Catching up (and Happy Birthday, Stefanie!)

                                                                                    Plein Air Acrylic, 6x6"

Someone recently  put a comment (anonymously) on my blog that is is time for a new painting, and I agree.  I haven't been totally slack with painting, but I have been very slack with posting to my blog.  I need to catch you up.  I did this painting last weekend at a plein air workshop.  One of the other artists was nice enough to let me paint her while she painted.  I spent most of the day painting something I wasn't happy with, and then I did this one in 10 minutes, and I LOVE it.  It doesn't show up as well here as in person, but I honestly think this is one of my favorite paintings I have ever done!

To atone for my lack of posting, here's a bonus painting to show you.  This will be the best photo I will ever get of this painting, because I have sent it away, donated to another artist who is having a fundraiser to help a friend of hers who is coping with cancer.  The paintings she has donated will be auctioned thru a silent auction.   If anyone reading this wants to make a direct monetary donation to that family, you can read about it on Kristen Dukat's blog, by clicking her name to the right of my blog.  It will take you to her list of blogs, and the one she talks about her friend on is her painting blog called "A Time for Art."   Her friend also has his own blog, where you can read about his and his family's ordeal.  They seem like very sweet people going through a very tough time.  His doctors don't expect him to live long, and the family really needs help.

                                                                                     Plein Air Acrylic, 6x6"

I am starting to be interested in selling my paintings on Daily Paintworks.  I seem to keep not feeling "quite ready."  I have an idea that I should paint every day between now and August 18 and if I like what I'm doing, join Daily Paintworks on 8/18.  Daily Paintworks charges you each month on the date you joined, and 18 is my lucky number.  How's that for a business decision?  (you don't have to paint daily to be on Daily Paintworks, I'm just thinking it would be a good exercise for me, and with the gouache, it would be doable by painting during EVERY lunch hour!)

There are limits....

       

                                                                                               acrylic, 6x8"                                               

...to how much I am willing to suffer for my art, and for my Watchers.  It is 97 degrees in the shade at my house today.  I painted this at home, and I know if I want to take a decent photo, I should troop myself down to the studio and do it there with the good lighting system.  But nope, it would be so hot down there-- I am not willing to take this suffering thing that far.  Until I can get a better photo, you will have to make do with this one.

This is a gift for someone I work with whose father recently died, so I thought/hoped the symbol of renewal would be potentially comforting.  Especially since she recently rescued and released two baby birds.... If you see anything glaringly wrong with this, please let me know tonight, although it would be very difficult to make a judgement  based on this poor photo.  I do plan to give it to her tomorrow.  I'm terrible at waiting when I want to give a gift.

In an extremely unprofessional move, I wanted to show you the method to which I have resorted in trying to save my garden from burning up.  Usually these plants wilt in the sun of the day, but starting yesterday, I swear they were burning.  Enjoy this photo now, I will probably remove it one of these days....

Going through a phase or "Duck!"

                                                             Gouache Plein Air Sketch, 6x6"

The above painting is a view of my yard.  After I took it as far as I could in the time I had the first day, I decided it "needed something."  Considering the convenience of the location, I was able to return to the same spot the next day to complete it.     I have to consider these pieces sketches.  They don't feel complete to me the way the acrylics do.

As noted in the prior post, I somehow started having a difficult time painting once I started painting from photos.  Well, the first one, the boy and the duck from a couple posts ago came out fine.  Then, the next time I worked with a photo, I felt like I might drift into just copying photos, like I did in my very early colored pencil phase.  I do NOT want to just copy photos!  But having a hard time interpreting photos, I think because I still haven't figured out color, how to use it in a personal way without just copying what I see. 

Somehow, all this difficulty seems to have turned me away from acrylics for awhile and towards gouache.  Why gouache?  Somehow, for awhile using gouache seemed more friendly, more like playing, than using the acrylics.  I was able to take them out on 30 minutes of my lunch hour and make sketches (that I will show you) in the park. 

