Painting #66 and then some

I am so excited, I finished my blog painting, which you will see here directly, and after my last student left, I started an oil painting, remember I said I was going to do an oil painting workshop, well, I started it tonight, I have about an hour or so in this painting, it really needs some fine tuning, but it really is fun, I've taken oil painting workshops before, but it was always the old masters way, smooth, using mediums. This was pretty much straight out of the tube and right now it has rough edges but I'm loving it, I finally got the hang of the way to get it when I was half way through, there is this really neat flow blue bowl in this composition and boy, I nailed it, without the real detail, love it, I can hardly wait to finish it tomorrow. I don't have a photo of it yet, so you will have to wait.

I really like this little watercolor, I used the clayboard again, and that really seems to work for me doing these waterscapes. I start by laying in a thin layer of paint the local color, that's green for the trees and gray for the rocks and blue gray for the water (there is a tiny little bit of sky, and I jambed that in on top of the green, kind of last min). After that was dry, I started to put in the detail, I got another layer on the trees and didn't fine tune them until the last, this time, I really got in to the water, I usually start in the back and work forward, but this time I started with the middle water and worked my way forward, then the back water, and the trees in the background again. Once that was set, I started on the left hand corner and put in the trees that are leaning over the water, then the branches over the other stuff, some are dark and some are light, then I put some tree trunks in the background and put some branches in there as well, the last was the forground shale bank where the trees are falling over, I really enjoyed this painting, and sure hope you do to.

#65, woo hoo! now only 300 to go.

Well, I finally made it, now it should go easier, or maybe it's just that 365 seemed like so many, now it will be so much less, well, let me think that anyway.

I really think that water scenes are my thing, I love these little waterfalls and the reflections in the calm water, must be, it's the thing that really gets me jazzed. Every time I get one of these waterfall pictures out, I just go wild, and I get so excited that it goes very quickly, at least that's how it seems, I really enjoy doing all that water.

This painting is done on the clayboard, again, and the opaques, again, and again no sky, seems like a lot of again's, doesn't it? Well, it may be, but it just seems right. I usually end up taking close up pictures of the water and falls, and when you do a close up, you don't get much sky, but does it need it? No, I don't think so. I started by laying in a thin wash of the local color on the trees and then the rocks and then I put a thin wash of a golden color on the water area, then I fine tuned the background, now it seems like a lotof and then's, oh well. I laid in the darks, then I painted the leaves (those little green dots up at the top) and then worked my way across to the left side and that large rock there, layers and layers, first gray, then some brown, and some black (nothing wrong with some black), then I went back over it laying in squiggly lines for the cracks, once I got that rock shape done, I worked on the rock at the right, that one is more difficult because of all the water running over it, but it looks good to me, then last I painted white over the golden color of the water, when you paint it, the white looks opaque but after it dries it does show some of the gold through, but I make lots of layers of white so that you see little lines that make the water cascade down the hill, I then put a bit of the gold color back in so it doesn't become too white and then I call it done, I love this one, I painted it once before (just this past year), I did a watercolor/collage and made the white water out of the stringy part of the papers, it worked, so I wanted to do this one on the clayboard to see how that one works, and it does, love it, and I hope you do too.

Painting 64, wow! I can't believe it.

Good day to you, I worked today so I'm a bit tired, what's unusual about that, seems like I'm always tired. I worked on this one in class today, I like it, but compared to some of the others, it seems a bit ho hum, maybe not, maybe I'm getting jaded. This is Lake Superior, I'm unsure if it's in the U.P. or if it's in Minnesota, we took so many pictures over 3 or 4 trips that I just can't remember, I'm thinking that it was on the way to the Keweenaw Peninsula, but I'm not sure.

This painting is done on D'Arches 260 lb. Mural paper (obviously much smaller than a full sheet, it really works out nicely for this project, it makes about 24 pieces about 6-1/2" square, I've been working on the clayboard a lot lately and I decided that I should work on regular paper so I don't forget how to do it, I'm hoping that I don't forget how to paint larger than 6-1/2" square, before I started this project I was working my way up to a full sheet (I have 4 started and someday I will finish them), but I think it will wait a day or two, I must be getting older, I surely don't have the stamina that I used to, there was a time that I could stay up painting all night and still work the next day, but I'm sure those days are over, I can barely stay up to blog this lately, I think I'm still recovering from the time change (at least I hope that's what it is, I'm sure I don't want to be sick).

I started with the sky, then the water line, I let them blur together, after that was dry, I put in the tree line and the tree reflection, I painted the sand in and spattered some, keeping in mind that this is all a first layer, there are several, I don't just paint it one time and done, I'm not that good, wish I were but I'm not. I decided that the water line wasn't dark enough so I enhanced that, then the trees again, I also thought that the right side of the picture needed something, I almost put in a tanker (being it is on Lake Superior), but decided to throw in some brush and a small tree to break up the blankness of it, in one of the photo's the Queen Ann's Lace was there, I just added to that ( I do tend to work from more than one photo). I just kept going, putting in rocks, and spattering and darkening here and there until it got to a point that I wasn't sure what more I could do to make it better, I also decided to add a few birds, then I quit. I like this little painting, it's very calming, and I hope you do too.

63 paintings, not bad

Well, I had a very busy day today, the mat cutter called me again, something about that, I'm petrified of getting behind, so I cut and cut and cut today. I only actually cut 7 or 8 mats, but I did cut the blanks (10" x 10" and the foam core), so, then when I need a specific size, it won't be so bad, I'll only have to cut the actual mat, I really got a lot ahead today.

I really wanted to oil paint, I'm taking an on-line oil painting workshop and I worked on getting the canvas ready, but, I didn't actually get time to paint it, I did get it all ready to work on tomorrow though, I'm sure hoping that I can get it done tomorrow, we'll see. While I was doing all that, I had to clean up a spot to work (I'm really bad about keeping my studio, it sure doesn't take long to get clogged up), now that I have a place to work, I think I can get it done pretty quickly, I'm only going to do 10" x 10", I'm possibly going to consider them for my blog, I'll have to check with the instructor to see if it will be ok to use them on line, but just in case he doesn't think I should, then I will make sure I get the watercolor painting done, I really don't know if I want to count it as the blog, since the instructor is providing the photo, I've been strictly using my own photo's for reference and I really feel good about that. We'll see. While I was cleaning, I came across a painting that I had started a few months ago, since I spent so much time cleaning and cutting mats, I decided to finish this one (it was about 1/3 done, I did do most of the work on it. It's almost the correct size so I think I can make it work.

