Tuesday, July 22, 2014

More kisses...


I recently gave a painting lesson to a group of 4 girls.  Since I've had Hershey Kisses on my mind, it seemed like the perfect subject.  We talked about how to make a shape three dimensional by adding shading to one side.  If you study their paintings, they all did a good job with this concept.  We also talked about how to make something appear shiny by having a strong contrast of very light passages next to very dark.  We had a really fun afternoon painting together and the girls were thrilled with how cute their paintings turned out!

I'm going to be relatively quiet for the next month or so with some travel and other projects that will keep me away from my easel.  Happy Summer, everyone!


Friday, July 4, 2014

"Kiss x 3" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas - SOLD

"Kiss x 3" - 6 x 6 inches - oil on canvas - SOLD
I've wanted to paint Hershey's kisses for quite a while.  Just something rumbling around in the back of my mind.  Recently, a friend was an auctioneer at a charity fundraiser and as part of her "gig", she had a few guys dressed up as fairies and they handed out Hershey kisses to those who bid on items.  After the event, she had a lot of kisses leftover.  I have nick-named her "the woman of excess" as she had bought bags and bags of kisses as this is her typical mode of operation.  If one is good, twenty two is better.  Much better.  I am the complete opposite and calculate carefully how much of something I need.  I rarely have leftovers of anything.  I've come to appreciate the "woman of excess" as I often reap the benefits of these scraps.  

Periodically, I took a handful of kisses with every intention of painting them but couldn't resist for too long and I'd eat them before even squeezing any paint onto my palette. 

Well, this past weekend, as Hurricane Arthur dumped buckets of rain outside, I finally painted those kisses.  I managed to save the last three from consumption and set them up to create my latest painting.  I hope the "woman of excess" approves as she is solely responsible for this painting.
I took pictures as I painted and then created a 1 minute video on how it progressed.  You can view the video and learn more about my painting process by clicking here.