"Roscoe"

Oil on linen mounted on wood panel 8" x 10"

This portrait of Roscoe differs from my usual daily paintings in that it is painted on a linen covered wood panel. I was a little apprehensive about working on a textured surface on this small of a scale, but my fear was groundless (no pun intended). The beautiful 1/4 inch birch wood SourceTek panel took the paint beautifully. The real challenge was getting a good photo of the finished painting due to the constellations of reflected light splattered across the textured surface. I finally got a decent shot this afternoon using the natural north light in my studio. It was a particularly bleak day, weather wise, which also softened the light. Once again my faithful beat-up bristle brushes came in handy to capture Roscoe's course fur and soft muzzle.

"Centreville Carousel Horse"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 7" x 10"

I spent some time in Toronto this summer and came across a wonderful old carousel on Centreville Island. Built in Germantown, Pennsylvania by the G.A. Dentzel Steam & Horsepower Co in the early 1900's, this hand carved wooden carousel is one of about 30 left in existence today. It contains 52 animals 3 abreast, 36 of which are jumpers. There are also 2 chariots. The accompanying band organ is a Wurlitzer. I thought I'd have a little fun with this one. I felt the menagerie around him was a bit distracting so I isolated him from the ostriches, bunnies, pigs and other whimsical creatures dancing in the picture plane. I still wanted a sense of color and motion so I kicked up the vibrancy and kept the paint loose (for me). Does it work? The jury is out.