Painting #341 - Dec 31 - Where did the day go, now it's tomorrow

Got a late start on this, again, wish I could change my habits, I've tried, goes good for a few days and then I'm right back to the old way.

Today was another knitting day, now I really have my work cut out for me, my sister just gave me a bunch of yarn, do I get to keep it? No, I get to knit it, she doesn't knit, and she wants scarf's. She crochet's but that fun fur, or eyelash yarn, just doesn't crochet very well, it's so hard to see the stitch with all that fuzzy stuff hanging out. I don't mind doing it, but I also acquired a pair of socks to knit, of course I have a few days more to get those done, first I have to find some pink sock yarn, I will just have to investigate that, maybe Mary Maxim will have it, if not, Hobby Lobby or Michael's will have something, I hope. I'll probably check out Mary Maxim first to see if they have the pink stuff.

Well, on with the painting, I decided to paint my old dog, I usually paint a portrait of each one of them, I have painted my Rottweiler, Kailah and Syd (also a Rott), now Baron, another Rott, he was a very sweet boy, I had a really hard time putting him down (he's been gone for about 5 years, now (my current dog is Susie another Rott, love those Rottweiler's), Baron's stomach flipped over on itself, not a good thing, he was in such misery, and, it was going to be so expensive to fix, and on top of that they wouldn't guarantee that it wouldn't happen again, he was 9 and very arthritic, so I made the decision, not an easy thing to do. I started a portrait of him, a little over a year ago, but it wasn't just right and I couldn't make myself work on it, of course it was on paper and that isn't as easy to alter, so I painted this one on claybord, I may paint one in oil anyway, since this one is so small, but it's very cute, first I drew it in, and after that I started with the dog, then I painted this gray/purple all over the background, I painted the highlights on the black coat, blue, then black on the very dark patches, I started with the eye's, which are very close to how they look, but, I do believe that I may have to adjust the left eye, I think it may be a tad too small, not a problem. Once the dog was pretty close to being done, I decided to lighten part of the background, that did look better, but, it just didn't suit me, so I put in my couch, he was sitting in front of it anyway, the only difference is, that he sat higher than the back (he was 130 lb. dog), a very big boy, and the couch was in front of a window and it was black, which put his black head right in front of the window, well, I didn't like that composition, I made the couch a bit taller (so the window didn't show), also, it's not purple, it beige, I like the purple better, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #340 - Getting closer now

Only a few more days for this blog, I will have to admit that I've been running out of fuel for this, I really don't know how those people that do one everyday manage it. I do feel that I need to get out in the field more, and also get some fresh material, I've looked through my photo;s and I do believe that I've picked them over until there isn't much that interests me to paint. I do like rivers and streams and falls, but you've seen the best of the bunch, so, now I have to decide if I can manage to continue working on this blog, I want to paint everyday, but I don't necessarily want to finish one everyday, so, I'm thinking that I will still paint (for at least 2 hours everyday, and possibly show you at the end of the week what I've done, or else, each day to show you what I painted, I don't know how that would work, since I don't always finish each painting that I start, consecutively, what I mean is, sometimes I work on more than one painting, what ever makes me happy, I have lots to finish and I definitely have other things that I want to do, I'd like to pour some porcelain, something that I haven't done in several years, my porcelain boxes are really in short supply just now, also I'd like to pour some dolls, I don't do large ones, just small ones, plus, I want to do some oils, I also have some beads that I want to make, I really felt that I couldn't take my time to do that when I was so obligated to do this painting a day, which none of those things could possibly be considered painting, so we'll see how things, go, for the time being, I do have a painting for today, it's small, I almost had myself talked into not doing one today, we spent 12 hours in the car coming home from Minnesota, the roads were pretty crappy coming out of Rochester, there were multiple accidents, several involving Semi's, but, I'm beginning to think that I am actually getting myself in the right frame of mind for this painting everyday thing, I couldn't make myself just relax, I looked at the clock and decided that I had time, so I just painted this small one for today, I'll try to do better tomorrow.

This is on a 4" x 4" Aquabord, I decided to do this little one because I thought that I could do a fairly quick painting. I acquired this photo from my friend and student, Pat, she has talked about painting this one but so far hasn't, it's just a simple little composition, the building in the background (I'm sure it's some Doctor's office of something), and the brick wall with the daffodils (if you were wondering what the yellow flowers were, they were too small to really make them look like daffodils), and the stones, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #339 - Dec 29 - A very busy day

I was in my bathrobe, knitting, at 11:00 a.m. and they were all standing around with their coats on, we planned to go shopping (I did get dressed, lol), so, we went shopping, to the tool store (forgot the name of the store), then to Hobby Lobby (again, more yarn stuff), then to Barns & Nobles at the Mall, then we went down to get a massage, wow, never had one before, it was only 10 min, but what a 10 minutes, I even coned my Husband into it, it really hurt, but when he was done, he could turn his head, something he's been having trouble with (his neck that is). Then we went for coffee, after the Mall, to Aldi's for some groceries (for on the trip home tomorrow), and some pizza's for supper, I really got into knitting just before supper, then we ate and I got the painting stuff out and painted this little painting from some things that my Sister (she has to be my sister now since I'm no longer the sister-in-law), Linda, had these little things sitting around, since they are really putting the Christmas things away, she graciously let me make up a set-up of these small things. I love the little red ornaments, the other stuff, so so, I guess you can't love everything.

