"Where Will You Go From Here?" Oil Pastel - 30 Paintings in January 2015

Oil Pastel, 3x4"

$30 plus shipping

Purchase Here

The title of this painting is my question for all of us:  "Where Will You Go From Here?"  

We have had a great run with lots of ups and downs, and as this 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge comes to an end, there is a risk of feeling like we are losing something.  Which is always a possibility.  

But so much potential exists for gaining something!  New art friends, new painting methods, new studio habits, and in my case, even a new painting medium...

Let us keep the best of this Challenge going indefinitely and let go of what does not serve us (the pressure to perform).  Let us stick together and continue to support each other as we have through these 30 Days.  

I will look forward to seeing where you all go from here!

Personal Painting Note

I wanted to tell you what happened to me with this painting.  The past few days, I have been very weary of the Challenge and noticing the same happening to many other 30 in 30ers.  I had a migraine last night, so I used one of my "paint-ahead" paintings for my post for yesterday and fully expected I would do the same for the final two posts, today and tomorrow.

Once I released myself from the pressure of having to come up with two more paintings, I did some cleaning at my house and then headed...to the studio!  Where I painted not only the above painting, but also another for the final day's post.  It seems I personally do better when painting feels like a "want to" not a "have to."   Letting myself off the hook brought me right back around to my art!

"Lavender Farm Red Variation" Oil Pastel - 30 Paintings in January 2015

Oil Pastel, 2.5 x 3.5"

This is a variation of yesterday's painting, and I have a couple more to show you coming up soon.  These are actually the first oil pastel paintings I did.  I have learned so much about oil pastels since these first ones, including be careful how you remove the paintings from your board--wash your hands first!  You can see how I boogered this one up in the upper left corner while removing it from the drawing board.  I'm going to try to fix this one up before I offer it for sale.

How to Remove Animal Hair from an Oil Pastel Painting
These Oil Pastel Paintings are never really dried or  hardened.  If you have purchased one of mine, I encourage you to get it behind glass as soon as you can.  Especially if you have pets in the house.  If an animal hair gets on it, it will seemingly stick.  If you  need to remove the hair, the best way I have found is to use the corner of a piece of paper almost parallel to the painting.  Just try to get the corner to move the hair or to go under the hair slightly.  Once it pulls away from the painting, you can lift it up.  Using the paper corner is far preferable than trying to use your fingers or a tweezer--both will potentially dig into the painting and change it!  If you use patience and the corner of a piece of paper, I think you will have the best results.

Kudos to the 30 in 30ers
My congratulations to you all!  I am so proud of you and hope you are proud of yourselves.  Some of you faced other challenges in addition to painting 30 Paintings in 30 Days, such as trying to paint around a full-time job (like me), painting with health challenges, painting with heavy-duty family responsibilities, and other challenges I am failing to mention.  You deserve so much credit!

Blogger Question and Tip
I am posting this on Thursday morning around 9:30 am, so I am imagining those of you Watchers who are subscribed will receive the email of the post around 9:30 pm EST.  Up until now, I have been doing my posts the night before and scheduling them for 12:30 a.m.--that's why you have been receiving notifications around noon, EST.  The question is:  Why does Blogger wait about 12 hours to send out notifications of a post?  Blogger is able to handle everything else instantly, why the delay in the notification email?

And artist bloggers, here's a tip:  If you are not already subscribed to your own blog, you might want to consider signing up.  It's very enlightening to receive your own email notifications and see for yourself exactly when they are being delivered.

Thanks for Watching...I'm off to paint--well, I may clean for awhile first :-)

"Lavender Farm" Oil Pastel

Oil Pastel, 2.5x3.5"

Happy Birthday, Jackie!

To be very honest, this is one of my paint-ahead paintings.  I did paint today; in fact, I went out plein air painting on my lunch hour in my car, while it snowed!  And then, when I got home from work tonight, I had to leave my car in town and walk up the hill I live on outside of the town...because the hill will be too dangerous to drive on first thing in the morning when I need to leave for work.

Anyway, my plein air painting is at the bottom of the hill, in town, in my car.  Not that it was ready to show you.  It needed tweaking, but will have to wait.

The one above is from a photo from another plein air trip I took with the Blue Ridge Art Guild to paint at a lavender farm.  I have used this composition a number of times, and you may see a version or two this week!

