A Blog About Oil Painting

Shire Horse Charcoal Sketch (WIP). 14x20, charcoal on paper. 2017 As I've done for the past few years, I decided to start the year with an animal painting. I've had a horse that I saw at Ayrshire Farm in VA in my mind for a while and thought this might be a good time to see what I could do with him....

Charcoal Sketches on paper (full sheet). 2016 Before investing a lot of time, effort and materials in a painting, I find it's always helpful to first work though my idea on paper. Simple studies like these help me to test out the compositions and make sure they have a good chance of working. I can m...

  David and Max (WIP). 26x24, oil on linen. 2016 This is a portrait that I've been working on for the past three months. It's still in progress, but near enough to completion that I feel OK about showing it. The painting is based on a photo taken by Smiley's Studio in Fort Worth, Texas, and us...

Bunny (WIP). 14x11, oil on linen panel. 2015. It's been a while since I finished any new work so I jumped the gun and posted this one before completing it. This is done from the customer's own photograph. This first layer is painted directly over a (dried) raw umber block in and was done in one sess...

Block In for New Horse Portrait. 24x20, oil on linen. 2015 This is the block in for the commissioned horse portrait I'm currently working on. I did this in two stages: a careful drawing and separation of the light and shadow with raw umber, and when that had dried I applied layers of terra rosa/yell...