"Ranches + Rolling Hills" Painting in Progress

October 2013

Commission started of a ranch in west marin

What a busy September!  I thought I was going to have time to paint, and ended up working for 3 weeks, assisting local friends with contract production art.  I absolutely loved getting to visit and work with Nutiva (organic superfoods) in Pt. Richmond, California.  They have a great office where they have Yoga and healthy drinks and foods several times a week.  They have a succulent garden and a full veggie garden where many in-house workers harvest their salads for lunch each day.  I really enjoyed meeting their marketing team and assisting with some label mechanicals and fun projects too.  I can't give away company secrets, but it was a nice place to work.

So, I started this first commission of a West Marin Farm.  This is the first day's work.  I am planning to finish it this weekend, however, kids, homework, Halloween and all kinds of excuses seem to be getting in the way.

cproppe.squarespace.com  (new web and mobile shop for my art work)

I even started a new website for myself that will work well on mobile devices, and added an e-commerce "SHOP" feature to the site.  The below page is the EXHIBITS page of the site, where I realized I have shown at more than 21 places around the Bay Area, many of them not even listed... I was thinking I forgot the Civic Center and the Veteran's Memorial Auditorium, and a few more...
All this marketing effort for my own business takes a lot of time.  I can't even imagine what it would be like if I could really "just paint".  That never seems to happen... not yet, at least!

cproppe.squarespace.com  (This is the EXHIBITS page on my new site)

In the Studio Today... Family Portrait Commission

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

(18" x 24". Click image, above, to enlarge)

I spent most of the month of September, working on this family portrait commission. It was a combination of 4 photos; all heads composited first in Photoshop, and then a color change to "Cobalt Blue", the recipient's favorite color. This is an 18" x 24" canvas.

I am working on establishing a portion of my website dedicated to family portraits, ballet, and child portraits. I currently do not have much of this on my site, as I have primarily focused on the Marin Landscape, with occassional buildings or cycling figures thrown in. Portraits are very tedious work, and literally back breaking. I was lucky enough to be able to get to a pool to swim today, after a session of 5 hours straight at the canvas to finish the painting.

I hope the family truly enjoys this gift. I am so glad to have reconnected with some of my East Coast friends on Facebook, and how great to be able to do some work for them. I have had two commissions from old High School friends recently, and it is really nice. Friends helping friends. Hope to do more of these paintings in the future. I enjoy getting back to the days when I painted from models for hours. I need to dig out some of my portrait work from College days. That would be fun to share.

In the Studio Today... Fall Art shows, Portrait Painting & More...

Thursday, September 17, 2009
My show "Cycling through Landscapes" is still up in Mill Valley for the next 2 weeks, so be sure to get by if you visit the Depot Cafe. This is also the weekend of the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, and I hope to get some foot traffic at my own show through this time. I was very fortunate to be chosen for the Mill Valley Arts Commission's poster advertisement for the "First Tuesday Artwalk" in September. They included me on the front of the gallery guide for the month of September as well. This was a great honor for me(see photos, above). The "Art on the Farm" group has several Fall shows coming up, and I will be at the Pt. Reyes Vineyard show in October.

Now is the time to give me a shout if you are interested in a commissioned portrait to be ready for the Holidays! I have limited calendar space for one more family portrait, or a few individual portraits before the end of the year. I am currently working this month on a family portrait commission. The end result is to be a surprise Birthday gift for one of the family members, so I can not post the work in progress here, but it is coming along. I am looking to do more commissioned portraits, pets, and have a couple of ballerina paintings in the cue. These types of works help when the economy is slower and there have been less immediate sales of other my other paintings. This is across the board for artists in my community; there has been a definite slow down in spending on art, which is really tough for artists who rely soley on their art for income. We need more grants and arts funding, and yet there are less of those opportunities at this time too.

In the Studio Today... Ole's Boathouse Old Greenwich/Riverside, CT

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

"Ole's Boathouse, Riverside, Connecticut" o/c, 24" x 36". Commission.

I grew up down the road from this active boat yard, with access to Long Island Sound. I was able to spent part of my recent vacation time painting this commission. I forced myself to leave out details in the trees and water, and I like how that part of the painting turned out. It is very easy to over work a studio painting and add too many details. In this case, concentrating the details in the building, and leaving them out of background forces the viewers focus to the building, as one might paint a portrait of a face, with a misty or abstract background. Prints of this image are available. Please email me if you are interested.

In the Studio Today...Second Commission of Two & Christin Coy Summer Workshop

Detail: "Bike at the Cabin"; Original painting 12"x 16", o/c, 2009.

