I will update my blog often with photos of new paintings in progress from start to finish and other events taking place. Thanks for visiting!  Here is a piece I am working on. It's titled "Quiet End" and is the largest painting I have done 36x75". I had to add supports to my easel and use clamps around the edges to keep it stable. The surface is linen mounted on baltic birch board so it ended up being pretty heavy, it's going to take a large frame to accomodate the weight. I rarely use stretched linen on bars even though it decreases the weight. The board behind the surface responds to the brush very differently and I have always painted on a hard surface. The first steps, after I draw the composition with thinned out red paint and a sable flat brush size #6, is to do an underpainting in a color that compliments the overall feel and hue of the scene. In this case I choose a strong, almost neon magenta color. When layers are painted over the underpainting the base color has a way of effecting the tones and tempratures of the end product. I don't always begin this way as different paintings require different aproaches and I am continually learning new techniques and styles. Any of you who may have seen my earlier paintings will notice that I have changed my style dramatically in the past few years. The use and control of detail that I add to a painting is the most noticable departure. Restraint in the ammount of detail added to a painting is a difficult concept to master. Although I still do some tighter acrylic paintings I have found the looser style to be much more expressive and rewarding.