Smoker at Temple Bar

This is for Lee Brown's A Day Not Wasted painting challenge for January 2014. It's oil on 5.5x7inch canvas panel. 

The original photo (ref) was this nice shot from the Temple Bar District in Dublin. It had very interesting lighting, and the composition was interesting as well. To paint the whole scene would have been quite an undertaking.

I've been home recovering from my pneumonia for almost two weeks, and I thought I would make a small character study out of this. I chose to paint the smoker because he had the most interesting lighting and posture, especially with all the cigarette smoke around his head.

Disembarking Steamship

This is for Virtual Paintout January 2014 Cape Cod. It's oil on F3 canvas panel.

Every summer when we go to Martha's Vineyard, we come to Steamship Authority in Falmouth to take a ferry with our car over to the island. The Google Street Map itself  is a typical scene at the ferry terminal, people and cars getting on and off. It's getting late in the afternoon and lights started to come on.

I decided to have some fun with lighting for this painting. I wanted to give more emphasis on the three big round lights, so I made everything else around them darker in tone, in addition, I added more contrast with light and shadows on the ground. A lot of the work, especially the lower half of the painting, we're done with palette knife. I also kept the details inside the steamship, including the two attendants who were directing traffic off the boat.

Eel Pond Sunset

This was originally for Virtual Paintout January 2014 Cape Cod challenge. It's oil on F3 canvas panel.

Every summer we go to Martha's Vineyard. The ferry we take starts from Falmouth. So I decided to start my virtual tour in Falmouth. Before long, I came upon Eel Pond in Falmouth, not too far from Steamship Authority. (Ref). I decided to use a orange vs blue contrast to depict a sunset theme.

After I submitted the painting, Bill Guffy pointed out the scene was not from Google Street Map. The picture was a 360 degree photo by someone! Gasp! I was fooled into thinking it was a Google Street map since it's a 360, and had a URL address.  So the painting was no accepted. Oh well, nonetheless I had fun doing this painting.