Painting #157 - so tired again, hopefully I'll get rested this week-end

I really need to rest, and have some free time for just me, I'm beginning to feel the pressure, although, I've been feeling that for a while, I sure hope I can hang there with these blogs, I am really tired, but I do want to paint, there is a conundrum here, paint, don't paint, what gives with that? I want to paint, I really got excited today about these little baby owls, this picture is a painting of the photo that my student, Edith allowed me to use, it was given to her, and I hope I'm not offending someone by painting this, but, it was such a draw. I need some of these things to keep me interested in painting, I guess I must be getting tired of the landscapes, I still haven't finished the portrait, and now, I'm not sure I like it, I may have to start it over, I'm not fond of the way the paint is laying on the board, we'll see if I can salvage it.

This is about the most monochromatic painting I've done, except for a blue, black and white painting I did once, I know, there wouldn't be much color in this, but, being a colorist, I'm hoping this carries. I enjoyed painting this one, and I got right into it, then I got home and just couldn't get up to work on it, I almost had myself convinced that it would be ok to let it go until tomorrow, but then, tomorrow is going to be busy and I'm trying to figure out how to get tomorrow's painting done, the grandchildren are here for the week-end, and that usually means that my time will not be mine (at least not totally). Don't get me wrong, I love to see them and we always have a good time, so, don't listen to me, I just need a little R & R which would put me back on schedule, I know, you are saying "You just got back from a week-end vacation", well, there was no rest there, we were on the go constantly, don't worry, I'll get it together, somehow. I just want to say, I love this little painting and I hope you do to.

Painting #156 - another busy day

It was Blue Moon night, and the girls decided we were to go out sketching, I managed to get one watercolor, not so good (maybe it needs more work, we'll see), and after that, we had a wonderful bowl of soup at Sue's, we decided to go back out and sketch a bit more, so, I got another 3 sketches, this time in pen and ink, I really enjoy sketching with a pen, it's been an amazing discovery that happened a couple years ago, I really never realized how wonderful a pen could be, I always felt that a pencil and an eraser were a must (I really used a lot of eraser), now however, it's really not necessary, and I would like to say that I feel that it is because of the Blue Moon group, I may have never discovered that, and it is my opinion that anytime you associate yourself with other artists and work together regularly, you will grow and learn so much more, I really appreciate the girls (Bev, Sue and Carol), that have included me in their group, what a wonderful experience it has been for all of us. We have all grown, and I have entered competitions that I wouldn't have, and sent away for a residency, that I wouldn't have, wow, just teaching classes that I wouldn't have, so it's great, I hope if you are working at art, that you have an opportunity to be in a group such as this, it is wonderful, ok, enough of that.

I worked on this painting today, also a portrait, but that has a lot more work yet, so hopefully I can get it done by this week end, but, I want to explain this one, for now. This was a sketch done on site, and I decided it needed more work, so I got it out and worked on it. I really re-did almost everything that was painted before, so I feel that it is a good subject for this blog. I did the original a few years ago at a workshop, this was a workshop with Lisa Guthrie, a California Artist, and she was helping us to improve our painting on site, so this wasn't a painting of what she painted, this was a place that we went, and everyone sketched, or painted something different. This happens to be the Poor House in Hillsdale (or rather, the backside of the poor house), and, re-painting it, took me back to that spot, so it was a fun time. I didn't have any sky, in the original version, and the trees were so gray looking, so I got out the opaques again, and worked them up, the grass the same, and even the building, I guess the only thing I didn't re-paint was the white fence on the far right side, I like this painting now, and I hope you do too.

Painting #155 - it's 3 for today

Well, I got carried away, I went over to the studio and brought back my liquid watercolors, my acrylic inks and some acrylics, well, I decided to play with the acrylic inks (my first time - they have been sitting staring at me for almost 3 months), about time that I used them.

I started out wet in wet, the first one is the blue fish one, then while that was drying, I tried another one with out totally wetting the paper, then I just really got into it, I just worked back and forth, first I did the one that has yellow, then I worked on the blue one (the reason I had to wait was I had soaked the paper under the faucet and it's 300 lb. paper), I was taking the photo's for this blog, and I decided to finish the one that I worked on in class, I actually had another one started too, but this one seemed to go with the abstractness of this group of paintings, the cat painting is one that was the other half of the painting I did for yesterday, if you can believe it, this one had a shape that looked like a cat to me, so that's what it became, in class, I only had the opaques to work with, so after I saw how the inks worked, I decided to add a bit more of the gold (the opaques sort of covered most of the original coppery paint up), so, today you get three, that should make up for being behind last week, I enjoyed doing these paintings, I'm sure hoping you enjoy them too.

Painting #154 - June 27 - a very special day

Today is my Daughter's birthday, I had lunch with her and bought her some flowers and had a very nice day, didn't get to painting very soon though, not her fault, always my fault, I always wait until the last minute, well, it almost backfired, well, maybe it did, you decide.

I took a non-objective painting start and turned it this way and that way, until I could figure out what it wanted to be. When I go to my friend's house in Indiana, we usually paint some experimental something or rather, and then they just pile up and I never do anything with them, well, I decided to work something up with one that I did somewhere, not sure where or when, but this one had copper spray paint in with the watercolor so I'm guessing that I did it at Lynn's. I don't usually paint with spray paint but this one had some nice colors, and I thought I could do something with it, but, at the same time the science channel had some space stuff come on and I'm very interested in watching that, so I decided to get the watercolor pencils out and work on this while I was watching TV, not usually my best painting plan, but it was the only way I could do both.