This is a painting of Jeannie's Dinner in Coldwater, the Blue Moon Girls (me included) displayed paintings there for almost a full year, changing them out about every 6 weeks, and the first paintings we did were (of course) of Jeannie's Dinner, this is a similar painting to the one that I put in there and "Sold", I have done a couple of others, I really liked the format of this scene so I decided to do this small one one night at Blue Moon, well, some where in the shuffle, I missplaced it, now it's found and finished. It's done with opaques, the first wash was done with opera (a holbine color), I took a workshop with Donna Zagotta and she starts her paintings by outlining each area with the opera, then filling each one in with a thin wash of opera, so you end up with a very pink painting, then you start deciding on the colors and do each section until you get to the point that you can pull it together, that's one of the reasons that you see all that hot pink, you don't always cover every bit of it up, so this is a Donna Zagotta style painting, it was a lot of fun and I really learned a lot, she is a very good teacher.

I like this painting and sure hope you do too.

#62, glad this was done.

This is the painting that I told you I painted yesterday, so glad I was smart and got this done yesterday, we left today at 8:30 a.m. and didn't get home until 7:30 p.m., I really did work, but it was at my knitting, I can't just go and do nothing, so I finished a sweater vest that I've been working on so it was a good day even though I didn't get to paint, sometimes you just have to do stuff with your family, I surely don't want my husband to get an attitude about my art, he did ask me last week "and how long are you going to be doing this painting a day?", well, I told him and he just said "great, no sleep for a year", so I have to get my stuff done earlier, I'm going to work on that, and I don't want my husband to be mad at me because I wait until it's time for him to be home before I get my painting done, that has to stop, my reason for doing this blog was to get me to paint, but not at the expense of my marriage (I will certainly give that my best effort). Ok, now I must talk about my painting.

This is the first painting I started yesterday, but the other one really grabbed me, anyway, this is a nice painting and went very well, I didn't have as much time to dwell on excess detail, when I got done with the other one I only had about an hour and fifteen min. to finish it before it was time to go home, and I only had about 15 or 20 min. in it to start, so that's pretty quick, I am hoping that I can get faster with all of them, time will tell.

I did a rendition of this painting about 27 years ago, I entered it in The Michigan Area Competition at the Art Center of Battle Creek, I didn't get an award, but, I then put it in their rental gallery and sold it there. This one, being a square, is shortened a bit, which makes it look wider, or else, I tried to put too much of it in the picture, who cares, it looks pretty good to me. I started with purple/gray/white for the sky then went in with a pinky/gray color for the far away branches and the really spring green for those willows in the background, the trees were put in somewhere in the middle, then I put the water in with the grayed down blue with white in it, then the banks on each side, I put some rock shapes in with a very light gray, just so I could tell where they were. Once that was dry, I dry brushed some green on top of the brown on the bank, there wasn't much green, but some spots of it, the left side had some reddish twigs growing up behind the foreground tree there which helped with the reddish color of the foreground bank and water, then I started fine tuning the background by putting in some pale brown twigs to indicate some darker small trees growing there and then I did the water, I usually do the water last but this time, I wanted to make sure you could see some of the rocks in the foreground water, so I put them in first and then started the wave action with the blue, it was really cool how quickly that worked out, then the bank on the right side, I really started getting into the little bunch of rocks and wood and twigs and stones there right in front, then I just continued with that, somewhere in there I jumped in to get the trees in the background, I added some darker tree shapes and it started to pull together, I really like this little painting and sure hope you do too.

Painting # 61 Was a good day today

It was may day to work at the gallery today, not many came in, kind of slow, so I got a lot done, probably a good thing since we are going to be gone all day tomorrow, family stuff over by Toledo, so it was a good thing I got tomorrow's done today, I know I won't have much chance to paint tomorrow. Now, the question is, do I give them both to you today, or do I make you wait? I think I'll make you wait, it just seems that i should do the blog tomorrow. When I did 2 at once a few weeks ago, it was because we didn't have electricity and I wasn't sure when I would get it back again, but this time I just think I'll wait.

This painting was actually the 2nd painting I started, I decided to start this one while I was waiting for the other one to dry, but, I got so wrapped up in it, that I just had to finish it first, love this one, had a lot of fun doing it.

I started with a little swipe of sky, you probably don't see much of it, it's where the yellow trees are in the back, I then painted the trees green and then moved on to the rocks, I used that light gray and purple again, I really do like that color for the rocks, then I floated in a thin wash of a golden color where the water fall (or gorge) is, then I started to fine tune the trees, after that I worked the rocks on the right side and then the rock on the left side, once that was done, I finished the tree area in the back by putting in the tree trunks. When the tree area was done, I then decided to finish the falls, I put in a bit darker of the yellow in spots and some thin areas of a very light gray/blue, after that was dry, I dove into the white, and I really applied it thickly.

I'm thinking that I will have to tackle this painting again, much bigger of course, and transparently. Then, maybe I'll do it in oil, who knows, then there is always pastel, and acrylic, wow, I could have a whole bunch of them, well, we'll see. I really do like this painting and I hope you do to.

Painting #60, I'm getting there, one day at a time, lol

Yesterday I told you that today's painting is the other half of that painting, I did manage to pull it off and I think it looks great, I wasn't sure as it is mostly falls and I had to invent some of it because my photo didn't have the really close foreground in it, I wanted it to match the other painting exactly so the part that I didn't have was just (what I call) fudged. I have painted a lot of water and waterfalls lately so I think I got that under my belt, and it does match.

I'm going to give you the regular rundown, I started with the trees (no sky) and sketched in the rocks (with a brush, no pencils on this one) and painted the grayed down blue where the water and falls were, at the very end I painted the white in making the brush move like the water does over the rocks, the rocks are a blue with brown and purple added then white, I really liked the color they came out, a perfect rock color. this painting went pretty fast as it is almost the same as yesterdays and I'm feeling the looseness of these little waterfall paintings, I like this one and if you slide them side by side,they look like one long skinny painting, pretty cool. Hope you like it too.

59 and counting, Ha!

