hill 6x6

I drove by this hill on my way home today. I thought I should paint it. There aren't a lot of hills in Sacramento.
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candle #3 6x6

I was originally going to paint a landscape today. I was lettering a couple of trucks out in the Sacramento Valley today and the view was just beautiful. There was a small grove of eucalyptus trees in a field and the foothills and Sierras were very clear in the distance. Unfortunately the trucks took a long time and it was getting dark when I finished. I was pretty tired when I got home and this candle fit my mood perfectly.

river 6x6

I was in Sacramento today and I decided to go down to the river to paint. I ended up at the Miller Park Marina. I used to do a lot of boat lettering here when I was a sign painter. I'm going to have to spend some time exploring the delta with painting in mind.

orbit 6x6

I've been looking at some very inspiring landscape painting lately. It's one of the things I'd like to pursue but I seem to have a mental block. I see scenes that I'd like to paint all of the time but when I show up with my paint box I always think there'd be somthing better around the next corner. I've managed to fritter away hours in this fasion. I'm going to try to be less particular in the future, just paint and see what I can learn.
This is our local Orbit Gas in Orangevale. I've always loved this type of architecture. It's what people in the past thought the future would look like. They were wrong. Nothing looks like this now that we are actually in the future except for this left over stuff from our past.
On a side note, I'd like to take a moment to thank my wife, Janaé. She has been unfailingly patient and supportive through the last four hundred and nine paintings. I couldn't have done it without her. I love her very much.
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Chelcie 5.5x7

My students are very excited about this new phase of my daily painting prject. They've made a list and are signing up weeks in advance. it's fun but I've been getting the urge to paint some other things. I think I'll pare it back to just a couple of portraits per week.
Chelcie was great fun to paint. She was very patient, relatively still and fun to talk to. The ideal model.

Tony 5.5x7

I like the pose in this one. There's not a lot of different things you can do with mug shots like these but Tony did a great job of coming up with something a little bit different. I also like the colors in his shirt.

Cheyenne 5.5x7

Cheyenne has the most animated face I've ever encountered. She is constantly smiling and laughing. In some ways that made her a bit harder to paint. I had to be patient. Her face never really fell into a neutral expression. I guess her smile is neutral for her.

Kim 5.5x7

This one was fun to paint. Kim saved me from painting another self portrait. I'm concentrating on these portraits for now. They're fascinating to paint. For me the mindset is quite a bit different from doing a still life. The interaction with the model is one of the most obvious differences. It's interesting.
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headstudy #5 5.5x7

I wanted to paint someone else today since I'm on the portrait kick, but I was the only one available this afternoon. I gave myself an hour time limit on this one to try to force myself to keep things loose. It was fun to paint fast almost like I had a deadline or something. I think some of the values are a bit off. I may fix 'em tomorrow and re-post it.

Jeremy 5.5x7

Jeremy is another of my students. He is a great skater. I've seen him. He makes impossible stuff look easy. He actually moved around more than Kayla during the course of this painting. It was still a lot of fun.
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kayla 5.5x7

This was a very enjoyable painting to make. It's really the first time that I've had a conversation with one of my subjects, at least one where they talked back. Looking at it now, there are lots of things that I wish I'd handled a little differently but I can try them the next time. I now have a pretty long list of students who are willing to sit for me. I think they were all pretty impressed that I didn't have to resort to my "flesh" colored paint. I really want to thank Kayla for being so patient (next time I hope she doesn't drink a Rock Star before we start). I couldn't ask for a better model.
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head study #4 5.5x7

I like doing portraits. Unfortunately, I am still the most patient model that I have easy access to. A few of my students watching my progress on this one, and deciding it was a passable likeness, offered their services in the modeling department. I may take them up on it in the next few days. It would be a fun challenge to paint a face that I'm not so familiar with.
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two tomatoes 6x6

A coworker brought these by for me to paint yesterday (thanks Jeff!). I was already doing the sardines so I did the tomatoes today. They're just normal tomatoes from the school garden but they had these lovely yellow markings. They sort of look tie dyed. This is my 400th painting.
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sardines 7x5.5

cheddar block 5.5x7

I like cheddar cheese. It's pretty ubiquitous in our kitchen. I'm a big fan of grilled cheese sandwiches, especially with avocado. It was a lot for fun to paint something that is so unapologetically yellow.

pepper 3x4

My friend, Gordy Ainsleigh, gave me a bunch of these littl peppers to paint. They're supposed to be quite hot so I won't be eating them. I'm a wimp when it comes to that kind of thing.
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lemon danish 7x5.5

This is the last in this small series of sugary snacks. It was quite fun to work in a theme this week. I think this weekend I'll just paint whatever comes to mind but on Monday I'm going to try to come up with another small series for the work week.

hoho 7x5.5

Hoho's are another strange American food item. They are very similar to Hostess Cupcakes and Ding Dongs. Shape being the primary attribute that sets them apart from one another. This little series is largely student generated. I think they like it when I paint stuff like this because they get to eat the leftovers.
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donettes 7x5.5

I bought a box of these so I could paint them and share the rest with my classes. My students began eating them before I could start painting. I had to request they save three for me to paint later. The ones they left me with were pretty deformed. I was hoping for a more uniform and generic look that would have been more representative of the average donette. It was still fun to paint all the greys though.

twinkie 7x5.5

Twinkies are iconic in our culture. I think that says a lot about us. I can't remember the last time I had one. It felt weird to buy them. They're good still life subjects. They don't chenge, even under a light.
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honey bun 7x5.5

Tony Malegni, one of my students, brought this in to me this morning. Apparently these things are quite the rage. I had many students offer to eat it for me before I was done painting it.

red bell #3 7x5.5

I like how bright red bell peppers are. They are as bright as any flower and as beautiful I think. I sometimes take this for granted because their primary commercial use is as food, whereas flowers are cultivated as decoration so one expects them to be pretty.
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cut lime 7x5.5

The pale greens inside a cut lime are almost not green at all. I was originally going to put this on a light background but it was way too pale. I really like the drama of a dark stage.
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black shoe 8x4

It was a fun challenge to paint this shoe. I like the how these dark dress shoes seem to almost glow.
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Pepperocinis 5.5x7

I bought a pretty big jar of these and my students were snacking on them throughout the day. It's interesting what they will eat. Sometimes I buy them donuts or mandarin orages but they're just as happy with a big jar of pepperocinis.
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morning glories 5.5x7

I'm not sure what kind of flowers these are. Some students found them in the school garden near the pumpkins. I think they might be some sort of squash blossom. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. in the mean time, I'll ask someone at school who knows. I'm starting this one off at $1.00 on eBay. The consensus is in (plus I heard from someone who knows these particular plants in real life). They're morning glories. Thanks for the help everyone!
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pumpkin blossom 5.5x7

This is an examole of one more thing that I did not know exixsted before I started this project. I was in the
school garden this morning looking for a subject when I came across the pumpkins. The flowers are very pretty but they close up quickly as the day adavances.
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ice water 5.5x7

I had to work fast on this one. It's still quite hot in Sacramento. It's supposed to drop below 100 this week, finally.

electrical tape 6x6

I liked the green inside. It's a nice contrast to the glossy black tape. I never know what's going to catch my eye. I really hadn't given my painting much though today and when I began actively searching for a subject this just jumped out. An hour earlier and I never would have guessed that I'd pick a roll of electrical tape.

key 7x5.5

I've always liked skeleton keys. My grandparents had an older house in San Francisco when I was growing up and I can remember playing with the room keys. I bought a bag of skeleton keys off of eBay for a couple of dollars. They are much cooler than modern keys.
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