Marble and Granite Tile Paintings

"Jack" - Oil on granite, 4x4".

Here are a few more tile paintings - these are mainly study and practice for me, doing some still life and animal studies, but I'm really enjoying how they are turning out as well.  I'm finding it really enjoyable to explore different types of surfaces to paint on, as each imparts its own unique texture to the painting.  These three are varnished and ready to go! 

"Yale" - Oil on marble, 4x4".

Shell - Oil on marble, 4x4".

Tile backs, left to right: "Yale", "Shell", "Jack"

Fine Wood Pendants

Thanks to everyone for the great response to the handpainted pendants!  It's been quite an adventure putting 3 distinct techniques - woodworking, fine wirewrapping, and miniature painting - together to make these. 

Because some of the reclaimed hardwood pieces I have are so intriguing by themselves, I am also starting to make some unpainted pendants that will show off the beauty of these wood pieces.

Each has been finely sanded and is bordered by a silver-filled wirewrap. If you are interested in purchasing a pendant, please feel free to contact me directly.

Painting on Stone

Cougar and Shell, Oil on Stone, 4x4 inches

I am starting a new series of miniature paintings on granite, marble, and other stone, and here are the first couple that are almost finished!  I've also included the reverse side - I've kept the polished tile as is, and edged it in gold.  Every tile is different, so the back will not be the same as what is shown here.  Each painting has its own unique texture, created by the grinding marks when the tile was originally made, as well as the texture of the stone itself.

I hope to have these available at High Hand Gallery soon, but as always, if you see something you like on this blog, feel free to inquire, as it may still be available.  :)

Pendants

Lion and Tiger pendants, oil and acrylic on exotic wood fragments, framed with silver-filled wire w

rap.

I've finally settled on a design for the pendants I've been working on, and here are a couple of the first examples - these are handpainted fine art miniatures on exotic hardwood fragments, with a silver-filled wire wrap.  Now to make more of these!

Jewelry design copyright L. Merchant

Evolution - Sneak Peek

A time comes, periodically, for an artist to put down the usual work and go in a completely different direction. It doesn't mean that the old work is finished, necessarily, but that for the work to improve new skills need to be learned.

I seem to do this over New Year's every year, and this year it happened again. I had an idea for a project, but lacked the skills to pull it off. I wanted to paint miniatures and make them into jewelry pieces. Painting small isn't really a problem for me, but what about making the actual jewelry fittings? What about the substrate, how could I make the piece unique and special? With a little help from my gallery friends (Thank you, you know who you are!) I learned a bit of metalworking, and a bit of woodworking.

These aren't done yet, and I haven't posted in a while because I wanted to improve on the idea first - but at least you can see where I'm going with this. Hopefully soon I'll have some awesome pieces to show. :)

Oil paintings in miniature, on repurposed hardwood offcuts, framed in copper and silver.

John Howe

A video about John Howe and his technique, an illustrator for Lord of the Rings.

Norman Rockwell Exhibit

I went to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum and...wow.  The guy could paint.  Here's a list of observations about his paintings and technique (note, these are my own personal observations from memory and have not been fact-checked.)

The paintings are much larger and way more textural than I had thought.

On some, he appears to have used a thick gesso prior to starting the painting.

He used a variety of canvas weaves - some were miniscule, others were nearly as heavy as burlap.

He really varied the amount of detail used in each painting.  Some areas of lesser importance were left nearly as underpainting washes, while other areas such as faces were much more finely rendered and also had more paint.

He used paint thickness to advantage.  On white highlights, he built up the paint. The miner's light in "Mine America's Coal" is especially thick.  Also, in The Art Critic, the paint on the palette is built up as it would be on a real palette.

He uses a wide variety of colors to draw the eye.  In Girl at Mirror, her dress is made up of light blues, yellows, and pinks.  There is a tiny dot of cadmium red (?) at the join between her shoulder and the dress, apparently solely to draw the eye.  This is again seen in a couple other areas of the painting too.

Several of the paintings had dedications in the corner, apparently to people he presented the paintings to?

There was a certain blue-green color that he used in paintings over and over again.

Often the charcoal lines were very visible and added to the final impact of the painting.

In one painting, a newspaper's lettering was rendered so small and so finely that I wonder if it was done in ink rather than paint?