We have to leave in the morning fairly early, so I'm going to make this short, got to get some sleep, since I really didn't mean to paint on this for 4 hours, maybe it wasn't that long but I'm thinking it was close. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #338 - Dec 28 - Kind of a laid back day, not much to do, Great Grandma is sick

We came to Minnesota to have Great Grandma meet our grand children that she's never met, but, she has the flu, not going to chance getting it, so we probably won't get to see her. We left some pictures of the boys, but that sure doesn't get the kids to meet her, I wish it would have been better, because I don't know if I'll manage to get the kids here again, this has taken about 4 years of talking to get them here, first opportunity that Dale (my son), was able to get away, well, we did try. They did, however, meet some cousins and their great Aunt and Uncle, we have had some good times but sure would have been nice for them to at least meet her.

Well, I started working on this in the afternoon, but I got tired, so we put it aside for a couple of hours, I have, however, gotten it done before it was bed time though, that's good, for me, and I didn't even have to have anyone suggest it, imagine that. Also, we did manage to do a tiny bit of shopping today, just some bead supplies and some yarn, nothing too major.

This little painting is about an 1/8th of a sheet, hot pressed watercolor paper, oh yes I did buy a couple of brushes, so I painted with them and some watercolors, but nothing too expensive, they are having lots of sales at Michael's Art store. I painted the sky wet in wet, then I jammed the trees in on top of the sky, I painted around the house and barn, this painting is a bit darker than I usually like, but to get the effect of the light on the background I had to darken it a bit. I'm really getting tired so I will make this short, I then roughed in the buildings, then put in the foreground and made sure that the paint covered all the paper. I Let it dry, then started working on the background trees and the barn, once that was done, I started on the roof's and the house, I did lay in some darker colors in the foreground, but not as dark as I have them now, I had to go back in and darken it a bit more. Then, I had to make an adjustment to the roof on the left corner, it had the wrong angle, so I fixed it, then finished up with the highlights on the vines and trees in front of the house, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #337 - Dec 27 - It's nice to have a coach

Linda has been very helpful, says "Viv, why don't you get your blog painting done now, then it'll be done and you don't have to worry about it", well, that works, I also had another helper, Sharon, who was about to leave but wanted to see how I do it, so, I got it out and started it. Well, they didn't like how it started, wondered how it would ever become a painting, it was sure ugly, I told them you have to be able to see beyond the ugly to find the painting, so, here it is.

I decided on using the claybord, I showed them the difference between the Aquabord and the Claybord, how the first one is textured and the other one is ultra smooth, so I decided to use the Claybord this time because yesterday's painting was on the Aquabord. the approach is similar, but the claybord really takes a bit longer for the paint to soak in, the Aquabord is lots more absorbent. I do agree that it did look ugly, but I did change a bunch of stuff, first the barn in front was a gray brown, didn't like it so much, the roofs were darker, wiped that off, changed the dirt road, put a puddle in, and a refelction, then changed the barns to red, and I liked that better, but the shadow was on the side facing forward, I didn't like that as much, so moved the shadows, so this painting has been through the wringer. I also like you to know that these barns have morphed so much, they do not look anything like the original photo. Ah well, my choice, I like this little painting now and I hope you do too.

Painting # 336 - Dec 26 - It's still a Merry Christmas in Minnesota

Today we arrived in Minnesota, and they were still celebrating Christmas so we are too, the sweets are all laid out on the table and we are munching, not good for the waistline, but really good to eat. I wasn't sure that I would be able to paint today, but, as you can see, I did manage to get one painted, we really had a short night, we only got about 4-1/2 hours of sleep, then up in the morning to get everything in the car (food, pop, water, fruit and goodies), plus pack it, the car that is, anyway, we got here about 3:00 p.m. Minnesota time, not too bad since we didn't get away until 6:20 a.m., pretty good time wise. Well, I just finished my painting and I have a little over an hour in it, since it's small, I was able to do it early so I'm not so tired. I had an audience, Jeff's oldest boy and my grandson Mike were watching, but it really went well, I'm going to make this short since my son, Dale, wants the computer to play with and since this is done, I think I can give this back, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #335 - Dec 25 - 30 days and counting

First thing, Merry Christmas, what a day it's been, so much food, and so much company, when they all left it sure didn't take long to put my feet up and kick back. I didn't get to stay there though, the kitchen was a disaster, and I still have a couple pans to wash, but almost, so I painted this little painting in about an hour, I'm in the process of packing, I had to figure out a more compact way to carry some art stuff, plus I had to have the knitting, I still have to pack and make sandwich stuff for tomorrow, so it doesn't cost so much to travel, we have the cooler already packed (the husband did that), so I'm the one holding up the operation, my grandson is sitting right here and he wants pie before he goes to bed, we plan on heading out early, my neighbor is babysitting my dog, I'm really feeling bad about leaving her with no one that she really feels comfortable with, but she seems to be hitting it off with Ann, she is a very special dog, she was an abused dog when we got her and she had separation anxiety, she's much better now, but I don't believe she would do well if we tried to leave her at a boarding place, so it is really kind of my neighbor to volunteer to do that for me, now she won't have to be alone. Well, got to go, got stuff to do and time's a wastin'. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #334 - Dec 24 - the Portrait at last

