Christmas 2025 has passed and we’re now three weeks into the new year. It’s been 9 months since I last typed up a blog post, so there’s much to catch up on. I completed quite a few paintings throughout the end of 2025 and made videos for them all.
Since I just mentioned Christmas: Mine was amazing and I am always blessed and thankful. I received a couple of art related gifts from my loving wife. I received a Masterson wet palette. I got the large yellow one. For anyone not in the know, it’s a large low flat plastic container with an airtight lid on it. It reminds me of Tupperware. It has a large flat sponge that sits in the bottom of the tray, over which you place a thick tough palette paper which holds paint but doesn’t tear easily even when wet. You wet the sponge with water, wring out the excess water, and lay it in the bottom of the tray. You want the sponge more than just damp, but less than saturated. You don’t want water to pool in the tray. You then wet your palette paper and after letting the excess water drip from that (again you don’t want water pooling in the tray), you lay that on top of your sponge. So the sponge and paper are not swimming in water, but they are moist. You then would squeeze or scoop out your paints onto the palette paper.
The water in the sponge and paper, combined with the airtight lid, keeps my acrylic paints moist and workable for longer periods of time. In the past I’ve always had a tendency to dispense too much paint onto my palettes, and then I will step away for long periods, and my paints would dry out. Using this wet palette, I’ve stepped away for 3-4 days, opened the tray and found my paint still workable. It’s been working out great so far and I think it will eliminate a lot of wasted paint.
The other art supply that I received for Christmas was a small travel watercolor set that I can carry in a backpack or in a pocket. It’s a tiny palette box, that came with paints and little water brushes (the clear plastic kind that you fill with water). I think it’s really neat and fun and I’m eager to use it. It came with a 1.5 inch square book of blank watercolor-paper (like a micro journal), to paint in. The book is about a half inch thick. The palette box is two magnetized lids and that’s what holds it closed, and also what holds it open and together when you put the lids together. On one lid are 8 paint pans, which you can fill with the colors of your choice, and the other lid acts as a tiny mixing tray, A little metal clip helps keep it all together and acts as a small handle to hold the palette box as you paint. I’ve attached a photo to show better what I am talking about.
I’ve not blogged about any of this, obviously, but I have completed several paintings over the last half of 2025. So, I’ve been keeping busy.
The first painting I’ll talk about is a study in gray scale values. It’s a painted rendition of a sculpted rendition of Jesus Christ that stands in a cemetery, not far from my home. The full statue is of a standing Jesus with outstretched arms; his hands pierced with wounds. The statue is painted completely white, so it details light and shadow really well. I chose to paint a closeup of only the face.
The small Jesus painting was so quick, that I did another painting right after it, and then realized I had a small stack of these 5 x7 panels and I wanted to use them all up to make a series.
So the paintings that followed were a great horned owl, and a couple of my garden friends – a bumblebee, and an orb weaver spider. For the spider painting I tried using the edge of a piece of white card stock to create the webs. With a brush I would apply white paint to the edge of small piece of card stock and then press the cardstock edge to the painting, much like you would a rubber stamp, It worked out well, but I could practice it some more.
After I created this small series of gouache paintings, I got back into the larger acrylic paintings. I completed three more paintings, one of them on a round canvas, because I wanted to try something new. The round painting is of a bumblebee feeding from a bright marigold. Obviously, the round shape of the flower head filled the round canvas very nicely, and that was the catalyst for painting that particular subject. The bee was icing on the cake.
I then tried another odd-shaped canvas, this time an arc shape, painting a gardening scene which I titled “Springtime Planting” (a favorite time of the year, therefore it’s a self-portrait). Those are pepper plants, bells and jalapenos.
I then got back into rectangular canvases (I ran out of odd-shaped ones), with a scene of a rocky stream in an Autumn forest (which is The Smoky Mountains, in The Sugarlands, to be exact), which I aptly titled “Mountain Stream”. I found this one to be a challenging piece, with all of the foliage detail.
I have another new painting on the easel right now. It’s acrylic on an 18 by 24 inch stretched canvas. The subject is chess. That’s all I got. You’ll see that painting later.
Currently, it’s freezing cold where I am. It was 12 degrees yesterday, and zero the day before that, so I’m spending my days making art, peppered with moments of clearing snow.
I should wrap this entry up and get back to the painting. Until next time… which will be who knows when? It could be soon. It could be later. I wish that you, my readers, will have a great day! Thank you for coming by and checking on me. I appreciate your interest in my artwork.