Family Art -- Teachers, Mentors, Paint 3D

When I was a pre-teen, my brothers and I took oil painting classes from New Jersey artist, Virginia Falconieri, and I painted this portrait inspired by the famous clown Emmett Kelly. I recently got it back from my parents' estate when my brother was cleaning out his basement. I presented all of my works proudly in a display case in 6th grade.

Only recently have I taken up painting again, as has my older brother.

I made a prototype acrylic sunset painting in anticipation of hosting a Paint Nite at my local coffee shop, but the class never materialized.

Photos from Westwood Regional High School Yearbook (1975)

In high school, in Westwood, New Jersey, in addition to taking what would be AP classes today, my brother and I took Art Major classes from Mr. George Pappas, assisted by Ms. Denise Salto.




Every year, he would play the audio from "The Wizard of Oz" in the background while we were doing art. He surely was one of my most favorite and memorable teachers! Per the Westwood Regional High School Facebook page, he died on December 15, 2016, at 98.

I signed up for an oil painting class as a retiree, but the commute to Seattle let the steam out of that endeavor. I guess I need to find something else to inspire the painting to continue. I need to clean out an area in my new office so that I can get organized for painting.

Retired since March of last year, my older brother has been using a 3D Paint program on a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 tablet to create his own high-tech artwork. After our July 'Brother Bonding' trip to Cooperstown together with my younger brother, we both took a renewed interest in creating our own art. His inspiration began with a passion for landscapes that he calls 'random bales of hay', which we watched out for on our road trip to NY.

His first work, completed in late December 2019, is an autumn scene from Cooperstown emulating the back cover of the latest "Memories and Dreams" magazine from the MLB HOF.



In February, he wanted to celebrate the fact that the Toronto Blue Jays will start 3 former Lansing Lugnuts at 2B (Cavan Biggio), SS (Bo Bichette), and 3B (Vladimir Guerrero Jr)  this year, and all 3 are sons of former Major Leaguers (and Biggio and Guerrero Jr are sons of Hall of Famers). So he found images on the internet of each batting and drew them into one design with Paint 3D. He now has a customized one-of-a-kind t-shirt sporting his design.

Then on St. Patrick's Day he finished this landscape from his wife's photo taken last Summer at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge in Saginaw, Michigan.

"Field - Hay Bales", Jane Cloutier

This landscape collage by a local Michigan artist, hanging in his doctor's office, uses cut bits of paper like the artist Henri Matisse would have done. He snapped a pic on his phone and went to work creating a pattern of multiple small images of the work. After playing around with placement and size on Zazzle he had it made into a necktie.









This month, my brother and his wife had to put down their Chinese Crested dog, Winston. He painted an image of their beloved family member, again using Paint 3D. Amazing!

My younger brother has also dabbled in watercolor and painted this picture of a basset hound.












Years ago I took a watercolor class and painted this portrait from a small picture of a cowboy that I found in National Geographic.

It used layering, a wash for the background, and a dry-brush technique for the flannel shirt.

You can see the pastel paintings my daughter, niece, and I created in my Art Class for Seniors post. For other artwork, such as acrylic paintings from Paint Nites we've attended, see my Friends and Family post.