Its beginning to look alot like Christmas...

This is an 8x10 acrylic on stretched canvas painting- A friend commissioned this for her parents' anniversary. This is the church they were married in, which has since burned down. We were working from a few old photographs and meshing a few angles (you can see the photos below on either side of the painting... this is how I normally work). We wanted to soften the colors and the background. It doesn't have to be EXACTLY identical since it isn't there anymore- it granted me a little freedom to romanticize it! Don't we do that in our memories anyway? 

This next painting is MUCH larger- a commission for a similar painting to one a client saw on a wine bottle (I've searched high and low for the talented artist's name to give credit where it's due, but I can't locate it. I even called the winery and no one returned my call) This is 40x40 acrylic on deep-cradled gallery wrapped stretched canvas. I really enjoyed working on this, the large expressive strokes were so much fun!

Lots of layers here. I began with a background wash of a medium brown. Normally my favorite is a raw umber, but for this I used a richer burnt umber mix. I think I'm going to start using a color wash behind all of my paintings before I sketch, it just gives it a cohesive undertone, leaving pops of the same color throughout the painting. It really unifies things.

 Finished here, with a few zoomed in shots so you can see the detail!

Thanks for following, posts will be sporadic until 2013, due to the nature of what I'm working on being predominantly GIFTS at the moment!

Another abstract...

This is a 30x36 (I think?) acrylic abstract painting on wooden panel. October 2012. I LOVED doing the abstract for Anna a few months ago, so I decided to do one for us- though they are very different!This is right outside our kitchen- I love navy, red, white and green/gray. These are the colors in the kitchen/dining area... and throughout our house really.  I'd like to do more of this in 2013.

 This is closer in, though you don't get the full width:

 and on the wall:

 I'm kind of in a holding pattern right now- I have a few more things to post in the next month (waiting for gifts to be given to post), but I'm working on Christmas commissions- Sooooooooo expect some larger uploads in January! Thanks for reading.