Painting #188 - July 31 - a nice quiet day

It was a very nice day today, my husband fixed me a lovely breakfast of Blueberry pancakes and sausage links and orange juice (I fixed the "must have coffee", he can't drink it, only I do). We watched some TV and I read my book (now it's finished so maybe I won't be obsessed with it), and we went out to dinner and did the grocery shopping, my painting today is of flowers again, I can paint those pretty fast and I wanted the day to stay nice since he is having a bit of trouble with my blogging, not that he minds that so much as the fact that I procrastinate to paint the thing, and then I'm up late getting it done so I can blog it. I wish I had someone that was coming over everyday, to paint, and I wouldn't have a trouble getting to painting then, I just manage to put it off until I almost don't have time to paint it, I've tried to change that but haven't figured out the correct way to get me kick started, sometime (hopefully soon), I will figure out how that works, I'm going to keep trying to figure out how to trick myself into getting it done earlier, I thought I had it all figured out when I brought the painting stuff over to the house and worked on the dinning room table, but that only worked for a short while, I'll just have to figure it out.

This photo is one that I used as part of another composition, but I just love the way the flower is opening up and it is such a lovely view, I decided to just concentrate on this one blossum. I didn't draw it again, I just started painting the shape of the flower, I floated the dark background in right away to set it up for the light, then I just let it dry until it was set, and once that was done it's just a matter of fine tuning the information, I tried to lift the edges of the petals and it did work a bit but didn't give me the brightness I wanted so I found a color, a MaimeriBlu color called Naples Yellow Reddish, it was wonderful, just what I needed, this painting is painted on the Ampersand Claybord 4" x 4". So, I'm very happy with the way this painting turned out and I hope you like it too.

Painting #187 - July 30 - still taking it easy

This painting is the one I started on Thursday and didn't have the energy to finish until today, it really isn't that complicated, just have a hard time making myself paint for some reason, I want to, but I just procrastinate until there isn't enough time to get it done, so then I hurry to finish one, but, at least I'm able to manage to do something, I got a request in the mail today to do an art fair in Constantine, I have obligated myself for the one in White Pigeon and I had myself all set to call that the last one, now, will I do it, I'm thinking about it. That is something I need to start thinking about, getting some stuff framed and ready to show, plus cut mats and I'm having a hard time making myself do that too, I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only member of the art community that has trouble with that, but it isn't feeling good right now, I'm just in a funk, I think tomorrow I will scan some web sites to see about getting some inspiration, maybe that will help. I need to be thinking about getting stuff framed and ready, after all, I am having a show all by myself in 2012 at the Three Rivers Carnegie Center for the Arts, I was saving all the blog paintings for that, now I'm thinking that the blog paintings may only be a portion of that show, so I need to start thinking of some larger pieces too, all the blog paintings are small by comparison, plus the fact that I'm going to be needing to make some money for the possibility of the residency in Ireland, I wish I knew if they were thinking of accepting us or not, so we can make a plan for something else if that falls through.

This painting is on the claybord, I think you can almost tell, it's so smooth with no textures of the paper, plus the fact that I believe I paint in a different manner than when I'm working on paper. I have lots of paintings to finish that I've had in my bag for a long time, ones that I started in demo's or in class that need to be finished, maybe I'll think of finishing them, one at a time, they are larger, and would take more than a couple of hours to finish, but it's a thought, I will be needing some paintings that are larger for my show, we'll see.

This painting is done in the usual manner, the sky, then the background trees, and I move forward as I go to the house, the tree and the little trailer in the foreground, there was no drive, but I felt it needed something to draw you into the painting, so I put one in. I fine tuned it after the initial layer was dry, still, from the back to the foreground, the house was my stumbling block, the tree was in a bad place so I moved it, then I had to figure out what to do with the space that the tree had originally occupied, well, I managed, I like this little painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #186 - July 29 - first day of relaxation in 6 weeks

It was a good day, should have gone to the studio and cut mats but I worked on the computer, read some of my book, painted watched a little TV, haven't had much of that lately, so I decided to paint another flower picture so I could get to bed at a semi decent hour, I'm tired, but it felt good today to do some of the things that I wanted to do without feeling like I would run short of time, so I didn't get into too complicated of a painting, maybe tomorrow I can get back at the challenge.

