January 1st 2017

Morning Commute 2  5x7 oil on paper  $90

A new year with new goals.  Here I go again.

Last year I kicked off the year by painting 30 paintings in 30 days.  I blogged about all of the paintings last January so you can easily scroll below and find them.  I painted them on 6x6 inch wood panels.  My goal for last years' paintings was to find inspiration for smaller paintings.  I painted landscapes, abstracts, some portraits, and a couple of surreal pieces.

Some of you have seen my work in person and you know how large I have painted in the past.  Here's a link to my "Obsessions" as well just incase you want to see more  http://www.larryreinhart.com/my-obsessions .  A 3 foot by 4 foot painting was kind of my starting point and I usually went larger.  The problem with the large paintings is the countless hours it takes to produce them, the cost of the supplies and then trying to find a home for them.  Not everyone has room for a 3 foot x 4 foot or larger painting in their homes and then there is the cost of such a painting.  If I factor in five dollars an hour I still need to sell the large paintings for at least a thousand dollars.  For an artist starting off on a new path of their art career, this is hard.  I just cant raise a family and purchase new supplies on  five dollars an hour.  Sad but true.

Painting small is problematic, at least in my eyes.  The things I paint at  3 foot by 4 foot I just can't be painted in the same style at only 6 inches.  On the larger paintings I moved my body when applying paint.  I'm also scrubbing, wiping and scraping the paint.  I can also get a lot more color variations and textures in a one foot area but I can't do the same in a one inch area.  It's a whole new world at this scale.  So, within last year's goal, I wanted to teach myself to paint - small.

It worked!  I now have a grasp on it.  Not only a grasp but a love for it.

So please follow along with me as I push myself further into this new, smaller art world.

The painting above might look familiar to you.  I actually painted the same scene a couple of months ago. But I wasn't happy with it so I painted it again.  I'm happier now.  Here's the older version:

Morning Commute 5x7 oil on paper  $90

Which version do you like better?  

You can find this scene on the way down from Oak Glen heading towards Yucaipa in southern  California.

If you enjoy what I do and wish to support me you can always contact me to purchase a painting or even make a donation.  All of the paintings will all be for sale.  The best part is they are not thousands of dollars - yet.

Take care,

Larry