Back in Barcelona today...a new oil painting of the side streets in the city. This painting is 14 x 11 inches.

This is an oil painting of a scene in a town in southern France. When you paint scenes in towns you inevitably have cars to deal with, often in the foreground as is the case here. Car shapes are not as simple as they first seem, and their reflective surfaces often produce sharp reflections from the sky. I find I must simplify the cars' shapes and tone down the reflections...otherwise the cars become the focal point of the painting. Sometimes they ARE the focal point, but here it is the figures, so the cars must be subdued. Fortunately the figures are in shadow with a sunlit building behind them, and this contrast also gives them the emphasis they need.

This oil painting is 14 x 18 inches.

Lately I have had about 2 weeks in a row when I can paint every day (well, OK, I take Sundays off). Anyway, I always find that this has a good effect on my painting. The action becomes more intuitive and I feel that I make good progress as a painter. Plus of course, I like to paint so the more days spent on it, the better! In this painting I especially enjoyed the multitude of colors present in the white fabric and hat. It is easy to think of white as just white, but there are many colors involved!

This oil painting is 12 x 9 inches.

Here is another in my long-running series of oil paintings of Mediterranean Europe. In this scene I return to Barcelona. This painting is composed almost entirely of neutral colors, but I like them because none are browns and grays from the tube...all are mixed from blues, reds, oranges and yellows. In fact it has been several years since I included browns and grays on my palette. I find the ones mixed from primary colors to be much more interesting.

This painting is 9 x 12 inches and is one of 3 paintings I completed today.

This is another in my long-running series of oil paintings of Mediterranean Europe. It is a path through a garden in the town of Bruniquel in the south of France. I find such paths to be very inviting, both as a painter and as a walker. Of course I am always interested in light and shadow, and in this case in the effects of slightly dappled sunlight.

This oil painting is 14 x 11 inches.

This is a scene in Barcelona, where I visited a few months ago with my wife and other family members. I am now working on a series of paintings from that visit...trying to capture more the idea of that nice warm Mediterranean light and the everyday pulse of a lively city and not so much a postcard view of a particular place. I don't expect anyone to recognize the street in Barcelona but I hope the painting will bring to mind the feeling of southern Europe.

This painting is 14 x 11 inches.