Nothing to do but Stay Home and Paint during 30 Paintings in 30 Days

"Steve's Fields"       Acrylic, 8x8"

 I hope you all have weathered the storm safely.  We're doing fine here.  I am happy to be home with my family, happy to be home painting and doing yoga and resting.  

I want to thank Steve Lyddon once again for providing the reference photo for this painting.  He has been to some beautiful places!

It's About that Time in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days

Harbor Sunset      Acrylic, 6x6"

$75 plus shipping

Purchase Here

It was to my great consternation that I learned that Blogger didn't send out an email about my post from yesterday.  I wanted you to see that painting, but most especially, I had linked to an artist I know and admire and wanted you to see his work.  I truly believe he is an up and coming shining star in the plein air world, with more great things to come.   So please, click here to check out yesterday's post, and then consider checking out that link to see his work!  

Ok, I was starting to say (in the post title), that it is about that time in the 30 Paintings in 30 Days when I start seriously pondering what I am going to get myself as a present for participating.  I think all considerate artists should reward themselves with a present!  Take good care of yourselves, artist friends...

Here's what is in the running for me:

John Hammond's DVD

OR   Richard Robinson's DVD on Color

Or both!

Will you get yourself a present?

 

 

Sometimes Being in the 30 in 30 means Remembering to Finish Some Paintings!

 "Skylight"    Acrylic, 8x8"

$ 125 plus shipping

Purchase Here

Today, I decided to finish three of the paintings I had started last weekend.  Or possibly even earlier in the month. 

Some people feel starting a painting is the challenging part.  Not me!  I think I've said this here before.  I love doing starts.  I enjoy facing the white of the canvas.  It's finishing that I find challenging.  So many ways you could go, so many colors and options.  All up to me!  

I can tell you what doesn't help.  It doesn't help in any way whatsoever to be standing there telling yourself, "now, Jeremy Sams would know how to finish this painting!"  Nope, that doesn't help a bit...

What really truly helps is going for it--being willing to take the risk to ruin what you've got!

On the other hand, there are some paintings that don't deserve to ever be finished.  Some of you probably know what I mean...


(thank you Roy Davenport, for the photo that inspired this painting!)

Staying Relaxed During 30 Paintings in 30 Days-Jan. 2016

"Painted Fields"    Acrylic, 8x8"

$125 Plus Shipping 

Purchase Here

Well, I got so relaxed about this whole thing that I forgot to post my last painting to Leslie's blog until today!  I think that's great.  Focus on the painting process, that's what I say...

Thanks to Steve Lyddon at Paint my Photo for the use of the photo which inspired this painting!

And thank you all for being here...

Lost Count, 30 Paintings in 30 Days

"The Chill Ahead"    Acrylic, 6x6"

$75 plus shipping

Purchase Here

Well, it seems Winter has begun here, so I couldn't  resist painting the chill...

Today I finished two paintings, progressed on one, and may have taken a third past the point of no return.  We'll see--I'll look at it again. 

Yesterday, I went to a meeting of the Appalachian Pastel Society and a design workshop with Leo Monahan.  At the workshop, we used collage as the format to practice our design sense.  Leo is an amazing artist, and cut and folded paper is his medium.  I am very tempted to learn his medium, but to do so, he requires students to take a series of design and then color workshops first.  

Needless to say, no painting yesterday.  But plenty of art!

How's everybody doing??  Me, I'm quite relaxed about the painting, don't care about the count, and am enjoying myself and learning as I go... 

In Search of Brilliant Post Title--30 Paintings in 30 Days

"Winter Sunset"  Acrylic, 6x6"

I have to say that I really like this painting, but I also see its flaws...so I am posting but not putting up for sale on DPW at this time.  I may work on it some more or I may repaint it.  Or I may call it done and just keep it!

Keep up the good work, everyone!  And thanks for Watching...

Learning a lot Painting for this 30 Paintings in 30 Days...

"Sweet End of the Day"   Acrylic, 8x8"

$125, plus shipping

 Purchase Here

 Yes, I'm learning a lot about how I want to paint during this 30 in 30, but right now, I am too tired to tell you about it!  I'm not sure if the title of this painting is directed more towards how I feel right now or towards describing the painting...

 

I'm doing this challenge a little differently this time.  You may have noticed I skipped a couple days of posting.  Basically, I have about 7 paintings started.  As I get interested in one above the others, I will take it to completion.  I have another one completed that I will show you tomorrow.  Of the rest, I am not sure how many will see the light of day, but I am very interested in this way of working, for reasons I am...you guessed it...too tired to explain right now.

