30 Day Challenge (and what I never showed you)

Acrylic 8x8"  Unfinished

What happened to me during the 30 in 30?  Did I stop painting?  Yes I did, about a week ago, when I had to start getting ready for a trip.  But before I stopped painting, I stopped blogging.  I thought I would feel guilty if I didn't paint every day during the 30 Day challenge, as I said I would, but it turns out I would have felt guilty if I DID paint, because that would have left all the trip preparations to someone else.  But I thought in this post, I would tell you about my new challenge, show you what I never showed you (and for the unfinished ones, tell you what still needs to be done), and tell  you a bit about what my plan is for art during my trip.  Then I will send you on your merry way, until we meet again...

The painting at the top of this post is unfinished.  I need to bring more blue up into the bottom of the flower to work the edges more.  That's how we do the edges with fast-drying acrylics, friends!

My new challenge for myself is called 30 Paintings I Like in However Many Days it Takes to Complete Them!  And I invite any of my blogging friends to join me!

OK, art on my trip.  Sadly decided it was not practical for me to bring my acrylics.  I am going to be renting a vacation house and didn't think it was right to be cleaning acrylic brushes there or saving up the pigmented water.   I tried some palette knife paintings with acrylics, thinking that might be a way to avoid all the water.  With a palette knife, the waste in between colors goes on a paper towel rather than into a bucket of water.  However, my experiments showed me that that would be impractical.  Palette knife uses a lot more and a lot thicker paint.  Not practical to carry that much paint on this trip, and those palette knife paintings took three days to dry!  May as well bring oils!

So--my plan is to bring watercolors and colored pencils.  Watercolors to be able to do my block in and colored pencils to fill in what I want to make more detailed.  Watercolors because the plein air that was pure colored pencil below really starting hurting my hand (Terri!).  I mean, why hurt your hand and take 20 minutes to do a sky when you could do the sky with a watercolor wash?  The thing is, I am not very familiar with watercolor, although I do have some paints.  I am more familiar with gouache (opaque watercolor), but some of the gouache I have smells like solvents, which I don't want to deal with at all in the car.  So, it will be watercolor and CP!  Another art adventure.

                                                   Acrylic Plein Air with Palette knife

                                              Acrylic Plein Air wtih Palette Knife

                                                 Unfinished, Acrylic, actually 12x12"

The above painting is actually 12x12."  My scanner bed isn't that large, so had to just scan part.  This one is unfinished.  Needs her hands painted in, her feet finished with highlights, and a shadow underneath her.  

 

Plein Air Colored Pencil

Oh, and as promised, my "miracle" colored pencil paintings that I found again during this challenge after years of being missing.  Read about the "miracle" here.

Sorry the photos aren't that great for the last few.  Even the CP's are on boards too large to put on the scanner, hence the blur, I suppose.

Hope you all are having as beautiful fall weather as we are....enjoy!!!

30 Painting Days in 30 Days - Avoidance (and Painting 8)

                                                                       Acrylic, 8x8"

Now, my dear friends and Watchers, it is time for a profound confession.  All the paintings I have submitted to the 30 in 30 Challenge this time, all the florals, the sunsets (you've seen one, there have been more), the colored pencil landscapes, much as I have enjoyed creating them--in actuality, all of them, I mean ALL of them, have actually constituted one thing to me--AVOIDANCE.

Avoidance, because what I really want to paint right now is people, in motion, in their acts of living, although in a somewhat glorified manner.  And with the above painting, I move closer to where I want to be.  It's not where I want to ultimately be, but it's closer.  I'm now on the path...

I know the painting has flaws.  I see them and will possibly try to fix them.  But in the fixing, something else may become ruined/lost, particularly the spontaneity.  So, I will show this to you now, knowing that you are wonderfully supportive Watchers, after all.  And knowing in my heart of hearts that I must learn to paint as I envision, whether it ever pleases another soul on earth or not!

There is actually one other subject I am yearning to paint, and when I do, I will show you.  And I believe I will always want to paint landscapes and still lifes, as well.  I love doing them, and doing them is part of the whole learning thread.

Thank you so kindly for being here, dear Watchers.  It means the world to me.  I was very shy to start this blog, very hesitant to show anyone but a couple of trusted friends what I was painting.  At some point, though, an artist needs to be seen.  This is where you come in, and to some extent, I could not do this without you, Watchers, so I extend my heartfelt thanks to you!