Well, today I started 3, I only finished one though, I'm planning on the one for tomorrow, since it is really the other half of this one. I have a program that will put the pictures you take and overlap them, I always end up taking 20 or 30 shots of the same place, close up, far away and then I stand in one spot and just move my body in a circle and just click pictures and overlap them, so it is a great program. For a long time, I taped the photo's together, but this program makes it so much easier.

This photo was taken somewhere between Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, I've taken so many photo's of so many rivers, falls, and rocks, that I have lost track of where most of them were.

Anyway, this landscape is done, again, with the opaques, I've become addicted to painting with these paints, and I'm having a difficulty painting with the transparent watercolors now, I'm thinking I'd better stop, oh my! I mixed the sky blue with an American Journey color called coastal fog, then a bit of purple, when I got that mixed, I added white until it was light enough, then i jumped in with the greens and yellows to make the tree line, I really like the bridge, I just laid it in with a light gray and moved on, once I got all the rocks in and the greens on the sides in I put the water in with the grayed down blue, a bit grayer than the sky. Now, I start fine tuning, I worked up the trees and then moved on to the bridge, I like that fine line that defines the top line of the bridge. Now, the rockes, wow, are there a lot of rocks, then the white of the water, that is really what defines this is the rushing water, this one is pretty and I like it, hope you do to, then on to tomorrows, hope I can pull that off, we'll see.

Blog and painting #58

This painting is a bit of a combination of a photo (black and white) and my memory of this place, the building on the right is just from my memory, this is Hillsdale Arboretum, in this particular place, the buildings are on hills or up on a rise, but with these small paintings I couldn't portray that, so, I used my artistic license and moved it where I wanted it, so, if you go to this place, you will see that the building is really up and not on this level, oh well, I just thought it needed this small feature, even though it is just a small slice of the total building (which is really round), I decided to attempt to put it in. I'm trying to get better about not putting in so much detail, so this is my attempt at it. One of the reasons I picked this photo is because of the light, in this painting, I used green and purple as the dominant colors, I'm thinking strongly of doing this painting again using a yellow sky and working with my transparent watercolors, obviously, this painting is done with opaques, so I really am looking forward to attempting this one with the transparents, we'll see if that happens, so you may see this composition again, just FYI.

I started out with a very light green and very light violet (or purple), of course these are opaques (and I really mean gouache), then I put in the middle light green for the bushes and I decided that the light that I saw in the middle looked like a weeping cherry, well, on a second look, I think it really was just the light hitting the lower branches of the pine trees in the far background, but, I think it needs that pink to counteract the green, so I left it. Then, I jumped in with some darks for the bushes and the tree on the far left then decided to put purple for the shadows, into that I put light on top of the dark, just like in oil painting. I laid the grass shadow color on top of the purple in the foreground I made grass shapes to indicate that they are really grass in the shade. I think this little painting works, and I like it, so hope you do too.

57th painting, got to keep going, hard some days

Today's painting went really well, it just seemed I picked the right picture to paint, I can't help but wish they all went this quickly, I really need to take less time to paint these than I have been lately, I struggled with the last 3 paintings, and I think this is because I spend too much time trying to get all that detail, I'm not sure how that's going to work, since I don't like the painting if I don't get into the detail, sort of a conundrum. I really do like the detail, well, really it's not the detail, but it looks like the detail, that was one of the things I loved about pastel, I could really fudge the detail, but I'm not as comfortable with the pastels of late, I do want to get back to it, and I will, but not just now, so, on with the painting.

This painting went pretty well right from the start, the sky was first, I mixed some violet with some gray and white, and painted the whole sky, then I added the blue and it was a bit streaked, so I decided to mist the sky area, I then shifted it around until it was really nice and smooth and let it dry. Then I laid in the water, it was really blue, but I decided that it was too tropical looking so I put some green in the blue at the horizon, as it moved forward I added more blue, then, on to the cliffs and the trees, last but not least I jambed in the cliff reflection and the foreground rocks and let that all dry. Than I just kept adding detail to the water, the trees and the rocks, the foreground rocks were the most fun, I painted the purple shadow area then jumped in with a light gray and made some undulations with that gray and once that was dry I put some shadows back in, then the I spattered the rocks in the foreground, last but not least, I added some white foam by the cliffs and out in the water, oh yes, there were people standing on the shoals so I put them in, I thought they made a good focal point. I really do like this little painting, hope you do too.

56th painting day, something new

I talked yesterday about working in other mediums, I decided to finish Grandma and Aunt Gladys with acrylics, I had started them with gouache, there were no real problems doing that, the only problem I see is the acrylic is shiny (kind of like oils), so it was a little difficult to photograph, I took more photo's of this painting than all the others, trying different things to avoid the bits of gloss that might show in spots, you will just have to understand, and ignore it.

The other trouble I had with painting with the acrylics is they dry so fast, I don't know if the liquid acrylics dry faster than the regular, they probably do, but since I was using the Golden liquid acrylics I only put out drops of it at a time, so I didn't waste much, you just have to remember not to put out more colors than you can use before it gets to dry. I did enjoy painting with them. I may have to investigate getting a retarder to keep them from drying out, this is my first experience with the liquids, I have lots of heavy body acrylics (back in the day, they were just acrylics, now there are so many kinds), and of course, if you know me, I have a tendency to want them all (and usually get it).

This painting is of my Grandmother (before she was even a mother), and her sister Gladys, her sister died at age 15 of diabetes, they didn't have the insulin back then. Anyway, as I said, I was painting this with the opaques but decided to change to acrylics I believe the coverage is better with the acrylics, that was part of the reason I switched. I painted the background wet in wet with the opaques, then onceI had the whole thing laid in with the local colors, I let it dry. I couldn't get enthusiastic about it, so it just sat for a couple of days, I then painted the background with the acrylics, first with the greens, then just kept putting layers and layers on, this was a black and white photo so I could make things what ever color I wanted, the dresses were so light, I am not sure if they were really white, but, I'm thinking this is their Sunday Best, so white it was. I may do this painting a bit larger at a later date, but I cut this one off, the photo acually showed their feet (with shoes, Mary Janes!), I like this painting, I worked very hard on this one trying to get the likeness, why, you may ask, since no one is around to tell me it doesn't look like them (well, it does really). I hope you enjoy this painting, may be a while before I do another painting with people, takes a long time, since I won't leave it alone until it looks like them, oh well.