I saw a large tree root system and decided it had some rocks, and I worked on that while the shows were on, then I took it over to the table and painted on it with some of my opaques, and this is what I came up with, I think this one works and I am hoping you like it.

Paintig #153 - June 26th - just a small one today

I didn't get to paint until late, and even then other things kept me from really getting into it, I started one on 140# watercolor paper, but, I just couldn't get into that one, had some supper, and decided to just go with a 4" clayboard surface, this usually goes quite quickly, and I did get this done in about 2 hours, I just wasn't up to much today, we had my husband's family reunion this afternoon, and that was really enough for me today, but, I do have this blog to consider, as you will remember, my main reason for doing this is to make myself paint every day, and it really is working, as you all know, some days are better than others, so I chose a simple composition, I have postponed the Sturgis class for the month of July (one of the girls has to have surgery), and they are supposed to be working on a painting with these Spiderwort flowers (I didn't know what they were, I just liked the color, of course, it is really difficult to get that color, it doesn't really work well with the opaque paints, but that is what I had in my palette), I will have to attempt this again with the transparent colors.

I first painted the blue/purple flowers and then went in and painted the leaves, I decided to fill in the whole backbround with the green, then as the painting progressed, I decided to go with the darks at the bottom and let the top stay a bit brighter, I like the way this one feels and so I'm happy with this little painting, and I hope you like it too.

Painting #152 - June 25 - still life from life

I spied these ditch lilies (more commonly known as day lilies), grouped up around the outside of the bathroom window, and they inspired me to paint them, so I went out with the scissors and cut a few stems and decided I needed leaves also, I took them in and put them in a medium size vase, and then took a bunch of pictures, probably a good thing that I did, since the flowers wilted before I got this one done, so I started it out from life but ended it with a photo.

I chose a blue background because of the orange, I just felt I needed a little punch, and it worked, this one just about jumps off the canvas, yes, I did it again, I painted on one of those watercolor canvases, it's 12" x 12", I know, I told you I was going to start painting the small ones, but this just cried out for that 12" canvas, I really thought that it wouldn't take that long, I usually paint flowers much faster than I paint landscapes, I deliberately decided to just let these be slightly abstract, and I know from your view, they look pretty photographic but they really aren't. I didn't blend much (of course that had a lot to do with the surface, it is coated with gesso and doesn't lend itself to much blending, you can do it, but it's a dry brush type of blend). I started with the flowers and leaves, then decided to put the background in as an afterthought, I kind of like these canvases since they are gallery wrapped, that means that you can paint on the sides and after it's sprayed to seal the paint on, and you don't have to frame it, I carried the design right around the edges, so if you see buds going off, and leaves going off, and flowers going off, and the vase going off, it moves around the edge, I really like it. I did ramp up the color a bit, the flowers had a tendency to be all the same value so I added some red to set them back, well, it looked so good that the other flowers said "I want red too", well, not literally, it just seemed the thing to do, I worked on this off and on all day today and I'm now about to close this down and get to bed, so, I really love this painting, and sure hope you do too.

Painting #151 - June 24 - out in left field with this one

This is an experimental painting, I got some liquid watercolors and was testing them out, well, I really didn't have much in mind and let my students direct me a bit, it was so pale, I decided to ramp up the colors a bit and now I think it is ok, I know it's not my usual, well, sometimes you have to step out of the safe zone and get right in with something that's a bit more challenging, and I do believe that abstraction is challenging, I don't feel that it's my strong point, but it was an interesting diversion, as I said, I didn't have a plan when this was conceived, it just progressed, once I made some strokes, I got the feeling that it was a city and then I thought, well, it needs some freeway's, then it needs some billboards, wow, I got right into this, now I have factory's and then as a final I put a few trees (you do have some trees, well, at least in the small city I'm accustomed to), so it became a city, well, what city is complete without department stores, and if you have department stores, you have people, can you see them, well, I'm making this short, I've got a headache, and I'm very tired, got to catch some z's, I like this painting, and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #150 - June 23 - finally caught up

I finally finished the painting I've been trying to get done all week, as you will see, this is quite large, it's 10" x 15", unsure what size frame this will take, the reason I painted this size is, it was a piece of that illustration board with a gesso coating that I have recently enjoyed painting on, it was a board approximately 15" by 20" that I cut in half, if I had cut it in half again it would have been ok, but I hesitate to do that since it was about the correct size for this composition. I did struggle getting it done, but I think it was worth it.

I had another session with the computer guy again today, sure am getting sick of dealing with this, but, he says that it's ok now, I'm thinking that there is some program on here that is causing a problem, I did install some older programs that may be causing this difficulty, I'm considering uninstalling a couple of those programs to see if this really is straightened out. I don't think I really need all those programs anyway, I do still have the main computer (this is just a laptop).

As I said earlier, this painting is on acid free illustration board with a gesso coating, I probably will do some smaller paintings for a few days, sure am stressing myself out since I got behind, but I should be ok now, I managed to paint on 3 today and finished 2 so, I'm good to go.

