"Lone Tree" Soft Pastel ACEO

Soft Pastel, 2.5x3.5"

Purchase Here

In December, I did a number of soft pastel paintings, and I will call them soft pastel paintings to differentiate them from the oil pastel paintings I did in January during the 30 in 30.  For those who don't know, soft pastel means the dusty kind.  And most soft pastel artists just refer to them as pastels. 

This tree was painted from my imagination, which makes me very happy!  And my Finale! painting from the 30 in 30 sold in a DPW auction, which was really fun, so I am putting this one up for auction, as well.

Thanks for Watching...

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.

"Finale!" Oil Pastel - 30 Paintings in 2015

Oil Pastel, 2.5 x 3.5"

SOLD (thank you!)

Celebrate!

Congratulations, everyone!  We made it!!  Time to celebrate!!  Clean our houses!  Renew our connections with our loved ones!

Thank you for being such an important part of my month.  If you are reading this, I absolutely include you in my thanks, even if this is your first visit to my blog.  I appreciate every single person who comes here, artist or art-appreciator, whether you ever let me know you are here Watching or not.

 I want all the artists in the group to know that I have been so uplifted and inspired by seeing your amazing art each day and so honored to have met some of you through our mutual blogs.  I do hope we keep in touch.

And special thanks to Leslie Saeta for convening this challenging and motivating us every step of the way!

Note About the Auction

I haven't used the DPW auctions much, so I thought it would be fun to do something different for my Finale! Painting.  If you want to bid, just click on the link directly below the painting at the top of this page :-)  You will be taken to the auction page on Daily Paintworks.

The auction will end on Tuesday, February 3, and if I have arranged things as intended, it will not re-list if there are no bids by the end of the auction.  If the painting doesn't sell at auction, I am going to put it On Reserve--meaning, it will not be available immediately for sale with a PayPal link in my DPW gallery.

(also, if you want to bid, please note the actual dimensions, listed above, are teeny!  I have made this painting as large as I could on the blog, for effect!)

Personal Note about the Collage

Leslie encourages us as the final step to create and post a collage showing all our work together in one image.  I am wanting you to know I may skip this part of the challenge.  I haven't decided for sure, but I am leaning towards feeling the time it would take me to create the collage is time I would rather spend with my family and away from the computer.  Possibly...we'll see.

"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...

Oil Pastel Version of "Long Hair" - 30 Paintings in January 2015

Oil Pastel, 7x5"

I'm repeating myself!  This is the Oil pastel version of the painting I did yesterday using Acrylics.  I am trying to rule-out/rule-in methods and materials I want to continue with, and one way to differentiate was to repeat this painting using the Oil Pastels.  I did sort of make it hard on myself by painting from the first painting rather than from the reference photo.  Since OP's give such different effects than Acrylics, I ended up having to make some Oil Pastel "moves" in order to find resolution to this painting--different than what it took in Acrylics.

I should have mentioned yesterday, I was happy with what I did with the painting because I used the reference photo only as a suggestion for composition and value.  The colors in these paintings are nothing like the reference photo, the setting is completely different (made up/abstracted) in the paintings.  I truly feel more satisfied as an artist when I feel I'm creating rather than copying a photo.  Maybe that's why yesterday's process was more satisfying than today's...

Everyone, please take care, try to get good sleep, and remember to uplift each other...

"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...

"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!

 

"Grace" Oil Pastel

Oil Pastel, 5.5 x 5.5"

$45 plus shipping 

 Purchase Here

Hello, Watchers!  This painting represents for me a breakthrough process.  I am excited and thrilled actually at how this one came together!

I painted it on my lunch hour today from a scene I saw hours earlier on the way to work this early morning. No reference photo. It makes me very happy to have created from my mind's eye, memory only! A very freeing process...

In real life, the blues of the trees of this painting are much richer and the orange is lighter, calmer, and not so contrasty--the orange knows its place in the real painting.  

I am using Picasa to edit these OPs and am about ready to decide to keep this new computer.   When I decide for certain, I will move my Photoshop Elements license to this computer and then hopefully do a better job of photo-editing.

Anyhow,  thanks for being here to hear about my breakthrough...and to all my artist friends, Happy Painting!