Still, why, I had to ask myself, was the gouache seeming friendlier, more doable in a short stint on a lunch hour?  I had pretty much given up on painting at lunchtime when I was using acrylics.

I finally figured out that using gouache is less of  a "production" than using acrylics in that they are more water soluble and they are not going to get sticky on me.  I can get far more done in a short period of time because they clean off the brush faster than acrylics.  So, I can change color mixes far faster with the goauche.  That is why I can get so much more done.

However, I don't like the results with the gouache nearly as much as with the acrylics.  They seem blurrier and and have less "punch."  At least mine do.  If you want to see some dynamic gouache work, check out Larry Seiler's site by clicking the link to the right.  He is supposed to have an on-line gouache class one of these days that I am very much looking forward to. 

For now, I have to consider these to be just sketches.  I am thinking of using the one of the man in the chair as a reference for an acrylic painting.  I have a photo of the scene, too.  I think that the gouache sketch reminds me of how it felt to be at the scene far more than the photo does, even though the colors are far from accurate and are in fact somewhat goofy! (I am not nearly as familiar with mixing colors with gouache as I am with my beloved acrylics!)

                                                            Gouache Plein Air Sketch, 6x6"

My very first gouache sketch was the duck below.  The duck was about 2 feet from me.  I had just started blocking him in when he turned 180 degrees, bogggling my mind as I tried to do everything mirror image from what I was seeing.  Then he left, of course before I was finished.  No chance to paint the shadows.  Then, suddenly a man and young girl (2 to 3 years old) were at my elbow, having just climbed the hill I was sitting on at the park.  The little girl pointed to my painting and said, "Duck."  Phew!  Validated by a 3 year old.  I was thrilled, nevertheless....Aren't I lucky to have a park 3 minutes from work?

                                                             Plein Air Sketch, Gouache, 6x6"

And finally, I did the below from a photograph.  I was not at all happy with it after my first pass.  It completely lacked any oomph.  So, I decided to try to enhance it with colored pencils.  Colored pencils have a tendency to make you work tight and detailed, which you can see happened here.  Thus, this painting is NOT how I want my paintings to look, but I am going thru some kind of phase.....  There is a prize for the person who recognizes this scene as being part of their very own house (hint:  the prize is a delivery of cat probiotics).

                                                                Gouache and colored pencil, 7 x 10"

Long post, so thanks for hanging in.  I expect I will be back to my acrylics soon, but I think I will continue to do gouache sketches when I am limited in time.  What a great discovery!!

Problems with Blogger program

I just wanted to let you all know I have tried several times to post some new paintings.  It seems like I can now do posts only without images!   I will have to work on this problem, but wanted to let you know.   Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Where have I been?

I didn't really want to do a post without a painting, but I feel like it has been long enough that I should say something.  Two things have delayed my next ("long anticipated," I am sure!) painting:

1)  Now that I am painting people, I am working from photos again instead of from life.  I seem to have a much harder time painting a good painting from a photograph.  The colors aren't right and the lighting isn't right.  I want to INTERPRET a photo instead of copy a photo.  However, I feel limited in my personal understanding of color, too limited to do a good interpretation unless I luck out.  Which, with my current painting, is not in any way whatsoever happening.  I've worked on it a few times now, and each time experience frustration with where to go with it.  I started referring to the painting yesterday, while I was working on it, as the "bane of my existence."  Hmmmmmm.....  if a painting becomes the bane of an artist's existence, perhaps it is time to put it down for awhile and move on to another painting!

2)  I also had a physical challenge last week that I will not bore you with.  Suffice it to say I am better now, but was way not my best last week.

Thanks for bearing with me.  I guess this is growing pains.  Very frustrating, but I know with the help of my artistic support team I will get through this.  I think.  Yesterday I did have the thought that I could spare myself a bunch of trouble by giving up trying to make art, and with the money saved on supplies, I could just BUY art from other artists that I love!

OK, I'm Getting Somewhere!