This painting is another painting of Fumee Creek falls, I know you've seen a few of these, but I got so many wonderful photo's I just can't help it. I started with an over all undercoat of the local color (mid value), then I went in and worked on the upper falls first, the rocks and then the trees, the water was last, then I put in the major trees in the middle ground and after that I started to work on the rocks and water in the foreground, I just finished up the lower falls water and the larger rock and vines (or roots) on the far right, the foreground water and rocks were then put in, after that, I went in and put the dead leaves that had fallen all over the rocks in and put the branches on the overhanging trees and the pine needles on the middle ground pine trees. Done, I like this painting and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #149 - Still one painting behind

I started this today but I will count it as yesterday's painting again, I am almost done with the one I started last week, but I wanted to try painting another 6" painting so I didn't finish it, I may finish this blog and paint it, so you will get it today (since it is already Friday), that means that in addition to painting one for tomorrow (or rather Friday), I do have to finish this one last painting that I'm behind, I sure hope this doesn't happen again, I really got out of kilter for this week, I'm thinking that if I do this blog thing again, that instead of painting one a day I may change that up to painting one or two a week, that shouldn't be a problem, I guess I just didn't take into consideration that there are going to be days that I just can't get at the painting, as you all can attest to here and now.

This painting is of my one and only raft trip, taken almost 21 years ago, my dear brother-in-law, Gordon, said that if I'd do it, he would pay, well, his 80 year old dad, his brother, his brother's daughter and myself, went on the first boat, bet you can't guess which one is me, nor the 80 year old man, lol, I know, it's really small and the faces are just blobs, well, I'll tell you if you can see, I'm the one with the sunglasses just behind, and the 80 year old man is the one with the tan life vest, ok, now that's enough info, you see if you can find us.

This is a river just outside the Indian reservation in North Carolina, it's not a major white water river just a middle one, I really can't remember what the number is, I got lots of pictures of rivers and rocks on that trip, this is just before I married my current husband, he and I were just seeing each other, no idea that we'd get married, and I mooned over him the whole trip, what a hoot! I really enjoyed painting this painting, it took me back, I sure hope you like it too.

Painting #148, this is yesterday's painting

I was so wiped out yesterday after getting back Monday so late, I'm sorry I didn't post a painting, I finished one that I started on Saturday before the wedding, we went shopping at Michael's and I got some watercolor canvases on sale, so I decided to paint on one, I really was getting into this one, but had to leave it to get dressed and leave for the wedding, and didn't get to finish it until today, I really worked on it quite a while, and I know I should start back to the 6" paintings, I'm spending so much time on these that I'm not getting much else done, as you can see, this is quite complicated, of course it's 12" x 12" and it is also a gallery wrap, that means that you can paint the sides of it so you don't have to frame it, but, one draw back, you do have to spray these wonderful little paintings, because if you don't, they will wash right off, I do have some U.V. protection spray that I intend to use.

This is another one of those wonderful garden paintings that I've had so much fun painting lately, this is a composite of 2 photo's, one of a statue of an old garden statue in a garden on the outskirts of Three Rivers, MI, I haven't been there in 25 years, so I have no idea if it is still here, the flowers were from the previous garden painting I did, and that's because the garden this was centered in wasn't really very pretty when I took this photo, I love this statue, I have no idea who it's supposed to be, but it is a wonderful statue, and life size (at least). The background and the statue are from the Three Rivers photo, and the garden is from the California garden, quite a combination, huh? Well, I really did enjoy painting this one, and I intend to use the painting I started last week for today's painting since I'm starting to catch up, I really love this piece, and I hope you do too.

Blog posting #147

Well, we didn't get home until just about 1/2 hour ago(it's after 11:00 p.m.), I did paint today, I got right up this morning, before anyone had a chance to divert me, and painted on a fairly simple painting, I tried to paint in the car, but that didn't work out, my husband was falling asleep (really he just didn't sleep well, again, so he wasn't in much shape to drive), so, I drove from Madison Wisconsin until we got into the state of Indiana, quite a drive for me, needless to say, I'm in no shape to finish my painting, none of the 3 I have in progress, so, maybe tomorrow in class I can finish something and then get home and work on the others to catch up, I knew that going to this family Wedding that I might get talked into staying a bit longer, we were asked for brunch on Sunday, it didn't get started until after 12:00 p.m., and then they opened the gifts, it was after 3:00 before we could really leave, and so, Lin and Art said we might just as well follow them to Rochester and stay and at least get a decent nights sleep, so we didn't leave until 8:00 something this morning, and we hit Chicago at rush hour, so it took longer to get here, plus since we lost an hour, it really put me home late and I'm whipped! So, I don't have a painting for you again today, I will try to catch this back up and get back in the groove, hopefully tomorrow will be a good day to finish a painting, at least one.

The one thing I've been happy about is, that I did paint everyday that I was gone, even though I didn't get one finished, I did paint, so tomorrow I should be able to get something finished. I will do my best. Thanks for checking this out, please come back tomorrow for the finished pieces.

Ok, I took a picture of the center piece on the table, these are the flowers that everyone had at their table, I thought it would be nice to at least give you a sample of some of the wonderful things she did, and she did a lot, wow, I'm impressed, I'm not a scrap booker, she is, and wow, what a job that was, kudos to you Carin.

painting #146 - We were on a trip to Minnesota

This painting isn't the one that I originally meant to finish, but this is the one that was done first, so this is the one that I'm going to insert here.