It really did take longer than I thought, I thought that today I would only have about 2 hours to finish it, well, I worked on it for 3 hours, then took a break to fix supper, after supper, I worked on it for another 3-1/2 hours, then put it in the frame, I am unsure if she expected it to be framed, but, I had the frame, I did have to go and pick up a piece of glass but, that's not a problem, and the other thing, is I'm unsure exactly what size they were expecting, but it came out quite large, it's framed to 20" x 24", probably why it took so long, I got Jeff quite quickly, and I had Carin in, then the next day, I changed it a bit, so it really moved things around, one eye was up too high, the nose was too long, the mouth was off a bit too, all that adjustment takes time, then the meat of the painting, smoothing and getting the highlights just right, I did fudge on the bouquet, I really didn't take a lot of time with it, I really felt that the portrait was more important, besides, I just can't put the same amount of detail everywhere, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! I am going to make this short tonight, since I still have to wrap gifts and I have to think about some of the food, I like to put the turkey on early in the morning, like about 2 or 2:30 and cook it on low all night, in the morning, I have to run the sweeper, mop and finish the cooking before everybody gets here, I'm already exhausted, so better get going, I love this painting (I'd say little, but it's not), and I hope you do too.

Painting #333 - Dec 23 - Too much stress and too much to do.

Well, I didn't manage to get to the studio to finish my painting, bummer, really meant to finish it today. Well, instead I investigated frames I have, that would work (for the portrait), ordered the glass for it (pastels have to be framed behind glass), delivered some things to a couple of my students, picked up my sister, went to visit my Aunt Margaret, went shopping, and there you go, the shopping is what took so long (I could barely walk by the time I got home). Besides the fact that people out there are driving like crazy people, zooming in and out, cutting people off, pulling out in front of you, I guess they just don't care if they wreck their vehicle, thankfully, we made it home in one piece, but after doing all that running around, I was whipped, and no energy to do much of anything, I really wanted to paint but it just wasn't in me tonight, so I picked this small little bird to paint, it's not one of my best, but it's a painting, and I do like it, so, I hope you do too.

Painting #332 - Dec 22 - Such a busy day, and it doesn't look like it's going to ease up tomorrow

Wow, so much left to do, and no time to do it. I painted on my portrait today for about 3 hours, before that my husband and I went to the recycle place and got the basement cleaned out of all those recyclables, the grandsons came today, started a painting (didn't finish it, again), well, I know that doesn't sound like much, but it sure took up most of the day, at 11:30 p.m., I came back to the house from the studio (the portrait), to put the finishing touches on this painting, so I would have a painting for you all, I was planning on finishing the portrait, but I think I still have about 2 hours to finish that, so tomorrow I will finish it, hopefully. I really am putting myself in a bind, trying to get everything done(and I haven't even finished shopping yet), and dishcloths (the knitting), I did manage to finish one dishcloth today and start another, well, I still have some more dishcloths to finish.

This painting was started in the Marshall class a couple of weeks ago, it's been laying around in my bag, so I decided to finish it. This was started wet in wet, a very fun way to start a floral, it really challenges you, then, when it's dry, you have to try to figure out what the color blobs are, so all those flowers are made up, obviously. I do like painting floral's this way, I enjoy the freedom of not trying to make it just like the photo, so, those blue flowers are just made up, the pink ones too, the pink morning glories were a very large shape that I wasn't sure what they were going to be, until they just started to look like morning glories, the rose was easy, and so were the lilies, so now this is finished, this completes one of the paintings I had started and I am hoping I can get the others done soon too. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #331 - Dec 21 - a very productive day

I was pretty good today, I got right to the painting this morning, I started a 1/4 sheet wet in wet painting, and worked on it for quite a while, well, not enough to get it done, I'm getting quite a collection of paintings that I need to be finished, I'll try to finish them in the near future, but I knew that I wouldn't have been able to complete it, so I started another one (a different scene), that was much smaller, it is on watercolor paper though. I have been enjoying the paper again lately, not that I don't like the claybord, but I needed to change things to keep them interesting. I also worked on my portrait commission today, it's coming right along, almost finished with my nephew, now still have quite a bit to do with the newest niece, I'll get it, I really enjoyed working with the pastels again, I bought some Schminke and some Sennelier pastels a couple of months ago, love those buttery sticks, but, the downfall is that they are thick, so the detail is proving difficult to accomplish, the NuPastels that I have don't want to work together with those soft, buttery ones, I'll figure it out, just difficult.

Now, this is another winter scene, I really tried to simplify this, but found myself really getting into those branches, again, I did do pretty good with the background though, so the detail is really, mostly in the foreground, I just got my first issue of Palette Magazine, and this issue is really very interesting, it is all about flattening things out, I'm very intersted in this approach, not that I think I can do it, for some reason, I find myself loving the detail and I don't know if I can get away from that, but I'd love to try it, right now isn't the time, I have so much stuff to do to get ready for Christmas and then leaving right away to go to Minnesota, that I don't really have time to just play, so, I'm stuck in the same old way I always do things, this painting has about 2 hours in it, and I feel that's pretty good, for me at least, but I'd like to get that down to an hour for the same size, maybe even the same amount of time for the 1/4 sheet too, I'll work on it when I get back from Minnesota, so for now, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #330 - Dec 20 - Starting to see the finality of this blog 35 days and counting

As you have heard, I'm really getting tired, I don't know how these daily artists do it, I said I would do it, and I am, but (a very big word), I am getting tired, does that mean that I'm not as serious about my art? I don't know, I think I'm serious enough, but I am feeling the pressure.