Day 55 and the 55th painting

This painting is done in pastel, I am going to be working with several mediums (mostly cause I can, but I used to strictly paint with pastels, lately, I've been painting watercolors exclusively), I have been working with acryloics the last couple of weeks (the workshop), and I will be working with them on my blog paintings, I'm scheduled to take a workshop in oils in May so, I'll be doing some blog paintings in oil, why not, right?

I'm so adjusted to the watercolor, and working with the clayboard, I can get so much more detail with these small paintings with that medium. Now that I have tried the pastel, I see that I will have to evaluate my choice of mediums for this project, I may not do this complicated of a piece in the pastels, especially when they are only 6-1/2 or 7", with the pastel sticks I found that it was a bit difficult to fine tune this one, but, this is the painting for the day.

There are multiple layers of pastel on this, I over lapped several colors to attempt making color variations, I started this out by giving my Waterford paper, which is pretty smooth, a coat of Ampersand pastel ground, I did this several days ago so it would be ready. Then I drew the building and after that I did an under-painting in watercolor, once that was dry I started application of the pastels, I started in the background and worked my way forward. I see several things that I would do differently, possibly re-doing this in watercolor, that may be an option, I will continue to try to find something that the pastels will work with, I hope you like this painting, I did this painting in oils a couple years ago and sold it, I think I may do it again.

Painting #54, we're getting there

I am trying to get this blog done, somehow, I just deleted everything that I typed so now I have to do it all over again. I procrastinated today getting my painting done, didn't get to it until 8:50, and took me until 12:00 to finish it. Should have gotten to it sooner but it is my birthday, after all. Technically, that's shouldn't be an excuse, but it's my day and that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I didn't feel like painting on the previous painting I had started, I am not sure when I will feel like getting to that one, so Grandma and Aunt Gladys are on the back burner for the time being.

This painting is of the Litchfield Grain Mill, Litchfield MI, I have painted the front of this building (or I should say part of this building and I have a couple of others in progress), I liked all the junk and the textures here, and the part of the building where the trucks get the grain loaded was just a dark hole, so I zoomed up on it in an other photo and used that for the detail. The Roof with all the windows was quite a challenge, I do like the Victorian look of this building and it is one of the most unusual Mills in the State of Michigan, at least the most unique one that I've seen. I love the rear view of this building where you see all the working junk sitting around, so I decided to do this view today.

I started with the sky, wet in wet and when I got a good look at the effect, I decided I had waited too long, or, that I had added the white for the clouds too late, and it looked too hard edged, so, I got the fine mist spray bottle out and misted the sky. Once the sky was set, then I laid in the shapes of the building and started laying in flat washes for the different colors I saw. Once I got the first washes all over the whole painting. Then I started fine tuning areas, I wasn't sure that I wanted to put all the detail in, but it was too flat for my taste, so I started to lay in the small details like the windows and the clapboards, and it progressed from there, just layer by layer, I like this little painting and sure hope you do too.

53 days in a row, 53 paintings

Spent the evening at Tibbits tonight, saw Three Men and A Tenor, very funny, loved it.

I had my painting done earlier but didn't have time to get this blog finished before we had to leave, so here it is, almost bed time again, seems to be the way it is, I had intended to finish a small painting I started of my Grandmother and her sister but it isn't going as well as I like so I decided to start a small painting of this barn, I've painted this barn a couple of times, but never with this much background around it, so this is a bit different, I liked the way the sun was hitting the field in the background, and the shadowed area in the foreground, so seemed like a good project. I started with the sky, of course,then painted the far field in the sunlight, then the barn, I consider the mass of weeds and fence as part of the barn, then the hill behind it and, last but not least, the foreground with the mailboxs. I especially like the drive way, I painted the sky area twice, I felt the sky was too bright so I smoothed it down and repainted it. It progressed quickly and sometimes that's good, since the whole composition is small the detail in this one is minimal. I enjoyed painting it and I sincerely hope you enjoy it too.

52 days, 52 paintings (well, maybe a couple more)

Here it is, late at night again, I'm hoping I can get this done tomorrow before time for bed, maybe I'll be a little fresher, I can hope.

The painting this time is a close up of a barn, looking through a door through to the other side, the other side doesn't have much going on but it does draw you in. the stuff in the barn is also kind of interesting, I do love to paint junk, so this was a fun one for me. I started by painting a beige/gray color for the barn siding, then I laid in the concrete blocks, I really didn't do much with these, there really wasn't much to paint, I really focused on the light through the barn, I tried to make sure that some of the stuff in the barn is readable so you would be drawn in, the tree on the right side helps. The total time I have invested in this painting was about 2 hours, I put the finishing touches on it after I got home from class.

I like this composition and have been wanting to paint it for some time, this place is someplace in Illinois, we went to visit friends, and they took us around so I could take pictures for my artistic reference. I'm really grateful that I am getting the paintings done, I've totally enjoyed several of them and I am certainly looking forward to painting several more (300 plus). It will be nice to get beyond the 300 paintings left to do, it will seem closer, I think, anyway, I enjoyed this painting and I sure hope you do to. Of course it was done with the opaques, again.

painting #51, ah, what a day, painted 2

Was a good day, I'm still tired though, still not settled with this time change yet, but I finished my blog painting before I left to go hang the "Going Green" show at the Tibbits Gallery (for the Arts Alive group - we are part of, or associated with the Tibbits Opera House), and the Blue Moon Group is responsible for hanging those shows, we try to keep the theme of the shows to coincide with some events that are happening at the Tibbits Opera House, this time it's "Going Green". After we set that up and helped Nicole Steel with getting her set up for the Festival this weekend at the Tibbits in the lower level, we went to Susan Miller's and painted, we try to do something together as a group every couple weeks and this time we decided to do the fish workshop that I taught last weekend, it was fun, so now I have 2 fish paintings, this one is different than the other but similar, this was done with acrylics on gesso board.

