Today's Painting

Dancing Shadows I
4" x 6"
Oil on Panel
$100
(click to see larger)

During a visit to San Antonio, Texas a few years ago, this beautiful purple and teal cactus caught my eye. Yes, it really was purple and turquoise. It was in a small walled garden by an old mission. I am fascinated by shadows. I love the interplay between the light and the surface it falls on. This is fairly straightforward, the shadows are landing on flat sand. But the shapes formed by the cactus lobes almost look like a dancing couple. The wall created an impressionist-painting sky and where the blue paint was gone, the adobe walls were almost exactly the same color as the sand.

This painting is available for purchase, please send me an email if you're interested.

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Waiting for the Deer
4" x 6"
Oil on Panel
$100

I started this on location while my husband and I were camping at a South Llano River State Park. It is a beautiful park with water as turquoise as St. Thomas. We had a great time and I started quite a few paintings. I will be sharing them with you as I finish them.

This 'postcard' painting brings back memories of the beautiful weekend. There was a wild meadow behind our camper where every evening, as the sun lowered in the sky, the light would hit a patch of grass and it would just glow. My husband and I would sit behind this bunch of cactus and wait for the deer to come out of the bushes and walk through our campsite.

We would keep Mack in the camper, because after the deer, the javalinas were close behind. They are semi-cute but very dangerous, especially to dogs. I have a painting of them to show you some other day.

Most of the painting I did today was on a commission that I can't wait to show you! It's a small uniformed dog portrait - and it's turning out GREAT! Unfortunately, it's to be given as a gift, so I can't show you yet, but you're going to love it.

Ringo and his Wife Bella . . . . Mastiff Masterpiece Finished!

Mastiff Masterpiece Finished!
18" x 24"
Oil on Canvas
Private Commission

Close-up of their faces.

I really wish you could see it in person. I am very happy with the way this turned out. Below you can see the inspiration piece for this portrait. There were about 15 different variations in color, but I bought a book on art and scanned in the photo. It is much more colorful than the painting that I have here, but I'm not going to bother to replace it.

Alfred Sisley and his Wife by Renoir

I made a few changes - the color of the gloves was changed from fawn to white because the male mastiff (Ringo) is fawn colored and you couldn't tell that he had a glove on one paw. I thinned down the tree in the background, just because I wanted to :)

Tomorrow I start another interesting portrait - another anthropomorphic painting - this time a cat in a library! I'll show you the initial sketches, color study and then take you along as I go. Also I have a couple daily paintings planned in my mind :) hopefully I'll get to them.

This painting ships out tomorrow - I'm sure going to miss it!! if you would like to have a painting like this of your animals, or even yourself - please !

Live Creatively!
Liz

Still Life on a Cardboard Box

Original Oil on Canvas
10" x 16"
$375

click to see larger

or click here to contact Liz about Still Life on Cardboard Box

Here's your chance to pick up a neat still life. The photos don't do it justice. You might remember this as one of the paintings I did in the workshop that I took earlier this year. I was NOT . .. . NOT NOT NOT happy with it originally. I decdided to take some time to work with it today and this is the result.

The urn and the plate are basically untouched, except for a few color points added (can't stand not having color!!) The shadow on the box was what attracted me to this layout in the first place. If I have to paint a still life, at least I want some drama in it :)

The pears and lime and everything else, in fact were COMPLETELY redone. I love it! I wish I was capable of getting a good photo so you could see all the detail and little notes of color throughout.

You can't really see it on the internet, but even the cardboard has a lot of colors in it. I added a fold of fabric to make sense of the shadow.

I was watching/listening to a Richard Schmid video while I painted, and he said something that is profound if you're an artist. He said that if you have a color that is either muddy (dark) or chalky (light) the problem is that it is the wrong temperature! If you're not an artist, it won't matter to you, but if you paint, let me tell you - this works wonders! Look at the temperature of the color that you think is muddy/chalky and change it to the opposite - you'll be amazed! You just add either warm or cool to it to change it, you don't have to remove it from the canvas.

