A Painting A Day

Having a Ball III

2019-12-13T14:56:00.000-06:00

Poor little roses are at the end of their life - this is probably the last painting I will get from them. ;)

Having a Ball II

2019-12-13T09:38:00.003-06:00

Changed the angle and the background on the roses
Also painted this one during the day so had strong side light coming through the window
This is an 11 x 14

Over Three years!

2019-12-13T09:29:00.002-06:00

I have taken quite the hiatus from painting. But I guess if you love something you will always come back to it.
I started easing back into it by starting an online course with Dennis Perrin on painting the flower portrait. The past couple of days I've painted some rather past their prime pink roses in a blue mason jar.
This is day one - "Having a Ball" will post day two next.

Ian and Ellen

2016-05-02T23:49:00.000-05:00

I haven't had time to paint, and our local art league has a show this month, so the day before the deadline, I rush to my easel and paint this picture from a lovely photograph I have of our children.

My son is about to graduate from high school and then move far, far away for College and my stepdaughter is getting married this fall, so both of them have these incredible life events going on, and they are top of mind, so it was only natural to paint them.

Because I was painting under a deadline, I used a new product called Liquin Impasto. I needed the paint to dry (like the next day) and I wanted to work in oils so I am happy to say it worked beautifully. The painting stayed wet long enough to mix the paint on the canvas, and it was completely dry within a few hours. It also comes in a tube which is really nice - honestly I don't think I used Liquin much before because it was so darn hard to get it out of the bottle.

So this deadline was a good thing - I found a new product that I really like. Because I always seem to paint under pressure, I think I'll be using it a lot!

Gone Fishing

2016-04-03T13:37:00.000-05:00

I'm tired of trying to second guess the art buying public and so decided this weekend to just get back to my roots and paint what I want to paint - which is people.

So did this painting of a boy fishing. It reminds me very much of my brother when he was young. I didn't start it until like 5:30 last night, and I never hooked up my lamp so it was hard to see the colors. I didn't realize how purple the rock was until I looked at it this morning. Maybe I need to work without light more often! Haha - because I love the colors.

This is a large piece - 30x48. I wouldn't have been able to finish it if there had been more detail. I spent a great deal of time on getting the green color right on the lake. I still had the light while working on it. I started off using viridian in the mix but quickly abandoned it and just mixed my own with ultramarine blue, lemon yellow and cad red light.

Cubism Study

2016-03-27T19:35:00.004-05:00

I actually painted this to go in our living room. We have a very modern living room and the focal point is an old mid century cubist painting, so I wanted to keep with the theme in the room. Since I can't afford any "real" cubist works, I decided to create my own. This one is fairly large - a 36x36. My husband commented that I got a little too carried away with the black lines, and maybe I did - making it look more like stained glass than an abstract. It was surprising difficult to do because I made the mistake of starting with the lines and then had to try to paint inside them. I think if I do another one, I'll do the outlines in pencil and add the black last! I do think I'll try another one because I really like this.

Shadows

2016-03-26T15:52:00.000-05:00

Plein Air Memphis had an outing this morning at the Botanic Gardens and I chose this little spot along the creek with the pretty cherry trees in bloom. But my painting was really awful! I wiped it off when I got home and did a quick do over. The composition is much the same but I tried to simplify and tried to capture the long shadows from the trees. Not really happy with the second attempt either, but it is better than the first. Landscapes continue to be so very challenging for me. It's difficult to process so much information and so many colors.

Experimenting with Color

2016-03-20T02:50:00.000-05:00

I spent most of today reading Brian Keeler's book, "Dramatic Color in the Landscape." I'm so glad I did. He's a fantastic artist, and because I am on a mission to improve my landscapes, I thought some instruction was in order. I was planning on painting in the late afternoon, but I went out and took reference photos instead.

So around 10:30 at night, I started this. Not sure what size the painting is, I think a 20x20, but it's definitely larger than what I usually do. This is the result - Keeler style!

Germantown Station Park

2016-03-18T18:49:00.000-05:00

Today I ran out late in the day for an hour or two to paint. I looked online and found a nice park nearby. It had an amazing fountain, but it was the light of the green grass in the distance and the interesting colors in the water that drew me to this spot. My technique was very messy and I had to leave very fast when a sudden thunderstorm sprung up but overall I was happy with this effort.

I felt very in tune with my painting. My palette was so simple. I used alizarin red, cad yellow, ultramarine blue, white, permanent green light and burnt umber. I had also bought myself a round brush and experimented with the thin lines of the tree branches.

