Chris Beaven

It was apparent from the first brush stroke that the white of the canvas was a bad idea.

I feel that I won’t be happy with my progress on this painting until I have 10 good layers of paint over the first eye socket.

I debated for a while and finally decided that it would be better to switch to oil and focus on layers, chroma and texture.

After 125 Sessions my latest painting is finished.

I almost never sign my paintings, but today I’ve signed this one and I think it’s important.

Socks have an interesting fuzzy texture to them and it takes a scumbling, dabbing stroke to get them right, a normal brush stroke will not work.

I’m pretty happy with that title, it’s not totally true, but close enough. Her right foot is the second to last I have to accomplish on this painting.

There is so much meaningfulness with everything I do on this painting. It’s important that I get even the socks correct to the best of my ability.

I’m almost certain I’ve finished the wood floor except for the smaller shadows under her feet which I will do when I work on the feet next.

The shelving is done now I can focus on finishing the floor then the very last will be Pattie’s feet.

I did a few more lines of the shelving fronts today and I’m almost to the bottom. Tomorrow I may finish the shelving and the floor.

As I’m painting the vertical fronts of the shelving I remember painting over them somewhat and thinking I would “fix it later”

We had a super long trip last night and didn’t get home till 2am so I’m painting a bit late in the day on Pattie’s portrait after getting some needed sleep.

Now that I’m getting better at painting the wood grain I have to deal with another complexity, shadows cast upon that wood grain.

I’m getting the hang of a painting this wood texture without too much detail. Honestly I’m kinda feeling like I’m being lazy with it.

I wasn’t looking forward to the wood floor so I just dove right into it. Normally when I don’t like something it’s because I need practice.

Working on the very bottom right shelf and a random shoe box, I’m not sure why it’s there.

I finished the harry potter books shelf today even though I’m now suffering from a cold…

I enjoy meticulously painting the spines of harry potter books on the shelf, a very important part of Patties life.

Another late day doing art, although I spent a lot of time earlier in the day stretching my canvas for the next painting.

Right after work today I had to shoot off to the mainland for a Dr appointment so I’m doing my art much later in the day than normal.

After sanding and two more coats of gesso on my next painting I had to work on Pattie’s portrait with some extreme construction noise distracting me.

Most of the background on this painting has been a lesson in chroma and reducing its intensity.

I just spent a little time on painting the dishes today because I was putting many coats of gesso on a new painting.

I’m not working on two paintings, I’ve determined the next painting’s composition and I have started preparing its canvas.

A birthday present given a funny name by Pattie and one that has stuck fondly with us for many years.

I spent most of the day today traveling and waiting with errands on the mainland. As I write this I’m totally exhausted but happy that I got some work done on the painting.

I didn’t get much done on this painting today as I was doing a lot of preparation for my next portrait.

I’ve worked on this painting now for 100 sessions. Most of the session have been an hour or shorter but this is still the longest I’ve ever worked on a painting.

I’ve started preparation for a new painting that I will work on in tandem with this painting. I hope to increase my motivation with variety.

Today was a shorter session as I need to run off to a friends house to take photos for another planned portrait. I now have two more portraits in the works.

Another session with the top shelf. I’m working from left to right and at the end of the line is a bunch of elephant figurines.

I worked on more items at the top shelf today plus I went through over 400 photos taken of Patrick yesterday. I’m excited for the next portrait.

The small mass of items at the top of the shelves includes fairies and a whole bunch of stuff that isn’t recognizable, at this point it is just texture.

I’m now working on a couple angles to the right of the tiny portraits. These will be much more indistinct and fuzzy than the portraits.

A photograph in a photograph, but so tiny that I have to spend several sessions getting every little tiny stroke/dot correct.

With today’s post I’ve finally caught up with all my posts after my vacation a week ago.

Even though the objects seem like detritus most have some history in Pattie’s life, today I’m painting tofu containers and fabric from Ireland.

For this session and many others I’ve moved to the top of the shelving unit and started with all the complex items stacked up there.

I don’t really care too much about the surface of the painting. Everything is intentionally left flat, my focus is on describing what I see.

I can’t seem to bring myself to generalize any of these objects into broad strokes, I see much importance in every tiny thing.