Still Life -- Wine, Wineglass and Fruit in a Bowl

Above is an unfinished still life painting, I am currently working on. There is still a lot of colour balancing and refinement to do. I am unsure how much it will take yet, but I still need to alter certain parts. I need more reflections on the wine bottle and glass perhaps. I also need to work on the background somewhat. I am posting it here as a blog update, to show what I am currently exploring as I continue to learn new technique and increase my ability to paint different subject matter. It was for this reason that I chose this subject as I have seldom painted still life. Feel free to comment on the current progress of this painting.

Reflections on the Blog - Painting Progress

The blog appears to be getting more traffic lately. I see that page views have edged up past 1000 per week in the last few days. I am unsure if this is a true reading but may be an indication that I am slowly gathering a presence in the online art world. Not to get ahead of myself, this is a minor amount of traffic compared to most web sites. Still can't complain. Now if it was translated into sales of my paintings!!

I have been working on a still life at an art class I have been attending since August. The techniques I am learning are really helping speed up and improve my ability, and I consider it well worthwhile so far. I have made some fundamental changes to how I approach paintings since August. I hope you can start to see it in the last few paintings I have shown here. Scroll down and compare my last four paintings with previous works. Maybe it's not so noticeable but I feel it, in speed of completion and ease of getting things right.

The above work is "Under the Cherry Tree" by John Lavery, Irish Artist. He is one of the best Irish artists and in the top echelon of Irish art, selling usually in the 100K range or higher. Hopefully I will eventually be producing work of that quality. That is one goal to aim for!

Jumping the Surf -- Finished Painting

Now I am working hard to finish a number of outstanding paintings, so this is finished this morning, although I have yet to sign it. I will do that in a few days when I have let it dry a bit. The painting is medium size, 22 x 16 inches and on canvas. I am not sure if I will sell it yet. I will think about that, as it is of my niece and nephew. I will probably make prints of it and hang on to the original. Unless I get a very big offer! So enjoy it and wait for more updates as I have several other works which are in progress that I should get to over the next while.

Daisy Meadow -- Finished Oil Painting

Short Update -- here is the finished painting of Daisy Meadow, which actually looks better in reality than this photo portrays, as my camera ability, or camera is not always the best. However here it is, and I will try to get a better photo sometime, as the colours as not as vibrant here as in my original painting. Enjoy and feel free to comment. More updates when new work is progressed further. This work is available for sale along with other work in my gallery, scroll down to see, and send an email to enquire regarding any piece. Thanks Jim