D.L. Gardner Fine Arts

So today April 11, I worked on a my newest painting. I'm calling it April Showers. It's a work in progress. I'll show you more as I get it done.

 FINISHED

 Here it is finished, though it will get a coat of varnish before it's really done, and maybe just a tad of brightening.

 

 

 

I've been involved in the arts for over 50 years, having studied under several well known sculptors and painters. I've sold work internationally, have done portraits for collectors and won more awards than I could count.

You can see my work on my Fine Arts website.  But here are a few of my favorite paintings.


portrait of a young civil war era girl.

 Civil War bugler



Works in Progress

Auction piece for the Fred Oldfield show

 

 


Recently finished for the Fred Oldfield Show this summer

Ah...so we're close now.

Auction piece for the Fred Oldfield show

 

 

Probably the most known painting in the literary world is my painting of Stenhjaert, the dragon which I've taken to book signings. It's a 4 ft X 9 ft triptych done in oils with corrugated copper leaf and each panel was the artwork for the original books in the series Ian's Realm.

 

Dragon oil painting by D.L. Gardner
Just to give you an idea of its size, here is the painting at a street signing in Port Orchard Washington. I've taken it to girl scout meetings and film festivals.
As far as my career as a professional artist, I've done quick portraits at renaissance fairs, and re enactments
commission portraits from life in my studio and from photos,
and also posthumous portraits from photographs.
I've also done many pet portraits,
landscapes en plein air, and studio work.

And I learn from making copies from masters' painting, an age-old
schooling technique of the masters.


Take a look at my entire collection on my website.
Some of you may wonder if I work with AI and the answer is yes I do. I've been illustrating the 10th anniversary of Ian's Realm books with AI art intermittently with my own art. The first images I ever painted for the trilogy were black and white oil paintings.


For the 10th anniversary editions I have an artist color them digitally for me. You can find these pictures in the hardback copies.

 



The more painterly style illustrations you'll find in my books are done with Midjourney, simply because one of these paintings in oils would take 2 months at least to complete. Multiply that times 25 (average number of paintings in a book) I would not have the book done in a reasonable amount of time, if ever. I'm 73 years of age and I have a few more books to write, so please grant me the grace of letting me illustrate the series digitally!

To hire an illustrator would take even longer, and would be more expensive than what these books are worth.

Thanks for your understanding. Again, take a look at my Fine Art site for more.