These are hollyhock, I've painted lots of these, but they seemed like a perfect flower for a very easy going day, and of the colors of hollyhock, I do enjoy the pink the best. I started with the pink flowers and then put in the green for the stems, buds and leaves, there was a dark background in the photo and it did lean toward the purple, so I decided to go with the purple, then it was simple, fine tune the flowers, starting with the center and I kind of let the leaves become unimportant by eliminating the detail, my focus is, after all, the flowers in the center, I like this painting and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #185 - July 28 - I don't think I've recovered from the last 6 weeks yet

So tired, getting up early, going to bed late, and that's been the mode for the last 6 or 7 weeks, I don't think I've recovered since trying to get ahead for the June wedding in Minnesota, wow, I sure do need some down time, so, I took the easy way out tonight, I sat here with my husband, and we neither one of us could muster up any energy to do anything, he seems to be getting a bug of some kind and I sure hope that I don't get that, what ever it is. Tomorrow, I told my neighbor that I would start walking again, I haven't been walking with her for over a year and a half, I've been bad, and my body is showing it, so, now I will be trying to walk, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, maybe Saturdays when I don't have to go to the Gallery or if I'm scheduled to do an art fair, like the one coming up in August in White Pigeon, haven't been much in the mood to do the art fairs lately, maybe it's because no one wants to spend any money lately, that could have something to do with it, plus the fact that I am now officially a senior citizen, it really is hard to believe that, my mother was the senior citizen, lol.

Well, I decided to do this small floral , I just didn't feel up to dealing with the landscape that I started at class today, it wasn't that it was so difficult, I just didn't get enough of it done so there was a lot more to do that I could manage in an hour and a half, that's all I left myself to paint tonight. So I got out one of the 4" x 4" claybords and decided to do a floral, the photo I used is so old, this plant I killed 30 plus years ago, its an African Violet.

I didn't sketch it, I just jumped in with the light purple and laid in the flowers, then I put in the centers and while the purple was still wet, I put in some green and blue around the edges, this one took about an hour to complete, love those quick ones. Then I just pulled in some shadows and a little petal definition and, Ta Da! It was done, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #184 - July 27 - A fine day, went to Hobby Lobby

Well, got Aunt Alicia on the train headed home, then, went to Hobby Lobby, whew! Sure can get in trouble in that store, got some more of those Aquabords (and a lot more too), so, anyway, it's been a long day and I'd like to get to bed soon, so will try to make this short.

I worked on both of these paintings today, the first one, the acrylic, was actually started several months ago at Blue Moon, we had a session where we all brought mugs or cups from home and sat and painted them on the spot. I ran across this painting at the studio and decided it might be kind of interesting to see how I approach the same subject with two different mediums, the first one is acrylic on canvas (6" x 6"), I was challenging myself to work in a medium that I wasn't accustomed to, I liked this painting so then decided to give the claybord a try with the opaque watercolors, I feel much more comfortable with these materials so I kind of like the second one a little better, even still, I think I could smooth it out a bit more but I'm so tired that I was afraid that I'd mess it up and have to fix it. Maybe I'll work at that another day, today it's a comparison of the same subject with different mediums, I was getting to like the acrylics, I did figure out how to blend, you have to be quick and have the two colors blend together as they are still wet, that worked for me. I do like the opaque watercolors and how they handle on the clayboard, so I will probably keep working with this medium, so I like both of these paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #183 - July 26th - a very busy day today

Lots of work, had to clean house first thing this morning, Aunt Alicia is staying one more night before she goes home, so, had to clean the bedding, and sweep the floors and stash the dishes in the dishwasher, all before I got myself ready to teach classes, then home, and get ready for family to come to dinner, so, I didn't finish this until just before Midnight, I'm very tired and someday, I'm going to sleep in, ha! That will be the day, specially lately.

