Mexican Door - stage 3

Although you may not notice a huge difference between this stage and the last one, there have been many layers of color added, and some of the detail work is beginning.


You will notice that there is a lot more Burnt and Raw Sienna showing in this stage. These warm up the painting, and connect the door knocker and keyhole with the wood. However, I am going to add another grey layer on top of the siennas so that the wood's tone is mostly greyed and aged. 


The next time I post this painting, it will be completed. I hope. :-)

Mexican Keyhole (acrylic painting still in progress)

This painting 9" x 12" acrylic painting is beginning to come alive! I have worked on the keyhole and the door knocker so that they are almost completed. Next will be the other metal parts, then detailing the wood.

I tried this painting against a yellow wall, a blue wall, and a neutral taupe wall. It looks great against each of the colors because of all the hues in the wood! Yup - it's definitely coming along! I will post the finished painting on Friday - so check back then.

Mexican Keyhole - an acrylic work in progress

Mexican Keyhole

acrylic 9" x 12" work in progress

The last time I was in Mexico, we visited several small towns and cities which had very interesting doors with great knobs, knockers, and keyholes. The patina on many of these doors was just beautiful!

This painting is the beginning stages of painting one of those doors. I'm hoping to finish this one up next week. I have to check my reference photos to see what will work, but I am hoping to do at least 3 paintings of these doors with interesting and unique keyholes.

Mexican Door

I am finished this commissioned painting of a Mexican door before the deadline! Wahoo!!!!

You may think that this is a very wonky type of painting - and so it is. BUT it is also accurate! The reason the client wanted this painting is that this door is SO bizarre, with its pieces of thrown together wood, the huge gaps, the strange stairs, the primitive art and the odd angles of walls... it makes for a great conversation piece for sure!

I'll be sending a picture of this piece to the client later today. Hope he approves of it! Keep your fingers crossed...

That completes my commission work for 2009. My next commission won't be started till January, which is beginning to look like a very busy month! I have an article to write for FineArtTips.com, a commissioned painting to do, a photo shoot, and I am the main speaker at a retreat January 18-19th, which means putting together not only my talks, but the Keynote Presentation and getting all the materials photocopied. Phew! I am looking forward to all this, though. I feel like I am just hitting my stride!

But for now, it is time to focus on getting ready for Christmas with my family and friends. Carols playing, outside lights up, the tree decorated, house decorations done... now it's time to bake and plan the menus, finish the shopping and wrapping, and continue to be thankful for all the blessings I enjoy, especially at this time of year!

How are you doing in your preparations for the holiday season? This is the coldest and whitest Christmas I can remember in many years. Yesterday we hovered at -28*C all day, and today is only slightly less cold. By the end of this week, we are supposed to hit 0*C, so I know the shopping malls will be FILLED with shoppers then. I'm going to head out on the cold days for the last of the shopping I need to do. Then I can enjoy being outside when the "warm spell" hits.

Mexican Doors Can Be Weird!

This is what I am working on currently - my 2nd commission from my show. The client was in Mexico earlier this year, and took many pictures of various Mexican doors. They truly are fascinating - and each one is uniquely different it seems!

This is the door he chose to have painted. The wall color is so bright green that it is rather shocking. The stairs leading up to this door are very strange - several at different angles. You may notice there is one step that leads to nowhere.

The door is literally falling apart in places. I am sure that many creatures love having the freedom to come and go as they please - there is quite a bit of space at the bottom of the door, and a huge open area at the top. The paintings on the wall are quite primitive - very bright colors, done freehand.

Even without the lettering on the wall, I think this painting reads "Latin America". This one will take another few days until it is completed. Then I can call up the client and ask him to come and view it. :-)