I was a visiting few antique stores and thrift shops with a friend on a recent vacation. As always, we found a lot of cool old junk but I was excited when I found this dainty, floral teacup so of course I had to paint it. It's my favorite cup this week but I'm using it for my coffee, not tea.

My friend Annie Piffel Smith and I were recently asked to lead a "Third Thursday" discussion group at Grafica Art Gallery in Webster Groves, MO. It was a fun and lively evening. The topic of the discussion was Floral Painting so I took this painting with me as an example.  By the way, it's still at the gallery, for sale of course. Thank you Lynn and Lary!

 

I've always loved his music but watching his two part interview on Tavis's Smiley's show was exceptional.
Tavis's interviews are great anyway because he really lets his guests talk at length which gives me time to sketch.
I've included the link to the interview,. I hope it works.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/b-b-king/

This is an oldie but a goody that I just found. It's sold but every time I see this image it tugs at my heart. The look on the face of this homeless man stands in my mind as he offered a friendly gesture to each person that whisked by him on a garishly lit street in New Orleans. I imagine that he has a very sweet heart.  I prefer to paint a simple composition (maybe that's what I like about doing portraits) but I really felt that this character needed to be placed in his actual environment. So I tried to pull that off, putting a lot of the background in but in a subued manner, without a lot of detail. I hope it worked.