I'm starting to run the gamut on the fruit, so, maybe I'll find something else to paint, we'll see, I have pictures, but for some reason, after 183, I'm not feeling the interest in those old pictures that I originally thought I would, I'm at the half way point now, but, I still have 182 to go before this project is over, sure hope I can manage it, I will say that I am painting, wow, can't believe some of them, and I'm pretty happy with the fruit, so I'm hoping I can get enthused about something else, hope I can figure it out.

This painting is some peaches in a green depression glass dish, I really like this dish so I'm hoping that you see the loveliness of the reflections and the transparency of the dish, I know I've got that pretty well down, now, to come up with a trick to keep me painting when this project is over, I'm working on that, I'm really tired so I will make this short, the painting progressed as most of my paintings do, I painted the peaches and then the dish and then the shadows on the cloth, then I worked it up to the best of my ability, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #182 - July 25 - didn't spend much time on this one

Trying to cut down on the length of time I can get these done, this painting was chosen because I'm trying to keep these short, well, it doesn't always work that way, I did spend more time on it than I intended to, but, oh well, I'm trying.

I like painting on the claybord when I'm trying to hurry a painting along, I think it's because it is so flat and the paint just lays there a bit, I have this dagger brush that works so well for blending, I went out and found another one, it's almost the same size but now I have a back up when this brush goes the way of all good things, down and out, nothing stays good forever, and don't I know that all too well.

I didn't draw this painting in, I just jumped in with the paint, I positioned the peach on the 6" x 6" board and then the plate and the knife, the cloth and table edge were last, then I just worked the peach until it suited me and the knife likewise, the table was where I used the dagger brush to blend, but I did paint all the under painting with it. I am going to keep this short and sweet, I like this painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #181 - July 24 - I lounged most of the day today

I didn't get anything accomplished today except finish this little painting, and it took me longer than I thought it would. If I figure it right I have about 4 hours in this 6" x 6" painting, I really though it would go much faster, I had it all blocked in and some of the detail done, but, it goes like it goes, guess that was just the way it was today.

I'm not sure I like hobnails, they were tricky and today, my lighting was much darker so the cherry's were much darker and I tried to lighten them up, but, I'm thinking they don't look as good as I wanted them to. I could beat this painting to death, so I decided to stop and call it done, I know when things start to get overdone, and this is about there. I struggled with the cloth too, so I will say that I enjoyed the first cherry painting more than this one, although, I'm sure that when I get some sleep, I may change my opinion.

I started by laying in the cherry's and then the bowl, once I had them positioned, I laid in the cloth shadows and then the far table top, then I really worked hard to get the cherry's and the cloth to smooth out, for some reason they were giving me a fit today, finally I took a damp brush and smoothed the cloth out as much as I could without lifting the paint (kind of tricky with the clayboard). I do like the composition of this painting, and I like the painting too, so I'm hoping that you also like it, going to bed now, goodnight.

Painting #180 - lots of time to paint today, no customers

I worked at the Gallery today, this is a sad state of things, and all too common lately, I had 8 people in today, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and the only one that bought anything was me. I hope we can hold on, this has been a horrible year, and doesn't look like it's getting any better, so I had lots of time to paint. I finished one and have another almost done, only have about an hour to finish it, so I'm sure I can manage to get that done by tomorrow.

Today's painting is a landscape, I was painting a fruit painting, but I couldn't get enthused over it, of course it might have something to do with being tired, short night. I sorted through my pictures and located another waterfall, so I started it and, amazingly, finished it in under 3 hours, I enjoyed painting it, it's not that I'm tired of the fruit, after the landscape was done, I did go back and work on the fruit picture, that will be tomorrows painting.