Now, on with the blog painting, I worked on the clayboard again today, and I decided to go with a pink sky this time, I almost have all the sky colors used up, now then, I will think what I can paint with a green sky, won't that be interesting?
I wanted to go a little more abstract with my landscape this time, some of the landscapes have gotten so complicated that it takes a long time to get them done, so I thought that I would go with a photo that wasn't very good, I took the photo with my camera phone, not a great choice to take pictures with, at least not this camera phone, any way, I couldn't use my regular camera since the battery was dead, this was done in late spring, the purple are swamp flags, they really looked pretty, but the photo didn't come through with much color, so I did some of this from my memory, since this was such a simple landscape I was able to get it done in just a couple hours, so I'm feeling good about this, the darker stuff at the bottom is a wild grapevine that was just a tangle of weeds and I think it works pretty well, so, hope you like this painting, I do.

Painting #50, hanging in there

I still haven't recovered from the time change, I'm hoping that starts to settle down soon, have to get back in the groove, starting to feel a bit stressed, can't seem to get in the groove, maybe tomorrow will be better, still not getting these paintings done until it's way too late, still have lots of things on the agenda, and it seems like there are never enough hours in the day, ok, now that is out of the way, on with the painting.

This picture is a compilation of 4 different photos of the same bunch of cows, they were moving all over and I guess that's normal, not being a farm girl, born and raised in the city, plus the fact that I'm allergic, I do like cows though, they are very cute, if you can call a cow cute.

I moved stuff around and moved cows and moved the little stream, just no telling what I'll do when it comes to that. This is done in opaques again, I spent most of the watercolor class getting the background trees and the far bank adjusted to my liking, then when I got home I painted cows, the foreground was really easy, I spattered, I scrubbed the grass, and that was pretty much it. I'm cutting this one short to get on to bed again, it's the witching hour again, wish I'd quit doing that. I hope you like this one too, I do.

painting # 49, it feels good today.

I had a very busy day, wasn't going to get one done, spent my day running around to Doctor's offices and when I got home, vegged a little, then went over to the studio, had to cut a mat for one of my students, so, a cleaning operation entailed.

When I got home Saturday from the workshop, I just took all that stuff, and I do mean stuff, and just shoved it in the door and went home and collapsed. So, in order to get to the mat cutter, I had to put all that stuff away, well, then I had to cut mats, so while I had the mat cutter out, I decided I had to cut some of the 10" x 10" mats for the blog paintings, I didn't get to the house until 9:30 p.m., my sweet husband cooked and I didn't have to, but I always get so exhausted cutting mats that I just wasn't sure if I could paint, well, luckily, I had this one about 3/4 done and decided to use that one so I could at least get to bed in a moderately timely fashion, 12:30, for me, that's almost early. Well, I have to teach tomorrow so thought I'd better do something.

I originally started this as a demonstration for one of the girls in class and I didn't have a photo, so this finish is out of my head, not as fine as from a photo, but not too bad, it was started wet in wet and transparently, today I had the opaque palette out (of course), so I continued it with the opaques, you can see that, I believe. Anyway, I just fine tuned what was already down, and I cropped it to fit the 6-1/2" format, is that a cheat? Well, even if it is, at least I have a painting to prove I painted, so I count it. Hopefully I'll be in better form tomorrow. Have a good night, I'm on the way to the bed.

48 days , I'm happy to paint

I painted today, a little here and a little there, finally got really into it about 8:00 p.m., I'm doing ok, but still a bit tired, of course, it could be this stupid time change, it usually takes me 3 or 4 weeks to adjust, I tend to stay up too late (my internal time clock), of course my husband doesn't believe in going to bed until at least 12:00 a.m., I don't know how he can do it, he never gets more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep, I can't do that, I'm needing at least 6-1/2 to 7 hours every night, I can manage 6-1/2 for a few days but it really starts getting to me, it's a good thing I don't have to get up earlier than 8:00, enough of that.

This painting started wet in wet, it doesn't have sky so it's green, yellow and orange with purple, I love the purple with the greens, yellows and orange, of course, if you add purple to yellow or orange, you get browns, purpley browns, but browns, just what I needed. the water was laid in with a grayed down blue to start, I then started working up the foliage on the trees, darker layers and some lighter for the highlights on the leaves, I put the tree trunks in with a very pale blue gray and then added the birch effect, dragging my brush sideways to get the texture and color. I really did the waterfall before I got too far with all the over-lapping brush along the sides, I see the water as farther away than the brush, since the brush has to go on top of the water, so, all except the very foreground water was done before I fine tuned the foliage and branches. I have really enjoyed painting these little waterfalls, this one happens to be along the north shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, such a beautiful trip. It had been raining off and on for 2 days then on the way out (we went all the way up the the Canada and Minnesota Grand Portage, and hiked in to Devils hole). It started to sunshine on and off, this was perfect lighting. Now, the opaque white really comes in handy when making the foam and rushing water, love it, hope you do too.

47th day, 47 paintings plus a workshop, WOW!

It was a really good day, as you know, I've been preparing for this workshop for several weeks, well, today was the day, we had 17 in attendance, it was really great, great friends, my friend Susan Miller helped me out, might have been a bit much if she hadn't helped me, plus my daughter Sandra helped me set up and clean up, and my other friend Susan LaFountain helped by running home to get the vacuum to clean up the floors, so, it was a really good workshop, everyone I asked said they had fun, and that's the important thing, I had fun, and we got some really nice paintings, you saw my painting yesterday and so you know it was painting fish, everyone's painting was different, some glitzy (I had almost everything you could imagine to glue and past on and plus, lots of paint), and some just had paint, all in all, it was a good workshop, thanks to the City of Coldwater for applying for the grant, and Nicole Steele for getting it off the ground. Here are a couple pictures of the day.

Ok, now the blog painting, I was really tired today when I got home, this painting may fall short in the detail, I confess that I looked for something that was a simple composition so it would go fast, sometimes that is just what you have to do, time being a factor, since I didn't get to paint until I got home and I was a bit whipped, so you will have to forgive me for taking the easy way out this one time, I promise I will do better tomorrow, I did go through the photo's and picked out several that will be very nice, I did start one other, so I do have a head start, and I will be able to get at it in the morning so I'll be fresh and hopefully able to paint, I painted today's painting on the clayboard, you can probably tell, and it's with the opaques, the sky seemed to be gray (cloudy) so I ramped it up with the purple, then the row of barns, the road I decided to change, it was a driveway and the actual road was not in the picture, so I changed it so that it made a zigzag up the painting to the row of barns, the red barn is really kind of purple, the barns were all in shadow, the foreground field was done with a brush that has three brushes in one, I just wasn't sure how else I wanted to do it, sometimes my brain gets tired and won't let me think, so that's why I used it, I spattered, you can tell that too since it got yellow dots all over the place, I tried to soften some but you can still see them, oh well, anyway, I think this is as good as it gets today, hope you enjoy it. I'm looking forward to just doing the daily painting tomorrow, so much to think about lately, I'm just going to take it easy for a bit.

