Early Morning Arrival

"Early Morning Arrival"  18x24
I've had a few too many early departures with arrivals into DFW.  This shows a Boeing 737, in the old "Silver Bird" paint scheme of American Airlines, which produced a nice mirror for the dramatic skyscape.
I'll be selling this at the Southlake "Art in the Square" Festival, priced at $1850

"Lady In Sight"

"Lady in Sight"
I flew this airplane, the MD-80, for 22 years.  When LaGuardia was landing south it was common to "call the Lady" in sight, then fly over the Statue of Liberty and up the Hudson until the controller turned you to base.  I imagined this on a late afternoon with Manhattan in the background.

Kayla and Joel



It was hard getting a photo to paint this portrait of my grandniece -- she was looking for pretty leaves on a mild New Year's Day and not interested in posing.  I made her "pop out" of the picture by contrasting colors, highlighting her blonde hair, and outlining her sweater with a green line.  Yes, she's wearing a tutu and a sweater.

I painted this from a photo taken by my sister of her grandson.  I like the idea that he's breaking out of the picture, plus the dynamic tension that comes from being off balance.  Making the branches look real was a challenge.

The Ditching of Happy Daze

My good friend's father, John Keelan, was a B-17 Aircraft Commander in WWII and was lucky to have survived.  On his 9th mission, (7/25/43) after bombing the sub pens at Kiel, Germany, he was bounced by enemy fighters.  Out of control and with a wing on fire, he managed to save his plane and crew and ditched "Happy Daze" about 30 miles off the coast of Germany.  He kept the crew alive for two days until they got a free ride back to England courtesy of Danish fishermen.  I tried to portray his final moments before ditching, late in the afternoon, with the number three engine feathered and smoke pouring off the wing. I researched the markings for the 410th Squadron of the 94th Bomb Group and think they are correct.

Carel Fabritius

One of the greatest painters you never heard of is Carel Fabritius,who was a Dutch Baroque painter (in this case, Baroque really refers to the time period, because the Dutch didn't share much in theme with their brothers in Italy and France.)

Carel Fabritius's The Goldfinch is a small (think 8x10) oil painting, on board. It shows a Goldfinch, tethered to a feeding box against a flat, discolored wall.  The effect is a trompe l'oeil trick designed to show you a three dimensional image of the life size bird suspended in air.

Fabritius (1622-54) lived a short life, dying in the great Delft gunpowder magazine explosion of 1654.  He was the only one of Rembrandt's students to develop his own artistic style and was undoubtedly a great influence on my personal hero, Jan VerMeer.

My sad copy is the one on the bottom and I could never quite get the depth illusion Fabritius put into the original. (my colors are actually closer to the original than this image.)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Lee!

A mosaic of my Dad, Lee Keeney, for his 87th Birthday.  There are 300 individual photos of Lee's family, kids, grandkids, greatgrandkids.  (many repeats)

The photo was made into a 3ft x 5 ft banner

You can see the individual photos a little better in this detail.

Katie

This picture of our daughter Katie, age 2, was my first attempt at a color portrait.  I used a white canvas with no gesso ground and simply made a detailed drawing and filled it in.  My mother made the dress.  Katie has been my best subject.

This picture of Katie at age 4 was a "Degas-like" attempt.  This is the picture my wife says she'd take with her if the house was burning.

Not a great composition, but a picture of Katie with unconvincing flowers, in front of our house in Virginia.

Katie, in the "royal" style of French Renaissance painter Francois Clouet.

I painted this from a photo I took by surprise, which is how I had to get many of  her pictures. She was reading and I liked the way the light fell on her.

Katie as a model for Renoir's "Girl Reading."  I started with a better likeness of Katie, but had to change it to make it look "Renoir-like."

My best portrait, Katie in her wedding dress.  The wedding had a Venetian theme, so I put in some Venetian bridges along a canal bank in Las Colinas, Texas. BTW, you can't make a wedding dress pure white, it looks strange.  I used all the colors in the picture in her dress.