We got talked into going to a Brunch this on Sunday morning (I thought it was morning, but really it was afternoon and then we watched them open the gifts, we didn't get out of there until after 3:00, and we should have been on the road that morning, about 7 or 8 a.m., so since we had been running around, and so much stuff going on, and we decided to leave Monday morning, that means the painting just didn't get done. The 3 day week-end ran over into 4 days, and I'm now behind the 8 ball. I Hope you forgive me for not getting this done (I should have had at least 3 done ahead, or 4, for just this situation), but I will try to catch up (if possible), tomorrow, if not then I will do it Tuesday or Wednesday, I will catch it up, so sorry for all that are expecting a painting today, I'm not going to be able to give it to you, I did paint on it tonight, I worked about an hour and a half, got a bit done and with luck, I will be able to get it done tomorrow, that will put me behind 1 or 2 paintings, maybe I can paint in the car (well that didn't work), so I don't have to come up with more than 1, please check this site out tomorrow, if I get it done, you will be the first to know. Good night, and it's a 12 or 13 hour drive tomorrow, then we will all have to go to work with no rest, opps, should have known that we'd get waylaid, those family doings sometimes take longer than you plan, oh well, it was a wonderful wedding, and I'm glad we went. Talk to you tomorrow.

I finished one today (this is Tuesday) and have another just about done, I'm on my way right now to finish it and then I'll only be 2 short, well, I will catch it up.

June 18, blog painting 145 - wedding today

I just want to let you know, the wedding was wonderful, they are still partying, I just had to leave, first off, my ankles look like balloons, secondly, I needed to get this posted, after all, I did plan for this, so I had another extra painting, since I figured I wouldn't have time to paint, well, guess what, I did paint today, of course it's because I managed to get to Michael's Art store today, and I bought stuff, and so I decided to come home and work with it, I am still working on the other one, I will work on it here directly, but since it is getting late, I thought I would blog this first, I had to start another one, I bought some watercolor canvas, and it just screamed, "Paint me", well, I got the first layer on before we went to the wedding, now, the wedding is done, and I'm comfortably back in the motel so, you will probably see this one in a day or two, I'm so excited to do this, so, before I get lost in the new painting, I'd better get started on the one that I prepared for today.

This painting is of a grist mill, somewhere in Tennessee, I didn't take this picture, I borrowed it from someone that wanted one painted (it was a commission some 15 or 16 years ago (maybe more), I got a black and white copy (don't remember where I went to get it), anyway, I liked the way the picture looked, so, I decided that I might paint it again, and this is the 3rd one, I painted it in pastel, for me, about a year after I did the first one.

This is painted on the clayboard with the opaques & I started out by drawing the mill, then the background went in, I indicated some tree shapes and made the shadows come slanted so that it looked like a hill, then the middle ground and finally the foreground, I think by now you pretty much know how I work, after that was dry, I started to fine tune the background, and I moved around and kept fine tuning it until it suited me, I like this little painting and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #144, no painting today, have to rely on the spare

I did bring my painting stuff, I intend to paint something before I go to bed, but for now, I will use one of the spare paintings I made for just this special situation, I didn't get to bed yesterday at all, I was still on the computer at 1:30, then into the shower, load the car and we left the house at 2:30 a.m. for Minnesota. It was a beautiful day, we had a good trip, no trouble, only a couple of places where the traffic was slowed down to a crawl, and no accidents, so it was a good trip, we made it to the Hotel by 3:00 p.m. Minnesota time (4:00 p.m. our time), which made the trip about 13 hours, we did stop for breakfast and lunch so if you take about an hour off for that, it was 12 hours.

I know this painting is very similar to other paintings I've done, but, it was a class project for my Sturgis group, and it was about 75% done and it was easy to finish for an extra one for this trip.

Since this was done a few days ago, I'm not really going to explain the process, I did start with the flowers, I put the yellow in and blended the purple into it so it still showed, the leaves were next and I fine tuned those, I like this little painting and hope you do too.

Painting #143 - June 16, kind of a hurry up day

That sure seems to be the theme today, hurry up, get this painting done, hurry up, get to the bank, hurry up, drop off the insurance payment, hurry up pack, hurry up, fix munchies, hurry up get this posted, whew! I am going to catch a couple Z's here directly, very few, we are leaving in just about 2 hours, I have to get a shower and change clothes, and then we are on the road, I'm glad it's finally here, should be a fun week-end, we will be with lovely people and I'm looking forward to it.

This is one I have painted before, but, the first one was pastel, and this is watercolor, I like to paint the ones that I had done previously with pastel, changing it up to watercolor, it sure does look different, but similar. I am still short one blog painting, have 2 in reserve, but I may have to work on one for a little bit, I do have a very nice one about 1/3 done, still have about 3 or so hours to work on it, it's a bit larger than my standard 6" or 7", I have deviated from the strict size restrictions that I imposed on myself for this blog, I started to feel that is was cramping my style, so I have done a few that are larger, of course those do take a bit longer to paint, especially when I really jump into the detail, and the one I have to finish is pretty detailed.

Well, I really am going to cut this short, I have to get a little sleep, if I'm going to stay awake to keep my husband from falling asleep while he's driving, we were advised to go through Chicago early so we'd miss the rush hour traffic, so I will be blogging from a motel room sometime today (since I didn't get this done until it's after 12, so, I'm going to sign off now, I like this painting, and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #142 - June 15 - Ultra Busy Day

No time to paint today until I got to Susan's for Blue Moon, I had a doctor's appointment this morning, took an hour, now I have to schedule ex-rays and blood work, but that's not all, then I had an appointment with Donna at The Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, a couple hours apart, so I thought I had enough time to head home and get my painting stuff (I forgot to add it to the car before I left), so I really pushed it for time, was a few minutes late, I knew I wouldn't have time to get it after the appointment before I had to go to Tibbits to help hang our Arts Alive show, it's "Downsizing" (that's our theme for the show), the show is very small paintings, and there were lots of them. Then we went to dinner, and after that, we headed to Susan's for Blue Moon, I had about an hour, maybe a bit more,to paint, but not much more, I had to get home to work with the technician to fix my computer at 9:00 p.m., well, after 3 hours of messing with it again, we still are at the same place, now the bad news is that we may have to take it back to factory, wow, I could have done that myself, and saved a lot of money!