FYI, there are several paintings I haven't shown from this month....I still may show them, but have needed to focus on other things.  I am planning a big trip at the end of this month and spent most of yesterday working on the logistics.  I didn't get to start the above painting till last night around 9 pm.  I was up till 1 a.m. this morning working on her.  So, I'm pushing myself to do the painting work and right now, the blogging and all that goes with it (visiting YOUR blogs and expressing my appreciation for YOUR wonderful work) has taken a back seat for a couple days.  Thanks for your understanding.  Hope to be back in the "reciprocation saddle" soon.

Proofreading this, I notice I have referenced my heart several times.  Perhaps moving closer to my desired work is also a heart-opening experience...

For those of you who read my intro to my challenge on the first day, you can skip the rest of this post and not miss anything.  I kind of consider what is written below to be my "full disclosure" and may post it every day throughout this challenge:

 

Notice I did not say 30 Paintings in 30 Days in my Subject Line?  Most of my artist blogger friends are doing a 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I'm along for the ride, but my intention is to have 30 painting days in 30 days, not to complete 30 paintings in 30 days.   I would LOVE to do 30 paintings in 30 days, but I quickly figured out last time that with my schedule, I would be placing myself under far too much stress to make myself do an actual 30 paintings.  After all, I don't want to come out of the challenge hating the act of painting! 

Leslie Saeta is once again the initiator of the challenge, and you can follow the challenge on her blog.  Over 200 artists are participating.  So many great things happened to me the last time I joined the challenge (read about it here), that I just couldn't resist saying "YES!"  again."

30 Painting Days in 30 Days, Painting 7

                                                                    Colored Pencil, 5.5x4.5"

Here's another Colored Pencil landscape, my third since finding my  long-lost (years lost) colored pencil landscapes (read about that "miracle" here).  Please bear with me as I remind myself how to use these things; as I paint with them, I have memories come back of things I used to do and tools I used to use.  And sometimes, it's too late because I have already filled the tooth of the paper, so I have to stow away my tips to myself for the next painting.

At the beginning of this 30 in 30 Challenge, I told myself I would be happy if I got 4 paintings done that I like.  I have already exceeded my goal (AND reunited with my colored pencils).  I think I will always be primarily an acrylic artist, but these CP's are helping me to keep up with the practice of painting daily.

Thanks for being here!

For those of you who read my intro to my challenge on the first day, you can skip the rest of this post and not miss anything.  I kind of consider what is written below to be my "full disclosure" and may post it every day throughout this challenge:

Notice I did not say 30 Paintings in 30 Days in my Subject Line?  Most of my artist blogger friends are doing a 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I'm along for the ride, but my intention is to have 30 painting days in 30 days, not to complete 30 paintings in 30 days.   I would LOVE to do 30 paintings in 30 days, but I quickly figured out last time that with my schedule, I would be placing myself under far too much stress to make myself do an actual 30 paintings.  After all, I don't want to come out of the challenge hating the act of painting! 

Leslie Saeta is once again the initiator of the challenge, and you can follow the challenge on her blog.  Over 200 artists are participating.  So many great things happened to me the last time I joined the challenge (read about it here), that I just couldn't resist saying "YES!"  again."

30 Painting Days in 30 Days, Painting 6

                                                           Colored Pencil, around 6.5" by 6.5"

Here's my second colored pencil painting since I had my "miracle" (read about it here, in yesterday's post).   As you can see, I'm not being very serious about the outcome, really just scribbling, reminding myself of what I can do with my pencils.  Most importantly, for me, I'm having fun with them.  It's another great solution for me for when I want to paint but am exhausted from working all day.  I find the colored pencils relaxing to use and almost meditative. 

My artist/blogging friend Cathy Engberg won an award at an outdoor art show for Outstanding Achievement.  Well-deserved, and I am so proud of her.  I hope I don't embarrass her too much by announcing it, but she really, really deserves the attention...if you have time, consider going to see her post and look at her wonderful booth.   Then click on the title of her blog so you can scroll around more of her blog to see more of her awesome art work!  Go, Cathy!  (oh, I know you artists know how to navigate around a blog, but I have people who read this blog who are not artists, and I want to make sure they don't miss anything).