30 in 30ers across the blogosphere are exhausted and in need of a break.  I say, take that break if you need it!  30 Paintings in 30 Days is just an exercise...to get us all in our studios more.   Please, friends, do not allow this exercise to make you never want to see your studio again!  Far better to take a break and preserve your joy in painting than to make yourself literally paint 30 but burn yourself out! 

As I said in this post  "...I have come to realize that this 30 Paintings in 30 Days gig is more about opening hearts than counting paintings!" 

 

Please take care of yourselves, artists!  And everyone in the northeast of the USA, hope you are warm and safe and well-prepared for this storm...

"Edge of the Road" Oil Pastel - 30 Paintings in January 2015

Oil Pastel, 4x6"

$40 plus shipping

Purchase Here

Right now, I am happy I finished this painting and am presently waiting for Daily Paintworks to finish some temporary maintenance so I can complete this blog post and get some sleep.  I seem to be in the habit of sleeping early in the evening and then getting up to paint until I really should be...sleeping.

While we are waiting for DPW, I would like to bring up a critical subject for all you 30 in 30ers out there...what are you going to give yourself as a gift for taking on this challenge?  You are going to get yourself a gift, aren't you?  You certainly deserve something wonderful! 

Ok, here's DPW, back on-line...I'm going to wrap this up so I can wake up and move on to the next...

Thanks for watching!

 

"Open Arms" Oil Pastel - 30 Paintings in January 2015

Oil Pastel, 4x4"

SOLD (Thank you!)

This is the one I talked about yesterday, that appeared horrendous when I scanned it.  Today I photographed it.   I would say the photo is marginally better.  I actually really like this little painting...not so sure about the photograph!

I am really glad I have a blog--for most of you, it is the only way I would ever be able to show you my art.  But times like these I really wish I could say, "Come on over to my studio and let me show you what I've been doing."   Ixnay on the digital images!

Anyhow, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the 30 Paintings in 30 Days.

I am blessed to have people who follow and comment on my art.  Today, I would love to encourage everyone to go check out the offerings from the rest of the 30 in 30 artists on Leslie's blog.  Perhaps you would be willing to go find some new art you love and go let the artists know on their blogs. I think the other artists are already checking each other out, so I am mainly talking to my non-artist friends.

At the bottom of Leslie's posts, each of the artists in the 30 in 30 posts a small thumbnail of their painting for the day.  The later in the day you go to Leslie's blog, the more paintings will be there (obviously!).  You get to the blogs by clicking on the thumbnails.  If you are in Firefox, like I am, a new tab will open with the artists' website, blog, or FB, whatever they put in the link on Leslie's blog.  A few artists don't put links, so clicking their painting won't get you anywhere.

And, as always, I thank you for being here...

"Winter's Exhale" Oil Pastel

Oil Pastel 5.5 x 5.5"

Well, for the sake of the 30 in 30, I am showing you this one, but I just cannot bring myself to sell it until I can get the image accurate enough to the painting.  I tried three different photo editors!  So, I give myself credit for trying, anyway.

This is an extra one I painted the other day.  I was looking forward to showing you the one for today, but the scan was SO OFF, that the above one actually looks relatively accurate!  

Apparently, using the scanner for Oil Pastel Paintings is going to be a bit more iffy than using it for Acrylic Paintings.  I will be looking for a Plan B.

Happy Painting, everyone!

"Sunburst" Oil Pastel

Oil Pastel, 3.5 x 2.5"

$15 plus shipping

Purchase here

I just LOVE painting these teeny ones.  I highly recommend anyone learning to use oil pastels (or soft pastels) try painting these minis!

This just in:  I have learned that no one in my family understood the significance of yesterday's image!  All these years, I thought it was a shared memory, that we had witnessed this miraculous even together...I mean, my niece glowed!  Apparently, I'm the only one who noticed...

Happy Painting, fellow 30 in 30ers...

"Moonlit" Oil Pastel - 30 Paintings in January 2015

 Oil Pastel, 6x6"

$50 plus shipping

Purchase Here

Did you all see that big moon the other night?  This painting was actually inspired by a morning view from my office. 

It's getting so I can't paint without a razor blade (oil pastelists may know what I mean).  Pretty soon, I may need a heat gun!  Watch out!

Happy Painting, everyone!

Thanks for visiting...

