I had some beautiful sunlight to paint this afternoon!  It's been so rainy the past few days, I was started to go crazy; I even thought about setting up my paints outside in the rain!
  This painting below is another painting that I've wanted to do for a few weeks now.  I'm really falling more and more in love with painting en plein air in almost an impressionist style.  I used to paint very academically, which gave me a solid foundation in drawing and proportion, but it left me feeling like I couldn't make a mistake in my paintings.  I'm still very inspired by my academic heroes, such as Bouguereau, but I'm moving in my own direction and trying to paint my own pictures.
 What always interested me about painting was being able to capture a moment in a way that a photograph never could.   From a technical point of view, I'm very impressed with photo-realism and even my new paintings have a photographic feel, but my own goal is never to compete with a photo.  Even when I do my commissioned portraits, where I have to work from photo references, I try and infuse the final painting with something more in terms of color, like and emotion.
​  What I'm saying is that the colors of real life and the atmosphere of everything is just magical and you can't capture it in a photo.  There's also a big difference between painting from life and painting from photos, but that's a topic for another blog post...

  I just finished up this painting and I'm so happy with it!  It's currently for sale in my original artwork gallery!  I'm planning on doing a lot more of these flower paintings in addition to all my portrait commissions.

  I started a new painting! But I had to put my brushes down for the day  because the sun shifted too much.  I wanted to work more on it because I love painting fast, but it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow so I'll finish it then.  I'll post images once I finish it tomorrow!

  I did another flower painting today outside just as the sun was coming out.  I'm really excited about these new paintings and I can't wait to do a bunch more!
 This painting and one from yesterday have an elongated format because I found some left over Fredrix oil ground canvas in my basement and it was a long shape so I stretched two canvases in that format.  I have to say that Fredrix oil ground canvas is my favorite.  I've used other pre-made oil ground linen before, but what I really like about Fredrix is that it has very nice texture (not too smooth).  I just ordered a new roll of Fredrix Kent 125 DP (double-primed) from Dick Blick and I'm planning on stretching some larger canvases once it comes this week!
  I also want to say that I encourage everyone to test out a bunch of different materials including canvas, brushes, mediums, paint, etc.  I've tried many different supplies and these are my own suggestions, which I share with everyone as a suggestion.  Go out and paint this week!