Well, this painting I worked on at Blue moon, I could have worked on the one I worked on a bit yesterday, but I decided to start a floral, I can paint those much faster, so I decided on these, I like the way the flowers swing around, almost looks like dancing, so I started wet in wet, on my regular 140# paper, while it was still wet, I decided to go in and add some details, I really worked on it a lot longer than I advise my students to, when the paper is wet, sometimes if you have too much water in your brush you get a boo boo! Well, I was lucky, probably because I wasn't using much water, so, when I got home, I worked on it a bit before the guy called to work on the computer, then off and on while he was working on it, and now, I rushed it a bit to get it done, I may have worked on it longer, but it's really late, almost 2:00 a.m., and I have to get to bed, work tomorrow, and then pack to leave for the wedding in Minnesota, so I cut this one short, I like how it looks, so I'm hoping you like it too.

Painting #141, Busy days never cease

I'm starting to get frazzled, this computer is really giving me a fit, so I'm not going there just now, I'm still irritated, it's late again, because I was on the phone with a computer tech. for over 3 hours, again, so it still isn't fixed and I have to deal with it again tomorrow night to see if another computer geek can fix it, some stuff really got messed up and now my anti-virus program can't download, so I will get it straightened out, one way or another, if I have to take it back to factory, then I will, hate having to re-load all those programs though, but that should fix the problem.

Well, this was a simple painting, I worked on another one at first, but it was larger than the regular size, which takes longer, and I knew I wasn't going to get time to finish it, so, I switched gears. I started another one that I knew wouldn't take as long, this is a photo of my dear friend Lynn's birdhouse and her wisteria bush before it got leaves, my branches are a bit larger than in reality, but that's ok, I don't care if they are thin or fat, same with me, lol.

I painted this on gesso coated watercolor paper, I sketched in the birdhouse and the main branches, then floated the background shadow in around the birdhouse, I then painted the sunlight side with a color called Juane Brilliant #1 (don't know if I spelled that correctly, oh well), anyway, then the birdhouse and finally the branches of the wisteria, I'm not going into the nth degree of detail on this, it went fairly quickly and I do like this painting, sure hope you like it too.

Painting #140, another busy day

I'll be glad when this wedding thing is over, I am ready to just have my days to paint, I did manage to get 2 finished today, they were 2 that I had started a few days ago and didn't get back to (I'm really good at starting paintings and sometimes, bad about finishing them), I had to take my van over to the repair shop, having break and ABS issues, so I painted, then I ran over to have them check it out, then, back to paint, cook supper, and paint some more, I just finished this one, the one I did just before this one is my 2nd spare for the wedding trip, I have to do just one little thing to it to finish it, or I'd have put that one up instead of this one. I don't know if I can manage to get another spare before we go or not, tomorrow is class day and I usually can manage to almost get one done, but not so sure about the 2nd one, we'll see.

This painting was about 1/2 done, it's painted on gesso coated watercolor paper, 6" square (approximately),I did paint over everything except the sky today, I decided to change the foreground, I think the 2 extra cows add something to it, although they do look a bit cartoonish, I don't think cows are my best, although if I have good pictures I don't do too bad, I just don't have cows down to a science yet, maybe if I paint them again, I'll get it. I also changed the fence lines, I had originally had them crossing in the foreground, well, it got too confusing, so I decided to add the cows instead, I did have a picture but the picture was so dark it was hard to see the detail in the black and white, well, it's as good as it's going to get for now, if I can find some better pictures, I may change it later, I like this painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #139, what a busy day

Sunday, June 12, 2011, I haven't been putting the date on, but since this is technically June 13 (I'm late getting this posted), but this is really my June 12th painting, cooking, painting, shopping, cleaning, you name it, I've done it today, no rest for me, I'm going to make this short again today, I started this painting yesterday at our paint-out, but I didn't have the trees as good as I wanted them so I am using this today, I like it much better, now that I have the trees adjusted the way I wanted them, I sat on the main four corners of Coldwater with my friends and daughter, and painted the building across from me, which was Putnam Funeral Home, it's a beautiful large building next the the historical park with all the cannon that you see in the picture, there were a couple people in the park, but by the time I got to painting them they were gone, so these people are fictitious, I think the guy standing looks like my son-in-law, so I put my daughter in next to him (doesn't look much like her though), oh well. I really meant to get more than one painting done yesterday, but that didn't work out, I did get a few photo's of some other stuff that may, or may not, as I deem fit, get into a blog painting. This week is going to be very busy for me, something going on every day and then the week has come that we are to go to Minnesota, I did manager to finish a small painting (a floral) for the extra one's I need for the week-end (so I don't alienate my husband by painting on the trip), but now I have to figure out how to get 2 more, sure can't see how that's going to happen, but I will try. This week is also the week that I have the meeting with the Director of the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, I'm so excited, sure hope I can pull that off, really want to schedule that one person show.

