The Moon Project

"WANING GIBBOUS" 48X48

Between preparing for Beaux Arts Gallery's 1st Annual Small Works Show, daily painting, holidays and other prior commitments, I have been excitedly working on what I call "the Moon project". This is a public art project in collaboration with metal sculpture artist Robert Woods.

The piece pictured here is the first of 6 moon phase tables which Rob created and I am painting. These 6 pieces will be installed around a 30ft. high helix sculpture, also created by Rob, becoming the main focus of a new courtyard entrance at Hillsbourough Community College in Brandon.

This is my first public art experience, and I met with the gentleman in charge of this project this week. He assures me that he is delighted with the first two finished pieces, which have already been delivered. He projects the ribbon cutting for sometime in March.

Meanwhile, there is Beaux Arts Gallery and dailypaintworks!

"THE YOUNG 'UN"

"The Young 'Un" Original oil painting, unframed 6X6"
For purchase information, please visit my daily painting website HERE

I just want to take a moment to thank all of YOU who share in my art journey. I love painting so much and having friends who often enjoy the art piece nearly as much as I enjoy the process makes me truly grateful. God has surely blessed me through you. Thank you.

"LOOKS LIKE CLEAR SKIES"

"Looks Like Clear Skies" Oil 6X6
SOLD!


There are many reasons that I love painting. But what I love MOST is the sense of discovery! Every painting begins with a blank surface and I get to DISCOVER the means of creating the person, place or thing that belongs there.
In the case of "Looks Like Clear Skies", I wanted to paint a small portrait, loosely with lots of color. I chose a turquoise ground to complement the reddish orange flesh tones and allowed some of the ground color to remain. Voila! This fisherman exploded onto the panel. Bold beginnings beget bold paintings.

"Butchering Paint Tubes"

Today I finally broke down and butchered my four "empty" paint tubes. Over the past few months, I had wrung them all the way to the shoulder, and squeezed all the paint I could get from them. Looking at the tubes here, you can see I had even squeezed up the shoulder of the tubes before beginning this process. Today I decided to dissect them and scoop out the remaining paint from the shoulders. David Darrow taught me this little trick, using an exacto knife to slice at the shoulder and small palette knife to scoop the paint out. You can see the Cadmium Yellow Light is still in the tube, and the others are all scooped out.

This is the amount of paint I salvaged from my "empty" tubes! I purchase the 150ml tubes from Utrecht, and you can see it's quite a substantial amount of paint saved. Don't worry, I ordered replacement tubes over a month ago. I NEVER run out of paint!

"SPARE CHANGE"

"Spare Change" Original oil painting, unframed 6X6
For purchase information, please contact me at:  bryantstudio@gmail.com
 





It's finally becoming much more comfortable outdoors, but I have been stuck inside working on commission works......grrrrr! Just as the weather was starting to break, a project I had been waiting on for 2 months, finally was set in front of me...with a deadline. So I have been painting small, just to fit in what I want to paint.
This is the change jar which sits on the shelf over the clothes dryer. All the change that falls out in the laundry goes into this little Ball jar. Fun stuff, but I'll never get rich this way!

"TEA FOR ONE"

"Tea for One" Oil 8 x 10

It isn't easy keeping up these days! This is the morning after Thursday Nights LIVE! at Beaux Arts Gallery, and my first opportunity to post this new painting. I set up this simple still life and painted it on Ustream last Sunday. I recorded the broadcast, so you can view it HERE, if you missed it. There are other recordings available to watch as well.
Some of my artist friends joined me in the chat room which is available when I am painting live, so, as always, there is some disjointed conversation going on from my end......ya had to be there! If you would like to receive notices for future broadcasts, please subscribe in the upper right corner on this page. There are also options for my newsletter and blog updates. Just check your preferences.
Going into Fall, I am looking forward to trying some plein aire painting at Winthrop. This will be an adventure, as I have not tried this before. Right outside the gallery are endless possibilities... I will let you know how I progress!

"SHADOW BALLET"

"Shadow Ballet" Oil 7X12
For purchase information, please contact me at:  byrantstudio@gmail.com



I am having the MOST fun working with the wonderful people at Winthrop and enjoying Beaux Arts Gallery. After having been here for over three months, I have to say the "newness" has not worn off and I truly don't expect it ever will! There is so much going on that I could probably clone myself ten times and still not be able to accomplish all I would like with the "Dynamic Duo" who are visionaries.
Seriously, I am beginning to think artistically inclined people have an incurable sickness which is VERY CONTAGEOUS! The thing is...we feed off each other's energy, focus, and ideals, so it is an amazingly complex relationship, and yet simple, in that we only want to create beauty for beauty's sake. Simple, right?
If you want to follow along, as I try to keep up with this ever evolving community, subscribe to my newsletter. You can also "LIKE" Beaux Arts Gallery on Facebook and be automatically registered to win an original painting valued at over $500.00
There are wonders to be unleashed at Winthrop, and, although they have been at it for over 5 years,for me, this is only the beginning!

