Scenes from the Toronto Motorcycle Show....

A few weeks ago I was thrilled to attend the Toronto Motorcycle Show. I doubt there is a better place to see and photograph some of the most incredible custom cycles around. We arrived right as the door opened....so I was able to get in nice and close to the bikes before the crowds made it challenging. Many of the bike owners were still polishing their bikes and getting everything set up. It was fun to get to talk to them.....so proud they were of their bikes!


I was also happy to get to talk to some of the airbrush artists....the work on the bikes was incredible. The bike on the top had hundreds of skulls painted in a swirling pattern.....differing layers of red and yellow overlapping to create a 3-D effect. The photo barely does it justice.

The bike on the left was inspired by the "Underworld" movies. Scenes and characters from the movie were all over every available surface.....the amount of detail work was amazing.

The bike on the right offered quite a surprise to me. I recently completed a painting of this bike....it's easy to see it on my website. However, I noticed that some changes had been made since I had seen it the previous year. Blood drips, for one!! I had spent SO many hours staring at my photos of the bike while painting it, that I spotted the additional "blood work" immediately! A real work of art.

These photos are only a few of the over 300 I took at the show.
I wish I was able to do a painting of each and every one.

Christmas bass......

Now that the holidays are over, I can update my blog with this painting. The painting was a gift for my father-in-law....fisherman extrordinaire! On our last visit to central Florida , we went fishing in one of the beautiful fresh water lakes there. We had all caught fish that day, but this fish was "the big one!" He caught it on one of his last casts of the day, and it was a beauty. We saved it, and released it into the lake at their apartment complex.

To begin the painting, I taped a piece of Winsor Newton 140lb cold press paper onto plexiglass. Next I began the drawing. I had the photo enlarged, so I could more easily see every detail. After the drawing was completed, I laid down a light yellow wash over the center of the fish....making sure to leave the lightest areas of the fish white. Next I laid a down a very pale wash of sap green....very delicate, just enough to give a hint of sea color to the body of the fish. After that dried, I worked on the fins...using some Payne's Grey, Cobalt and Turquoise Blue, and some Rose Madder Genuine for the bottom fins. Next,it was time to lay the blues down for the body of the fish. When looking at the fish close-up, the scales show quite a rainbow of color. No fish is monochromatic, so I used various blues, greens and greys all over the body. For the gills, I used Alizarin Crimson, Rose Madder Genuine, and some Windsor Blue. The eye of the fish is layers of grey, with the white reserved with frisket.

This painting was soooooo much fun to do! After doing a motorcycle painting for months, it was fun to kind of cut loose, and work on a fish! And for a fisherman, it makes a perfect gift.