Wayward artist

Well I tried posting about a month ago and blogger was down... honestly I did not mean to go so long between postings!  I will try to do better in 'all my free time' (haha).

I have completed the pair of wolves that I had going on here as a WIP and titled it "Mouthing Off".  

"Mouthing Off" - 16"x20" Scratchboard and Ink



















I also completed a smaller wolf piece recently. 


"Just A Glance" - 11"x14" - Scratchboard and Ink



In January I started an oil painting class at the Art Student League of Denver with artist Rob Gratoit.  My first 'assignment' was to paint something that appeared abstract, but actually exists in real life (such as an aerial photo, the insides of a mineral, etc.)  I chose to paint a photo I took of Sand Dunes National Park many years ago (way back with my 2 megapixel camera!).  Anyways at the end I decided to add a pair of gemsbok oryx to it :)  Not so abstract after all.  It turned out... ok... not bad for a first painting, but I wasn't totally happy with it either.  Not up to my standards I guess you could say.

Anyways I started my second painting before going to my next class because I didn't want to do another abstractish thing... I wanted to paint animals of course!  I chose to go with one of my photos from South Africa of a male collared sunbird, which has lots of colors and iridescent feathers on its head.  I am pretty sure my instructor thought I was jumping way too far ahead, but I would rather paint something I was interested in than not...LOL  Anyways it came out great I think.  Now onto the next one... a grizzly bear I think.

"Napoleon" - 18"x24" oil painting on claybord