46 days of painting, this one was tough

I worked on this painting off and on for 4 days, it shouldn't have taken me so long, I guess the trouble is like most things (cleaning house for one), if you look at the big picture, it's a bit intimidating. I saw all this stuff and had a really tough time nailing it down to just a portion, I believe it was complicated and, thus, didn't want to work on it, it really took a long time for it to come together for me, I am fairly happy with the way it turned out, so I guess it was worth it.

I also believe that the other thing that I have on my agenda was weighing me down and I really had a hard time concentrating on the blog painting. I am doing this workshop tomorrow (Sat. March 12 in Coldwater), I have also been dragging my feet with that one, I am the worlds worst (or best, which ever), at procrastination, I always put it off until the last minute. Once I really jump in it usually takes me along and I do fine, but getting my head in the right direction, sometimes takes quite a bit, this is one of the reasons that I decided to do this blog, to get me into better habits, whether it does that will be a tell at the end of the year and see if I can maintain the painting every day after the year is done.

Ok, the first painting I'm going to show you is the painting I worked on for the workshop, this workshop is to introduce most novice artists (or non artists)to art, to show them what you can do with a few paints and what ever, and make a painting, and hopefully feel good about it and possibly do some other art stuff, this painting is an acrylic, done in a unique way, hardly any actual painting. The fish are stamped on a background color and the only painting part is some of the colors applied over the fish and then some detail on the scales and the eyes, I think it's very interesting. Here it is, tomorrow I will work on another one, to show them how I did it.

Ok, now on to the blog painting, this scene is very complicated, as you can see, I think one of the problems with it is there is really no actual light direction, the sun was out but this is a very dense area and in order to get this photo I had to pray that there was enough light to get it, I have several others that the light wasn't so good. This is the Fumee Creek site again, you've seen a couple of them, I know of one for sure (not looking at my paintings I have lost track), imagine how that will be in a few months, my watercolor society wants me to do a talk and demo the blog, that will be interesting, anyway, the background is so dark, I really had a time getting it to look like it wasn't a hole, I think I pulled that off, the leaves were all over, if you didn't know, that is what all the orange stuff laying on the ground and rocks is. Then, I put in trees and the rock shapes, I put light blue where the water was, even though it wasn't blue, I had to have something so I could lighten it up later (I'm using those opaques again), I just kept working the rocks, that was the longest process, as you can see, there are a lot. I put the falls in at the very end, and then the foreground water, it was hard to see where the actual water was, there were many more rocks than I put in the painting, I made the water much flatter than it really was, so it would look like a small pond at the bottom of the falls, there really wasn't a pond, it was all rocks. This particular site has about 4 or 5 falls, we climbed and climbed, and that was fun, I am now enjoying this painting, mostly because it finally done, whew! Hope you enjoy it too.

Painting #45, 320 to go, hope I can keep this up

I think I can, I think I can, I hope I can, I know I can, just need to limit what else I do, I don't want to fail at this, have big plans for these 365 paintings, so I must start thinking about what I can manage and what I can't. Ok, now that that's out of the way, I need to get on with this blog, I'm getting stressed because I'm not sleeping well, I'm very tired and need a down time, I'm hoping things get done tomorrow and I can relax enough to get some sleep, got a lot of stuff to accomplish tomorrow before the big workshop on Saturday, I'm praying I can remember to pack everything (there is so much).

Well, this isn't the painting I've been working on for 3 days (well, I had it started at the same time but this isn't the one that I need to finish, that will have to be tomorrows'), anyway, I started this one with the yellow sky and did the underpainting very transparently, but the yellow didn't work for me, I decided that the yellow sky was becoming "old hat", so to speak, and decided to do an orange one, well, still not sure, but I think this one is done, at least it's as done as I can manage just now, I like the trees and mostly it works, I think I need to play with color schemes a lot more, and that would be a good thing, I like it that I didn't just do the colors in the photo (what I usually do), now I need to start morphing things so that I get away from the photograph more, I know by the time I get the 365 I will have managed that, if I don't, then this blog will have been a partial failure, but I'm sure that won't happen as I'm already pushing, the orange and yellow sky's prove that.

This painting is fairly simple, one I've done before and will probably do again, I am loving these opaques and there is the difference with that, I've signed up for a workshop in oil painting so you will probably see some oils, and I have ordered so many art supplies lately that I found some pastel ground that I'm anxious to try, so you will probably see some pastels too, so there is lots ahead and I'm anxious to try this, anyway, on with this, the sky first and then the tree line in the far background, then I put in the tree shapes and then the creek, the shadows were blocked in and I let it dry (for 3 days, lol), I worked on this today in class for a bit but didn't get too far, busy day today, so I came home and finished it this evening, just a bunch of branches to put in and I didn't care for the foreground so I changed that, then at the last minute I wet the foreground and dropped in some opaque white, here and there, so, it's finished, hope you like it.

44th painting, still lots to do

Meant to finish the other one but didn't make it, got interested in painting one of those 4" clayboard paintings, so, this one isn't my favorite but it's ok, I've painting this scene in pastel many years ago, such a sad thing, just before Christmas this building burnt down, and the poor man that owned it died in the fire trying to save it.

