Scott Addis

Scott Addis is my dear friend who is a most amazing artist. He lives in Montreal. I am starting to take some coaching from him. I am excited for the challenge and insight that this will bring me. 

I wanted to share with you some of his beautiful work. I can just get lost in it all. Enjoy these photos and then go and check out more of his website: http://galerieaddis.com or see him on Facebook. 

Win One of my Paintings

A contest. One of my blog followers can win one of my paintings. I have made a folder on my Facebook Fan Page that lists 20 paintings.

Join my blog and then go to my FB page (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.543599169006983.120684.258729710827265&type=3 )  and check out the photo folder marked "Eligible Paintings".  Then all you have to do is "like" the one or ones that you like. The painting with the most new "likes" from my blog members is the one in the contest.

I will then write all of the "like" names on pieces of paper and pull the winner's name out of a hat and contact them via my blog. I really will go through all the hoops to make sure that it is a random winner. Sign up today. YOU MUST JOIN MY BLOG TO WIN.

This should be fun. If it goes the way I would like I may do it again. The contest goes for 2 weeks - from February19 thru March 5. Winner announced March 6.

Exception to the rule - if someone buys one of the eligible pieces within the 2 week period it is out of the contest. I will post it here and on my Facebook Fan page if this happens and I will replace it with a new painting to the list so stay tuned.

There will be a modest shipping fee.

A Close Study of Helen

Helen

8 x 10

My portrait group uses friends as models. This is the 3rd time we have had Helen. I have learned something each time. I wanted to do something different with this one - concentrate my short amount of time with a close in crop and a little more in-depth study. I am learning to simplify and emphasise colour. I am mostly pleased with this effort.

After the Polo Match

Blocking it in.

I took the reference photos for this painting maybe 5-6 years ago. At the time I took a couple hundred photos mostly of what happens off the polo field. So eventually I will be doing more paintings of some of the scenes that I liked. This one captured one of the stablemen taking several of the horses back to the stables to be showered off. I loved the cloud of dust they created as they walked along.

Starting to take shape.

Finished painting - although even finished paintings sometimes get tweaked.

After the Polo Match

9 x 12, oil on panel

Sometimes I feel incomplete being limited to the small size. My larger studio in the states will accommodate the larger paintings much better so the big ones will have to wait for now.

Portrait of Manta

"Manta"

12 x 9, oil on panel

Manta is the owner of the Pad Thai Restaurant in West Malling. She is an amazing person - almost the Pad Thai Nazi (like the soup Nazi from Seinfeld, if you know what I mean). She will not let you eat the wrong combinations of Thai food, in fact, she will get rather pushy if you want to. Of course her heavy accent and limited English vocabulary helps the image of her.  As you can see from the painting, she is also a very proud woman. She had just come from the hairdressers  and had red, orange, blonde and green streaks through her hair. She wore a bright orange top too. For less than a 2 hour sit I think I mostly captured her. One day I will have a nice long pose to really get into the skin tones etc. In the mean time I am enjoying the explorations of portraiture.

I am painting my butt off!

Muddy Path on a Grey Day

8 x 10, oil on panel

What a mess this day was. Wet, mucky, stick-to-your-boots mud. And it was darkish too. What a day to paint outside! The challenge was to bring some life into all the dark. There is some but I strive for more.

Shack at the Silo

9 x 12, oil on panel

Another muddy day in England (and very windy too) but with a bit of fleeting sunshine. This shack was so overgrown and had such character it drew me in. The door actually kept on flapping open and closed in the wind.  This one was fun to paint. I don't do many structures for fear of getting too caught up in the details. One day buildings will be something I will conquer but they just aren't pulling me at the moment. Here I had found a somewhat sheltered area to set up in but my painting buddy decided to plop himself in the middle of the unplanted field of puddles and... more mud. His painting blew over into the mud several times.

Untitled

8 x 10, oil on panel

This is part of my commitment to learn how to paint the moving clouds. There is such drama and energy in this kind of cloud cover as the sunshines peaks through in varying degrees so quickly. I do not consider this to be a success (among other things I think the composition is trite and uninteresting) but I did get a bit of insight. I did 2 other small studies of the clouds and learned even more but the photos of those paintings are pending the battery recharge on my camera. 

A better photo of the post from the other day. This was not a plein air painting but I think I am starting to take some of the things that I am learning en plein air and applying them to my studio work.

Sheep Study

5 x 7

These little guys are right outside my window so I don't even have to pack up to do them from life. I am after getting their shape and values in as few of strokes as I can. I am pleased with what took place here. The bottom one is headless because the neighbor came out and tossed them some bread and they moved. I will be doing more of them as I take advantage of my opportunity of having them so close since I won't be here forever.

ps - I am still  not pleased with my photos. These are not scanned cause they are all still wet.