We are going out of town for a few days right after Christmas, just preparing you for the worst, I may not be able to paint every day while we are gone. In the past, I have attempted to get ahead of the blog, trying to get extra paintings done ahead of time, well, this is the Christmas season, I have been working very hard trying to get some small gifts done, and so far I've managed, but I don't believe that I will have time to get ahead (since I have to finish the portrait this week, hopefully tomorrow), so the question is, will I be able to get paintings done while I'm gone, there may be some time to paint, and if I have time, they will have to be small, with a car full of people, I will not be able to pack as much painting equipment, but I will try, but just in case, I am preparing you for some days that you may not get a blog, I will have to catch up when I get back, my friend Sue does that quit regularly, she's not as much of a slave to the blog operation as I've been, well, enough of that, on with the painting.

This painting is approximately a 1/4 sheet, it's on hot press, I started this painting wet in wet, at least I think I did that, it's been a few days since I started it, that was a week ago, and my memory is a little shaky just now. I've been really tired all day, of course part of that is the very large lunch I had, the watercolor girls had a luncheon today to celebrate the Christmas holiday, it was way more food than I needed, oh well, it was really good, and lots of fun. When I decided to work on this painting, it was just at the very beginning stage, and not all that interesting to work on (from my point of view), when I started working on it today, it was a real struggle, so blah to me, then, all of a sudden, it started to get to me, when I put those shadows on the barn, that's when I got into it, then it went very well, the tree itself is just a prop, the real meat of this painting are the shadows on the barn, I really love it, and I hope you like it too.

Painting #329 - Dec 19 - lots to do today

Should-a-would-a-could-a, story of my life, I should have gotten to the studio earlier today, but, I did get there, I spent 3 hours leaning over a matt cutter, getting some stuff done for the Tuesday group, I had 2 paintings to frame and matt, I had 5 others to matt and get ready for tomorrow, pheww! My back aches, and I have a pulled groin muscle, don't know how that one happened, but I'm feeling like I need a cane. Well, I got all that done, got the kiln fired (china painting), and this blog painted, oh yes, cooked supper too, and, the knitting jag isn't over yet, knitted most of the day, these dish rags keep calling my name.

I painted this small painting on a 4" x 4" claybord, I chose it because I've been having an affinity for these snow scenes, also the mountains were a plus. I probably should have used a very light yellow on the frosty trees, but this is just a very cold day, this is one of those photo's I found the other day while I was on the main computer, don't know where it came from, it's not one I took, but I found it so I'm using it. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #328 - Dec 18 - Another knitting day

Well, I did manage to scrape a painting together, it was tough though, it is Sunday, after all, and that is never a good day to paint. I did, however, get some knitting done, got gifts to finish and lots of work to do tomorrow, so this may be another short blog.

I chose this photo because I felt it was a challenge to make this lily look like it has multiple layers, which it did have, I had never seen a lily within a lily until a couple summers ago, I took this photo in the park at the four corners in Coldwater, while we were sitting with a booth at an art fair, Coldwater used to have them, but have since dropped that, it was nice to display work but there was never much sales, at least not much for me. I painted this on a 4" x 4" claybord, that surface is challenging all by itself. I do believe that I managed to pull it off, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #327 - Dec 17 - A bit of a lazy day

I really chose to paint this little painting (4" x 4"), because I knew that if I tried to paint a larger one that I would be struggling to talk myself into painting, I've been on a knitting jag lately, which started this morning while I was drinking my coffee, and I just kept it up, I finally convinced myself to clean the kitchen, and while I was contemplating that, I started this little painting, it started out really wet, so I left it to dry and was knitting again. That was the way of it all day, I am now sleepy, so this is going be a bit short, not much to say, I have painted this scene a couple of times before this, but this is the first one in watercolor, it really went very well, so I may consider doing it again, much larger. I meant to get over to the studio today, but didn't make it, and I know I won't make it tomorrow, so Monday I really have to get over there, I have matting and framing to do and I really need to work on the portrait. Well now, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #326 - Dec 16 - A bit late getting this in tonight

Accidents to happen, I got wrapped up in a mini series on A & E, I happened on Stephen King's "Bag of Bones", I usually don't get into these kinds of movies, but my friend Carol mentioned it the other night at Blue Moon, so I wanted to check it out, then I got hooked, so tonight's painting is kind of a Christmas card, again, and I believe I plan on matting and framing this as a gift to my Sister-in-law, she loves cardinals, this is one of a few that I've painted for her, and we are going there just after Christmas, we plan on taking my Son and his 2 boys to Minnesota since the boys have never met their Great Grandmother, and she isn't doing all that well, I just want them to have that actual connection, so they will remember they do have family there.

Well, this is a card size painting, and I sorted through some magazine photo's and made this composition from several of those reference photo's, unfortunately, I've never gotten close enough to take a photo of a cardinal myself, and his is nothing like the reference material I had.