I painted the sky, then the tree line, and the rocks on each side of the falls, and then I worked on a middle value of water, once that was done, I went back in and gave the sky one more coat, a little bluer, and the trees another depth of dark green, I finished the trees and then went right to the major rocks and worked those up, then the shadows on the falls, the water was pretty much last, and I have several layers on the whole foreground, mostly the white of the highlights were next and then I decided that there was enough white, so, I really like this little painting and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #179 - a sad day for me, a dear friend passed away

I've known Bea Edwards for over 26 years, she came to me for china painting lessons, her husband got sick and she had to drop out, but she came back and she painted right up until December this last year, she was 94 (I think, if not 93), anyway it's a very sad day for me, she was such a lovely person, and I'm very sad, her daughter did make it to see her before it happened and that was important to her, her health had been declining but she kept going, even in pain and the loss of vision in one of her eyes, she is my hero, and I'm very sad, since I will be unable to attend her grave side service, but my heart is there, and I know she knows that, I will miss her, as will all my other students, I love you Bea, God Bless.

I was a bit short of time to get this painting done, it's been a very busy day, I did manage to get it done, even though I'm sure you know that it is Saturday (1:00 a.m.), but, I started this and I haven't been to bed yet, so it counts in my book for the painting for the 22nd. This one is painted on the 5" x 7" aquabord, I took this picture at my friend and students home last week it was taken the same day as the green apples were. I really am going to make this short, I started out by just painting in the fruit, one at a time and I did not sketch, and I only had to make 2 adjustments, the orange was too small and the peach wasn't large enough, so it really didn't take much to fix. I really just kept working at it until it made me happy, I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #178 - Lots of company this week

A busy day again today, had class in Marshall and started this painting there, so I'm going to make this short, since it is late, we went swimming instead of painting early, so I got to finish it after 10:30, so, this painting is of pears again, well, that seemed the easy way today.

So, here goes the painting, I started laying in he pears with yellow and green, once I had the pears in the place I wanted, I started the background, then the table, remember, this is just the first layer. I started defining the pears by shading the green and laying in some splattering, I put the shadows in, I see several colors in the shadow so, the pink is just a fuzzy shade of the table and then I saw a cool edge and then the double dark area, I layered this several times to get to the level of darkness I wanted, then, I laid in a lighter layer on the highlight side and put dark shapes on the shadow side, I wasn't careful I wanted it to be sort of lumpy looking and the spots, you know how pears get after a couple days, these have sat here for a few days now, so they are looking very interesting. I splattered darker green for speckles on the pears and some brown spots, then, of course, I had to re-do the background and the table top, I think I re-did the background and table 3 times more after I splattered, I think this painting is done, I like this painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #177-just a small one today

I had started a much larger painting, but I ran out of time, my cousin from Wisconsin is coming to visit for a few days and I had things to get done, now I'm really tired, so I got out one of the 4" x 4" claybord that I still had (meaning I'm really going to have to order some more of that size, I sometimes need to do a quick one like today), and decided to paint one pear from life, and I mean, that I set the pear on a piece of paper, on the table, and painted it, a very simple composition that is almost abstract.

I knew that I couldn't possibly get the larger one done, this was done in about an hour and 15 min. and really was easy, I just laid in the green for the pear, I had to move it to the side to make the composition work, and make room for the shadow that I felt was a very important part of my composition, I really did see these colors in the shadow. Then, I painted the shadow and then the table and once that had the first layer on I decided to put in a wall in the back, I like the purple with the yellow green, then, I started to fine tune the shape of the pear, once I got that shape the way I wanted it, I splattered it, of course, I had to go back into the background to eliminate the spatters that landed there, and on the shadow, I'm happy with this little painting, I like it and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #176 - still life again, maybe forever

I have really enjoyed these little still lifes, I still have a couple more up my sleeve, so I hope you don't get bored with them, I don't know exactly how many more, just more.

I liked the pears, so I've taken a couple other pictures for more still life's and the cherries too, I am still looking through the china cabinet to figure out which other items I have that seem to challenge me, I will be working on the portrait commission here directly, we talked about it today and have decided to attempt to paint it on one of the 8" x 10 aquabord's that I got the other day, so, hopefully, that will work out this time.

