In the studio with artist, photographer and instructor Robert Louis Caldwell

Well I finally finished up the under drawing for the piece of the two cats that I have been commissioned to paint. It took roughly 3 weeks to draw this piece in, definitely the most time consuming piece to date! I will now put this off to the side and let it rest for awhile and also wait for the collector to come by the studio and make her final approval before laying in any paint. I'm excited to now start laying in the first layer of paint on the two Ibis's piece, which also has a bunch of grass in it. After these two pieces with all the grass in them are completed, I plan to do some less intricate backgrounds!!!

Well the under drawing is still not finished but the background and the large area of ornamental grass is about 95% of the way finished. This will be the most complicated piece I have done to date and probably the most time consuming. All I need to do now is tweak some areas in the background and the area under the ornamental grass, then finish drawing in the two cats. detail of grass

I thought I 'd post some progress images of the commission piece that I am currently working on. Sometimes on these larger pieces it doesn't seem like your getting any where because your working on one area for two days. I just have to remember that it takes several steps to reach your destination. I hope to finish up the under drawing on Friday, let me correct myself I need to finish the under drawing by Friday so that I can brake from this one and start laying in color on the two white ibis's painting that is on my other easel ready to go!

Just opened the "big" envelope from the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum and to my great delight found out that "Sewanee Barn ( Feral Pigeons )" got into the 2009 Birds in Art! For those of you who may not know Birds in Art is the most prestigious exhibition that an artist who draws, paints, or sculpts birds can be jurried into. This exhibition pulls great artist from around the world and in fact this year there where 884 entries. "Sewanee Barn ( Feral Pigeons )" Oil, 13 x 30 For those of you who will be coming to the art exhibit tomorrow night at Little Venice, "Sewanee Barn" will be on display along with my 2007 Birds in art piece "At Rest." The wine tasting is sold out but you can still come in get a drink from the bar and wonder your way up to the exhibit in the upper portion of the restaurant. Hope to see you there!

Well, I got permission to post progress images of the current work that I am creating from the collector who has commissioned the piece. I almost always say no when someone asks me to do a drawing or painting of there pet but this one is a little different. Yes these two cats are pets but they are a mix of a leopard and another large game cat. They are 3rd generation of the mix and won't get much larger than regular house cats. I found this very interesting and also I was given compositional freedom , which freed me from the usual pet portrait pieces that people are often looking for. I was able to put in a background and have them interact with an environment which my collector wanted to be the yard around there house. So here we go... the painting will be 27" x 27" when completed and will probably take my a few months to complete due to the large amount of ornamental grass (what was I thinking). The first image below is the black & white compositional sketch and the...

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5.13.09 Art exhibit and wine tasting Little Venice restaurant Richmond, VA 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. My friends Alberto & Peppino Mastromano at Little Venice restaurant in Richmond, Virginia have invited me back to exhibit my work at their restaurant again for my 2nd annual show. This time they are pairing it up with a wine tasting and hors d'oeuvres. The winery San Lorenzo is from Italy and the winemaker will be at the tasting to talk about his wines. Its going to be a fun time! Below is the link to the email invite that I sent out to my email list. All are invited but you do have to call a RSVP, a limited number of people can come. If you did not receive an invite but would like to receive invites to exhibits, shows, print releases, and the news letter than please sign up to the right. (Art and wine tasting invite)