I painted this wet on dry, and it's on 300 lb. paper, after I got the snow shapes, and the cardinals in, I let that dry. Then I decided to put in some background color behind the branches and the birds, while it was wet, I threw some white in, which made those splotches. It kind of looked like snow, my original idea, so I finished the birds and the branches and pine needles, then put snow shapes in front of the birds so it kind of looks like it's snowing, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #325 - Dec 15 - Running out of time today

I'm going to make this short, I really worked on 3 paintings this afternoon, but, I really didn't have it in me to complete any of them, nor the other 3 or 4 that I have started, I do feel good about getting some of the ones I had started done, but, I didn't have time during class to complete any that I worked on, so, after supper, I decided to work on a floral, a small one, all the others I worked on today were much larger, primarily why I didn't have time to finish any of them, so i chose this one of narcissus. It was difficult blending this one, I picked a piece of paper that i had coated with gesso, oh well, I am really tired tonight, so I'm going cut this short, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #324 - Dec 14 - I had gallery duty today and watercolor class

Yesterday I mentioned that I worked on 2 paintings, well, I did today too, I did manage to finish the other painting I worked on yesterday, and one for class, the one for class isn't quite done, I'll have to show that one to you later.

This painting was quite a project, it is another one of those long skinny ones, it's about 8" x 18" or so, it also is quite intricate, I did spend several hours finishing this, I worked on it yesterday for 2 hours, I worked on it today for 3-1/2 hours and then when I got home, I worked on it for another hour, and that's not counting the hour or more I worked on, it when I started it, but, the time spend was worth it, I think.

I started this one wet in wet, then I kind of skipped around fine tuning it, there are about 5 or 6 different layers everywhere, I really couldn't tell you precisely how it was painted so, I guess you will just have to attempt one that's similar yourself. This is, of course, on watercolor paper again, otherwise I wouldn't have this weird size, most of those boards that I've been using, come in regular sizes (and long and skinny isn't a regular size), I really dragged my feet getting this one done, that is, until I took it to Blue Moon with me a couple weeks ago and worked on it during the meeting, it really started to come around, it got me really interested in finishing it. So, don't let difficult scenes or paintings, intimidate you, just jump in, and keep working it, it may not work the way you want at first, but, you just have to keep trying, this is one of my favorites now, so, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #323 - Dec 13 - Worked on 2 paintings today

I really meant to finish the one I was working on in class today, but I really didn't have time to, before I could go home after class, I had banking to do, then grocery shopping to do, and dinner to figure out (I never get it ready before I leave, it sure would save time if I set it up in the crock pot, oh well), and I didn't sleep well last night, so I was tired, I did resist taking a nap, of course I didn't get time to, even if I had wanted to. I also had a great day money wise, I sold 5 paintings (the small ones), of course it's June, she sure loves my work, everyone needs a cheering section, especially when they part with some of their money, which we all need these days. Plus I did a framing job for JoAnn and this week I have 2 to frame and matt for Sue and plus, they each are going to buy one of my little paintings, so it was a really great day, I'm loving it. So, needless to say, I just didn't have the time nor the energy to finish the major one that I was working on today in class, I do believe I can finish it tomorrow though.

This painting is one that I started a couple weeks ago, I was really enthusiastic about it when I first started it, but sometimes you have to let these paintings rest for a few days or weeks to get the proper perspective on how to proceed with it. That's the case with this one, I really wasn't enthusiastic about it, at first, but, like usual, once I started working, it pulled together. This is a quarter sheet of watercolor paper, so it's large, another problem when you are trying to finish one in a day, well, the one that I worked on in class was a larger one too, not quite a quarter sheet but close, so I wasn't as far along with that one as this one, tomorrow should be a good day to finish it, I am working at the Gallery, it's Sturgis class night, so tomorrow will be busy, I'd better cut this short, I have to get some sleep, I didn't rest well last night and besides that, it was short, 2:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. isn't enough for me, my husband does it all the time, but I'm just too old to do that anymore. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #322 - Dec 12 - good day to get things done

I worked at my art all day, first thing, I fixed yesterday's painting, then over to the studio for some matting and framing, then Blue Moon tonight, we had to get our meeting in early since everyone will be out of town just before Christmas. So, I got my painting done early, glad of that. It sure would be nice if I had someone that lived here, that wanted me to paint with them, that would help me out in that area, oh well, well, maybe not, I wouldn't want to share my art stuff anyway.

I have really enjoyed painting the mountains lately, I found this one the other day when I was working on the computer upstairs, I changed the colors, it was really dark and light, not much color, except the sky, that was very blue, you couldn't really see what was going on in the foreground it was just a jumble of lighter shapes and dark, so I decided it looked like a little ditch (or creek), and I made the tree at the right side into a bunch of smaller trees so it wouldn't be a really large dark shape, so, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #321 - Dec 11 - Busy day

I'm sorry to say that this painting isn't quite finished, I will be finishing it in the morning, I didn't get to this painting project until late and it is now quarter to 1:00 a.m. and I have to get to bed so my Husband can get some sleep, he has to work tomorrow and I've been bad about keeping him up, he won't go to bed until I do so I'm keeping him up tonight, again. I worked on this for about 4 hours, well, technically I did originally start 2 other paintings, but while I was waiting for them to dry, I started this one, and this is the one that kept me going, I know I shouldn't have started it, but I really thought I was just going to work on it while I waited for the others to dry, but it just didn't work out that way, this painting needs a bit more, not much but a bit, my photo isn't the greatest, and after about 2-1/2 hours I got out the magnifying glasses I have for close up stuff, just to get the correct shading, of course this is a bad photo, it was taken by my student during one of my china painting classes, this happens to be my dear friend and student Bea who passed away this last summer, I'm so glad that my friend and student Carol shared this photo with me, I found this photo yesterday while I was working upstairs on the main computer and put it with my reference photo's, thinking that I might attempt to paint it one of these days, well, here it is, and I really got a good start on this likeness, but it does need a tiny bit more, I'm sorry that I didn't get it done, but I do have to get this blogged today, I will re-post this tomorrow on this same page so that you can see the difference that just a little bit makes, you will notice that I did not sign it yet, but tomorrow I will, you will see. For now, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Ok, now this is the next day, and this is better, the other one was too smooth and too washed out, this looks more like I want it too, it could still use a few tweaks but at this point, I think I'll call it good, maybe in a few months I'll attempt it again, only this time in oil. It really smooths out better and I think it would look better, we'll see, for the time being, I like this litle painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #320 - Dec 10 - another late night