Well, now on with the painting, this was painted "en plein air", so it may not be as fine tuned as some of the other stuff, I did manager to get the trees the way I wanted them, I tried to move the trees a bit and show some of the building, there are a lot of trees in that park, so I was up and moving around and checking out the structure and shapes of windows so I had some idea what they really looked like, I should have parked my stuff on the sidewalk and painted the front, but that would have meant leaving my friends all alone (hummmm!), well, I will have to do the front of the building another time too, it really is beautiful, anyway, I had a good day yesterday and today was fine tune the painting so I had a good day today too, especially after I talked to my friend Susan, I had forgotten all about the Michigan Art Competition reception today, so, I didn't make it, my friend Susan called and asked if I was going, and I had to tell her no, since I was still home, that's a 48 min. drive from my house and the reception was over at 4 (I think), so she wanted to know if I wanted her to collect any prize I might win, well, I told her I didn't think I'd win a prize since my painting that got accepted was just a simple watercolor, well, guess again, I always seem to manage that, I don't go to the show, and I do win a prize, well, it was just a purchase award but a purchase award means I sold a painting and I don't have to pay the commission, selling a painting is really good, and I'm very happy, so it was a great day, now, I am happy with this painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #138, painting in the park today

I painted in the park today, but, it's not finished enough for me, so I'm giving you this painting, I finished it last night just before bed, which was really this morning, so this is the one you get today since I'm very tired and not up to working on my painting from the park any more today, I'll finish it in the morning and you'll get it then, sorry, I'm just tired.

This painting was painted in my usual manner, I start at the top and work my way down, once the first wash is on (that means a thin layer over all), I then start in the farthest, which is the woods in the background, and work my way forward, I had a lot of fun with the trees, so many branches, then the corn stubble, I'm making this short tonight, there is a movie I want to watch, with my husband, on TV and it's already on, I like this painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #137 another busy day

I'm beginning to feel as though I never get to just sit, sometimes you just need to relax and watch TV with the husband, for some reason I don't seem to get to the painting until it's time to deal with dinner, and then when that's done, I'd just like to sit sometimes, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm starting to get tired, it's almost been 5 months of painting everyday, my intention was to get painting everyday, and that's working, I said I was going to, so I do, and that's good, but, I wish I could change myself to get the painting done before it's time for my husband to be home (and I'm sure he does too), I'm sure hoping that this instills a drive in me that, so far, is lacking, I really want to do this, and I really don't know why I can't make myself get to it sooner, I'm a last minute kind of girl and I guess that's so instilled that I can't change it, and the heck of it is, I really want to do this.

I have a paint out tomorrow, I will be spending the day with friends, and when I do that, I know I'll paint, I'm hoping that the rain holds off until after 3:00 p.m., that's when it ends, and I'm hoping that I can get a couple done, I'm still trying to get a few ahead, haven't managed it so far, I'm leaving next week-end to go to Minnesota for a family wedding.

This painting was done the usual way, the sky was first and then the ground and house and the trees were last, although I belatedly decided to add the moon in this one, so I scrubbed out the area behind the tree (I wanted the branches to come across it, of course, since I scrubbed it out, it still looked blue, so I added the opaque white to crisp it up and make it look like a moon, then the branches went back in and I added the leaves after that. I originally had the house a pink color, then decided to make it purple, and that didn't work either, so I added the white back into it and then it made me happier, I put the shingles in and then added blue on top of that, then the foreground was splattered (the splatters were too small), so I added bits of color with the brush, then the stems and so on in the very front, I like this little painting, and sure hope you do too.

Painting #136, very tired today

Don't know why I did it, ate a bunch of chocolate before bed, and didn't sleep well, got about 2 hours (probably a bit more but I seemed to be aware of every minute that went bye, I slept after the alarm went off, and, of course, don't feel like I slept at all, so, I'm going to make this short so I can get some sleep, sure running short of sleep lately.

Didin't start this painting until almost 8 o'clock tonight, I started one in class today, and I'm really excited to paint it, but, I knew I couldn't get it done before 2 or 3 a.m., so I decided to put that one aside and paint a floral, I can always paint floral's quickly, so that's what I did, I've painted these flowers once before and demoed another one that isn't done, but it's much too large for me to finish it in one 2 or 3 hour sitting.

I painted the flowers with the yellow, wet in wet, moving from greenish yellow for the shadows to the orange for the center and some of the shadows, then I started to put in the green, well, the green didn't do it for me but instead of finishing the green leaves, I decided to finish the flowers, then the buds, once the flowers were done I started to fine tune the leaves, I really didn't like the dark green I put in, it looked dull, so I decided to give the dark areas a layer of prussian blue, that worked for me, it also helped to emphasize the yellow and orange, so this is the painting for today, I will probably have to sign it again, I had to sign it with a regular pen because I left the signing pen over at the studio, and I'm too tired to run over there and get it, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #135, a weird day

Today started rather strange, woke up and looked at the clock to see how late I'd slept, and no power. I freaked, it was not storming, on the contrary, the sun was shining, so what gives? I couldn't even use my cell phone, no cell tower either. I drove to the neighbors, and they didn't have power either, weird! It didn't come back on until sometime after 2:00 p.m., so it was like being stranded a bit, luckily I got most of my blog painting done (nothing else I could do except read, which I did), I taught watercolors in Sturgis tonight, and now I'm home, maybe I can get to bed before 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., staying up that late makes the days pretty long.

Today's painting is from a couple photo's my friend let me have, of these lama's, they were on 2 different photo's, I liked the pose of the smaller one, but I beileve it was taken some time after they had sheared it, the hair was much shorter, the other one was a really nice up close photo, but it doesn't look happy, looks to me like he was getting ready to spit, I understand they do that, but I think it carries well with the two, I just lengthened the hair on the one and changed the lighting just a bit so they looked like they were in the same setting, I was going to put the background scenery in, but, I decided after it was about 3/4 done, that it looked better without the trees, so I painted them out and just put in the purple, it really ramps up the contrast of the light against the dark.