For those of you who read my intro to my challenge on the first day, you can skip the rest of this post and not miss anything.  I kind of consider what is written below to be my "full disclosure" and may post it every day throughout this challenge:

 

Notice I did not say 30 Paintings in 30 Days in my Subject Line?  Most of my artist blogger friends are doing a 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I'm along for the ride, but my intention is to have 30 painting days in 30 days, not to complete 30 paintings in 30 days.   I would LOVE to do 30 paintings in 30 days, but I quickly figured out last time that with my schedule, I would be placing myself under far too much stress to make myself do an actual 30 paintings.  After all, I don't want to come out of the challenge hating the act of painting! 

 

Leslie Saeta is once again the initiator of the challenge, and you can follow the challenge on her blog.  Over 200 artists are participating.  So many great things happened to me the last time I joined the challenge (read about it here), that I just couldn't resist saying "YES!"  again."

30 Painting Days in 30 Days - Painting 5

                                                                               Colored Pencil,  5.5x3.5"

Miraculous things happen to me when I do the 30 in 30 Challenge.  Remember all the great things that happened to me last January during the first challenge?  Well, this time, it's sort of a different but equally wonderful miracle.  

My first love in art was colored pencil.   A few years ago, I was packing for a trip and decided to pack away two colored pencil landscapes and a half-completed cat.  I decided I didn't have room for them on the trip, put them away, and haven't seen them since.  I have searched my home and studio intensely for them on several occasions throughout the years, and even asked my mother to check her guest room one time in case I had actually brought them and left them there.  A few days ago, I was home and looked down and there it was, out in the open--a black zip-up pouch.  I picked it up and felt that it had something hard inside and KNEW what it was--the backing boards to my CP paintings I have been missing all this time!

Just try telling me this is a coincidence!  I think this is a whisper that it is time for me to revisit my first love.  So...I did the above colored pencil painting that day and then another one last night--which I will show in a different post.   And I'll show the missing ones sometime too...but...off to paint!

Goodnight everyone and hoping all fellow artists are still having fun with this challenge...

30 Painting Days in 30 Days - Painting 4

 Acrylic 11x14"

I think this is the best I will be able to do for photographing this one.  I've been working on it for quite awhile and it's time to paint!  This is the one I told you about yesterday that I was having trouble photographing.  I think it's a little better.  I still like the painting a lot better than my photo of it (probably a better situation than liking the photo better than the painting)! 

The biggest challenge for me on this one was making the green leaves stand out (but not too much) against the green mountain.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

For those of you who read my intro to my challenge on the first day, you can skip the rest of this post and not miss anything.  I kind of consider what is written below to be my "full disclosure" and may post it every day throughout this challenge:

 

Notice I did not say 30 Paintings in 30 Days in my Subject Line?  Most of my artist blogger friends are doing a 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I'm along for the ride, but my intention is to have 30 painting days in 30 days, not to complete 30 paintings in 30 days.   I would LOVE to do 30 paintings in 30 days, but I quickly figured out last time that with my schedule, I would be placing myself under far too much stress to make myself do an actual 30 paintings.  After all, I don't want to come out of the challenge hating the act of painting! 

 

Leslie Saeta is once again the initiator of the challenge, and you can follow the challenge on her blog.  Over 200 artists are participating.  So many great things happened to me the last time I joined the challenge (read about it here), that I just couldn't resist saying "YES!"  again."

Interlude to 30 Painting Days in 30 Days

I DO have a painting to show you that I completed yesterday.  However I do NOT have a worthy photo of the painting.  I started several posts, trying to get the photo right, and finally decided to go back to the drawing board tomorrow.  I can see that the above photo of the completed painting is quite blurry, too.  Not sure how I got better photos for the first two steps!

Anyhow, as promised, here's my step-by-step for the Sunflower Bouquet painting.    And please stay tuned tomorrow...  And as always, thanks for watching!