This painting didn't get started until late again, I'm not even sure exactly why I didn't get to it, well, I did work on the main computer today, got it back the way it was before it had to be formatted a few months ago, I wanted to make sure that the Kodak printer didn't go funky again, it seems that if you don't print on it every week, it destroys the print head, well, that printer is only 3 years old and it has had 5 print heads, not good, but it's best feature is that it is cheap to operate and it will print fabulously, plus, it prints 2 sided documents in one swift session with out flipping the paper once. Well, it didn't self destruct, which is good, those people were probably getting tired of replacing my print head.

I looked through some photo's while I was looking for stuff to print, and found this scene, I thought it would be easy, well, it wasn't as easy as I thought, or should I say it didn't go as quickly as I thought, but part of that is that I can't seem to let go of making it look like the photo, what to do, I'll have to trick myself somehow, maybe I should take that same photo and see if I can't simplify it, well, not tonight, I'm exhausted, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #319 - Dec 9 - tried a new approach today

I did actually cut some time off this blog painting today, I did manage to get it started before my husband got home, which is good, and it is a larger painting, not a lot but some, it's about 8" x 12" so that is larger. Plus, I approached it differently, I did the sky and the farthest trees wet in wet, then I painted the close up building on the right side, then the close up bushes and trees, and then the farthest buildings and the grasses, then the pond, well, this isn't really a pond, it's Lake Michigan. Well, that was the quickest part of this little painting, while it was drying, I cooked supper and visited with my family, once dinner was over, I managed to complete this painting in about an hour, that makes it a little under 2 hours, not bad.

This little scene is a place at the very tip of Lake Michigan, a place called Fayette, which is in the process of being researched, it looks to me like they are also restoring the buildings for tourism, maybe it's completed now, it's been a while since we were there, it's an iron smelting station that was in operation around the turn of the 19th century, a very interesting place with lots to see.

So, I did manage to get this painting started earlier but it is late just now, so I'm about to shut down for the night, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #318 - Dec 8 - Classes in Marshall today and it was a good day to paint

I really worked hard on one in class today, but, I didn't feel that I could finish it in a couple of hours when I got home (since I have a tendency to wait until the last min. to finish my paintings), so, I decided to set up a little still life with a dish rag (hand knitted by me), a teapot, some cups and a spoon (I do believe I will have to visit the goodwill store to find some interesting stuff, I didn't realize that those old statuettes would be anything I'd like, but, I have seen some interesting paintings with these little figures in and I think I'd like to try some, not exactly like theirs, but it just looks fun), especially since I'm struggling to get enthused about my photo's right now (a little burn out I guess, I kind of knew it would happen, and thankfully, it didn't happen as soon as I thought it would).

I did enjoy painting this one today (and the one that you can't see yet, since it isn't done), I have about an hour and a half in this, it's not quite as fine tuned as I usually get, I have been thinking of ways to shorten my painting time, but for some reason I just keep painting, although, since I've been struggling with inspiration, I have kind of pushed that up a bit, well, you don't really want to know about that. Anyway, I have gone back to painting on paper for the time being, since I've been missing the wet-in-wet process, I'm just trying to stimulate some inspiration to keep me painting. Sue thought that I might try giving myself a one hour time limit, which would really push my buttons, don't know if I can do that, but I was thinking that since the poinsettia's went so well, that I might start working larger, which would eliminate some of the fine detail that I sort of get wrapped up in, I have been missing painting the larger pictures, but when I'm so tired, I just don't know if I can do that, we'll see, I have to do something, I need to keep painting and I don't think I'm lazy, just a procrastinator (which is ingrained since childhood), and I don't leave myself enough time to complete the painting like I want, so, I'm staying up too late, and blah blah blah, you've heard me talk about this before, I want to paint, I just don't know how I can change the horrible procrastination habits I have, so this blog is the way that I'm trying to do that, I am pretty good at psyching myself into things, and since I can't not do it, if I say I'm going to do it, something in me just won't let me slack on that (mostly because you are all watching and expect to see a painting every day and I can't let you down, myself I might be able to, but not you), mostly, I'm just tired, I did think there might be a physical reason, but the Doctor can't see any reason, so it must be because I'm not getting enough sleep, just a vicious circle.

