Painting Fun

I've been having a wonderful week - I think that perhaps my body is happy with the current level of thyroid meds I'm taking for hypothyroidism! At any rate, I'm painting up a storm - having had 6 birds drawn out on canvas just waiting for me to pick up the paint brush and go to work. I've completed 3 of them now, and have three more up on the easel, ready to begin tomorrow.

If you like the step by step approach, I'm including some here. Hope you can learn something from seeing the subtle and not so subtle changes as I move towards the completion of a painting.

Above, I've laid in the first layer of color - the groundwork upon which to build the painting. You can see I am working from several different photographs, which is both more difficult but also more helpful in capturing the personality style of the bird, not just it's frozen image.

Each successive layer builds up light and shadow.

Time to bring out more highlights on the beak. The female cardinal's beak is a slightly different color than her mates is. Males are more colorful all around, although their colors due soften somewhat during the winter.

It's always fun to add the black accent on an otherwise black-free painting. However, black is essential for Cardinals, as you can see the bird is becoming more life-like with this addition.

Finally, the eye with it's tiny reflective spots giving a more life-like impression that a totally black eye would offer. Also, the addition of lighter over-colors in the feathering. I also did a bit of a change on the right side of the beak - a subtle shift in the "cheek" to give the head a more appropriate look in the tilt.

Here is the pair of Cardinals together on the easel. The photo is a tad darker than the paintings actually are.

Hope you enjoyed the process. I certainly had fun with her!

Generations of Artist - Bellefonte Art Museum, Bellefonte, PA

The one person who had the MOST influence on me and on my life is my maternal grandfather, Herbert L. Buck (1881 St. Paul, MN-1973, St. Paul, MN), a photographer and oil painter as well as a Mayflower descendant. Pop was taking large format glass negative photographs at the turn of the last century and developing them in his basement darkroom. Since we lived with my grandparents for 7 years, I was the beneficiary of his expertise with regard to photography, gardening, birding, and life itself. For the final 15 years of his life, he cared for my grandmother, who was then an invalid. That is when he began oil painting from his photographs. Pop was fond of trees so it is no surprise that he did many oil paintings of trees, one of which is in this exhibit. Another of Pop’s paintings, a portrait of Senator Everett Dirksen, is in the Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL. Herbert L. Buck died at the age of 92, at home with a smile on his face…

Herbert L. Buck 1972 at age 92

Long Road Home
Oil Painting 1970
Herbert L. Buck
NFS

Pop was an inspiration to me by his work ethic, his conservation of beauty, his insatiable desire to learn, his love of nature and all of life.


Pat Gangl Dolan was raised in a family of artisans and craftsmen. The paternal German side of the family were highly regarded in the printing, tobacco, music, gardening, wood carving, and mechanical industries throughout the 1900s. Her maternal ancestry is full of artists including hair painters, poets, musicians and more. Pat received her BA in art & secondary education at the University of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN. She has practiced art in many mediums, including watercolor, pastel, oil, acrylic, fiber, batik, pen & ink. Presently, Pat is recognized for her series of bird portraits, sold through the State College Framing Company and Gallery, Hills Plaza. Her work is in numerous collections in this country and abroad. Pat currently resides in Bellefonte where she maintains two studios – one for dry mediums and one for painting.

Pat Dolan

Yellow Shafted Flicker
Acrylic Painting 2016
Pat Dolan
$175

The exhibit will be up through the month of November at the Bellefonte Art Museum, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

Hello Again!

Downy & Cardinal on my easel...

Yesterday was a day to replenish the spirit - so I listened to smooth jazz on my iPod (Acoustic Alchemy. Rippingtons, not that they are that "smooth!," Peter White, David Benoit, Russ Freeman, Bob James, Boney James, Chuck Mangione, Dave Koz, Euge Groove, Fourplay!!!, George Winston, Gerald Albright, Jazz Masters, Paul Hardcastle, Rick Braun, etc...) while I lost myself in art.

All the arts are wonderful ways to renew the mind/heart/soul/spirit! I had a great day and can show you what I worked on.

I had been going to leave the whites merge with the background, but decided at this point, that a pale background just around the white areas of the woodpecker would enhance the painting - especially from a distance.

Then it was time to refine the areas around the eye, accent a few places, tone down the pale background, and complete the work.

Downy Woodpecker - (c) Pat Dolan - Acrylic painting 12" x 12"

Reds are hard to paint - they are just so bright!

Adding the beak, which is a slightly different color from the body, of course.

I like the white background on this one - crisp and clean. These paintings are designed to harmonize in any decor, from country to modern and beyond.

Then it was time for the finishing details - the eyes, the beak high-lights, a deepening of color here and there. And a signature.

Male Cardinal - (c) Pat Dolan - Acrylic - 12" x 12"

So today, it's another day for music and art. I'm loving my studio time. I think I'll do a cow next! Nothing like adjusting to change!!!

Election Day 2016 + I SOLD a Piece!

Three RED DOTS!!!
Wendy's two pieces on the left are pen and white ink on black paper. My fiber art piece, "Paradox," on the right.

Happy Dancing! I've sold one of my fiber art pieces at the Bellefonte Art Museum! As most of you know, it's rare to sell original art these days, let alone selling fiber art! So I"m super delighted to have both the exposure/opportunity to sell my work and especially to actually sell a piece of fiber art.

The purchaser not only bought my piece, but also bought the two pieces hanging next to it "because they went so perfectly together!" There were two of us artists displaying our work in the Tea Room Gallery at the museum for the month of October; Wendy Snetsinger and myself. I took several photos of the exhibit, which are included in this post.

The team that hung our exhibit did a masterful job of matching pieces together so harmoniously that they appear to belong together!

Now, Go VOTE if you haven't already done so.