I started with the scenery, and then painted the shape of the lama's, getting the shape of the head was a bit of a trouble, but, finally got it, I still had to adjust it even then, but this is close, not perfect but close. The eyes and muzzle really say lama, I changed the color in the background and then added more white wispy hairs to finish it, I'm very happy with this painting, I hope you like it too.

Painting #134, June 7th, classes today

I've been just numbering these paintings, but, I think that I should be putting the date on them too, I think everyone could eventually figure out the date, but this should be simpler.

This painting's first life was an acrylic, an 11" x 14" done on a gesso board (much larger than I normally work, so it took a bit longer to complete), I did a fun workshop with the City of Coldwater back in March and this was a demo that was just the first layer of paint, I used bubble wrap to create some textures, and did lots of other things (I can't think what they were at this point), but it wasn't very inspiring, so, I decided to cover it with gesso, and when it was coated a couple of times (enough to cover up the ugly beneath), I decided to paint on the gesso with my gouache, once the gesso is dry, it's just a surface, I do like painting on the gesso with the gouache, so, as long as I mat it and frame it behind glass or plexiglass it will endure as long as the other watermedia that I have done. I put the first layer of this painting on last Wednesday, at Blue Moon, but really didn't get to far into it, so today, I decided to attempt to work it into a painting, I think it worked pretty well, the photo was just a picture of this barn and the grasses and trees, I added the painter (I'd think it was me except that it's too thin, or maybe it was me 15 years ago, lol, once upon a time, I was thinner), I think it adds something to it and it also puts the blue of the sky someplace except the sky, so this is good.

I think you already know how I work, so this was done the same way, I work on the farthest and come forward, that way the layers that overlap do it in the right order. I'm tired tonight and I'd better get to bed, tomorrow night is another class and I have to come up with what we are doing, I like this painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #133, it was a demo tonight

My watercolor society asked me to do a presentation tonight, I decided that they probably had seen most of my styles of watercolor, but, I was sure they hadn't seen a demo on clayboard, some of them had purchased some, and some had used acrylics on it, but I demoed the opaques (gouache), on this particular surface, I think I chose correctly, I was a very nice demo, even though it was a relatively small group, but I didn't feel it was horribly small, I've given demo's for much smaller groups. Anyway, I had a good time and I really got a lot of nice comments on my blog paintings, I took them all, all 132, that was a lot, I know, but I wanted them to get the feel of how many that really is, there were 3 boxes (all matted), and a small group of oil paintings, the watercolor society probably wasn't as thrilled to see the oils, but, they were part of my blog, so I included them.

I got a late start with this today since I waited to do the whole demo at the club meeting, so, I got to paint on it for about an hour and a bit more, then when I got home, I finished it, I only worked on it another 2 hours, that's slightly over 3-1/2 hours total and it was an 8" square, so I feel that's pretty good, I kept it fairly simple so that I could get more done during the time alloted me, well, obviously, I didn't finish it, but I think several will check out the blog now, maybe I'll get a few more followers, hope so.

This painting is on clayboard, I laid in a wash of sky, a mix of sky blue and coastal fog (American Journey colors, Cheep Joe's brand), and some purple, that was darker than I wanted, so I added some white and floated it on, and I do mean floated, lots of water, I wanted them to see how the clayboard absorbs the paint a little bit at a time. Then the tree line, then the bushes and brush along the marshy area in the back, now, you realize this is just a beginning wash, just to give the clayboard a tooth, the water was next and the scum on the top and then the bunch of brush in the middle, and finally the foreground water, then it was fine tune everything, kind of hard to explain all of it, as it just progresses, I work here, and then I work there, until it pulls together, and when I can't think what else to do to make it better, I calls it good! I like this painting and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #132 another fun filled day

Family fun, didn't have a whole lot of time to paint, the grandkids were here and I had lots to do, then unexpectedly my oldest grandson came to help me clean the pool, what a nice surprise, we had a lovely dinner and it was great to see him (he's been a bit distant lately), so it was a good day, except for the fact that my husband had to work all day (no day off this week), and he's very tired (and grumpy, understandable).

I decided on this simple scene as I knew I could pull it off quickly, still having computer problems, and had almost 2 hours of dealing with my virus scan, for some reason the computer doesn't recognize it, and I have had an assistant helping me, and still not working, just about to tell them to take their program (and shove it), and I'll get something else, either that or I'm taking this computer and have someone to go through it, that knows what they are doing to straighten it out.

Ok, now, on with the painting. I have painted this scene a couple of times, I sold one, and that inspired me to paint another one, but, it never looks the same, so this one (being square), doesn't look exactly like it either, I really enjoyed the free form of the flowery foreground and the willowy trees in the back. So, this painting is done precisely the same as all the others I've been doing, front to back, it's on the clayboard again, and I only painted it quicker, I really rushed this one. Just about time to shut this down, time for bed, so I'm very happy with this painting and I hope you enjoy it too.

Painting #131, a whole day of painting

I had almost the whole day to work on this, I did work on 2 others but this one is the one that kept me at it. I had to work at the gallery today, and I didn't have many customers, it would have been nice to have a few that wanted to buy paintings, but no luck with that. I did have plenty of time to paint and I did talk to a couple of customers that were very interested in my art, so I felt good about that.

