Peter Donahue

A Christmas gift for my brother. This is his border collie, Blue. Acrylic on panel, 12" dia. #acrylicpainting #painting #art #petportrait

A painted chart of 10 hues and a grayscale.

Following the mixing recipes of Frank J. Reilly, I created this chart of 10 hues and a grayscale, all at 9 values. The key to Reilly's method, is tiring values without a standardized reference (like a Munsell book). You anchor value 5 to cad. red, 7 to cad. orange, and 9 to cad. yellow

Here it is with the water finished and a few other touch-ups.

An unfinished oil painting of a girl playing with a bucket.

Working on a Cassatt-style study, to explore the pigments she used and color theory ideas from the 1870s. (This is a demonstration for a class I'm teaching... but I like it and might develop it into a full-size finished oil painting)

I've finished the arms and shirt... #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art

Slow progress is better than no progress. #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art

where cool and warm light overlaps, you'd think they would neutral out. But cool light favors short wavelengths, and warm light favors long wavelengths. So, when you add them, you get a spectrum with a dip in the middle. magenta! so I painted a pale pink!
#colortheory #oiloncanvas #oilpainting #art

The creamer was fun to paint. Just need to finish up the drapery. #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art

Progress. That little vinegar bottle really gave me trouble. #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art

WIP, oil on 8" × 8" panel. Still life starring some random vessels from the thrift store. Lit with cool light from the left and warm light from the right. #oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art #painting

Another study of potato and garlic, this time with a warm light source. 8" × 8" oil on panel

#oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art

Study of potato and garlic. Oil on canvas panel, 8" × 8".

#oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art

Another attempt at plein air.
#oilpainting #oiloncanvas #art #pleinair

Thanks- appreciate your perspective. Yes, I started with a warm tan ground. The forest floor does feel a bit disconnected. I do want to keep experimenting with different colored grounds!

A plein air oil painting - a loose sketch of a broken oak tree at the edge of a forest.

The artist posing with his easel.

Did this sketch in oils; session was about three hours. While I've been painting for 30 years, I've only just started my plein air journey - any #pleinair #oilpainting folks have advice on process or materials?

Just having fun loosely sketching in acrylics this morning. The rocks are mostly phthalo green and quinacridone violet. #painting #art

Messing with optical mixtures for fun. Acrylic on canvas. #painting

Painted a red hat today.

Very cool tool! Thanks for sharing!

I think it is squished because the chroma of blue-greens are limited on RGB displays, and I showed the helix in a sorta-perceptual space (CieLUV) whereas viridis was constructed with reference to rgb values, not perceptual space.

Work in progress. a tondo portrait of my daughter, experiencing a sugar crash after trying cotton candy for the first time. #oilpainting #art

Big blue underpainting is finally done. Gotta let this puppy cure for a bit. Oil on 24" x 30" wood panel. #oilpainting

Small self-portrait study in acrylic. An attempt to demonstrate the effect of subtractive mixing: the cyan filter subtracts long wavelengths, altering the hue and saturation of the other colors in a predictable pattern. Did this as a demo for my color theory class with @drawingamerica.bsky.social

That's my working theory, anyway, haha. The problem with the painting, I think, might be that I couldn't get my purple vivid enough for the amount of push I wanted.

If the purple were duller, it would push the ochre more toward vivid yellow. Making the purple vivid changes the angle of "push" towards lime green. And yeah, these paintings were partially inspired by Kitaoka's bowl of gray strawberries :)

Good thoughts. I did add some black to the yellow ochre, in the darker areas. And you might be right about the background. Interestingly I was wondering the opposite - was it too light? Haha

Two color studies of a strawberry. The top is in a limited palette leaning green, the bottom is in a limited palette leaning purple.

Some experiments in acrylic. The top one asks, "can yellow ochre read as red?" The lower one asks, "can yellow ochre read as green?" The top feels more successful than the bottom.

An oil painting of a water tower standing over a bare forest.

This #painting ... might? Be done?

Trying put a blue underpainting, inspired by Maxfield Parrish's process. #art #oilpainting

An oil painting, depicting the viewer's shadow with the sun directly behind the viewer. The shadows are chromatic purples and blues, and the snow includes faded flecks of green, magenta, purple, and yellow.

Progress on "Self Portrait as Shadow on Snow." I snuck like so many colors into the "white" of the snow hehehe