The Outback

2016-03-14T13:04:00.000-05:00

Spent the morning out at Shelby Farms in the good company of Denise Rose for the March Plein Air Memphis outing. Wonderful location! I was pretty happy with my colors today especially the reflection of the trees in the water but not so happy with the trees. I imagine it's just going to take a while and perhaps the right kind of brushes to get the trees right, especially the big thicket of trees in the foreground. I didn't have any brushes for thin lines - must work on that! I do think I got closer to a focal point. My eyes are drawn to the trees beyond the lake, but my intention was for the thicket of trees to be the focal point - so I accidentally succeeded! Haha

Rain Clouds

2016-03-13T17:49:00.000-05:00

We had a break in the rain for a short period today... and I took the opportunity to get out of the house, go to Shelby Farms, and paint! I have a long way to go on my plein air work. I don't know why my landscapes are so blurry. I guess I get impatient and don't focus enough on details. A painting needs a focal point, and I must find a way to put one into my plein air paintings!

Nude Study

2016-02-26T14:43:00.002-06:00

Went to the three hour live painting session at Nysha's today. Our model was very thin, and so I kept thinking the arms looked too thin but then that was what I saw. Now that I'm home, I think her left arm is too long. Again I didn't measure, and I don't have reference photos so it will have to just stay this way. I think the problem is the hand goes down a bit too far and the break in the arm needs to go up a smidge.

I realized on the way home that I didn't use a single drop of yellow ochre in her skin. But her skin seemed to have very cool tones so I stuck to the blues, purples and cooler reds. I loved the light - Nysha has such a talent with lighting the subjects. His lighting on her was very dramatic and I loved the pose.

Fitting all of this on a 12x16 board meant I couldn't get the detail I'd like on her face, hands, etc. but was a good study and I feel like I learned a lot!

The Back

2016-02-24T22:29:00.000-06:00

Happy to get back in the studio tonight. Painted this at Anne's tonight and am planning on painting again on Friday. It's been too long!

Dramatic Light

2015-11-11T10:53:00.000-06:00

So much has been going on that I'm having to put painting on the back burner for now. But I did get to go to a live model session last Friday - this was the result. I absolutely loved the lighting and the working from her profile - it made it seem very dramatic to me.

I am thinking I won't have much time to paint until the Christmas Holidays, so I'm looking forward to that!

Birdies

2015-10-06T23:57:00.001-05:00

Not sure if I'm finished with this yet, but I am having fun with this one. I combined my love of abstract with my love of portrait and figurative work - combined with my current obsession for red and just a little Warhol thrown in for fun - with the repeating figures.

I was actually trying to find a crowd pic but couldn't find one so I thought why don't I just make multiple copies of this model? I thought the crisscrossing legs would be cool... not sure it turned out that way though.

It's surprisingly hard to paint exact copies. You can see there are a lot of differences between them. It was easier to get the two models side by side but the one off to the left is way off. I plan to do this kind of painting again and see how close I can come to making exact replicas. I don't ever trace things but I might reconsider that - paint the first one and then duplicate it with tracing paper. Tracing has always seemed like cheating to me - although a lot of artists I really respect do some tracing. I might consider it only if I'm tracing the first model I paint. That way I'm tracing my own work.

This is in acrylic and I'm actually really starting to like working with it. It dries so frigging fast! I mean like almost after I put the paint on the canvas. And then it's forgiving... I can paint over things as often as I'd like and can completely cover black with just one or two coats. With oil I can push the paint around but I can't cover mistakes like that unless I wait for it to dry. So I'm liking that aspect.

I also love making drips. Sorry that might sound childish but hey ... the drips bring out the inner kid in me.

There are a lot of things unfinished in this painting, but I think I like it that way. At least I like it today... tomorrow ... who knows?

See if you can figure out why I called it Birdies. Haha

Royals

2015-09-30T19:15:00.000-05:00

I hung these two abstracts at Market Central today. They are 24"x24" canvases gallery wrapped and then coated with clear resin.

They were really fun to do, and finishing them with clear resin really made a difference. I like it that they could be hung any number of ways - both pointed up, pointed down, white together or red together. They were an experiment and I used a lot of paint making them. I really like the way they turned out!

Cry, Cry Baby

2015-09-30T18:38:00.000-05:00

Painted this over the weekend. It's large for me - on a 24"x48" gallery wrapped canvas.

I did it in acrylic because I didn't have time for oil paint to dry. I wanted to get some work out to Market Central because my artist friend Glenda Brown and I are sharing a wall.

Janice Joplin is incredibly hard to capture. Her looks and even her features seem to change from picture to picture... so I just focused on the picture I was working from.

Acrylic is also a challenge for me because I don't use it very often. I was really impressed with the masterson palette I used, because over the course of the three days I was working on it, the paint didn't dry out. That was really impressive. But working with the acrylic seems sluggish. The paint gets sticky so fast there's no time to blend your colors on the canvas. I used a gel medium with the paint to try to keep it pliable but it still dried too quickly. I do believe there are some mediums on the market I can get to slow down the drying time - I might look into that. I just need the paint to stay workable for long enough to blend. It may have also been that I wasn't using enough water while painting. On the flip side, the whole reason I used acrylics was for the fast drying time. So I guess you can't have it all!

