Ultimate Shades of Grey!

This is one of two paintings I'm doing for the Gamblin Torrit Grey Competition.  It's a great competition that has few winners, so I'm not holding out great hope of winning.  But it is a fun challenge.  In the contest you can use only Gamblin products, and you're limited to Torrit Grey, which is made up of all the colors Gamblin mixes in a year, a black, and a white.  I used Zinc White and Ivory Black in addition to 2015 Torrit Grey.  I also used Gamsol with a drop of Stand Oil as a medium.

Title:  "Night Dance"

It's 16" x 18", Oil on hand stretched Linen, $500.

If you're interested please send me an email by clicking HERE!

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Shep's First Finished Paintings of Summer

This was fun!  It turned out to be a whole lot harder than I thought it was going to be to paint two almost identical paintings.  "Hello Darlin'" and "Leave Your Hat On" are 24" x 20", Oil on Canvas, Framed, $750/Each.

If you're interested in the pair, e-mail me HERE, for 20% off!

Check out my NEW Web Site NOW!  

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The "Blue Dahlia" by Shep is Finished!

This painting started life as a Demo for the Lake Houston Area Artists on October 22nd, so now we know it takes me 11 weeks to finish a painting.  This work was a great deal of fun to paint and allowed me a lot of freedom to create a scene and a place in time, from a minimal amount of information.

The painting came about when my model showed up for a photo shoot with this beautiful vintage, silk robe that belonged to her mother, and those amazing hose.  From there we created this scene.  I hope everyone loves it.

Does anyone read Kanji?  What does it say?  Did I get it right?
Hint:  If I did it wrong it says "Turkey" "Fang"!

The painting is 15" x 30" x 1.5" and is available for $795.
Interested parties can email Shep by clicking Here!
To see more of Shep's work click this Link!

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Shep Did Better in This Time!

On May 30th I was proud and humbled to post that my painting "Cold shoulder #5" had won a 3rd in the Contemporary Fine Art International's Spring 2014 Figurative Juried Competition.  I promised to work harder and do better next time.  I got the official announcement today that in the CFAI.co August Figurative Artist Showdown my painting "That's That" had finished 2nd.  Now I'm back home and go back to work tomorrow in my Bentwater Studio trying to reach that Holy Grail of a First Place.  Maybe next time, but for now very happy, proud, and thankful.

Congratulation to Marie Fox on her 1st Place and Mary Opat on her 3rd!  

Click Here to see all Shep's paintings For Sale on the CFAI Website.

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Shep's Ready 4 "Paint Like a Venetian" Classes

In August I will be conducting my "Paint Like a Venetian" Classes.  Here's one of the paintings I will be working on in one of the two classes.  As you can see I've barely started the Drawing Stage of this portrait, but I really like the start.  The first day of the first class I will finish the Drawing Stage of this portrait.  The subsequent stages are Grisaille, Warm/Cool, Glazing, and Finishing.

If you are interested in taking classes in the Mountains here in Cloudcroft, weeks 3 & 4 are sold out, so the first and second weeks of August are still available if you act fast.

You too can "Paint Like a Venetian"!

Click here for Shep's CFAI Website!

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Cold Shoulder #5 Wins A Wonderful Award for Shep

Contemporary Fine Art International is a truly fine organization and their Quarterly Competition's are among the best I've participated in.  I was very proud and humbled when I was notified today that my painting, Cold Shoulder #5, had won a 3rd place in their Spring 2014 Figurative Juried Competition.

Congratulations to the winner Linda Popple and 2nd place winner Carol Smith Myer.  Now I've got to get to painting to see if I can do better next time.

Please click here to see my CFAI web page and see all the entries!

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Shep's "Girl On The Gold Couch" is Finished!

Here's the third painting in the trilogy, that's completed, of paintings from the decades.  It's also the first decade, The 50's!  I've enjoyed these paintings so much.  I'm lucky to have a great model to work with, who always comes up with such great outfits for the decades.  Next up will be the 80's and 90's...I've got to find one of the Cabbage Patch Kids doll's we gave our daughters.

This painting turned out very well and won a nice ribbon at the most recent WAL Show.  It too will be at Mayfair in Cloudcroft this weekend.  It's $1,250 "Framed", 33" x 24", Oil on Linen.

Also, I'll be teaching my Class "Paint Like a Venetian" in the mountains of Cloudcroft this August.  If you're interested, please contact me.  We'll have a blast, painting, hiking, and learning a truly unique way to paint that's great for Pros or Beginners.    

