Tea, Earl Grey, Hot

12x12 acrylic on stretched canvas (click to enlarge)

It's a dreary, rainy day here in Music City. The kind of day that calls for a spot of tea. After many drawings of cups and mugs, I settled on this composition. I enjoyed painting the pattern in the background. It adds a bit of interest without being too obvious. 

If you are puzzled by the title, then you probably were not a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Captain Jean-Luc Picard seemed to like to drink tea. He had a way of requesting it that you can watch by clicking HERE. 

This painting is on stretched canvas that is 1.5 inches deep with the sides painted and requires no frame.

Would you like some tea?

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/doug-jones/tea-earl-grey-hot/82446

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza

12x12 acrylic on stretched canvas (click to enlarge)

I thought that ballerinas would be a fun subject to paint. There are interesting positions and fun costumes to work with. After exploring the subject with some sketches, I settled on this pose. I was trying very hard to use a white tutu on the little dancer, but it just would not work. Finally I tried painting it pink and BAM... it worked. I just needed a darker value to make it pop. 

While I was painting on this Tiny Dancer, the misheard lyrics to Elton John's song kept running through my head:

Hold me closer Tony Danza
count the head lice on the highwaaaaay...

Tiny Dancer is painted on a stretched canvas that is 1.5 inches deep. No frame is needed. It would look great hanging in a little girl's bedroom.

An orange cat

14x11 acrylic on stretched canvas (click to enlarge)

Here is painting number one... an orange kitty. 

WHAT?... An orange cat? Yep, you probably won't be finding any landscapes here. Or bowls of pears. Or barns. Those subjects just don't interest me. What does interest me are fun images with a bit of whimsy and color. 

I did lots of painting on this trying to achieve a texture I liked on the background. I like acrylics because they dry fast so I can go back over them immediately and add another layer of paint. I am trying for a balance between control and a loose painting quality that I like. 

This started out as a quick doodle on a piece of scratch paper. I liked it so I did a second sketch. It was so loose and fun looking that I wanted to see what it would look like as a painting.