I was encouraged with this portrait because my husband liked it so much, he actually wanted to keep it!

Royal

2015-09-25T08:36:00.000-05:00

This abstract was an experiment - I was playing around. On reflection, I think red is a very strong color that seems to invoke a dramatic response. It seems like when I attempt non representational abstract expressionism my abstracts seem to have a violent nature - like they are shouting at me. On the bright side, at least my work is evoking an emotion. So I am wondering if the work that disturbs me the most, might also be my best work?

Paint your own Abstract!

2015-09-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

Lisa Balton and I put on a "Paint your own Abstract" painting party at the Fountain Gallery yesterday. It was a wonderful success! The participants all brought their own canvases and an idea of what they wanted to paint - we supplied paint, brushes, and a little guidance - mainly helping them mix the right colors and achieve the result they were looking for. So proud of them! Their paintings were fantastic!

Leah did a non representational abstract that she conceived!

Kristi did two 12x12 paintings working from a picture but changing the colors - great palette knife texture!

Nancy was another creative girl who came up with her concept!

Charlene did a great job with this abstract landscape of a sunset over water!

Here are the dance girls - Michelle (far right) did a beautiful job - love the colors she used!

Our other Michelle in the group did the cutest little squares - her use of color and texture on these was fantastic!

Little Bursts of Color and Market Central

2015-09-17T14:34:00.000-05:00

What a crazy week it's been! Sorry the lighting is so bad on these. These are little 6x6 abstract studies I was working on for our "Paint your own abstract" party at the Fountain Gallery this weekend. Right now they are on sale at the sidewalk sale at Market Central!

On Tuesday, I find out there's an opportunity to display some work at Market Central for this weekend's big Sidewalk Sale, so I spent most of yesterday getting ready for that. Artist Glenda Brown is sharing a wall with me, and we had to paint the wall, and hang some art.

I didn't have anything ready that I thought would work for the designer crowd that shops there except one abstract. So the one abstract (red and blue one I call "Eruption") is mine - the rest are Glenda's. Glenda is a fantastic portrait artist, and I've gotten to know her through Anne Enoch's Wednesday night painting from life group.

So I'm excited to now be at Market Central, and will devote some time to putting together more art for this wall!!!

Faces from You Tube

2015-09-12T22:13:00.002-05:00

I I'm having a bit of a painting problem lately where I can't seem to find a subject that holds my interest. So I started looking on you tube and found a ton of interesting faces. This one in particular stood out to me. Love her full purple lips!

Driven to Abstraction!

2015-09-09T19:22:00.000-05:00

It's been so long since I posted! Crazy busy lately! I have been productive and have been painting, just not posting... haha!

I put a few hanging systems around the house. One in my office so I could get my paintings off the ground, and another in the kitchen. We have a very modern kitchen and so I painted a couple of abstracts that seemed to suit the room. ;)

This one was my fav of the two. Here's the other:

I plan to put a clear coat of epoxy resin on them. It will be an experiment since I've never done it before. I've ordered the stuff but it won't be here until the 18th so will have to wait a while.

Happy painting!

Jack White

2015-08-10T19:49:00.000-05:00

It's extremely liberating to just paint what I want to paint! I was out of town for three weeks, and now I need to get some things painted for The Fountain Gallery.

I've had this picture saved for a while now - and painted it today. I have a terrible summer cold and so didn't feel like doing much - so painting was relaxing.

My son didn't know who this was! I must have done a terrible job getting his likeness! In case you also don't know, it's supposed to be Jack White. I went a little crazy with his hair - the colors were just talking to me. Maybe I inhaled a bit too much paint thinner but I am really loving his hair! Haha

27 Club

2015-08-08T01:16:00.000-05:00

I have been traveling a great deal this month, and so I miss painting! Tonight I had to paint something - anything! So I found a picture online of Amy Winehouse. I can tell I'm rusty. There are a few things that may be wrong here:

I used bright colors
She looks too much like Elvira
I made her prettier (subconsciously I think)

I'm not saying I don't like it - I like the way she looks right through you. I also think it's good to change things up a bit and experiment, so I will look at it a few days and then decide if I really like it or not. I will also cut myself a little slack because I haven't been able to paint for about 2 1/2 weeks! ;)

Sea of Cortez

2015-07-17T19:09:00.000-05:00

Today we spent a relaxing day on the beach on the Sea of Cortez side of Cabo. I painted this while drinking a Mango smoothie - what a vacation!