My Most Recent fail...I Mean Success

I have had a lot of bad paintings over the last several weeks. Last night I made up my mind that I would not quit until I had something I could build on. This is the result.

Back to Basic Oil Painting

I am trying to learn some more of the important basics I have learned. I am attempting to add something new to my painting style, so starting at the beginning helps me to try and incorporate some of what I am learning without trying to think of everything all at once.
At Carolyn Andersons workshop I tried to do it all at once and fll flat on my face.
Lesson learned!

There is Still Some Life!

I just finished a workshop with Carolyn Anderson followed by a private "workshop" from my little brother Robert Coombs. I learned so much from the two of them! I now overthink and overpaint everything I try to paint because I am trying to apply what I learned to my personal style.

It has been very difficult and a lot of fun with frustration mixed in. I am going to try something that Carolyn taught me. I am trying to let some of the detail go and just suggest things without trying to paint them as if I were reproducing them. I am going to...interprete... Ahhhhhh!

I will let you know how it goes. Here are two of my paintings and a small demo my brother did for me in a very short amount of time.

Demonstration Painting

This is the painting that I started as a demo for the gallery stroll at the Pickett-Fairbanks gallery on the 17th. This is as far as I have gone. It needs a couple more hours of work.

The Ann Gale Experiment

Everyday I feel like I am getting a little closer to my goal. I want my paintings to come alive. The strokes in the face are too similar in value and color so it loses a bit of the energy. I am working bigger and I am finding that I overwork areas a little too much. I want to mix value and color and put down swatches and let them standwith as little blending as possible. I want to leave details to the imagination but leave no room for error when it comes to value and color. So while this is not exactly adhering to that I am sure that is what I want to do. I will work on this again in a couple of days when it is dry.

Another Experiment

This was another experiment inspired by my research into painting. One of Jenny Saville's

paintings caught my eye so I did this for a first attempt. Trying to keep simple grahic shapes while maintaining the form. Interesting.....but I need to focus on what I am doing.

The Art Show

This is a picture of my wife's cousin. She modelled for a painting demonstration I did on the Gallery Stroll in Salt Lake. It was fun but I was stressed because my baby girl ate some paint right after I left home. She also did her modern expressionist interpretation on the wall and carpet. I really need to paint a picture of her soon.