DJ Geribo

Fox Hunting, although only 18x24, feels like a bigger painting. It is taking me as long to finish this piece as it is to finish the 30x40 paintings. Today I noticed my Fox was looking a little too realistic and I knew he needed something. I stood back, looked from all angles, and realized he was too blah, he needed more colors. So, I added colors.  You might think I'm making a statement, and I very well may be, but I believe art should be interpreted by the viewer. I have my interpretation and it may be completely dfferent from what you are thinking. All that matters is, does it speak to you? If it does, great! I'm happy. If it speaks to you so strongly that you have to have it, even better. I paint what I love, what I feel passion for, and it comforts me to know that there are others who feel exactly the same, who see my fox, in all its glorious colors, as so beautiful, so alive.

 I'm not yet finish but I'm close. I have a few more changes to make to the foxes coat, and also the bare shrubs coming up through the snow - are they looking a little too uniform? Yes, they are! I just wanted to get them in place and my next step will be to add other colors to them. But they are in the background so I'm not going to spend too much time. I am happy with the shadows around them, though. I had very start shadows and knew they would not work. Then I kept adding white until I got the right blend of white for the snow and bluish purple for the shadows. I love that combination for shadow: Dioxazine Purple, Prussian Blue, and Titanium White. Makes a very striking shadow, especially on the snow.

My final blog for this painting will be entered sometime in the next week. Stay tuned!

I'm very excited about the progress I'm making with the current (3) projects I'm working on - 'Tiger, Tiger', 'Elephant Big Boy', and 'Fox Hunting'. I've spent the last couple of weeks working on the Elephant and the Fox and this is how the Elephant currently looks. I'm almost finished with him and I have just a little more to work on, such as his eyes and his tusks, and then I'm signing my name.

This has been a wonderful experience, painting large scale. I have 4 more 30x40 canvases and am lining up the next paintings I will be starting, probably in the next couple of weeks.

I will have the final Elephant Big Boy painting to share when I have completed the painting. Stay tuned!

Working on three paintings at the same time feels just about right. That way, while one is drying I can work on the next one and while that one is drying and the first isn't quite ready to be worked on again, I have a third one to paint.

I decided that I needed to work on more than one painting at a time. With oils, you have to wait for the current layer to dry somewhat before you add more paint to it otherwise you will risk making mud on your canvas. I did a miniature painting of this particular fox composition(5"x7") that is for sale through my Daily Paintings - Animals gallery. I liked it so much I thought I would do a larger painting of it. Although not as big as my Tiger painting (18"x24") it is bigger than the miniature I did and I think it will be a better composition in a larger size.

I'm finding the best way to fill in the canvas is by adding more paint, lots of paint! I'm fairly stingy with paint which is part of the reason I like painting small. I put just a dab of paint out for each color that I use and it lasts for several paintings. Not so with large-scale pieces, I am going through the paint like crazy and I've had to put a shopping list together of the colors I need to replace.