"Still Life with Lemon"

                                                    8" x 10" Oil on Canvas

When I was making this painting I was trying to stick within a 2 hour time limit. I was attempting to make the lemon the primary interest and then lead the eye back to the grapes then to the bottle. I wanted the shadow to bring the eyes back to the lemon again. My wife says the shadow is too close in value to the bottle. I didn't want the bottle to compete with the star (Lemon), but in hindsight I think she might have been right and I could boost the bottle up a value.

Thank you

-Michael

"Solemn moment"

                                                    8" x 10"  Oil on canvas

  I bought this stone head at the dollar store and then painted it white. It was very difficult to paint with my three hour time line. Currently, I use only three primary colors and white and then mix them to obtain all the secondary colors. It is a very difficult system by using less, but I feel it gives more food to the brain to work on problems.

In the future I would like to stick to weekly themes for still life painting to help focus on a problem. Maybe even a "problem of the week" type format.

Thank you

-Michael

Portrait

                                                       16" x 20" Oil on masonite

Portrait

                                                      20" x 16" Oil on Canvas

      This was painted from a portrait session I went to last night. I've been painting a lot, but I have been trying to be more selective on paintings I put up.