This is one time that I wish I was painting live, you would really have enjoyed seeing the transformation ofthis painting.

The original version had kind of a silly putty color going on - I couldn't stand it! The first thing I did was change that drape to a beautiful carmine red. Then I set to work on making those pears and lime completely believable. Even though I would prefer to have more 'action' in the painting, I wanted to get this to a stage that

I had it completely repainted and still something just didn't sit right wtih me - I changed the background so that the red cloth draped over the box, instead of up the wall, and voila! I love it!

Hope you do too!

Live Creatively!

Liz

Relic #2 - Summers Past

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Relic #2 - Summers Past
6"x8"
Oil on Canvas
$200
click to enlarge

or click here to contact Liz about Relic #2 - Summers Past

As I was painting this, I thought of the many summers this doorknob saw, long before internet, dvds and video games. Kids running in for lemonade, adults sitting out on the porch to talk while teens eavesdropped by the side of the house. June bugs like this one flew and batted themselves against the screen door. The doorknob has survived for many, many years and the June bug only for a week or two.

On a more technical note, these two doorknob paintings were done from a still-life I set up on the final day of Qiang's workshop. I have had a few comments that the recent paintings are not my usual style. I'm not sure if I'll keep doing the 'dramatic' still lifes, I might try some with a more colorful background. - what's your opinion?

The previous Relic painting was from a photograph that I took of the doorknob before I left the studio. The set-up was a bit different which was evident in the differences in the shadows. I like this one where you can see the keyhole in the shadow.

We had only a few hours left before we would pack our paints and head to our homes. The assignment was to paint anything we wanted. Theresa had a bowl of old metal and pottery remnants from the home that preceeded the B&B. So, I left the studio and while everyone else was setting up pretty bowls, fruit & flowers (OH GOD NO MORE FLOWERS) I looked for something in her collection that was of more interest to me. On my way back to the group with my treasure, I found the June bug outside on the wooden steps by the kitchen door.

This painting is actually the one I painted from life at the workshop - but greatly improved. I had the light set up too close to my canvas, artificially increasing the visibility of the painting. After I finished original painting and removed the light, the painting lost all definition and became way too dark. It was also hampered by my attempting to paint using Qiang's technique of almost all grays and neutrals, and it turned out too colorless for me. If I could find a good photo of the 'before' I'd share it with you, but I don't seem to have one.

So, tonight, I lightened up the background and added a lot more color and definition and I really like the resulting painting. What do you think? (be sure to look at the larger version)

Live Creatively!

Liz

Relic #1 August
6" x 8"
Oil on Canvas
$200
SOLD

The Iron Horse Inn, a bed & breakfast in Granbury, is built on the ruins of an older home that burned down. Theresa, the proprieter, often finds evidence of the old house and keeps them in a bowl. This is a doorknob that she found. Next to it is a (dead) June bug, which are ubiquitous in August, thus the name of the painting - August.

I've been working on the Mastiff Masterpiece, and am dying to show you, but every time I take a photo, I come back in and spend a half hour getting the photos ready and then realize I want to fix something, either on the setup for taking the photo (shadows, etc) or on the painting itself. After 3 long attempts, I have given up and will share Relic #1 with you instead.

Please become a fan of my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Liz-van-der-Werff/136309593758 and forward this to anyone you think would like my art!

Live Creatively!!

Donated Search & Rescue Portraits

Only time for a very quick note - a MASSIVE thunderstorm is moving in and I'm shutting down the computer -

I made a movie of some of the Search & Rescue paintings - please forward to anyone you think would like to see them. I need some new dogs to paint!

Please help me out by rating and sharing the video with as many people as you can. I need some new search & rescue dogs to paint!

Live Creatively!
Liz

Little China Doll
4" x 5.5"
Gouache on Illus Board
NFS

This is a doll of my mother's that I played with when I was a child. She used to have a little paper umbrella that fit into her hand. This is probably my favorite painting from the trip - although I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the sentimental value to me :) It is now in my mother's collection. It has a white border around it, as the others, but I thought the photo looked best this way.