30 Painting Days in 30 Days- Painting 3

                                                                               Acrylic, 8x12"

Ok, here's a tip.  If you want to do a quick painting and REALLY do not want to overdo how much time you are going to spend...paint a sunset!    Yesterday, I got home from work quite late and wanted some family time as well as some painting time.  I decided to paint the sunset from my front yard.  Quite the challenge, but it met my criteria for a quick painting perfectly:  when you paint a sunset, there's an automatic cut-off.   I mean, there truly is a point where you just cannot see anymore.  That's what happened with the clouds.  I used LOTS of thick paint on the sky and then when it was time to put the clouds in, the paint was still wet.  Perhaps any oil painters reading this are thinking, "so, lay the paint over it."  Or, "you should have painted the clouds into the sky as you went along."  Well, with acrylics, I'm just so used to being able to overpaint DRY paint and not have it mix in with any wet paint underneath.  As you may be able to tell, my cloud color was mixing with the sky color underneath, and it changed the color and value and what I was trying to do.  Under normal circumstances, with acrylics, seriously, no problem...just wait awhile until it's dry and overpaint.  Fix it.  Well, this sunset wasn't having any of THAT.  The sun continued it's descent, regardless of whether I needed to see what I was doing or not.  The end.  End of painting.  Ready or NOT!! 

I do give myself a pat on the back for painting after working a very long, difficult day (boy did we pay at work for having Monday off).  And I like the idea of sunset paintings...paintings with a natural cut-off.  I think it would serve me to do more of these in the evenings.  Maybe I'll end up with a series.  It's a great exercise...try it!

(P.S.  I scanned this instead of shooting it with my camera.  It gave me good light, and I didn't need a steady hand.  It did change some of the values.  For instance, that hard edged line between the blue part and the fading yellow part is not really a hard edged line--it's got an area of lighter blue in between the darker blue and the yellow.  It's truly a gradual color change.  I don't know why it scanned this way.  Something else I cannot fix!)

30 Painting Days in 30 Days, Painting 2

                                                                        Acrylic, 8x8"

Greetings!  Here is my second offering for the 30 days challenge.  Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments from yesterday's post.   Doing this challenge in a group is really a wonderful thing.  

I took a couple of in-progress shot of yesterday's painting and forgot to post them.  I think I will wait for a day when I don't have a painting to post and show them to you at that time.

For those of you who read my intro to my challenge yesterday, you can skip the rest of this post.  It is part of my post from the first day, and I kind of consider it my "full disclosure" and may post it every day throughout this challenge:

Notice I did not say 30 Paintings in 30 Days in my Subject Line?  Most of my artist blogger friends are doing a 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I'm along for the ride, but my intention is to have 30 painting days in 30 days, not to complete 30 paintings in 30 days.   I would LOVE to do 30 paintings in 30 days, but I quickly figured out last time that with my schedule, I would be placing myself under far too much stress to make myself do an actual 30 paintings.  After all, I don't want to come out of the challenge hating the act of painting! 

 

Leslie Saeta is once again the initiator of the challenge, and you can follow the challenge on her blog.  Over 200 artists are participating.  So many great things happened to me the last time I joined the challenge (read about it here), that I just couldn't resist saying "YES!"  again."

30 Painting Days in 30 Days

 Acrylic, 12x12"

Notice I did not say 30 Paintings in 30 Days in my Subject Line?  Most of my artist blogger friends are doing a 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I'm along for the ride, but my intention is to have 30 painting days in 30 days, not to complete 30 paintings in 30 days.   I would LOVE to do 30 paintings in 30 days, but I quickly figured out last time that with my schedule, I would be placing myself under far too much stress to make myself do an actual 30 paintings.  After all, I don't want to come out of the challenge hating the act of painting! 

Leslie Saeta is once again the initiator of the challenge, and you can follow the challenge on her blog.  Over 200 artists are participating.  So many great things happened to me the last time I joined the challenge (read about it here), that I just couldn't resist saying "YES!"  again.  "Why don't you dance?"

 Leslie has encouraged us to have a theme for our paintings.  I have decided that my theme is "joy and learning."  I want to paint subjects that bring joy when I see them and be in joy when I am painting.  I hope to learn more about my preferences for applying paint, and maybe I'll even learn how to take better photos of my art.  If I do, I promise I'll replace the above photo!  I also learned I'm going to put a timed limit on each painting.  The above painting took a long time, longer than I have to spend daily.

What did I learn from the above painting?  I learned somethings about applying brushstrokes that I like, especially on the right side of the painting.  I learned that a different crop might have been better.  And I used a new brush style for some of it--a dagger!  I painted this yesterday, but it was too dark out to get a photo...and I haven't had time to blog it till this afternoon. 

Thanks for watching!  I'm off to paint....