I admire how my friend Sandra is doing her 30 in 30 blog posts, explaining what she learned from each painting.  Unfortunately, some of what I learned today came from working on a different painting, so it wouldn't really make sense to you in this context, anyway.

But I am bursting full of the new possibilities I am seeing in my acrylics!

Thank you for the outpouring of support I received in my call for help for my friend Julie trying to learn how to post to her new blog from her iPhone.  You all were incredible, and Julie is now posting and is busy redecorating her blog.

Thanks for Watching... 

Using Photos by Other People as a Springboard for Painting Looser

"Night Light"

Acrylic, 6x6"

Bid in the DPW Auction

Loosening up and finding freedom in using a photo supplied by someone else.  

I always thought it was the wrong way for me to go to paint from a photo I didn't take myself.  How much fun I was missing out on!  It's a change of mindset for some reason--I feel less concerned about re-creating what I see and far more interested in using the image as a springboard to explore certain elements of art.

I extend my thanks to Viacheslav on Paint My Photo for the reference photo which was the inspiration for this painting. What an amazing feeling to paint from a photo provided by a photographer in Moscow!  Since I opened my mind to other peoples' photos, the world is literally opening up for me...

When a Painting Style Evolves

"Do You See What I See?"

Acrylic, 6x6"

Bid in the DPW Auction

Opening Bid $45

This painting was inspired by a photo by Mark Muir on the Paint my Photo site.  Until recently, I have painted from life and from my own photos.  They say that an artist should paint from their own photos, because without direct experience of the subject matter, the artist cannot have a genuine emotional reaction to the reference.  Perhaps...  

However, I found it very liberating to paint from a photo someone else created.  I was able to focus on color, form, effect, without being so tied into what was "real."  I was able to play with my materials and bring something out from within me that may not have been possible had I been having a genuine emotional reaction to my own reference photo :D

Beginning January 1, Leslie Saeta will be hosting another 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  I believe I am in!  I want to continue to explore this new way of working.  I'm interested to know which of my artists friends are joining in, too...

And, as an aside, a very Happy Birthday to my wonderful mother!! 

Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild Exhibit, "Renaissance of the Family Farm"

"Hearts Wide Open," Acrylic, 12 x 12"

$425 framed (plus shipping)
Contact Me Here for Purchase

This painting is in a group show with the Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild.  The show is at the Design Gallery in Burnsville, NC until August 31.  If you can get to the show, there are some amazing paintings there.  The opening was last night, and it was quite well attended.

The show is called the Renaissance of the Family Farm.  Twenty one artists are participating, and we were each challenged to visit local farms and paint something that spoke to the essence of the farm.

I owe a huge thanks to Kate and Kevin Lane of Homemade in Marshall for opening their farm and family to me!

Here's the painting framed:

Thanks for Watching!

"Emerging" Acrylic Painting

Acrylic, 6x8"

$95 plus shipping

Purchase Here

If you have been reading my blog for awhile, you may have seen this painting before, because I have posted it before, I think in November.   It's making an appearance again because I decided to sell it through Daily Paintworks.

Is everybody digging out?  I couldn't resist the temptation to post a reminder of warmer, steamier days ahead!   I actually think artists around the blogosphere are beginning to feel the same way.  I was delighted to receive a notification from a new artist friend, Patricia Powers, who posted a painting of a surfer, probably just as I was writing these words about trying to remind us all of warmer days via this painting!  Gotta love it! (P.S. to my Mom and sisters, don't you just LOVE her blog name???  Check it out!)

"Impression: Winter" Acrylic Palette Knife Painting

Acrylic with Palette Knife, 6x6"

$55 opening bid

Place Bid Here

I wasn't planning on blogging tonight, because I have a headache, but my poor mother has been marooned for weeks in her home in the Northeast and is bored to tears, so I had to post a painting for  her.  However, I am afraid this painting isn't going to be much help chasing the winter blues away!

I couldn't resist painting my reaction to winter as opposed to a view of an actual winter scene.  As with the last post, this painting was created with no reference, just my emotion to guide me!  Brrrrrr.....!

My mantra these days seems to be "all is calm, all is bright," and I hope the same for all of you.

Thanks for looking!