                                                                                                     acrylic, 6x6"

Now with this one, I'm getting closer to how I want my paintings to look.  I painted this today, all by myself (so far, could change when I take it to class).   It's not perfect, it needs some touch-up, but I'm getting somewhere now.  I meant to paint this larger but started blocking in three small ones as studies, all with different undercolors to see if different colors made a difference.  I ended up getting carried away with one of them--to the finish.  Actually, this may not be finished.  I'll bring it to class on Wednesday and see if Lorelle thinks it needs anything.

Truth be told, this one looks better in person, at least compared to how it looks on my monitor.  I wish I knew how it looked on your monitors....

Now I'll need to start another painting tomorrow so I'll have something to work on in class on Wednesday.  I don't want to waste time in class starting one from the beginning.  I can do the planning, drawing, underpainting, and taking it as far as I can on my own.  Then I can get help finishing in class!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend-- it is absolutely beautiful (but HOT) here.  I'm off to go swimming!

It Needed Highlights!

Today was my Shadow and Light class with Lorelle Bacon, and we fixed up the painting from the last blog post, because I thought it looked dreary and needed something.  For the first time,  I will show you the painting at the end of a blog post. You have to wait.  I want to tell you a couple of things before I show the painting.  Because  I am very excited about all that I learned today.  I think until now I have had a tendency to avoid making the lights light enough.  I've read that a lot of art students have more trouble with getting the darks dark enough, but for me, I believe it has been the opposite.   Hopefully lesson learned.

By the way, if you were playing "Choose that Crop" in the last post, I am happy to report Lorelle told me to keep the crop as originally painted, or "A." 

Lorelle is a very good teacher.  You can navigate to her site by clicking on her name on the right site of this blog.  Check out her workshops and classes if you are local!  I am so glad I took this class.  Only one week left, how sad....  I know I have been very spoiled getting Lorelle all to myself for these sessions.

Since I finished this painting in class with Lorelle's help, I have to consider it to be the work of both of us.  She helped me a LOT with those highlights, including painting on the painting a few times to show me something (e.g. how to soften an edge). 

Okay, okay, here is the painting.  This photograph was taken right in the classroom, without benefit of a tripod.  Also, as you can see at the top, it was still on the easel.  I'll get a better picture in the studio at some point, but I did want to show you this update tonight.  Often I think the photos cause my paintings to look better than they deserve, but this time I honestly think the painting looks better than the photo.

                                                                           acrylic, 16x20"

A New Direction (or "choose your favorite crop")

                                                                                                         acrylic, 16x20"


Here is my first try since I decided to paint people.  I am, incidentally, also wanting to paint larger.  The former requires me to paint from photographs at this time, the latter allows me to swing my arm instead of just moving my wrist (and sometimes just my finger joints).  I imagine I will paint more still lifes, also, but for now, figurative work is calling me.  

In order to paint larger, I painted on paper, which causes some challenges with the paint.  I don't have any large boards to paint on right now, so I'll continue to use the paper till used up.

I know it's not the greatest painting, but I decided to show it, because it's the start of a new season in my art.  I was just telling a friend today that I wished I had blogged my entire art journey, starting six years ago or so.  I thought of that conversation and decided there would be value in showing this painting.

Ok, so I recognize the painting is sloppy, which I don't really mind, but the bench should probably be touched up so that parts of the background trees don't overlap the bench!  Also, the glow coming from the red of the left lower bench leg and that other red in the lower left of the painting doesn't look so glowing in the original, so must be an artifact of the photograph.  If I had it to do over again (which I may), I would not have toned this paper with red first.  I was fighting the red the whole time.  I don't know what else the painting needs.  I don't know if I am finished, actually.

I've been messing around with some crops.  Please let me know which you think is the best option.  The one at the top of this post is Option A (the original as painted).  Here are your other options:

                                          Option B - Raises the bottom

                                           Option C - Moves the right side closer to her

                                         Option D - Moves the bottom up and right closer in

                                         Option E squares it up (sort of)

Thank you for your participation in Crop-a-Rama.  I will also bring the original to paint class this week and see what Lorelle thinks. 

