Colorfull

This is a painting that I have just completed for an AWT exibition in July 2009. My inspiration for this painting occured when I brought this bunch of colorfull roses. My design strategy was to simplifly the values and colors of the background to contrast with the bright colors of the roses. I used a limited palette of titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow, ultramarine blue, paynes grey, cadmium red deep and cadmium red light. The roses and crystal vase was done in a loosely fashion. It was a challenge to capture the reflected light on the crystal vase.

Daniel F Gerhartz

Daniel F Gerhartz is one of my favorite artists. He was born in 1965 in Kewaskum, Wisconsin, USA. The beauty of Gerhartz's paintings are due in large measure to looseness, honesty and faithfulness of his style. His mastery of the clothed female figure is unmatched. You can see more of his works on his website at http://www.danielgerhartz.com/index.htm

Paintings with Holiday Theme

I have been asked to provide a few paintings for a new delicatessen opening up in the small holiday town of Mtunzini on South Africa’s North Coast. The paintings will be exhibited and would be for sale to the public. I decided to make some smaller paintings with a holiday theme. Here is the first one called Black Dog.

Near Memel

I stumbled onto this scene when I was driving throught the countryside near the small town of Memel in the Free State, South Africa . The painting was done oil on canvas. My challenge was to display the bright sunlight of the African sky at midday and I therefor used high key colors on purpose. The painterly effect was created by using the pallette knife and the result was a looseness in the painting.

Lazy Leopard

This is one of my paintings I did in 2005 in which I used a variety of warm oil colors. My goal was to create a dramatic effect of the bush fire in the background and the leopard unmoved by the event. Being a native of the African continent this painting is one of my favourites and forms part of my private collection.

Light and Shade with Watercolors

I started working on some new watercolor techiques. The idea is to practice in mixing greys and painting light and dark. The aim is to develop balance in light and shade and the management of shadows. I made use of ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow pale and yellow ochre in the above painting called "Seeing the light".

Low tones against pale colors can produce exciting effects.

AWT Exibition

The exibition ended on Monday 17 Nov 2008 and was very successful. The paintings were of a very high standard and although it is difficult times quite a few paintings were sold.