30 Paintings in January 2015 - Collage, Completed by a Great Friend!

Thank you, dear friend

I want to thank my dear friend, Carol Edan, who actually took on the challenge of creating my collage for me after she had already done two of her own, one for her 30 in 30 paintings and one for her reference photos.  You can see her collages on her blog.

Carol knew I wasn't planning to make a collage this time.  I just felt I had put enough time into the challenge and now it was time to clean the house and focus on family.  Carol and I have met only via our cyber art world; in fact, she lives in Israel...but she is a  constant support to me, and I just loved the art she created this past 30 days.  She did scenes from a spa she goes to and used a form of artist crayons (Neocolor I Wax Pastels to be precise--different than my oil pastels) as her medium.  Check her out and say hello!

Where Does this Blog go from Here?

My last post was my "Celebrate" and "Congratulations" post, so for this one, I want to address where do I go from here.

I am feeling much more committed to regular blogging than before this challenge, so you will be hearing from me on a regular basis.  Probably not daily though :-)  But at least weekly.

I will start with showing you the soft pastel paintings that I did in December and never blogged about.  Meanwhile, I want to take what I have learned with the oil pastels and expand upon it.  For one, I will be painting more oil pastel paintings.  Secondly, I want to see how concepts I taught myself with the Oil Pastels can be applied to acrylic painting.

 Artistic Freedom

I have also made a wholehearted commitment to myself that I will not pigeon-hole myself or put myself in a box with my art. An artist is "supposed to" create one cohesive, identifiable style.  So, I'm going to be going against the grain for awhile; there is a shift happening.

I will create what I feel inspired to create each day, even if I'm working in various "styles."  It's all still me.  Perhaps I will eventually settle back down to use one medium, one subject matter, or one "look," but I am not seeking that kind of self-definition unless it just happens.

I stated at the beginning of this 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge that my theme was "Artistic Freedom." I did not foresee, but I know now, that once you grant yourself that kind of Freedom, you never want to let it go!

Lots is brewing around in my mind...I am off to the studio today and hope you are following your heart, too, wherever it may lead.

"Long Hair" Acrylic - 30 in January 2015

 Acrylic, 8x6"

Now I've done it!  I've gone and ruined any semblance of unity my end-of-the-30-in-30-Challenge collage was going to have.  Throwing Acrylics into the mix after all those Oil Pastels!  Wasn't it enough that I was using all different dimensions, let alone all different sizes?  Couldn't I have been smart like my good friend Carol, who is using not just all squares, but all squares of the same size????  I may not even be able to make a collage work, with all these different dimensions (it has happened before!). (btw, I think I said something similar about my friend Sharon's collage last year.  I missed her terribly during this 30 in 30.  She couldn't join us this time, because she was too busy running her own art gallery, the River Run Gallery and Fun Art Studio in Carrollton Kentucky).

Why did I do it?  Oh, yeah, remember my theme?  Artistic Freedom?  I had a yearning...for my acrylics...so I made space for them today...and opened up the Pandora's box of my heart.  Because as I have said before, what I really want to paint is people.  So, here I go...I hope!

Not putting this one up for sale, because I need it as a study.  Happy to show it to you, though...

This was my first time painting in Acrylics in two  months,  I realized, because I have spent the past two months with gouache, soft pastels, and oil pastels.  Acrylics and I need to get reacquainted.  It is not like riding a bicycle, at least not for me.

Thanks for being here, everyone, and hang in there 30 in 30ers...

Determination

Acrylic, 6x6"

BID HERE IN THE DPW AUCTION

Starting Bid is $65, unframed

I'm showing these to you a little out of order.  The one above was actually painted just before I did a more simplified version that you may have already seen in this post, where I introduced my present project.

As always, I thank you for Watching!

Approaching Storm

Acrylic 6x6"

Available for $95 plus shipping

Contact the Woolworth Walk Gallery

Asheville, NC

(828) 254-9234

Another candidate from my new project of getting to intimately know some landforms.   As I explained in this post, I am working towards learning to paint from imagination, or from my mind's eye. 

One of the commenters on the last post thought I had actually painted the last landform from my imagination.  I want to correct that impression, because I think I wasn't clear.

I am not yet creating the landforms from my imagination!  I am creating them from my own photos and significantly cropping to find what is to me the most interesting part of the photos.  

My plan is to paint from a photo monochromatically, then paint the same landforms using imaginative color, and eventually create my own semi-abstracted landforms from my imagination.  Make sense?