                                      

Sunrise Landscape from December

                                                                                                    acrylic, larger than usual

I think my mother would like to see another landscape.  This one was painted on a canvas board, which I rarely do (I paint on archival hardboards) and is no longer in my possession, so I can't measure it.  It may be around 16x20."  It was painted from a photo that I took in my neighborhood.

Here is what it looked like framed (the frame was straight, it's the photo that's crooked):

As an aside, I know a wonderful woman who lost her home and most of her pets in a house fire, caused by a piece of paper falling on a power strip.  Please, everyone, be careful about your power strips/surge protectors!

What Do I Really Want to Paint?

                                                                                                       acrylic 5x7"

I painted and am writing this on Mother's Day, but this will be posted on Monday.  I already had a post today.  I need one for tomorrow.   Not the greatest painting, but I am wanting to show you some of my learning process.

Daily PaintWorks, a website I love, posts a challenge each Saturday.  This week's challenge is "Yellow."  Hence, the yellow lamp painting.  I am no way going to post this on Daily PaintWorks, but I thought it would be good to get into the spirit ot the challenge.  This lamp has a certain eerie glow (especially in the base) when light shines on it that I tried to capture and don't think quite made it.  Oh well.  Being that it's my lamp, I can always try again.  In fact, this is the second time I've tried to paint it.

I started my Painting Shadows and Light class with Lorelle Bacon on Wednesday.  I was the only student there...which will work out nicely in terms of getting my learning needs met, but I forfeit getting to meet some new local artist friends. 

Lorelle wants me to do my paintings faster, like keep it to an hour and time myself.  She also wants me to  try mixing with my palette knife instead of my brush.  My brush tends to get gunked up with lots of paint.  So, today I worked on both challenges.  I ended up cheating and giving myself an extra 20 minutes, and I also ended up resuming my mixing with my brush when I saw the clock ticking.  Mixing with the knife I found very awkward.  I find the brush more efficient.  With the palette knife, I have to keep changing my implement--knife to brush to knife to brush.  I ended up using the knife for mixing in my right hand and  kept my painting brush in my left hand (I'm left-handed).  I finally reverted to my brush-clogging ways after awhile.

Next time I paint, I'm going to do what Lorelle said and stop after an hour, whether I am finished or not.  She assures me that I will get faster.  I think the lesson will only work if I follow it!  I'll practice with my palette knife, too.

If you haven't already checked out Lorelle's site, I urge you to click on her name in the right column of this blog.  She is great at so many mediums and just had a piece accepted into an international scratchboard competition!  Amazing woman.

When I set out to paint, I certainly didn't intend to paint lamps.  As one of my sisters said in a comment earlier in the blog, I didn't even think I liked looking at still life paintings.  When I discovered the Daily PaintWorks website, that all changed.  Not all the artists on that site do still life, but many do.   And many are fantastic (these artists create works of great beauty out of the simplest household objects).  I love looking at that site.  I aspire to be on that site.  And since membership is open, I can choose to be anytime I think I am ready.  So far, I am not.  I feel I should join at such time as I am consistently satisfied with my paintings. 

I do love painting the still lifes and all I am learning from them.  However, what I really yearn for is to paint people.  Not portraits or even necessarily capturing a likeness.  I want to paint "slices of life" with people engaged in daily living--paintings that would cause the viewer to feel that familiar "yes, this is how life is" feeling. 

When I put people in my paintings, I feel totally different.  I feel as if the painting has come alive.  I think I even breathe differently.  I know that landscapes are also full of life and I have painted many landscapes, but there is something that is just different for me about painting people.

Now, generally, people do not hold still for long when you want to paint them.  You have to either pay them to hold still, cajole them to hold still, or work from photographs.   Painting from photographs is very difficult if you don't really know what you are doing, because the photograph creates certain distortions and simply cannot show color to the artist the way the eyes can.  Lorelle said she is going to show me how to work from photos and adjust for the problems they create.  If I can learn to work with photos, I will be one step closer to being able to paint what I really want to paint!

(Hey, long post...thanks if you are still reading.  I guess having people in my post yesterday got me going.)