Taking Measure Size:  35.5 x 28 mm (14 x 11 in) Medium:  Acrylic Support:  Gessobord Notes:  Painting knives My previous painting knife work left me unsatisfied as it was: 1) too small; 2) didn't feature female sports or athletes. Seeking to correct both of those strikes, I found a nice reference image on Pixabay and then got in touch with my inner Neiman. Overall, this amazingly straightforward painting was very satisfying. This image and many other images by CJ Carter are ready for purchase in a variety of formats: prints, canvas prints, phone cases, and so much more. Help support this site and the artist by dropping by the store and getting gifts for yourself, for family, and friends.

Male Goalkeeper for the Save Size:  20.5 x 15 cm (8 x 6 in) Medium:  Acrylic Support:  Gessobord Notes:  Painted with knives I mentioned to my brother that I had a hankering to commit some art with a palette knife, but I was loathe to use so much paint and that the Open Acrylics I use were unsuitable in any case. He surprised me on my birthday with a cache of heavy body acrylics, a craft store palette knife assortment, and a pack of 6x8 gessobord (Ampersand, of course, given the spelling). Now it was up to me. When I got a chance to return to the easel, I figured I'd give it a go. It had been a very long time since I'd wielded a painting knife with wild abandon. There were other challenges: some colors I was unfamiliar with, knives that were larger than the board was happy with, and a board that was undersized for the subject. In other words: this was going to be fun. I figured something to honor the Men's World Cup that was starting at about the same time as this painting would be good. So, football it was. Since I was usually a keeper, I wanted that as the subject. Unfortunately, I don't have any rights to @hopesolo images (the GOAT GK in the women's game IMO), so it was off to Pixabay to find something. Sadly, no good female GK shots. Except for some initial brushwork to set my lines, this was entirely done with the paints, knives, and board gifted to me. Considering the long layoff and the aforementioned challenges -- and that I made up the background on [...]

Study of In the Peristyle Size:  30.5 x 40.5 cm (12 x 16 in) Medium:  Acrylic Support:  Stretched canvas Notes:  — This is a study of painting done in the Pre-Raphaelite style by J.W. Waterhouse. The challenge of the columns along with doing a human using acrylics (it's been a while) intrigued me. While I prefer to paint on gessoed boards, I've had this canvas lying around for the better part of a year and I figured I should do something with it. The size of the original painting is 52.1 x 67.3 cm, so this was done at 58% and was somewhat cropped to fit the aspect ratio. The reduction added some challenge -- painting larger, to a point, is usually easier. The biggest difficulty comes from the fact that the original was painted on top of another painting, and that painting does show through. Trying to figure out which texture was attributable to which painting made me make decisions that inevitably altered the work. Because of that, this is not so much an art reproduction as it is an interpretation. This image and many other images by CJ Carter are ready for purchase in a variety of formats: prints, canvas prints, phone cases, and so much more. Help support this site and the artist by dropping by the store and getting gifts for yourself, for family, and friends.

Verdant Venture Via Bicycle Size:  35.5 x 28 cm (14 x 11 in) Medium:  Acrylic Support:  Gessoboard Notes:  — I’m not a landscape painter. Even so, since I like my backgrounds to look interesting, I do, from time-to-time, have to paint landscapes. In order to do that well, that means actually painting them to exercise one’s painterly muscles. I found this reference image that required a lot of work doing trees. It also incorporated a small figure, which I like to add to landscape or architectural pieces if they aren’t already there, just so there is some enigmatic story that goes along with the picture. Being a storyteller, it’s little elements like that which make a work such as this eternally interesting to me. Why is he on the road? Where is he going / where is he coming from? Why is he on a bicycle? Is this someplace familiar? Is he pressed for time? And so forth and so on. This image and many other images by CJ Carter are ready for purchase in a variety of formats: prints, canvas prints, phone cases, and so much more. Help support this site and the artist by dropping by the store and getting gifts for yourself, for family, and friends.

Autumn Park Empty Seat Size:  30.5  x 30.5  cm (12 x 12 in) Medium:  Acrylic Support:  Gessobord Notes:  Cradled 3/4″ I’ve made it fairly common knowledge that I’m not the first to volunteer when it comes to landscapes. While I appreciate them in real life and when they are executed well in art, it’s just not something that I’m compelled to do for my own satisfaction. That said, unless you are determined to either do still lifes or portraits with indistinct backgrounds, landscapes will be a significant part of every painter’s work. I chose to do this painting because of the challenge that all of those autumn leaves presented. The range of colors and values despite the largely overcast day offered up something that never failed to demand I pay attention to what I was doing. I put in the seat because I love to at some enigmatic element to entice the viewer to come up with their own stories — whether drawn from real life or imagination. This image and many other images by CJ Carter are ready for purchase in a variety of formats: prints, canvas prints, phone cases, and so much more. Help support this site and the artist by dropping by the store and getting gifts for yourself, for family, and friends.

Saturn V Stage Sep Size:  61 x 40.5 cm (16 x 24 in) Medium:  Acrylic Support:  Stretched canvas Notes:  — This represents the moment when the Saturn V's first stage F-1 engines cut-out and the explosive detonate to separate the S-IC (first stage) from the S-IC/S-II interstage. One of the key events is the four pairs of retro-rockets normally hidden under the engine fairings firing to keep the stages from unintentionally crashing into each other (it happens). I love the Saturn V. When I decided to move from applying acrylics primarily with an airbrush to a "hairy stick" (AKA a brush), it seemed a good choice. Well...yes and no. The subject matter certainly held my attention and pushed me through the learning curve. A big part of that curve was just trying to keep my paints workable for a useful length of time. It was a time of a lot of experimentation with paints, additives, palettes, etc. When I look at the finished piece, I'm always surprised that it came out as well as it did. Because of the difficulties, I always remember it as not being as good. Don't get me wrong, this is hardly a gallery piece, but it will always have a welcome spot in my heart. Many images by CJ Carter are ready for purchase in a variety of formats: prints, canvas prints, phone cases, and so much more. Help support this site and the artist by dropping by the store and getting gifts for yourself, for family, and friends.