Magenta Forest Oil Pastel - 30 Paintings in January 2015

Oil Pastel, 6x6"

$50 plus shipping

Purchase Here

Well, I'm back in the saddle again after my computer crashed a few days ago.  Thank you all for returning to visit after the interlude.  I purchased a new (used) laptop.  You could say it's on borrowed time right now...I have 30 days to decide whether to keep it.  That should at least get me through the rest of this 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.

I did continue to paint while I was off-line.  Not sure how to catch you up on those.  Maybe I'll do a post with them or maybe skip them so these can be in synch with my DPW and Leslie's blog. 

This oil pastel painting is another one that started totally and completely different than what you see here.  What you see here is kind of what the background of the original painting looked like.  I decided I liked the background effect best, so I lost the foreground.  These OPs are amazing for making alterations, that's for certain.  

This is one of those occasions where the photo simply will not do justice to the painting...I guess that's one thing that hasn't changed from the last computer!

Anyhow, new computer, no bookmarks, hope I can find you all again...thank goodness for Feedly...

Happy Painting, everyone!

30 Paintings in January 2015 - Country Charm Oil Pastel

Oil Pastel, 5x7"

Interesting thing about the 30 in 30...you find out things like:

Who really cares if you remember to eat?

Who really cares enough if you remember to eat that he suggests pouring cashews into your mouth while you continue painting?

Any of you have anything like that going on in your life?  Must be hard to be the spouse of an artist during the 30 in 30!

OK, About the Painting!

I learned SO MUCH from painting this one.  I taped out a white border around it, and the parts in this image that are white (at the bottom) are where the tape pulled off some of the paper when I removed it.  I kind of like it though, and it looks better when you can see the white border.  

For some reason, with oil pastel, I really like seeing some of the white edges showing into the image (rough edges), maybe because the oil pastel is so thick, it brings some lightness in.  Not to mention, Wolf Kahn himself often left white showing around the edges of his pastel paintings (did you miss the quotes from his book Pastel that I mentioned in yesterday's post?).

I have to admit, I resorted to adding in some of my old friends, the trusty colored pencil, to this one...

Happy Painting, everyone!    

30 in January 2015 Pink Forest Oil Pastel

Oil Pastel, 5x7"

SOLD (Thank  you!)

I have just completed reading Wolf Kahn's book Pastels and immediately turned around and started reading it again.  I love his work, and I really appreciated getting insight into his views on the artistic process.  I want to highly recommend this book to my artist friends, no matter what your medium.

Here are a few quotes I found deeply meaningful:

"The practice of art should have an effect not only on the public, but even more importantly on the artist himself, by enlarging his sphere of freedom." (p. 16, paragraph 2)

"The moment you know how to do certain things, you should by rights stop doing them.  You would be ceasing to search and starting to perform."  (p. 18, paragraph 1)

Points to ponder...

And, as we are in the midst of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, how about this reminder from Wolf Kahn (also from Pastel, p. 25 paragraph 2):

"The artist must beware of trading places, even momentarily, with his public.  He follows mental pathways in which audience-conscious esthetic judgments such as 'interest' have no place.  The intimacy of his personal relationship to the work at hand has to remain inviolate."

Watchers, I think that is another way of saying "Paint Like Nobody's Watching."   In his profound way, Wolf Kahn is telling us what to focus on while painting (the creation of the image) and what not to focus on while painting ("will it be good enough for my blog?  good enough for Leslie's blog?  good enough for DPW?").

Paint Like Nobody's Watching, friends....and as always, I do thank you for Watching!

Patch of Blue Oil Pastel - Day 4

 Oil Pastel, 3.5 x 2.5"

In the spirit of the Challenge, this is the one I did on my lunch hour Friday.  This piece was completed in about 20 minutes, and someone was talking to me almost the entire time I was painting it!! I'm also having a terrible time getting a good photograph or scan of it, so I'm not putting it on DPW. 

No New Art Supplies!

One of my self-imposed rules for this challenge is that I am not allowed to purchase anything new until at least January 20.   My "theme" is artistic freedom, more of an intention than a theme.  I am exercising my freedom for at least the beginning part of the challenge, by using oil pastels, a medium I had long ago put away.

Using any kind of pastels is seductive towards your wallet, because as a pastelist, you never feel like you have the color you need.  So you keep looking and buying.  And there's always new supplies you hear about to make your artistic life better--new papers, solvents, storage units, etc.