I started this one, or I should say, I designed this one on Wednesday at Blue Moon, I only got the sky painted though, so I decided to give it the rest of the first layer, that amounts to a mid value of the local color (I guess I'm still thinking like a pastel artist, my first love), usually with watercolor you start with the light colors and work your way up to the darks, but, since I'm working with the opaques, I can work that way and get away with it. I then decided to design another one and put that one aside to dry, I should be able to finish the other one tomorrow, if not then I will have it done Monday (hopefully). Monday night is Watercolor society, and I'm demoing working on clayboard, I will have to figure out what to paint on Monday, if I get Mondays done before the meeting, then I will stockpile it for when we go to the wedding in Minnesota (I will need 3, doubt that I will have time to paint while I'm gone).

I worked this one up my usual way, background first, the sky was first, then the background buildings, then the purple trees that are behind the buildings, then I did the foreground building on the right and the tree trunk, then the large barn on the left and the smaller one, and then the tree trunk on the left. Once that was done then I put in the branches of the trees and the foreground grasses, I really like this painting, and I hope you do too.

painting #130, painted off and on all day, good day

I really thought that with the neighbor having a yard sale in my front yard, that I wouldn't get much done, well, I did, I got this painting done before 1:00 a.m., wow, it's getting to be a record. I'm almost getting used to getting 5 hours of sleep, ugh! Well, the yard sale isn't doing well, hate to say it but told her it was a lot of work, for little or no pay and then you have all that stuff to get rid of, and believe me, it's some nice stuff, like new, and some of it is new. Oh well, you can't figure why people don't want to buy.

Well, on with today's painting, I painted this on watercolor paper coated with gesso, I ripped up a bunch of old paintings and coated them with gesso, and I think it works, this is an old falling down house that they bulldozed a year ago or more, I'm glad I got pictures of it before it became history, I'm very fond of this kind of subject matter, I love the broken boards and the overgrown stuff climbing all over, and the empty windows, I chose this subject matter for a workshop I took about a year ago, we did it in black and white, gray, and wild colors, but this is neither, I like to fine tune the detail more than that bunch of small paintings would afford. I'm into local color, so when I choose a site and take pictures, I compose my photo (generally, sometimes I get way too close and have to stick a bunch of photo's together, but I then can make the composition as I see fit.

This is done with the opaques, some opaque, and some translucent. I painted on this a bit here and a bit there today, I thought that the insurance man was coming but since we had those stormes last week end, he had to cancel. I will have to call and make another appointment, but I canceled an eye appointment because I had accidentally scheduled both at the same time, I could have gotten the eye appointment out of the way, oh well. I probably won't go into much detail about the painting, it was done the usual way, I put the background in first and the work my way forward. I put in the branches of the trees last and I think it's done, I like this painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #129, the days seem to be getting longer, but is that good?

My days have been getting longer, haven't been able to get this blog done until 1:00 a.m., yesterday, and today, the days are longer, but, boy, am I tired, will have to make this one short.

This is translucent opaque watercolors on 140# D'Arches, I haven't been painting on just regular paper lately, but today seemed like a good day to get back to it, needed to be able to blend those colors, it isn't easy to do it on the gesso board nor the clayboard, sometimes you just need to be able to pull a wash, and today was it. I decided to do this picture of the water lily because, I just wasn't up to working on either of the other pieces that I had started, I felt that I could pull this one off in a couple hours maybe 3 at most, I didn't get really started until 10:00, lots of things got in my way again today, I'm still fighting with the laptop, I may have to take it back to factory, but not tonight, got to hit the bed, so tired. Tomorrow my neighbor is having a yard sale in my front yard, so I'm sure it's going to be another struggle to get anything done.

I have to get mats cut again, I have been making the paintings much larger than the 6" square ones I was doing, now, I'm having to cut mats for them since all the mats I already have cut are for the 6" ones, I should have stuck to the 6" ones, only, I was feeling restricted, just couldn't put all those compositions on the 6" one. So, I've told you that it's translucent, but there is some heavy opaques on it, I did leave the white for the lily, but I had to paint in the leaves for those fern looking weeds on the left, other than that, it's translucent, I like this painting, and I hope you do to.

Painting #128, it was a day of accomplishment

Accomplishment yes, painting, not too much, I did get the painting done, but very late, fought with the computer again today, that usually takes up more time than I think is necessary, isn't the computer supposed to be more efficient? Well, when you have to dink around trying to figure out how and where to go in a program, it isn't efficient, I was trying out a new program for my new laptop, was considering investing in a program that should be compatible with my Corel Photo Paint program, since I invested in an upgrade for the laptop (the Photo paint program), I assmed that by investing in a new Corel Wordperfect Suite, that it would fit right in with the Corel Photo program like the old version I have, did, well, think again, I don't know where they get these programmers, they just get the darn programs so complicated and nothing works together anymore, I would just install the old program on here, but, guess what, it won't work with Windows 7, imagine that, so, I will have to do all my major art stuff on the old main computer so it looks good. I've already had to upgrade several programs, I'm sure not happy about that, well, let's get on with this painting.

I started this painting a few days ago, and worked on it a couple of times, but it didn't get me, had Blue Moon tonight and started 2 other paintings and didn't work on this one until I got home, one of the problems is that I had misplaced the reference material I was using and I couldn't get the flower to look corect, well, I found some photo's, and they weren't the ones, but I decided to sponge off some of the flower and reconstruct it. So, this painting is very opaque, I usually work with the opaques in a translucent manner but, this time they are opaque. I had to reconstruct both the yellow and the purple flower, I also got the gesso out and re-worked the background and reshaped the leaves, so, this finally got finished, way late, and I'm glad it's finished, I like this painting and I hope you do too.