Latest Painting – Portrait of Two Young Children
Posted on | September 18, 2009 | Comments Off
Kids, Oil on Canvas, 2009
Here’s my latest portrait. I like the composition and the fact that the background is so much cooler and really fades in comparision to the rich colors on the clothing. The faces once again were a bit of a challenge. I’m still not quite there in terms of setting the facial planes. I also had a hard time with the eyes. To me they still feel a bit dark compared to the rest of the face. I think a few studies are in order. Next up is a study of a Frans Hals. I love his style of painting.
Also, if you’re in New York this month, check out the Kandinsky show at the Guggenheim museum. It’s their once-in-twenty-years total dedication to Kandinsky with works on loan from all over the world. Love it!
Category: Live
Coolest New Shopping Sites
Posted on | September 11, 2009 | No Comments
I don’t usually brag about what I’m doing but I can’t help but plug the hottest new shopping destinations for fashion, home and high-tech. Think eye-popping images, unbelievable selection and the best prices and discounts from stores across the web. Pronto Style just launched with oversized images to make shopping and selecting your favorites a cinch. Imagine being able to quickly sort and search through 40 thousand brand-name dresses from top online retailers like Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom. Click on the sale tab and instantly view the incredible savings like dresses on sale at 50% off retail. Keep up with the latest happenings at Fashion Week in New York on the Pronto Style blog.
Shop all the top stores in one place on Pronto Style.
That’s just the beginning. Multiply this times three because the same shopping experience is available at Pronto Home and Pronto Tech. Pronto Home features furniture, home decor, appliances and more. Browse through over 17 thousand sofas in every shape and style imaginable from hot designers and retailers like Room & Board, Restoration Hardware, Design Within Reach and yes, Ikea. Find the latest for the kitchen including cookware, tableware and cutlery at great sale prices.
Pronto Style features high-quality images and unbelievable selection
Check these sites out for yourself, bookmark them and tell everyone you know. Click below to see what’s hot:
Pronto Style
Women’s Clothing, Men’s Clothing, Handbags, Women’s Shoes, Michael Kors, Miu Miu, Roxy, Coach
Pronto Home
Furniture, Home Decor, Appliances, Cookware, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, Dyson Vacuum Cleaners
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LCD TVs, Laptops, MP3 Players, Digital Cameras, GPS Systems, Apple, Sony, Canon, Wii
Category: Work
Red Apple with Wine Bottle, June 2009
Posted on | June 28, 2009 | No Comments
Red Apple with Wine Bottle, Oil on Canvas, 2009
Here’s the latest painting and yes, it’s another apple. I used a palette knife on this one, my second palette painting to date, and I really like the outcome. It’s a bit hard to determine a stopping point with the palette. I could move paint around on this painting until the end of time. But I like how this one ended up. And I’m hooked on oil painting using the palette.
Up next: A portrait of two young children. Stay tuned.
Category: Live
Latest Portrait
Posted on | June 18, 2009 | No Comments
Guess the Original Artist
This piece is a study of a master work. The goal of this painting was to study technique and use more of the palette knife. I got a little bit crazy around the nose but feel that the background turned out fairly well. This was my first attempt at highlighting with the palette knife. I started out painting with a brush and came through at the end with bold colors and thick paint.
Could you guess the artist behind the original? Alright, I’ll tell you. This work is entitled ‘Head of a Peasant’ and was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1884, just 6 years before his death. The paintiing was purchased in 1990 by the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation and is permanently on display at the museum in Sidney.
Category: Live
Escape From The Winery Tour
Posted on | May 24, 2009 | No Comments
I love visiting wine country and a wine cellar tour can be fun when combined with ample vicodin and a few glasses of a highly-rated cabernet. I recently visited the Chevy’s of wineries in the Russian River Valley known as Korbel. Korbel champagnes are not the cheapest out there. We’re not talking pink Andre. That would be more along the level of Ross Dress For Less. No, Korbel is a good step up and their champagnes are actually very good and at $7.50/bottle (member price – yes, I joined), it’s the perfect champagne for mimosas. The winery is very nice, surrounded by ancient redwoods and beautiful gardens. The tasting room is also nice, complete with a Korbel Harley Davidson on display and faux crystal-studded T-shirts with race cars on them. They really know their market.
One member of our party thought it would be nice to actually take the Korbel Champagne Cellars tour. I’m willing to go along with most anything. How bad can a wine tour be? I have a remarkable ability to tune everything out and go far into my own little daydreamy world. So, after two minutes of the 45-minute cellar extravaganza, I was in la la land.
Hearing from others in my party, the tour guide spent ten minutes discussing random events in the lives of the Korbel family and how much the ranch hands made per week. A man that had started the tour translating the tour guide’s remarks into Japanese for his wife, stopped after only a few sentences. Numerous people sat on the benches of this church-like wine museum, lost in stare and thought.
I awoke to a tap on my shoulder from a friend and the words “we want to get out of here.” Finally, something worth hearing. As the tour guide opened large double doors to usher the group into a 20-minute video, we decided to escape. I have no problem leaving in the middle of a tour. Some may feel it’s rude, but let’s face it, as adults that haven’t been convicted of a crime, we’re pretty much free to do as we please. As we walked up the steps to get out of there, a toddler tried desperately to escape with us, crawling up three whole steps before her father nabbed her, poor thing.
Stepping outside into the sun, I could feel the freedom flow through my whole being. On to more tasting!
Category: Live
Mother’s Day 2009
Posted on | May 24, 2009 | No Comments
One year for Mother’s Day I hired a photographer and make-up artist to recreate some of George Hurrell’s signature Hollywood portraits using me as the subject. It turned out really funny and my mother really got a kick out of them. They made a great Mother’s Day gift. To this day, people look at the photos in an old frame in my mother’s house and say “Gee, you look so much like your father.”
This year for Mother’s Day I wanted to recreate what we did a few years back. In short, it amounts to a weekend home and casual brunch at the house. I flew in from Los Angeles and my older brother flew from Florida. But for a little extra, I did oil paintings of both my mother and my aunt and Fedexed them to New Orleans as a surprise. They turned out fairly well (they were only my second and third attempts at doing portraits) and I think they will only get better as I expand and experiment with different styles and techniques. The one shown here is of my aunt.
Category: Live
Taos New Mexico
Posted on | April 25, 2009 | No Comments
Courtyard at the Rosales de Taos Condominiums
I was recently stayed at the Rosales de Taos condominiums across the street from the El Monte Sagrado resort and my cousin snapped this photo of the moon from the patio. If I were a werewolf, Taos is where I’d want to be. I couldn’t stop staring and I think after a few drinks I let out a howl. We sat on the stone patio of this amazing adobe home, drank wine and were a million miles away from everything.
Category: Live
The Relaunch of DavidMcP.com
Posted on | April 17, 2009 | No Comments
Oil on Canvas, 2008
I’ve reposted most of the photo galleries that were on the old site and will put up some of my recent oil paintings in the next few weeks. At the left is my first oil portrait. I painted this one from a photo I took of a friend. Two more portraits have just been completed and I’ll add these shortly.
Feel free to add comments and share ideas. Send email to email.mcp@gmail.com.
Category: Explore
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