Click here for my Contemporary Fine Arts International page!

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Shep says, "Dance Like Nobody's Watching"!

I started this painting when I was teaching my "Paint Like A Venetian" class in Brenham.  Now it's finished and will be For Sale this weekend at "Mayfair" in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.  It's 16.5" x 20.5", $525 "Framed".  If you're interested, please email me back before this weekend.

It's one of 3 companion pieces to "Girl in the Gold Dress" that won 1st place in The Woodlands Art Show.  This one is of the 70's when we all liked to "Dance Like Nobody's Watching".

Click here to see my New Updated CFAI page!

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Shep's Tribute to Fire Fighters!

I've dedicated this new painting to the Fire Fighters of Unit's #46 and 55.  Many of the artists from the Conroe Art League are painting this great old fire helmet from #46 Houston Fire Department as part of the annual Object d'Art.  The reception is Friday night at the Gallery at the Madeley Building in downtown Conroe, from 5 to 8 pm.  Everyone it invited.

After finishing the composition, and getting pretty far down the road with the painting, I went by #55 and asked the Fire Fighters what I had done wrong.  They loved the painting but said I had left off most of the uniform and equipment.  The guys were great!  One of the men got dressed in his complete uniform as if going to fight a fire.  This is the result.  I hope you all like it.  It will be at the gallery the entire month of February and is $1,200.

Click here for Shep's website!

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Shep's "Blue Prism" is Finished!

I don't think I ever worked harder, for a shorter period of time, on a painting.  But this painting just fit together from the beginning.  I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted from a photo shoot.  With the help of a great model we captured exactly what I wanted in a short period of time.  Drawing with chalk on black gesso proved to be no problem at all and in fact I loved it.  And the paint just flowed onto the canvas exactly as I wanted.  My glazing experiment using Alizarin Crimson on the left side and Ultramarine Blue on the right worked as planned, and I couldn't be happier with the final painting.

The only hard thing was finding a title.  The model's boyfriend said it looked like a Pink Floyd album cover.  The theme of the photo shoot was the 1970's, and since "Dark Side" was the preeminent rock album of the 70's, the title was obvious as the blue paint on the black canvas..."Blue Prism".

The painting is very large, 40" x 30", and is framed...$1,900.      

Click here for Shep's web site!

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Shep Tries Something Different!

I've been trending more abstract with some of my paintings lately and here's my newest start.  I used white chalk on black gessoed canvas for the drawing.  My plan is to use red on the left and blue on the right with the bulk of the painting being black...with just hints of color in it.  What do you all think?

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Shep's "The Girl in the Gold Dress" Wins Blue!

I was very happy, a little surprised, and extremely honored to win 1st Place/Professional in The Woodlands Art League's Fall show today with "The Girl in the Gold Dress".  "All In Vain" and "Mom's Pride" (pictured on bottom in the photo) won Honorable Mentions.  The Woodlands Art League Show is always a great show with strong competition.  The judge, the great artist Karim Ghonima, said it was one of the best fields he had ever judged so I was honored to be recognized.

I am so proud of this painting.  Karim said, in his critique, that the painting, besides being beautiful, was very sensual with a big dose of 1960's innocence.  I love it when a judge gets my paintings.  I have to give credit where due.  The model in this painting is truly one of my favorite models.  She is beautiful inside and out, very talented, and extremely involved with the creative process.  We had been thinking/planning on a painting with a very 1950's feel: a girl reading a book, a June Cleaver dress, a doll, and a picture on the wall.  The model brought 3 vintage dresses to the photo shoot, a blue gingham that is perfect for the June Cleaver painting, one we didn't use, and this great 1960's shiny gold dress.

The June Cleaver painting was put on hold because that gold dress just blew me away.  I hope you like it as well.  If you're interested in this or any of my other paintings just drop me a note.      
Click here for Shep's web site:

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How Hot is It? Shep says it's "Texas Hot"

"Texas Hot" is my latest Representational Abstracts.  These are fun to do.  Start with something, move it around, play with the colors, crop it in an unusual way, and Voila you have something people seem to like.  One of my Representational Abstracts, "Forget Me Knot", recently won a very nice award from Contemporary Fine Art International, and I hope people like this one as well.  "Texas Hot" will be at the Bentwater Yacht Club Sunday, September 15th for the Art festival.  Come see it!
Click Here to see Shep's CFAI Web Site

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