Now then, on the to blog painting, this painting was started with the girls in Sturgis, they all like me to pick a picture and then they work on the same while I demonstrate step by step, they didn't get theirs done, well, neither did I, but I came home and finished it, only had about an hour more to finish it, the painting I was working on this morning has way lots more than an hour to paint, so it's will get done the next day or Friday, I'm pretty tired and am going to publish this and head to bed. The painting was started wet in wet, I dropped in a pale wash of yellow on the forward bud and then dropped cadmium red light on the other flower shapes making sure not to paint in the center part, after it was dry, I then dropped in the purple wet in wet, I wet the area larger than the center part and then dropped a grayed down violet in the center, careful not to paint clear to the edge of the water, this ensures that the purple will find it's own edge and not make a hard edge where I wanted a soft edge. after that I started laying a soft medium green for the background, doing just one corner at a time, wet in wet. after that was dry, I then defined part of the light yellow bud and started to inlay some cadmium red light so it didn't look like a yellow flower in with the red ones. I darkened the purple in the centers and started to pull up the detail in the centers, this helps to define the flower and then I get excited, the rest of the painting is then to paint negative shapes in the green area to indicate the massive amount of grasses and leaves, then the crinkly lines for the flowers and it was done, I like this little painting, I started with the transparent watercolors and then when I got home switched to the opaques, works for me, hope you enjoy this one.

Painting #43, lots to do, and such a stack of photo's!

Here we go, this isn't the original painting I intended to do, been working on a different one now for a couple of days, it's a bit complicated and with my workshop looming on the immediate coming up weekend, I've been dragging my feet with this one, I'm going to try to finish it tonight so I will be ahead of the game again, I have to teach tomorrow and I'd like not to have to paint the blog painting during class, I'm sure the students would like me to be more connected to them too.

This painting is just one of a whole stack of photo's I have dragged out of the photo box, I'm so excited to finally be painting some of them that I just want to jump in and paint them all now, but, there is plenty of time to get to that, so, I thought this was a nice selection for this day, I painted most of it in class today, and just now finished it up, I really do want to finish the other one, so when I'm done here I'm going to see if I can't get it done, I probably should be over at my studio getting ready for this workshop, I need to paint fish for that and I have to have a painting done for that so they can see what it could look like, I have 3 started but need to get after it tomorrow, big time, so if I have the painting done, I can get it blogged and posted right away in the morning and be over at the studio getting this stuff ready, wish me luck.

Ok, here we go, this painting is on the clayboard, I really like it because it is so smooth, but on the other hand, because it is so smooth, it really doesn't blend well, but, the snow scene seems to work, I love painting the snow, and even though this one is similar coloring to the one a did a few weeks ago, it really isn't the same place. there is no sky in this one, so I just jumped in with the violet/brown color and made the background trees, then I shaped the bank with the orange bushes and the blue for the shadows, the creek was Just a small strip of water but I could see the reflections of the snow on on it, I tried to give that effect, it seems to look like the reflections, then I just worked around, making the tree and bush shapes and the sticks that are coming out of the snow, I like the way this one looks, hope you do too.

42nd painting, still working at it, that was my aim

I'm really proud of myself for sticking to this blog painting thing I'm doing, I've been painting everyday, some days I get more than 1 but most times I just get the one, even then, I'm still painting everyday, and that's a good thing, I'm very happy with that.

Today's painting is from a group of photo's I took when my friend Carol and I went to Kings Mill in Leonidas, MI, a really great day, and I'm sure I'll be painting more from that group, at some point.

It is a basic green and gold painting with lots of darks for the foreground water and fence, the foliage was really dark and I liked the shape of it so it stays dark to emphasize the back lighting, I painted this on the clayboard and enjoyed the simplicity of the composition, I painted this scene once before and my daughter bought it for a gift for her boss, so it is hanging at Doctor Berry's office (I think, I haven't been there lately to see it, oops). So, I laid in the basic shapes of the trees starting in the background and coming forward with yellow green (I did lay a light value of violet behind, then decided to paint it green), the tree trunks were a gray with some brown mixed in and the dark green was laid in with a middle value of green then jumped it up at a later time. the water is brown and gold where the light hits it and purple and brown where it was dark, the foreground was just a bit of grass and some of it overlapped so I like the overlap and that joined the very close foreground with the farther side of the bank and thus to the background. I really like this one and hope you do to.

Number 41, all play and no work, makes me happy

Well, here we are today, it's Sunday, sorry to say that my painting today isn't done (I did paint on it though), but, I did one extra yesterday just in case I didn't finish the one I had started for this day, this painting is a bit off my regular path, I played on my computer with my Corel Photo Paint with a photo of my Dad, this isn't really my usual but I wanted to play with the abstracted color in this photo, I think it really jumps, I would have liked to get that extra glow that the bright green was, but I just couldn't do it with my opaques, it isn't bad though. I drew the basic face shape and put the mouth and eyes in the proper place, and then jumped in with the paint, I tried not to get too detailed (obviously, I was limited with the detail, as the photo was a blow up of a smaller picture), the green is veridian with white added and the red is cadmium red (these are the opaques), the dark red brown is a color I'm unsure of, but it was perfect for this application (I'm thinking it's an American Journey color but haven't got that tube right here to check). I like this painting, even though my Dad would surely think it's weird (as he says all artists are a bit cracked, and I'm sure that was for my benefit), I'm waiting to see what my Daughter says, hope you like it too.

Painting #40, got a lot done today

Good day to you, I'm working very hard, painted all day, actually worked on 5 paintings today but only got 3 of them done, the first two don't trip my trigger yet, I even worked on the one for about 2 hours, felt like I was butting my head up against a wall, so put it aside, I pulled out one of the 4" clayboards and decided to do just a fun one and I really got into it, now I have painted those little 4" paintings and I haven't been counting them as my blog painting, I'm beginning to feel differently about them now, I think this one could be counted as a blog painting, so, I'm considering it, I've been thinking that the 4" ones don't fit in with the 6" to 7-1/2" paintings that I've been doing but those 7-1/2" paintings don't actually fit either, but, I am framing (or I should say matting) them to 10", so if that's the case and the 4" ones are framed to 10" also, why not, that is the question, why don't you let me know what you think, ok? Here is one I forgot to show you a couple days ago.

And here is the one that I painted today, it's really cute, don't you think?

Now, on with today's blog painting, flowers, this is the geranium painting that I originally started, remember yesterday I said I found a picture and then I did the 4" one, well here is the finished 6-1/2" painting, this one is actually a watercolor/collage, I had started it in straight watercolor and then as a second thought decided to collage it, then I just didn't get into it, and it sat in my bag waiting for over a month, I had to finish it sometime and so here it is, the collage paintings usually start out with just watercolor, then I collage the oriental papers on top of that, when that is dry, I jump in with the flower color and then start adding the greens, you have to keep it fairly light when you first start, then I just keep getting darker, here I did use some opaques on the highlights, it's ok, but I like the one with the sheep better, so, here it is, hope you like it.

