The Blue Pitcher

This is a painting I just finished entitled "The Blue Pitcher", size 18"x24", oil on linen on board. The picture took a very long time to paint, more than three months of work and involved quite a lot of glazing, especially in the dark sections. These dark passages I found took three or more thin layers of ivory black, ultramarine blue, and other dark colors to capture.
Originally, the painting was intended to try to show different paper textures. The blue pitcher was thrown in to add color.

Here are a few thumbnail sketches I did in the beginning, right after setting up the still-life:

two older portrait paintings

I am finishing up a still-life painting right now (which I look forward to posting) but I thought I would post a couple of portrait commissions from 2006. In the first piece, "Stacey and Riley", I was very interested in the formal concepts of composition, specifically the dominant element, subdominant element, subordinant elements, and accents. The woman in the painting would be the dominant element, the child the subdominant, the arm of the sofa an example of a subordinate element, and the flower petals and the polka-dots on the girl's dress accents. I think about these concepts on every painting I do. The painting of my grandfather "Big Jack", below, was originally intended as a demonstration piece. Both pieces are life-size.