First day of the rest of your life

I finished this oil painting last week and I am just getting around to posting it. it was a commission for a fellow who turned 40 on July 20, 2008. I put his birth date on the boat where the boat ID number would normally go. He is from Massachusetts and the boat tags in Mass always start with "MS" and then the number. In this case, "M" and "S" happen to be the initials of this man and his wife (the one who commissioned the painting) Perfect! Just for fun, I added the initials of his two sons in Morse code somewhere in the painting ("N" and "T") can you find them? The most important thing to me is the finished piece, it trumps the intentional placement of added elements like dates, Morse code and initials. In this case it just happened to work out.

This boat is from Chatham, Mass (on Cape Cod) and is resting on shore in the early morning hours, about 6am. The sun is beginning to rise from the east and casts a reflective shine as this boat begins a new morning. This element helped to give this painting it's title and the appropriate message to any man turning 40.

Overall, I am really pleased with the minimal pallet and the warm and understated feel of this painting. There are a lot of dabs of paint on this that I feel helps to add interest to the surface and unify the piece.
If you would like to commission a painting, feel free to shoot me an email at tmbonita@gmail.com. Click the image for a larger view.

Vintage (Cast Iron car) finish

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I finished this small painting of a Vintage Cast iron toy car. I love the chipped paint and over all worn look of this little antique and was excited to paint it. My idea was to add drama to it by the use of the faded dark background contrasting the almost-spotlight effect on the car itself. My way of elevating this ordinary object to iconic status. This also simplifies the design and focuses on the car and chipped paint..it's character. These small compositions (in this case 4x6") force me to become more intimate because of it's scale. A totally different experience than painting a larger canvas where I'm standing and stepping back. These small ones require me to almost hunch into this little micro world...I love them.
*SOLD*

YouTube Video Slide Show of my Paintings

I put this together through my Daily painters gallery for YouTube.

Key #6 (finish)

I finished this small commission of "Key #6" in the series.