I painted most of this today in class, I had the bowl to finish when I got home and I think it looks like a glass dish, so, that's good, I painted the background first, and the table, when that was dry, I put the green on the pears and the brown for the stems, the pears were larger this time since I decided to paint it on an 8" x 10" aquabord, so to me, they seem a bit flat, maybe not.

I splattered at the end, and put a bit of highlight under the dish attempting to make it look like the light is shining through, in my photo, the background wall doesn't show through the dish, but I lowered the table top, so I had to show the wall through the dish, I like it, now, this painting is done, and I really like it, I hope you do too.

Painting #175 - another still life with fruit

I had such a good time painting those fruit still life's, I deided to do another one, I have another photo for tomorrow (that is if I feel like painting fruit), I do have a portrait to do, but, the problem is that it will probably take more than 2 hours and I sure would like to have it really close to finished before I leave class.

I'm using that aquaboard again, I have really gotten into painting on that surface, I'm thinking I will have to order some more of that stuff, at some time, probably not too soon, I'm hoping I have to really buckle down and save money to go to Ireland, one only hopes.

I started out by painting the background, then I painted the table top, painting around the wine glass and the cherries. then I put the mid tone cherry color in and the stems then the shadows, I enjoyed painting the wine glass, it was much simpler than the cut glass dishes I had done before. I just kept moving around painting cherries and fine tuning the glass, finally, I put the highlight on the stems and then the stem shadow, I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #174 - another good day

I can't believe it, I've really been getting in the groove with these last few paintings, they haven't taken as long to paint (of course they are small, not too small but smaller than the what I've been painting lately), this one is 5" x 7" and painted on the aquaboard again, I have about 2-1/2 hours in this one, amazing for such a complicated composition. I really was expecting to have a problem getting to the painting, what with out of town company (well, family), I thought that my painting might take away from the visit, but, she is very interested in watching me paint, she seems amazed how they progress, that's ok though, sometimes it amazes me.

This painting is similar to one that I painted a couple of years ago, although that other painting was in oil, and this one is the opaque watercolors, the other painting, the kitty is in the foreground, and with this one, the kitty is in the background.

I really enjoyed the aquaboard yesterday, so, I decided to paint on it again today, I used my new 1-1/2" flat brush that I bought yesterday (for my blog painting set-up), I know I have lots of brushes but this one is short handled and much easier to carry around in my kit. I washed in the sky and while it was still wet, jumped in with the green for the trees and I just worked around until I had one layer of paint all over it. Then, I worked the trees in the background and just kept moving forward. There is so much stuff in this one that you can just infer what it all is, just a few of the things you can really tell what they are, I put the finishing touches on and now I'm calling it done, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #173 - Lots of fun today, it was Hobby Lobby!

Well, we attended a graduation party for my Neice, but, before we got there, we shopped at Hobby Lobby in Adrian, oooo! Love that store, I can always find something, and I did, more 12" x 12" watercolor canvas, I really enjoyed painting on those last ones I did on the watercolor canvas, now I'll have to come up with something else. I also found some Ampersand Aquaboard, I've been looking for it, but I guess I was looking for the wrong thing, I was looking for textured clayboard, well, they call it aquaboard, so I found some, I picked up a couple of packages of 5" x 7", and that's what today's painting is painted on, of course it was painted with the opaques. I had a helper tonight, Aunt Alicia, she's here for a couple more days and she has been very interested in how I paint, she had to give up tonight (she watched me paint the whole painting yesterday), since we were on the go all day, she's not up to staying up until 1:00 a.m. to finish these paintings, like I am, well, I shouldn't be so used to it, but sometimes (well, most of the time), I can't help it, that's just the way it is. We were gone all day and I didn't get to the painting until about 9:00 p.m., and I got it done by 11:30, I don't think that's too bad, of course it's fairly small, but, I think it looks really nice.

I took these photo's at the Thursday Marshall class, Edith had these apples, and I just had to photograph them. I also got some pictures of a bowl of mixed fruit (I mean different fruits, not salad), so I may be painting one of those here directly, I also picked up some pears today, I guess it is food still life's for a little while. I've been enjoying these small still life's.