I have created paintings that inspired a commissioned copy of the original, sold painting. This time, I was asked to create 2 of the same painting; one for a client and one for her brother. The painting request was from a combination of photos taken at a summer cabin in Vermont, but the client did not have a photo with the lake behind the cabin... this was my job, to paint the lake in to make it look like the cabin was on the lake... which it is, but the photos were not taken to show this properly. I am glad to finally be done with the second version of this painting.

My June news is that I will be taking a summer workshop with Marin Landscape Painter, Christin Coy, beginning in July. I look forward to getting out of the house with my paints for 5 weeks, and hopefully, I will be able to use the time to work on my landscape paintings with bikes in them, for the Mill Valley Depot show in September. Please save the date for a September 1st, 6pm reception at the Mill Valley Depot.

I visited Mill Valley yesterday to measure the walls at the Depot Cafe & Bookstore, and plan out my show. I am looking forward to filling the space with Marin cycling related scenes. It should be a lot of fun for me, and hopefully too, for the great cycling enthusiasts in the Bay Area.

In the Studio Today... Cabin Commission

Tuesday, December 16, 2008Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008Commission in progress; 12" x 16", o/c. I am working on two paintings of this lakeside cabin for a client. The client chose a photo with great shadows from the trees. There is a red bicycle in the foreground, still unpainted, but when I put the red bike in the foreground, it will pop forward with warm color. It's a nice composition to work with. It's always great when clients come to me with their special photos!

In the Studio Today... Digital Compositing Example

Modern day painters can use Photoshop to create their reference imagery, and I do that fairly often when I need to combine imagery. Here is an example of a project I did for a client in CT, who wanted a portrait of their sheep, Jelly, but the photo provided was under copyright protection by a newspaper. I attempted to find the photographer at a local paper in CT for approval to use the above image, but the paper could not find the photographer. Instead of "copying" this image that was protected, I suggested to the client that we composite it into another photograph that he had taken himself. He had an image of their other adult sheep, B.B. in a magical, misty New England forest scene that had fantastic lighting. I loved this photo right away, but Jelly, the sheep for whom their farm is named after(Jelly Hill Farm), was not in this photo. I removed Jelly from the copyrighted photograph in Photoshop, and placed her into the scene with B.B. This involved changing Jelly's shading and coloring to match the lighting in the scene with B.B., and add an additional shadow on in the foreground in front of Jelly. Once the client agreed on the final composite, I began painting the commission from the composited final image.And below is the final painting...

In the Studio Today... Cory Family Portrait

Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Cory Family, 16" x 20", oil on canvas. Commissioned portrait painting from client photo.

In the Studio Today...Jelly Hill Farm Details

Thursday, May 29, 2008
"Jelly Hill Farm" 24" x 36". Commissioned painting, with final details, including a birdhouse that my friend, Kate, noticed in the photo. Funny how I have been staring at this image for months, and I never saw the birdhouse. Takes a birder's eye to notice these things, I guess.

In the Studio Today... Jelly Hill Farm, Commission

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
"Jelly Hill Farm" 24" x 36", commission in progress. This is day 5 on a commissioned painting from a composited photograph. I am moving in to final details, and hope to finish this tonight.

In the Studio Today... Misty Farm; Day 1

Thursday, May 15, 2008
The first couple hours on a commissioned painting. 24" x 36".

In the Studio Today... Album Cover Session #5

Thursday, December 6, 2007
Still working on this commission... I decided to paint the sides "black", although, no black was used in the painting of this painting. I still mix my own "blacks" from phalo blue, alizarin crimson, burnt umber and other combinations... Still not perfectly happy with the band member faces, but I hope they are close enough to be acceptable. Scroll down to see the work in progress... Once again, it's the back side of the cd/album insert for the Black Crows, "A Southern Harmony & Musical Companion" done in oil on a 24" x 24" canvas.

In the Studio Today... Album Cover Session #4

Wednesday Evening, December 5, 2007
Okay, I am frustrated on this painting...I am having a horrible time doing the faces/portrait part of this. I have reworked many of the faces way to many times, and I feel that they will never quite look like the actual people. I realize now why I love landscapes so much... they are more forgiving to paint- if an angle is a bit off, no one really knows.

In the Studio Today... Album Cover Session #3

Wednesday Morning, December 5, 2007
Commission from album cover: The Black Crows, "Southern Harmony & Musical Companion". 24" x 24". I added more details in faces and on clothing, in the background as well. I do not draw on my canvas first, nor do I project, so I paint like a sculptor, and just keep carving out changes until I think it looks close enough to the original with out looking too much like a photo. I like to leave brushstrokes loose in the background, so it looks like a painting. See previous 2 sessions below.

