To my family: Sorry

Well that was a nice break. Glad to be back though. Here's a gifted painting.

Shannyn: "Josh, are you going to paint a desert painting for my grandparents for Christmas? You know, like you said you would?"

Me: "Uhhh, yes."

Me inside my head: "Oh god my family is going to hate me for this." (I haven't painted them anything.)

Classic Arizona. 10x14

Sun Shower

So I haven't been painting so much this last week. Some friends came to visit and I had to pack up the studio. This week I'll be in Houston, but next week I can hopefully start painting again. I do have a couple paintings I'm giving as gifts, so I'll post those after they're gifted. In the meantime, here's a quick painting I did a couple weeks ago of a sunlit scene with a rainy background sky.

It was more of a warm up exercise, but I liked it enough to post it. Besides, I've been posting a lot of snow lately, and I'm tired of that. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

Shadows

In the winter here, the sun only reaches about 20 degrees into the sky each day. That means it's always hanging low, casting long dramatic shadows across the ground.

It's pretty, eh? 10x12

The View

This is the view from our balcony. One night, there were low clouds gliding above the city and they were lit up bright yellow by the lights.

There was one cloud that was just moving past the Olympic Tower, creating a thin white haze that the tower's lights glared through down onto the city. 12x16

Avenue Papineau

A recent snowstorm has transformed the cityscape. For a couple days, there was no distinction between roads, sidewalks, curbs, parks or anything on the ground. It was just an endless sea of snow that left familiar scenes looking completely new.

A familiar scene, near the bus stop across the street, caught my attention. I don't know why, but I felt like painting this one VERY fast. Maybe it was because the urge I felt to paint it once I saw it carried over onto the canvas once I got upstairs. Anyway, it went by quickly, and its very sloppy, but I thought I captured the scene fairly well. 10x12

Winter Mountains

This one goes out to all my home boys in New Mexico. I looked at pics of the Sandias to pull inspiration for this one. 6x12

Place d'Armes

Finally, it feels like winter. In honor of the changing weather, I painted a popular Montreal scene, Place d'Armes, in a blizzard.

I was pretty excited about the way this one turned out. The sharper details of the foreground lamps opposed to the blurred background scene really create a heavy atmosphere. It looks cold! 12x16

Paint

Waited around ready to paint but wondering what to paint for several minutes before I decided to just paint my paint. Yep. 4x5

Larger Images!

Hey guys, I adjusted the dimensions of the blog to allow for larger images. This means we can all see them a little better! Of course, it looks fine on my computer, but if it's not working properly for some reason on yours, please let me know. Also, I'm trying out a new banner up top. Do you like?

Have a good one!

Farmville

Went with my imagination on this one, and used heavy brush strokes to kind of achieve an impressionistic look. I like it! 6x12

Cornucopia

Happy Thanksgiving Oil on Blog enthusiasts!

Today I have painted for you a wonderfully bountiful cornucopia in honor of turkey day. I wish I could be back in the States with my family to celebrate, but making my 2nd thanksgiving feast of the season should hopefully make me feel a little more comfortable. (We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in October.) 10x12

Forrest Path

This is the last of my reserve paintings, I'll have some new ones to put up soon, including a Thanksgiving special tomorrow! In the meantime, check this out:

Another painting inspired from my book. I like the way the foreground shadows stand out against the brightly lit middleground. Agreed? Thought so. 10x12

Coffee Mug

...And here's a coffee mug.

Keys

Building, top lock, bottom lock, bixi, mailbox. 4x6

Mischa & Louie

So my mom's friend asked me to paint Mischa and Louie, her two Bichon Frisés. She sent me a pic of each and I did my best. I'm actually really happy with how they turned out. She saw the jpegs of the paintings and mistook them for the photos. Not a bad compliment! They are both 10x12.

Here's Mischa

Here's Louie

Lamp post

I've been wanting to paint something like this after many nights walking through Parc Lafontaine. During a couple weeks, the leaves all turned yellow, and at night the lamp posts would light them up brilliantly against the darkness.

Hilltop Village

Here's a landscape I painted with inspiration from my book. It's got pretty light, but the author's is a lot better.

Leaf

Here's the leaf painting!

Studio tour

Hey guys, I thought I'd upload a picture of my amazing studio here in Montreal. The apartment is quite small, so I'm painting out of this little corner in the living room. Its not too impressive, but it works well. The big windows to the right bring in superb lighting on most days and offer nice views of the city from 16 stories up. You can see my easel there holding a painting of a leaf (said leaf is on the black chair). My palette is resting on the leg of the easel, and my brushes and paint are on the chair to the right. Its all resting on a tablecloth in hopes of keeping my mess contained. You can see some of my other paintings lying around. Some are from practice and some are destined for this blog, so stay tuned!

Fruit & Bottle

I copied someone else's composition for this one...sorry. Anyway, I'm happy with how believable the glass turned out.

Cottage

Here is a nice little cottage. I have a book by Steve Allrich, and from that came inspiration to paint this.

Flowers

Here is my first attempt at painting like an impressionist. I've got a long ways to go, although I'm happy with some of the flowers up front.

Milk

Here's a Milk Carton. I thought it was actually quite difficult to paint, but I liked the warm light coming in from behind.

Apples

I thought I'd kick this painting blog off with a classic still life. Apples are not only interesting enough, they are easy to paint!