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Swans Are Heading to the Finish Line - 1507.4–7...and Lost

I finally got back to the easel on Wednesday.  I lost a few Days to Gallery business. Last session Sunday below. 

Sunday - days end, canvas 1507.3

I'm going to treat this as a top down painting, by working on the distant lily group at the top of my canvas.

Wednesday  - days end, canvas 1507.4

 

 

This was a great day at the Easel, more like old times. Everything moved at a fast pace - The painting was in a good place for the next session.

 

Thursday - days end, canvas 1507.5

My focused worked was on the Swans and foreground Lilies - The feature lily partially under water has a second pass and only needs a bit of punctuation.  

Friday - days end, canvas 1507.6

 

Second pass on lower  section - This was working.... until, the feature lily partially under water gave me heart burn....

Saturday - days end, canvas 1507.7

Punctuation time: My original feeling, this would be the last day on 1507 (Untitled). It started out that way, then I made the mistake of messing with the feature lily - LOL, it went down hill from there. 

After spending the whole day at the easel it was clear the painting failed - it was signed off as finished! I have been down this path a time or two.

 Sunday, August 30, 2026, today a new painting, or a eight day rework...mmm? Been down this path too.

We will know soon enough..... Later!

Saturday, Water Swans have it today | Session 1507.1-3

I finally started daily painting Friday, a bit late in the day. The swan choice is the kind that fly, and love the water. 

LOL, earlier I pulled out the Black Swan Painting from storage and brought it into the center court, my original idea.  Going through my references it didn't take long to know I needed some easel time before venturing down that path again.

Friday - start of canvas 1507.1

 NOT off to a GOOD START

Too many lines - more marks than are necessary! The swans only required two placement lines and let the paintbrush do the rest!

 

Friday - At days end canvas 1507.1

Saturday - days end of canvas 1507.2

My last minute brainy idea making the pond bottom visible caused me to keep working on the foreground.... don't believe ever done before - top down or center out and the lead swan first. A  bit out of sequence. However, I rather like where it's going at this point.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday 1-4 live painting demo at the gallery. We didn't have a lot of time to get the word out, so instead of doing a start to finish demo, I'll continue on with this painting, 

 Sunday 23, 2026 

Early Sunday morning I increased the LED lighting level quite a bit. Saturday it was on the cool side and affecting my colors so I added more cool interspersed with some warm light adding a little warm sunshine. Big improvement! 

Sunday - days end of canvas 1507.3

 The lead swan fell into place rather quickly - unfortunately every once in awhile a painting will go sideways.... no picture of how I ended up here. At the last minute, I blended out the entire background for a another day. 

Monday was taken over by loose ends.

Looking forward to painting on it today.

Later 

 

 

Canvas reproductions and Sunday's 1-4 PM at Stony Point

Yesterday, Thursday was a bit odd, I had to do sales tax - which is not the creative side of the brain. Plus I am also setting up to revamp some canvas reproductions at the gallery refereed to as Reborn Originals made from high quality digital captures of mostly my original paintings. Our new enhanced surface treatment gives the touch and feel illusion of an original canvas. 

The overhead lighting in my new setup works well to do the treatment. So, with taxes, a small to do list time slipped away to do any serious beyond arranging paint and  tinkering. My day went to enhancing, wall tags and hanging a few art works. 

This is what I know, I like my new setup, I have visual control over the whole gallery - important since I am alone most of the time. 

Today, the center 's traffic picks up for the weekend shoppers - my new canvas will be ready to go, and so will promoting the Sunday event, the Center Court Studio and new email flyer (below) will be popping up everywhere. We should be in good shape by the end of the month.

The question is, What Swan makes the cut!

 

The return of a daily painter & New Center Court Studio

After a long dry spell as a daily painter, I am returning to my easel full-time - only now it's in a gallery setting. Perhaps, the way it's suppose to be. Starting this week I will be working daily on a new series titled Swan Songs.  Only kidding! 

Right now painting is done in a alcove at the French doors (which open) to the court yard.... very cool indeed! The light is good on sunny days. I absolutely loved watching and hearing the  children is the Pop Jet Fountain on the green while painting last week. However, too small, plus we have shorter dark days coming our way fast - the fountain will be winterize shortly for Holidays. 

WINTER STUDIO

So, I need a winter studio with controlled lighting and space to move around. The center court gallery where we had small solo exhibits fits the bill.  

It would place in me center stage so visitors can either watch and chat or view the gallery exhibit  without interfering with the studio process.

With that in mind

Monday was my so called day off - I got busy on the Center Court "Studio". 

First project  

I went into my art storage and pulled all my 8x10 canvases. There were 181 left - many were early works and plien air done over the  last 16 years. Later years the 8x10's were made from roll cutoffs - no point wasting good canvas. Once my larger paintings entered the picture, they were rarely shown, if at all. 

You might ask why?  

The center court has something left over from the old days when the gallery housed Hollister Co, hidden by black drapery perfect for displaying my Tiny Bits

Thank you Hollister for leaving this BIT behind when you left.

 BEFORE

 

 AT DAY'S END

TINY BITS never looked better!!