I am trying out the auction format at Daily Paintworks to put some of these works up for sale.  The auction will run for one week, starting with a lowered "teaser price."  If the painting doesn't sell during the auction week, the price will go up to my regular retail price. 

I am playing with redesigning parts of my blog (fonts, font sizes, colors), so please bear with me till I settle on what I like.  Better yet, feel free to provide feedback on any of the changes.  

Edit:  Well, turns out I have put a lot of time into this redesign---let me know what you think!  I like it, and I hope it's easier on the eye.  I know it calls for a wider header now.  Another project....

Thanks for being here, Watchers!

A New Trajectory

Acrylic 6x6"

I have decided to focus on landscapes for awhile, not to become better at capturing the landscape, but to become better at CREATING the landscape.   I want to learn how to paint from my mind's eye, rather than from life or photo reference.   I plan to come up with five to ten simple landforms and paint them repeatedly until the process of painting feels more what I intend for it to be.

My idea was to start with a neutral-colored monochromatic.  Actually, that is not true, I painted a few abstracted landscapes with all kinds of color a few days ago (will show you soon), but then decided I needed to back up and learn more about color.  I figured that if I started with the neutrals, eventually  I would just be aching to put a certain color in a certain spot, and then I would be on my way!

It actually happened sooner than I thought it would--today, in fact.  I think I painted a total of five of these monochrome landscapes over the past couple days, and today, I just had to have some color!  I will show you soon...it's drying now, and I don't want to put it on the scanner while it may still be tacky.

I promise the one in this post was painted with just one color plus white.  I see that at least on my monitor, parts of it look like blue was added in, but I assure you that is an artifact of the limitations of technology to accurately represent my work, a problem I had feeble hope wouldn't be a problem in a MONOCHROMATIC PAINTING!!--but there you have it.

So, for once, I am actually a number of paintings ahead of my blog! 

I'm thinking of changing the font of my blog or the size of the letters or something.  

Let me know if you like one of these fonts better. 
Let me know if you like one of these fonts better.   
Let me know if you like one of these fonts better.  
I mean, please let me know if you like one of these fonts better...

Thanks for watching!

30 in Sept 2014 - Ode to Fall, which Needs no Ode from Me!

Acrylic by palette knife, 6x8"

Being an artist can be quite humbling.  I have detected a pattern in my creative life.  It seems as soon as I paint something I really like (such as the one in the last post), I expect I'm going to be able to repeat the process and come up with something I like equally well.  But what happens instead is I find it almost impossible to make the next few paintings work, even if I'm using similar methods.  

The past week has been me slugging it out with a couple of paintings that did not seem to want to be birthed!  The above is one of them.  I wasn't even sure if I would show it here, but after letting it go for a few days, took another look and decided you may see it.  The other one, I thought was a lost cause, but peeked at it today and may give it one more go (sigh....).

The intensity of painting this week, along with the extra blog hopping last week (translate, laptop time) has resulted in a somewhat blown out neck for me right now.  I have missed seeing my friends' work this week, and hope to catch up--maybe after I visit a chiropractor!  But I still love you guys...

And thank you all for Watching!

30 in September 2014 - Fun with Acrylic Palette Knife Painting

Acrylic with Palette Knife, 8x10"

I am experimenting with new mediums to make acrylic palette knife painting feel more like oil palette knife painting.  I think I am onto something.  The medium I used today made the process much more natural than it felt with mediums I had been using.  Possible breakthrough here!

You may ask, why not just use oil paints with the palette knife, then.  The answer is I would be happy to use oil paints, except I am terribly afraid of  

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION!

That's my truth.  To all you oil painters out there, I don't expect your stuff to combust.  I just would worry too much about my own stuff. 

Hope everyone continues to have a happy, productive weekend, and thanks for Watching...

30 in September 2015 - Returning

 

Acrylic 8x10"

I could have painted a whole 'nother painting in the amount of time I have spent fiddling with this image in Picasa and Photoshop Elements, trying to get it to look more like the image I painted.  I don't know why the yellow stands out so much.  

You will be happy to know I am taking a half-day workshop with a renowned local photographer this month on how to use Photoshop elements.  Hopefully, I will have a clearer idea of how to make my images look more like my paintings.   Meanwhile, why that yellow is so strong and contrasty, I'll never know.

This one is painted on canvas board, unusual for me, because I don't usually work on canvas.   30 in 30 is a time for experimentation.

 

But thanks for  being here to Watch, and for those of you who are in this painting challenge with me--Happy Painting!