On May 11th 2010  I started a new painting.

Materials: brushes, pallet knifes, orange acrylic paint, oil paints, masonite board.

The first step is to paint the back ground orange. I like orange as a base coat, because it is a wonderful contrast to all the blues and greens I am using.

The rough sketch is done with a round brush and oils that are thinned with mineral spirit.

I am sometimes so taken by the rough sketch, that I don’t want to go on. I like the abstract feel of it and the wild colors.

You be the judge – compare with the finished product…

The next image shows a little more detail on the sketch.

Now I am wiping out my pallet knife!

Painting the background first and working my way to the foreground is my usual approach. The sky is fun…I make big moves with the pallet knife for the gradations from dark to light. Then a few shades of white, purple and grey for the clouds.

I switch between pallet knifes depending on the size of the painting and of the area I work on.

The sky definitely calls for a big knife.

The paint on my buildings is applied very thickly. Using my small pointy knife, I am trying to get all the details of the windows, shadows and sharp angles in.

After the buildings are in I know were my plants go.

Hookers green is my favorite dark green. I use it as my base color for the foliage “smearing” it on very lushly.

Then I “carve” the shapes of the leaves in. This way I create a 3D relieve on all my plants.

During the 3 or 4 days, while I am waiting for the green areas to dry I put the palm tree trunks in and give the old truck its color and final shape.

Now I turn into a gardener! After the dark green is almost dry, I let the flowers bloom and the foliage sparkle with the reflection of the sunlight.

Applying the different shades of green, yellow and white my plants start to glisten in the sun.

Wow, the sun came out!

A few more highlights and voilà!

The customer chose a shutter frame  (one of my trade marks), to compliment the hand painted desk and chair I created for them earlier this year.

A few more words on the materials I use.

I use many professional brands of oil paints. By now I know how long each of the colors take to dry, since they all have different drying times. Sometimes  I am working with cobalt drier, which speeds up the drying time without changing the paint quality.

The frame was built by me and the wooden shutters actually open and close. I apply 7 coats of paint on the frame to give it a “weathered” old look. My Floridian images look great in the shutter frame, which enhances the tropical feel and gives it a three-dimensional look and a “beachy” charm.

That’s it for today.

See you next time!  :)