The Tiny Bits are important to this new studio idea. They're small original paintings - an affordable way for someone to buy their first original, give one as a gift, or simply take home something they discovered while watching me paint.

An then.... Yesterday with Blake's help

The center court was cleared of the big center table - LED lighting was changed out for 5000 daylight bulbs, my easel and glass top work were moved in.  

Only needs a new carpet to stand on and it's ready to go tomorrow.

In celebration of my new painting dig and new series -  My first subject will be SWANS - I wasn't kidding about Swan Songs. 

 This kind in the pond

OR another kind of Swan 

Natalie Portman in Black Swan — one of my favorite movies.

 End of day tomorrow should tell...

A week in review | Moments Alone - canvas 1506.cel

Wow! This has been a perfect week at the easel painting Moments Alone. Some cool visitors, a few sales and a couple of new paintings to share. 

Moments Alone describes where I am most of the time at the gallery. It would be nice if my two little side kicks Riley and Scarlet were hanging out with me too. They are cooped up in the apartment all day. I do have to figure out how to give them more play time. Stony Point is dog friendly with a wonderful dog park for them. 

Getting back to the painting, for the most part Moments Alone worked, however,  the lower section was reworked numerous times yesterday. Eight day paintings never was my strong point as an artist. At days end I signed it on the bottom left side, framed it along with a typical wall TEST.... this chapter is closed.  

 DAY 1506-1 BLANK CANVAS

 

REFERENCE 

DAY 1506-2

 DAY 1506-3

 DAY 1506-4

DAY 1506-4.5

 DAY 1506-5

DAY 1506-6

DAY 1506-7

 

DAY 1506-8

 DAY - 1506-9 FRAMED

On the wall - ROOM TEST

Like I said, it was a good week at Dream Big. I'll continue to paint daily for a while BECAUSE.... I have boxes of linen canvas, plus two very large canvases to make use of. The energy is there, so maybe a new series called "Swan Songs" might be fun to explore. 

Later

A weeks worth of paint and canvas - Canvas1506 - day 4 & 5

It's been a busy week at the gallery and time constraints forced me to combing two days into one post. 

Monday August 10, 2026:  The gallery is closed on Mondays, later that afternoon I came in, turned on the music and went to work.

 End of day canvas yesterday - 1506-3 

At days end the upper right hand sky concerned me big time. 

 Canvas 1506-4

The horizon line established, along with a few quick marks outline my original plan from the inception of Moments Alone - plus a few vertical marks for beach strollers set the scale for the final painting. 

I'm not happy with the Sky yet. I closed up the bare canvas around the sun - normally left towards the end. However, I needed to establish the glow pattern. After noodling in the clouds for quite a while  I dropped back to the lower section to get some fresh oxygen. 

  Canvas 1506-5

A little fresh air around the splash fountain I jumped back in. My focus is water and beach, working out the oceans rhythm, movement and colors.  This went very fast.

The figures set the scale 

 

Tuesday August 11, 2026:  

 

I'm into the 5th session and seriously concerned this painting will land into THE OVER COOKED category. 

I have the beach blocked in - lost one set of beach figures on left side.  Still not happy with the upper right dark cloud formation. The sky above was a bright tonal creamy blue - thinking I definitely need more of it showing.

And Then 

One thing led to another and suddenly the sky was expanded and the big black cloud reshaped - one more thing! My last move of the day was to reestablish the sun peeking through again. 

 

It still needs another pass tomorrow when it dries. 

   

1506-5 at days end

 

It was a long day - feeling better about the progress made, I called it a day....  

A weeks worth of paint and canvas - 1506-3

Sunday 9, 2026: Yesterday was a busy day at the gallery. Mike showed up a few minutes after I did to join me painting.  Mike brought in a new Painting - had to take a few pictures.  

 

Mike Haubenstock - with Morning Breath 36x30 oil and cold wax on Linen - soon to be on the DBA gallery walls 

AND THEN

My new collector, Louise and family showed up to pick up her new Enhanced Reborn born painting of Hard Right to go in her new living room.

 

Thank you Louise - I hope Hard Right makes each day a bit happier in your new adventure as a Virginian. 

Absolutely a great way to start the day off.  Time to paint!

 End of day canvas yesterday  - 1506-2  

Canvas 1506-3

I started  below the bottom cloud formation to the the horizon

 

I ran out of steam on the top right cloud - can't say I'm happy about it.  I needed a change and quickly returned to the horizon  to complete the first pass. 

 1506-3 at days end 

The lower section needs a little love - perhaps tomorrow.... 

Mike worked to my left on his painting he started a few weeks back. I was pretty involved with mine as I only had a short time to work on mine and unfortunately no pictures to share. 

Mike is sitting in front his in-progress  44x40 oil and cold wax on linen painting

However, he got to chat with visitors make a few new friends and  work on his  painting. Mike is an avid painter and world traveler with his wife Susie.... The good life!

All clean up and ready for Day 4 

 

Monday's the gallery is closed - I don't like breaks that can turn into days in my world, the energy can be diluted along with the magic. Looking forward to the next session - painting is not work!