life. I”d have no time to oil paint that’s what would happen!

So forget it!!

JoeWinklerArt.com

Rembrandt - Suggested Reading and Viewing

In the last few months I’ve been on a Rembrandt high. In order to become more educated about his life and art I began reading “Rembrandt’s Eyes” by noted author, professor, and historian Simon Schama.

The book is loaded with detail not only about Rembrandt van Rijn, but about his contemporary, Peter Paul Rubens. I never realized how big of an influence Rubens was on Rembrandt until reading this book. I also never realized that the painting “The Company of Frans Banning Cocq” (commonly known as “The Night Watch”) was cut down in size centuries ago changing its composition for the worse. Sad isn't it?

I’ll be finishing my first read of the book in the weeks ahead. Most of the book has been enjoyable and very informative, but there were sections that I found tough to get through, partly because of my not knowing how to pronounce many Dutch names and locations and partly because Professor Schama goes into so much academic speak-filled detail about various others lives I didn’t much care about.

The other place I’ve turned to for my Rembrandt fix is the DVD, “The Power of Art” from the same Professor Simon Schama. I’ll do a separate post on this box set of DVDs soon, but for now all I can say is, you need to buy this DVD and its accompanying book.

The DVD episodes are beautifully done and the book is fantastic!

JoeWinklerArt.com

2011 The Year That Was

2011 Was a rather memorable year for me. I enjoyed a good amount of quality time alone in my studio in front of my easel, met some great folks at a few opening receptions I attended (not to mention through Facebook), and even picked up a couple of awards along the way too. The best of those awards was the first place award I earned in an annual juried exhibit of area artists which had around thirty paintings on display.

                Me with my award-winning original oil painting "Packard" - May 2011

Even better than the awards however, is the fact that seven of my original oil paintings were sold in 2011. That's more than any previous year, and to me, an encouraging sign which has me fired up big time to keep painting as much as possible in 2012!

                   "Later That Day" 5x7 oil on canvas collection Ms. Carrie Hutsko.
                    The first of seven original oil paintings that sold in 2011.

Another great thing that took place in 2011 was the feature article I received from a local newspaper. That article dovetailed perfectly with the opening of my solo exhibit of about thirty oil paintings in July. What a great experience to have a writer come to my home and interview and photograph little old me! An additional bonus was having two of my oil paintings shown in that article as well.

Feature article from June 29, 2011 showing the two original oils “Morning, Drayton Hall” and “Lilly Mesmerized”.

Here is the full “Lilly Mesmerized” painting:

                                       12x24 inch oil on canvas of our cat, Lilly.

I did this painting on short notice over the summer after hearing about an August exhibit which had cats as the theme. There were over 35 paintings in that exhibit, and my painting won the People’s Choice Award, and was chosen by the organizers of the show to be featured on promotional posters advertising the exhibit.

That solo exhibit in July was the best however. It was through that exhibit that I sold six of my original oil paintings. One of which was purchased by HBO star and Pittsburgh native, Joe Manganiello! Joe loves the Steelers, and so do I folks, ...so do I.

2011 - A memorable year indeed!

JoeWinklerArt.com