R. Davies Art

Here is one of eleven paintings to be shown at Riney Gallery come March 6th. It'll be a good show with I think what will be a very large attendance. Let's hope!

Well, this baby sold before I could even write a blogpost about it. It's 5x7" oil on panel. This series is taking off! I hope to have more small paintings up soon! These paintings are done during breaks working on larger paintings for an upcoming show at Riney Gallery. I love these small still lives that just ooze heart and love for the medium! I'll add a pics of some of the paintings in the next post. SOLD

This oil painting of a whiskey glass conveys American iconography at its finest! It carries such freight. From westerns to rough and tumble city bars to whisky pubs in Brooklyn, it conveys a welter of meanings! Temptation, celebration, contemplation, quiet times after a hard day, loss, struggle. Life. This painting is 5x7 inches, oil on board.  SOLD

This young woman was a natural and a delight to paint. While I like to believe that I draw out the best of anyone, she made my time in the studio a pure joy. The young man is the little brother to the girl above, While not quite as conscious of his role in the process, he is blessed with an amazing innocence that translates well in paint. This is a portrait of my son. He is a great kid who can write, program, and draw like nobody's business. And, my daughter. She works very hard to make her way in this complicated world, and you can see the determination in her eyes. This was another fun commission. She has a stunning inner beauty that outshines even her extraordinary physical beauty. Oftentimes it is the precise manipulation of micro-expressions that tell the story. As I've stated before, capturing a likeness is not terribly hard. Capturing a soul...that is another thing.

Every now and then I sell paintings which I kind of wish would somehow magically return. They are haunting to me. The one to the right captures a specific feel of invitation, anxiety, beauty and dread. It fascinates me. The one to the left with the hydrant holds some sort of spell on me. Between the clouds portending either rejuvenating spring rains or the possibility of lashing storms and the pattern of tiny white flowers that lead the eye back and forth, in and out, I find I can stare at it for hours. All I have now is the picture. The real thing is far better. I can see the brush strokes in raking light, not to mention that the painting's color will never be as true in a photo. Sometimes it is not enough to be the painter. I want to have it in my house where I can visit at any time.

There is something about still life that is fascinating--if done right. It should have all the standard pictorial elements: composition, interesting color usage, brush technique, etc. But, what interests me most about a still life is the almost intangible story/mystery of that combination of elements. If done well, it seems that a faint quantum trace of the humanity it represents remains. We want to know more. Our eyes search the surface for meaning and find small almost abstract moments of paint scumbled or washed or scraped where a small composition within the larger presents its own mystery. It is like a novel that bears rereading and yields anew with each visit. To the left is an example of a painting that invites us to dawdle, to get lost in reflections, to wonder about relationships between objects. It is also a painting that lets me get lost in meditation as I paint. There is a certain point I reach where I am no longer painting the label--bell, brush, book, bottle-- bu

When people think of the how of painting, the direct method of painting is what many people assume most painters use, and this is largely the case for most abstract and much of realist painting. The indirect method is currently making a comeback, and I may discuss it in another post. For now, the direct method, which seems simple, but if done well, is surprisingly complicated. To start, you may or may not have an underdrawing, tone, or underpainting, but you will have a series of brush strokes that are as precise as possible. The paint will be mixed to the exact hue and value--shade, tint, tone--lifted from the palette with the exact size and shape brush needed for the expected mark and deliberately applied by dragging the color on the tip of the brush, not the bristles across the desired area. The artist may twist the brush, press to fan it out, or manipulate it in some other way to get the exact brush shape desired to make the exact mark. If the mark is incorrect or inarticulate, i