New Paintings on EBay

I've just posted 20 new paintings for sale in my EBay store. You can go here: http://stores.ebay.com/Melissa-Grimes-Art-Studio
or
just enter my name into the EBay search bar.

Sixth Street Girls

This is from 6-7 years ago and is one of the very first "loose" figures I ever painted.
I had been looking at Milt Kobayashi for technique and watching my friend Gordon Fowler do his painterly style. I finally loosened up. I think confidence is the main attribute required, and a true spontaneous response to the subject.

Another Cabaret Girl

Here is another student model, Laura, dressed as the Cabaret Girl.
It's done from a photo I took. I tried to paint alla prima (all at once) and to blend all the edges and let the brushstrokes show. A strong spotlight really helps in adding drama and also divides to shapes, values and colors conveniently into warm/cool, light/dark,
bright/neutral.

Portrait of Michelle K

This 8x10" oil sold on Ebay yesterday. I used a 1/4" sable filbert brush on gessoed wood. I think this one is very calligraphic: the strokes are like lines. I am still more comfortable with line than with tone. Maybe everyone is? Anyway, it looks a lot like Michelle, and I like it. The brushstrokes show the painting process very well!

Michelle in a Blue Kimono

This 8x10" oil was painted mostly from life and retouched a bit from a reference photo.
Model is Michelle Keffer.

Rim Lighting / Oil Portrait

Here is a portrait of our great local model Stephanie Colombo.
There's one corner of the painting studio at AVAA
which always gives a great rim-lit profile view. This is 10x12", oil on wood.
BTW I am one of the 20 finalists in DailyPainters.com's annual contest!
You can cast a vote there between now and mid-June by giving me 5 stars!

Cabaret Girl / Oil Portrait

This small (5x7") oil sold on Ebay today. I love my PayPal credit card! It's such a direct connection between my paintbrush and my grocery bill! The internet will be the gallery of the future I believe; galleries take too high a percentage and can't drive much traffic.

New 8x10 Figure Paintings

I've spent several hours and several painting sessions on each of these 8x10's. I hope I'll get faster soon! They represent a change in my work away from the quick figure studies and towards larger, longer, more detailed work. I'm even thinking about doing some very large works this summer. Fingers crossed!