Well, you'd probably like to know how I worked on this one, I started it out wet in wet, I think you can still see some residue of that, some fuzzy edges still show up, and I painted on it with thicker paint while it was still wet, and just kept working on this with less moisture, while I was working, it dried to a point that I could put the crisp edges on and fine tune the detail, it does show a bit of the bleed over of some of the colors, but it's not bothering me, so that's the way it is. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #317 - Dec 7 - A very busy day

I feel like I've been running around like a chicken, with my head cut off, back and forth to the studio, printing cards for my friend Edith, Blue Moon meeting tonight, stopped at the store for ink, run to the bank and make deposits, run home and finish printing cards (I ran out of ink), run to the bank and make a deposit, shop for medicines after Blue Moon, run to the studio and cut them, and now to finish off the day with this blog, just running out of energy, I worked on another piece at Blue Moon tonight, but, it doesn't suit me, at this point, so I finished off the second card for my blog painting (you remember, the one I worked on Monday before the watercolor meeting), it is another Poinsettia, only this one is a collage, the inside card part is just straight watercolor, I'm making this short tonight, have to get those cards cut, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

this is the front of the card.

and this is the inside, I really enjoyed painting on the inside, something a little different.

Painting #316 - Dec 6 - It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas

Wow, my friend and student (the one who brings flowers and plants in to paint), Jo Ann, brought in a Poinsettia in today, she and I were the only ones today, so since we had such a wonderful reference, decided to paint the plant today, it wasn't a large one, but it sure stimulated my artistic juices today. I've been having a tough time working with my (stale), reference material, I did sort out some new ones, but, I really got into this one. I decided to paint on paper today, the other day I cut off some paper from my roll of Hot Pressed watercolor paper, and, if you've ever bought paper on a roll, you know it curls up, so the only way to remedy that is to wet the paper on both sides and let it lay flat with water saturation. Well, since the paper was wet, I decided to do a wet-in-wet painting, I had a lot of fun with this, and JoAnn really didn't get much painting done, she was watching me, it was a lot of fun, this painting was pretty well done when we stopped painting, so I finished it when I got home, what I did when I got home was just put in some vein lines and some shading on some of the leaves and cleaning up the edges that were rough, and TA DA! It was finished, I painted on it about 2 hours when I got home, that makes about 3-1/2 hours total and it is a painting that is about 12" x 12", approximately. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #315 - Dec 5 - It was a Christmas Party tonight!

Well, today I managed to get the Christmas card done, I started 2, and finished 1, I also played with a free form flower painting from my head, but I didn't have time to finish that one either. I chose this snow scene that had a sunlit mountain in the background, and I decided to do it on a piece of watercolor paper that I had collaged with the oriental papers, when you paint watercolors on the collaged papers, you don't have any control where the paint goes, some of the papers are more absorbent than others and if the paint goes on them it soaks right in and you can't lift it. That's what happened in the case of the mountain, originally the mountain was lower, like the one on the inside of the card, but the paper made a tall mountain, and I had to go with it. While I was waiting for the outside part to dry enough to finish, I decided to make a small lighter version on the inside of the card, I probably should paint like that all the time, it went really fast and I didn't overwork it. I was going to get this blogged before the party, but I didn't have enough time, by the time I got the card done, and the dishes done, and checked on my studio to see if the heaters were working still, and loaded the kiln for the china painting class tomorrow, then dressed, I was running behind, of course, I'm used to that. Well, I'm going to make this short, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

the one above is the outside of the card, the collaged part.

and this is the inside of the card.

Painting #314 - Dec 4 - A busy day

Well, I got more done today than I usually do on a Sunday, Sunday's my Husband and I spend our time together, usually we go out to eat or the Grandchildren are over and we're cooking, but today he had to help his nephew, so I was left on my own for a bit, I have been struggling with the heaters over at the studio, well, maybe I won't have to worry about running out of fuel now, we went shopping and got me a couple of electric space heaters, I have to go over and check to see if they are working properly, sure don't want to freeze my pipes or burn the place down, boy, would that bum me out. I have so much stuff over there, I'd be devastated.

Well, while I was over at the studio this afternoon, I sorted some more photo's, I have lots, but, I've gotten in a ho hum mood about the ones I had selected before, so, now I have some new selections to look through, hopefully that will stimulate me for a bit more, I must get through to January 25, at least, I intend to paint everyday after that, but I'm going to be working on much larger pieces, I really don't want to just do the small paintings, I have a low energy level, and it takes me quite a bit of that to get these small ones completed in one day, so I intend to work on larger pieces after this year ends. I will still keep posting, but the progression of paintings through until completion will be what you see, this could be tricky, as sometimes I work on more than one at a time, my friend Bev is very diligent about her painting and keeps at one painting until it's finished, one painting at a time, but, I don't work well that way, sometimes when it's not working I have to give it room to settle and tell me where to go with it.

So, today's painting is a floral again, of course, it is because I ran out of time again, seems to be the way of things lately, I was happy the other day getting the deer picture done, and I have another landscape in progress that I want to finish, I hope I can manage it tomorrow, but I also have to paint a Christmas card for the card exchange with the SWMWS (watercolor club), tomorrow night is our Christmas meeting dinner and we exchange cards, you don't have to if you don't want to, but that's the fun of it, you never know who's you will get, hope it works well this year. Well, I'm going to cut this short today, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #313 - Dec 3 - On the computer most of this day

Well, I signed on for a free Webinar (on line seminar) for painting water, not that I don't know how to paint water, but, I did learn some things, something you should consider and I don't, is analyze why some things look the way they do, and it really is a good thing to know, why reflections do what they do in the water, it wasn't only that, it was really quite informative and also for compositional aspects too. It was supposed to be a 2-1/2 hour, on line seminar, but it went over, something like an hour and 15 min. We looked at several web sites of other artists. Wow, some of those (and I never heard of them before) are really good, one was Johannes Vloothuis, another was Gerald Harvey & Scott Christiansen, Matt Smith, so check those out, it really was fabulous. For homework, I'm supposed to paint a water painting and post it to his website and critique my own painting, hope I can manage that, of course I could use one that I've painted for this blog, we'll see, maybe I could find one to paint this week.