I figure by the time I get to January 20, I'll have a better idea of what I REALLY need, if anything.  I purchased some ResNGel, a non-toxic solvent, right before the challenge began, but other than that, I have stored pastel paper, mat board scraps, enough oil pastels to get a good start, etc.  

Thanks for Watching!

 

 

30 in January 2105 - Patch of Green Oil Pastel - Day 3

Oil Pastel, 3.5 x 2.5"

$15 plus shipping

Purchase Here

I must admit, this is one of my "paint ahead" paintings.   Leslie Saeta  (the hostess of this 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge) said it's perfectly ok, in fact recommended, to paint ahead for the challenge.  Luckily I did, because although I painted another version of this one at my lunch hour today using alternate colors, I left my camera at work.  And I really feel too tired to mess with the scanner right now.  So here you have it, a paint-ahead.  I'll show you the painting I did today another time.

This is a view on my regular dog walk.  It has caught my eye for a couple weeks, so I was happy to sit down and paint it and intend to work with the same composition using various color schemes.

I have visions of saying really interesting things and giving you some cool quotes from books I am reading, but apparently that is all going to have to wait till the weekend...

Thanks for being here....

Mountain View Oil Pastel - 30 in January 2015, Day 2

Oil Pastel, 5x7"

$50 plus shipping

Purchase Here

 

My Intention for the Challenge

Welcome again to the 30 Paintings in January 2105 Challenge.  My computer seems to be behaving better than it did last night, so I can give you a more of a welcome/intro than I did yesterday.  

Leslie Saeta, convener of the challenge, encourages us to have a theme for our 30 Days.  By theme, I think she means subject matter.  I have altered the call for a theme, just a bit.  Instead of a theme, I have an intention--Artistic Freedom!  

Why Artistic Freedom?

Artistic Freedom, because there are too many boxes in the other areas of my life!  Artistic Freedom, because as Robert Genn said on his AHA Radio Show interview, "I believe the only question an artist should ask is, 'What do I want to do today?'"  

  

The Challenge is to Play!

 So, I will be playing with mediums besides my usual acrylics.  I expect you will see oil pastels, pastels, gouache, and some combinations of the above.  Fun at all costs, friends!  Here at Paint Like Nobody's Watching, we are going to mix media that maybe aren't even supposed to be mixed!

I am quite interested in Oil Pastels right now, so if I start feeling I am getting the hang of it, I will share what I learn in case other artists out there might want to try them.

For now let me just say, they are a totally, completely different animal than soft pastels!

Thanks for being here, and Happy Challenging to the other artists out there...glad we're in this together.

30 Paintings in January 2015 - Happy New Year!

 Oil Pastel 5.265 x 5.265" (to be precise!)

$45 plus shipping

Buy Now

Happy New Year, everyone!  Today is the first day of the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge hosted by Leslie Saeta of the Artists Helping Artists Radio Show.  I am having a terrible time with computer tonight, so better sign off now, while I can.  I will be painting....not sure I'll be able to be blogging...depends on how my computer behaves!

Bright times for you all for 2015...

Thanks 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...

Burnsville Paint-Out

Watercolor with Colored Pencil, 8x10ish"

A few weeks ago, I participated in a paint-out held by the Toe River Arts Council (TRAC) in Burnsville, NC.  This is  NOT the painting I did for the paint-out!  Actually, I painted two similar starts, and the underpainting for this one was the first start.  The second start, I completed for the Paint Out, and it has been hanging in TRAC gallery for the month, until recently when the show ended.   Another artist was kind enough to pick it up for me when the show ended, since I live further away, so I still don't have the painting back.

It has been very odd for me to not have easy access to that painting for the past month, and I realize now that a big part of my painting process is looking, looking, looking at my painting after it is sort of finished.  In fact, I can be in the middle of doing something completely different (laundry for instance) and suddenly take a notion and be compelled to drop everything and go look at a recent painting.  More than once.

After a couple of weeks of not getting to look at my paint-out painting, I realized that I had the original start at home and could play around with it.  I took liberties with the grasses in front of the trees, obviously embellishing the colors, with the intention to play and see how the colored pencils worked with the paints.  Playing and learning, great fun! 

Thank you for looking and for being with me through these experiments...