Axel's Oil Paintings #2

This is Axel again. Round 2 of oil paintings, not in the order I painted them. Terah put the pictures up so I'll add some text. The above is a picture VG did that I really loved because I think he got the bark of the pine tree so right. The picture doesn't show how yellow the grass is, but I think it brings out the blue. Of course Terah mixed all the colors. Which has made all the difference. Almost all of the following pictures Terah did the color mixing for me. Which is amazing how much better the paintings look. I am terrible with color coordination. As witnessed in pretty much everything I do (shirts and ties being the worst offenders... Terah still says yes or no and now if I leave the house and she doesn't say anything she is forbidden from telling me the two don't work together so I can be in blissful ignorance). It is amazing how much better a painting is when Terah does the colors.
Van Goghs sunflowers. Actually I did these colors. I am going to send this one to my mom.
Van Gogh's Almond Blossums. Man I love painting trees. This is the first one Terah did the colors on and I loved it. This is a huge painting. It is like 4 feet by 3 feet big. We have it in our room.
Close up.
I have always loved the Orientalist artwork. It started after the French took Egypt and it really influenced their art. After all, if you paint naked harem or slave settings it isn't because you want to paint naked women looking all submissive, but because you want to show the culture of the Middle East. I am serious, google search some Orientalist works and you will see every third one was probably as bad as could be for the time.

I chose to do a painting of Sir Richard Burton who is my hero. I got the picture from the internet. It is of him in Oman, and I love Oman. I did all the background stuff. Here is why I love the guy and he is just about my number one hero:

Sir Richard Burton, spoke at one time over 39 languages. He traveled, fenced and was a great shot. At the age of 39, he had fought in the Crimean War and in India; had explored Africa with an expedition that found the principal source of the Nile River; and, disguised as an Arab, had slipped into the Moslem forbidden holy city of Mecca.

In his role as a man of letters, Sir Richard wrote books and articles on almost every conceivable subject, from falconry to military tactics to the folkways of African tribes. He published thirty-nine volumes on his travels and explorations, three grammars of Oriental languages, five volumes of folklore and achieved enduring fame with his great sixteen-volume edition of The Arabian Nights as well as the Kama Sutra, which is still the handbook of how to do *it*. Can you imagine what it was like back then?

In 1860, Burton followed the overland route from the East to Salt Lake City where he spent three weeks. While there he met Brigham Young and both men impressed each other. This is after traveling up through the rivers in Brazil in a canoe and adding Spanish and Portuguese to his list... He even died in Trieste, Croatia after spending many years in the Middle East. I would like to say he and I have much in common, but that is way too presumtious. Let's just say I am a big fan and have an awful lot of respect for the guy. Two of his greatest quotes I love that seem I would say are my own are:

• "Of the gladest moments in human life, methinks is the departure upon a distant journey to unknown lands. Shaking off with one mighty effort the fetters of habit, the leaden weight of Routine, the cloak of many Cares and the Slavery of Home, man feels once more happy. The blood flows with the fast circulation of childhood....afresh dawns the morn of life... "
  Journal Entry (2 December 1856)
• "Conquer thyself, till thou hast done this, thou art but a slave; for it is almost as well to be subjected to another's appetite as to thine own."

I have my Burton painting hanging in my office. The sword of life and death hangs just behind each of us - regardless of your prayers and their beads... In life and business...

One I made up and don't like it. Too much going on and I did all the colors..
One I saw on a book and tried. It was the shadows I tried to get right. It is the bushes I like the best.
Did this one for Anna. It is big and I love it. The paint flows and it is going to be hard to get rid of it. No other Cypress has worked like this one did. I need to figure out a way to get it to her. She wanted it because she just had twins. A boy and a girl, who are as yet not named. I am pushing for the boy to be named Axel.
I did this one in a half an hour and I really like it. It was from a picture I saw on the web and I tried it. I think the fact that I did it so fast helped the picture keep that feeling.

I have a few more, and will try to add them later!