Thanks for looking! - add me as a friend on FaceBook and please share this page with anyone you think might like my work!

Live Creatively!
Liz

Orange Spice Tea

This is one of my favorite paintings from my trip. My sister collects teapots - they're EVERYWHERE in her house. I thought I'd paint a quick study of one of them for her - It turned out nicely, if I do say so myself.

Orange Spice Tea
4" x 5.5"
Gouache on Paper
NFS

My sister thought to take a photo of the setup that I painted. I cooled the color of the towel a bit, but tried to capture the warm orange of the teapot. I think I got it!

I like painting teapots - I'll be doing more soon!

Live Creatively!

Liz
Posted by Liz at 4:13 PM 1 comments Links to this post
Labels: daily painting, kitchen, kitchenware, Liz van der Werff, orange tea, teapot
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Whew . . . . long trip :)
Long trip - finally home. Got in late, and I'm bushed, but thought I'd post one of the paintings
that I did while I was in North Carolina. No landscapes yet. This is a duck decoy from life - I posed it outside on a deck railing to get good light.

Decoy
4" x 5.5"
Gouache on Paper

I'm too tired to think of a good name for this - if you have any ideas send them to me!

This is my very first attempt to paint with gouache paints. I've had the set for years and never used it. I try to add to my collection of different paints, but don't always get around to trying them out. I'm really happy with gouache, it is a type of opaque watercolors. It covers well and dries fast! You can layer one color over another and it covers it up. Unlike acrylics, you can re-wet and blend it. It also 'bleeds' together like watercolors so you get some nice effects that way as well. I did a few more paintings with it on my trip. I'll be posting them over the next couple of days. In retrospect, I think I should have blended the shadow a bit more, but it was quite sharp in the morning sun. I painted this on the back deck of my husband's cousin's beautiful house in the crisp North Carolina morning . . . . . nothin' could be finer . . . :)

Live Creatively!
Liz

Indigo

American Shorthair / Siamese Cross
16 " x 20"
Oil on Canvas

At least that is what his owner thinks he is. He is a huge, beautiful cat, very quiet for a Siamese. He was rescued from a neglectful situation and has adjusted well to his new lifestyle. This is a commissioned portrait inspired by the painting I did of the hairless cat on a retro background.

If' you're going to be in the Fort Worth area on April 25 come by the Will Rogers Memorial Center and visit me at the Funky Finds Spring Fling - It's FREE and pet-friendly and looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. I'll be painting and doing dog caricatures . .

I broadcast LIVE on UStream while I paint. If you're at all interested in my techniques and style, or just my fantastic wit - make sure you're signed up on my notification list so you can actually watch me paint. I will be narrating every move I make, along with the colors and any tips I think of during the sessions. Please join me :)

Some Previous Paintings are available for purchase. Click on any photo to see enlargement
To see all the available paintings, use the menu in the upper left of this page. Thank you for your interest in my artwork.

Oil Portraits & Paintings

Oil is the most traditional and durable of the mediums for portraiture. I use only fine artist's paints and supplies of the highest quality for all my portraits. An oil portrait may be painted on stretched canvas or linen or on a wooden panel. Painting the oil portrait on a panel offers the advantage of being lightweight while impervious to humidity changes.

Oil portraits are framed with a simple frame, with no mat or glass. To create the effect of a mat, a linen liner can be used inside the frame. You may opt to hang the canvas unframed - I will paint the edges of the canvas so that it will look great without a frame. Almost all of my oil portraits on canvas are painted on "gallery wrap" canvas so that there are no staples visible anywhere.

Acrylic Paintings& Portraits

Acrylic paint is a wonderful medium. Portraits can be painted in acrylics and framed like oils with no mat or glass, or the portrait can be painted on paper like a watercolor. My style in acrylics is more impressionist than it is in any of the other media. An acrylic portrait is archival.

Watercolor Portraits & Paintings

Watercolor is the least durable medium, and should not be exposed to direct sunlight as from a window, etc. Watercolor offers a translucency that is not available with any other medium. I use only artist's quality professional watercolors to create my paintings.