I really didn't leave myself a lot of time to paint tonight, so, the old stand-by, flowers, I chose this pink camellia today, and I chose the 4" x 4" claybord, I really got tired so this will be short. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #312 - Dec 2 - A pretty good day

Well, I managed to drag the other heater out of the basement and over to the studio, the other heater was smoking so badly that it clogged the wick up and it shut itself off, I couldn't keep it lit, I went back and forth 3 times, to the studio, to check to see if it was working properly, the last time I just decided to do a little hauling and get the heater that's working over there, now, I filled the other heater, thinking that that was the problem, now it's full and I now have to figure out how to get that fuel out of the one heater and into the other one. I'm hoping that my husband and I can get the the store tomorrow, and find me a couple of electric heaters so I can eliminate the kerosene one, such a pain, having to run over there before I go to bed tonight, just to make sure that the heat is still on, oh well, hopefully we'll get that done, and I can stop worrying about the freezing, had that happen a couple years ago, and I had ruptured pipes and such a mess, I'd hate that.

While I was at the studio, I did get the portrait commission started, well, actually, I started it the second time, I didn't care for the one that I had done 2 days ago, but just thought you should know (since I've been telling you that I was going to for several days), I'm much happier with what I did today, I'm doing this portrait in pastel (my old stand by), I thought of doing it in oil, but, decided that since it was my sister-in-law that ordered it (of her youngest son and his new wife), she is much more used to me working with the pastels, that I didn't want to change the medium she's more used to. Also, I do have those new pastels that I wanted to use, the Schminke are so soft, I could see how using them could become expensive, I just bought the 1/2 stick set of 75 and that was expensive enough, but, they are so soft that the few that I did use are showing quite a bit of wear already, oh well, no sense in having them if you don't use them, I will have to post it when I get it done.

Well, this painting is one that I have been working on for a couple of days, it's a 1/8 sheet folded the long way of a 1/4 sheet, a very interesting size to compose. I chose 3 or 4 photo's that a friend of mine shared with me (I'm getting a bit burnt out with my old selection, trying to come up with something that stimulates my creativity has been becoming difficult), I have been pondering some abstraction, but, haven't made my mind up to it yet. Anyway, these deer were in the clearing, but were so small in the photo that you couldn't really see any details at all, blowing them up to the size in this painting made it important to have some details, so, I used another photo she took, but the deer had changed positions and they also were fuzzy, so I think this works, there is just enough information that you know they are deer but not so much that they don't fit in the painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too (this painting looks so small on the screen, just try to remember that it is much larger than it looks here, it's equivalent to 3 of my regular 6" x 6" blog paintings).

Painting #311 - Dec 1 - what a day, but it was a good painting day.

Well, after spending the afternoon yesterday lighting my furnace, I obviously didn't have that great a day for painting, and because I got a late start, I was painting until 1:00 a.m. this morning, so, it was a bit of a short night, so this morning, I raced around and got ready for classes in Marshall, ran over to the studio to see if the stove was still lit, and then raced off to class, only to find that my friend Edith was not home, well, after I got in there and figured out that she did say she wasn't going to be there for classes this week, I then knew that I didn't have to paint china, so I put the china painting stuff back in the car and got the watercolor stuff and began my blog painting early (china painting class is in the morning and watercolor class is in the afternoon, since we have 4 other students for watercolor I did have the watercolor class), so this is getting posted early, I'm sure my Hubby will appreciate that. He called around this morning to check on a different furnace, I don't know yet if he found one or what we are going to do, that will have to be a priority, my art stuff is very important to me.

My painting today is another barn scene, it was a photo in a horizontal format, so I changed that up to a vertical, it's on a 5" x 7" Aquabord, and then I moved some buildings around and eliminated some others, the field was a bit narrower, and this was perched on a bit of a hill and you couldn't really see much behind it so I invented that. As always, the sky is first, I pondered what color to make it, the photo showed a white sky, as it is dusk, well, that makes it pretty dull, so I decided that it looked a bit pink, and that's the color I chose, I then put in some far away trees and a field, the barn was next, I painted in the shape and made it pretty much blue gray (as an underpainting, I added other colors later), and then the foreground, first I was going to make the field look like it had curved rows, but then decided that the flat rows really did look best, and the then weeds, there, it took about 2 hours to complete this painting.

During class I started on a Christmas card, I have our watercolor club Christmas dinner meeting, and card exchange on Monday evening, and we do an original hand painted card, last year the cards I received were duds, one was a copy (like a photo copy) of an original painting (original means an original, not a copy) and one was a joke, and not even my kind of joke, obviously this person thought they were funny, but I thought I both of the cards I got were duds. I think if that happens again this year, I will forego the card exchange next year. Not fair to give an original hand painted card, and get junk in return, but that's life I guess. Well, I think you know how I complete these paintings and so, I'll just say, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.