Already?!

Know what we are thinking about at EHAG? You got it.....STRAWBERRIES! Our new committee is in the process of making much needed changes to the prospectus for entry into the Florida Strawberry Festival Fine Art Show, sponsored by..........us!
We are excited to announce the changes soon to the public and begin the process of publicizing so YOU can get excited too. We have modified rules, defined classifications AND increased the monetary awards for the show! Yep, thought that would excite you. For complete information watch for an update here.

Meanwhile.......think ART and STRAWBERRIES!

"New Beginnings"

I began this sketch at Beaux Arts Gallery on Friday morning, our first "official" open day. We have plans to use the gallery as a studio/gallery, so, being me, I jumped right in using Bryant's easel, surrounded by Rob's wonderful sculptures, Mike's amazing photos and Bryant's fascinating oil paintings, and flanked by soulful works by Fr. Carlos Rojas. I ask you...WHAT could be more inspiring than being surrounded by artwork you love?!
I took this photo at one of the migrant worker camps; a child awaiting Baptism by Fr. Carlos. This, as a first painting at the gallery, is appropriate for a number of reasons: Fr. Carlos was a "Guest Artist" at our premier Thursday Nights LIVE! event, and will be through the month of August...baptism is this child's new beginning...we are experiencing our own "new beginning" at Beaux Arts Gallery; new friendships, new adventures, exciting new frontiers!
So, it seems, what goes around, comes around, and here we are sharing our love of art with Fr. Carlos once more. We three have enjoyed many experiences together in the last 5 years, and have fostered many new relationships, spawned from those experiences. I can't express how happy we are with his new assignment, nearer to us once more...truly a "new beginning"!

"MOVING FORWARD"

"Nude Rear View" (after Unknown artist) Oil 16X20
Donated to charity auction

We are moving ahead full steam, with renovations at Beaux Arts Gallery in Winthrop Town Centre. We have a telephone number now! Our opening is on July 28th, kicking off with Thursday Nights LIVE! at 7pm. We have planned this as a monthly event for a public "Meet and Greet"....sort of a neighborhood block party. This is the first piece hung in the newly renovated gallery. I have always thought this was an elegant piece for a bathroom, so that is where I hung her! The photo is a little pixilated, so I will have to take another, I see.
She is an oil reproduction of a late 1800's or early 1900 piece whose original artist I do not know. She is strikingly lovely and was the subject of a class project I demo'd for my adult portrait class awhile back. They learned a lot from the verdaccio underpainting, and realized how much work it actually cut out by painting her twice, instead of alla prima.
I coveted her for myself for some time, and now her time has come to shine....in the bathroom.....LOL
I will post other work once I actually get time to paint......should be in a couple of weeks, but meanwhile I will share teasers.....ummmm photos of our progress. Ha!

"BALANCING ART & TIME"

"Balancing Art & Time" Oil 8X10
NFS

This week's challenge at Dailypaintworks (http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenges) really resonated with me in terms of my art.  We all have to make choices to achieve a balance in our lives, juggling, family, career, friendships, etc.  Sometimes something tips a little out of kilter and we have to work it back into its proper place in our lives.  I don't know about you, but that happens to me more often than I care to admit!  

It happened again while painting this set-up.  Just as I was putting final tweaks on the shadows, my paint tube fell off the top!  Isn't that the way it happens sometimes....smooth sailing and then PLOP!  I figured that was my signal to sign the painting and take a coffee break...  :)

WORK, WORK, WORK...

"Pewter, Pear & Apple" Original oil painting 11x14
SOLD!

I have not been idle these last few months, just very, very busy!  I have had projects in the works, too numerous to bore you in the telling.  I have not even had time to photograph most of my recent works, but am submitting this painting, just to keep myself visible.  This is a painting I created from a photo reference  in March.  I was quite inattentive during the workshop, but managed to pull it through in the following week, when I could concentrate, and this is the end result.

Bouguereau Eye, An Analysis

This morning I am offering an analysis and painting demonstration on the eye of Gabrielle Cot as painted by Wm. Adolphe Bouguereau. Bouguereau has long been my favorite old master, and I have reproduced 6 of his paintings throughout my continuing learning process, one of which I duplicated three times. His draftsmanship, flesh tones, and subject matter are all worth analysis and study. You can see the demonstration HERE  I expect he may become a favorite of yours also, if he isn't already.

60 Minutes

"To Follow a Dream" Original oil  8X10
For purchase information, please contact me at:  bryantstudio@gmail.com




I have always enjoyed quick studies, and today I thought it might be fun to set the timer and use that 60 minutes for exercise.....painting exercise, that is. So this is my 60 minutes worth today, a jewel to me at 4x6. I have been selling these studies, unframed at $50 each including shipping within the U S. Contact me via email ( bryantstudio@gmail.com ) or Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000190088415 ) if you are interested. It is my plan to create a Facebook album for these and other studies, so you can see what else I have to offer and know what is sold as it sells.