Day 39, got a few more today

Well, today I had planned on painting another landscape, oops, guess that will be for tomorrow or Sunday, which ever it is, today is a floral day, I found a photo reference of geraniums, I started a geranium painting a while ago and then decided to collage it, and then it just sat, no enthusiasm, well, I decided to get started with a 4" geranium on the clayboard, as you know, the clayboard is a totally different kind of support and I decided right away to just go with the flow, I didn't try to get a lot of detail, first off, the detail is hard to see, have you ever tried to see detail in red (or yellow for that matter)? Well, the camera takes the shot and the red all seems to flow together, so I decided to just go with that, I like this little painting, I've been getting these 4" paintings all matted and framed, they sure look nice in the frame. So, here is the 4" painting.

Ok, now you remember a few days ago that I did a yellow hibiscus on that clayboard, and I also remember telling you that I wasn't totally happy with the way the paint moved on that one and suggested that I might try it on regular cold pressed Arches, so I did, I really think this one turned out a bit better, I do like wet-in-wet, I started this one that way, then once the paint was dry I started to put the detail on the petals, wet-in-wet, one petal at a time, then when that was dry, I decided that I needed to get the dark going in the background and punched that in, then once that was dry, I went in and put the finer lines in the petals and fine tuned the center, I basically put the stamen in with opaques, I forgot to put the masking fluid on to save the lights (and I do love those opaques anyway), so there you have it, I know it's the same design as the other one, but those are the breaks, I don't do that too often, so you can forgive me this one time. Hope you enjoy this one, I do.

38th painting, what a day!

I'm back to work, taught today, I got this one started but didn't get it completely done, took an hour, just finished it, the paint is barely dry, whew! This photo reference was taken in January about 3 years ago, it wasn't as hard a winter as this one has been, we here in Michigan are really getting tired of the snow, ice and cold, and it sure seems like it should be spring, March, should start to warm up soon, sure do hope so, even though I do love to paint the snow.

This painting was all cool and dark brown except for the little building in the back, the only warm touch there was, so the class helped me decide on the color of the sky, I'm tired of the usual mauve or blue and decided to go with the yellow, I think it looks good, so yellow it is, I painted the sky first, of course, and then decided that the warmth should carry over to the background trees, so kept that warmth going, then the little splash of orange for the building and then the cool colors for the snow, I could have thrown in the yellow accents on the snow too, but thought that may be pushing it too much so decided to just go with the white and cool, of course this is done with those opaques again, can't give them up yet. The trees are a redish brown color (can't think of the name just now), then I jumped into the dark area behind the snow fence, I used a mixture of blue and brown and made some shadow area and then added some tangled brush, then I put the larger branches in and put some snow on them then when that was done, I put the snow fence in front of it, I'm pretty sure that was the only way I could pull it off, I think the foreground makes this, I laid in the shadows with the mauve/blue/white and then added white splashes for the sunlight spots, then the weeds, I really like this one, and think it's quite successful, hope you like it too.

Painting 37, been a short long day

I worked on this painting off and on all day, I originally started it a couple days ago, and in the interim have painted 3 others, so decided it was time to finish this one, this is on the clayboard, I'm thinking that is what slowed me down with it, since I've been having trouble getting gradations (soft edges) with this support, I like it because it is so smooth, when you want very fine detail, it's great, well, this one has such large rocks it really gave me a time trying to figure out how I was going to approach it, as you can see, it did all work out. I'm very happy with this painting, it was fun to get the finishing touches on (my favorite part), and once I got painting, it went really well, this location is in North Carolina, this was an amazing place and I'd go again, in a heart beat.

I laid in a wash of light beige and brown with some gray (I also added some purple too) in it for the rocks, the water is prussian blue with some dark brown thrown in and a bit of black, in some areas, I pretty much left the white with out paint at first. The second layer was to start at the top with the far away water and rocks and move forward, as I got to the large rocks at the top, I laid in some darker brown and worked back and forth with the grayish color and the brownish color until I got a rock shape that suited me, I then worked on the large group of rocks (or boulders) in the middle, doing the same, back and forth with the grayish and brownish colors, darkening the shapes where it was needed, the water was put in with the bluish mixture and I made wave actions in the foreground water, then the figues on the large rock in the middle, last was putting the white in to look like the water was splashing and running over the rocks, I really do like this painting, hope you do to.

Painting 36, only 329 to go, Yes!

Well, I must be feeling better, I made it to work today, and painted, and taught, hopefully, my students feel that way too, I am really looking forward to getting up in the morning and feeling like a human being, a week and a half of feeling cruddy is long enough. I know this painting is a different kind of composition, if you look at a couple of the others and see them together, you will see that the pictures I took overlap, I think the composition is ok, the other two are a bit better, the focal point is more prominent, but I see the light behind the trees and the foreground puddle (that dark hole in the foreground) with the dead pine needles is pretty good, it took me longer to paint this one than the other two, of course one of the reasons is that I painted on that paper (the one I thought was Arches cover, well, seems I was wrong, it's Waterford, I'm not sure if it's print making paper or watercolor paper, don't remember ordering Waterford for watercolor so I'm thinking it's print making paper), it's really smooth and doesn't warp much, and it's torn in a much larger size than the 6-1/2" square ones I ripped from the mural paper, they are about 7-1/2 inches, which takes a bit longer to paint, and I had to re-figure the matting project, they take a narrower mat in order to get the whole painting in, oh well. I'm still painting with the opaques, I've even taken them to class, they may find their way into my regular palette, I've been keeping these paints pretty wet, they haven't had much time to dry out. I painted in the sky (the golden color) and then charged in with the green for the pines, then I laid in the gray rock color and started defining the layers of rock. The trees were defined before I got much farther, I laid in some lighter green and some darker green and then jumped in with the dark and light colors for the trunks (some light and some dark), and painted around the light areas, I got that about as done as it is and then started laying in the rocks at the top, I put the golden color in for the pine needles and then kept fine tuning the rock ledges for shape and shadow, the puddle (there are really two, can you find it), and at the very end, I put in the actual pine needles in the foreground (in the background they are just color), but in the foreground they are actual lines to indicate pine needles, I like this one and sure hope you like it too. Got to get some z's, so better make this short.