In the Studio Today... Album Cover Day #2

Tuesday, December 4, 2007
I added more details today, including starting in on the faces of the band members. This is a commissioned painting, 24" x 24", of a cd/album booklet photo from the Black Crow's, "A Southern Harmony & Musical Companion".

In the Studio Today... Album Cover Commission

Sunday, December 2, 2007This is the start of a commissioned painting of the back side of a cd/album; a photo of the band members of the Black Crows. The album is called "The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion". I am reproducing it on a thick canvas, 24" x 24". Yes, I do commissions of all types! Stay tuned to see how this turns out over the next couple weeks.

In the Studio Today... Green VW Bus; Session #3

Monday, April 30, 2007
"Lynda's Green Bus" 8" x 10" Commission
I finished this painting today, which was inspired by a previous painting of a VW Bus I had done. In this one, I can see my own improvement with capturing the details on the bus. This painting was created 4 months after I painted the original, "Blue Bus on Mariposa" and started my art blog and preparing for my May show of paintings. I spent more time on this green bus than I did on the original painting.

In the Studio Today... Green VW Bus; Session #2

Sunday, April 28, 2007
Lynda's commission continued... I added more details to the bus this afternoon, including highlights and shadows on the front window, and front of the bus.

In the Studio Today... Green VW Bus; Session #1

Saturday, April 28, 2007
"Lynda's Green Bus" 8" x 10"
Today, I started this commission. A woman was reminded of driving her children around on the East Coast in her pea green VW Bus in the 70's when she saw my first painting "Blue Bus on Mariposa". She asked if I could make her the same painting to give as a gift, but with a green bus instead of a blue bus. I hope to finish this tonight in a second session of more detailed work. This took about 3 hours painting time, and a prior hour of photo manipulation and printing from Photoshop.

Commissions, Prints & Pricing

Commissioned painting of a ranch in Tomales, California 2013

Commissions:
I gladly accept commissions of all types and sizes, and can negotiate a price per job. I can paint a local place in Marin on site, or from a photo you supply for reference. Yes, I do portraits of people, and pet portraits too.* (Please see below for some examples of my recent portrait and landscape commissions.) I request 50% cash or check upfront after we agree on a total cost. The second 50% is due upon delivery. If you need to charge a purchase, I do have a PayPal account and we can arrange a credit card charge via PayPal. Please contact me for more information.

*Portrait Pricing is based on heads in the portrait, and runs from $500.-$1,000. per head depending on the canvas size. If the painting has intricate clothing, objects or backgrounds in the scene, the price will be negotiated to include the additional details. My prices include framing. I do request that the customer pay all packaging and shipping expenses. I use Dostal Studio in San Rafael for my packaging and shipping needs.I work exclusively from photos for detailed family portraits, and I can digitally composite your favorite photos, or meet you and your family at a local park to do a photo shoot before hand. View some of my portrait photography work, by clicking here. I have years of painting from models in my background, but with today's technology, I find the photo to be a better way to get painted portraits to be precise. If you prefer a classic "sitting", I can refer you to other artists in my area that include this in their business repertoire.

Giclée Prints:
You may order almost any of my paintings reproduced as an unframed, giclée print, or archival quality print on canvas. Please visit fineartamerica.com to order my prints. If you don't see what you are looking for there, please feel free to email me with any questions.

Standard Canvas Sizes/Pricing (including framing costs):
8 x 10______425.- 625.
16 x 20_____600.- 800.
18 x 24_____800.- 1100.
30 x 30____1200.- 1500.
24 x 36____1800.- 2400.
36 x 48____2400.- 3200.

Selected Commissions:

"Ole's Boathouse", Riverside, Connecticut o/c, 24" x 36". Commission.

"Jelly Hill Farm" 24" x 36".

The Cory Kids, 16" x 20", oil on canvas. Commissioned portrait painting from client photo.

The Sussman Family, 18" x 24, o/c. Commissioned portrait from four digitally composited client photos.

Ride to the Lakeside Cabin, 12" x 16", oil on canvas. Commissioned portrait painting from client photo.


Selected commissions from 2006-2007.

Note on Gallery Pricing: Most galleries and places I show my art take a percentage of my sales to support their time for showing artists' work, or to use the money towards a fundraising cause. This fee can range from 20% to 50% of the cost of the painting. Artists then deduct their material costs, such as the cost of the frame, paints, canvas, and advertising costs. Buying directly from the artist allows for a reduced price.