The apples are green, there was a red chair in the background, well, I didn't want to put a chair there, but I liked the red (I may have to give the background one more think coat of paint but I have to get to bed soon), we are having another family gathering tomorrow (in honor of Aunt Alicia, here from Kansas), so I had to put the paint away and get this blogged.

I painted the red background then the apples and the cloth, then I filled a mid value for the spoon and so on for the dish and the table, once that was dry, I started to paint the detail on the spoon and got that pretty good and then went on to the apples, the one in front first and then the one next to it and then the last one, the cloth on the table was easy, I just painted in the shadows and the ramped up the highlights to indicate the light hitting it, and, last but not least, is the cut glass dish, I just like to challenge myself (sometimes too much, oh well), and it was done, the table was also easy, just a bit of burnt sienna and it was done. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #172 - very busy day today - lots to do

Well, started out the day with cleaning, ugh! But, necessary, got company! Must get rid of all those cobwebs.

This painting is on clayboard, with the gouache (the opaques), I started out with the sky, then while it was still wet, I laid in the very farthest ground and put in some different colors to indicate farm fields, maybe you can see that, maybe not, but it's in there. I also put some very light blue for the water and then back to the very light green for the middle ground, the foreground has another little bit of water in it and those lovely willows (trash trees according my husband), but look at those lovely branches, I think it's pretty. Once the ground was in I let it dry and then went in with the tree trunk to get that established, I put in some of the branches, not all, then laid in some of the middle tones for the bunches of leaves (this is the pre-ground for the very last layer of leaves that go on at the last), then I went in toward the back and started with the farthest and got the fields and stuff looking fairly good, then to the left, I started with those stick trees far back and started to lay in some leaves, then I continued down the left side and filled in the trees and bushes so that I could see where I wanted to go from there. I started to put in some leaves, the tree looked kind of skimpy with leaves, this tree has many more than the one in my photo, but they looked kind of pink so I added some lavender/pink with some of the green I just kept adding leaves, then I went back into the branches and added a lot more of those, the foreground was next, as I needed to make the grasses look like grasses and I think I did that pretty well, then back to the leaves, and then the branches, did that several times until I felt it didn't need any more, there are so many colors of leaves in this, you see green, you see yellow, you see pink you see sort of orange and some grayish, too many colors, lol. I think it looks good and I'm happy with this painting, and I hope you like it too.

Painting #171 - July 14 - still life with eggs #3

Well, don't know how long I can keep this up, think I got too carried away today, this took me a bit longer than the other 2 did, of course I had a lot more eggs, but the glass was simpler, don't know why it took longer, you'd think that it would have been easier, but not, these eggs really took me a while, I have about 4-1/2 or more hours in them, yesterday's only took me 2 hours, and that just doesn't seem right, oh well, it's done now, going to be a busy week-end and then the week, then maybe next week too, got family coming in, so have lots to do, and I also have to get the neighbor to the hospital for a something or other that her husband doesn't seem fit to take her for, so, I get to, and I have lots to do (cleaning house and changing bedding), and sweeping and dusting and all that stuff to do yet, and I'm sure I won't get it all done, so, I'm thinking I might have trouble getting my blogs done over the week-end and possibly during the week too, sure hope I can keep this going, sure don't want to get behind again.

Well, here we go, this painting is done of 140 lb. hot press and for some reason, the 140 lb. paper doesn't paint as well as the 300 lb., I like the smoothness of this paper but it is more absorbent than the 300 lb paper is, this one turned out ok, but I don't think the paint moves as well on it. I started by sketching the vase with the eggs, then I painted the table and backdrop, I painted around the vase and the eggs. Then I started working the vase and the eggs, I laid in the basic shape of the vase and tried to fill in the spaces behind the eggs with the correct color, well, you see, I don't have a very good place to take these photo's, so I used a piece of my 10" x 10" illustration board, one for the table and one for the background, then I moved around to get the lighting I wanted, and when I did that, I ended up with some dark places behind the vase (The dark shows through the glass, and not the light background that I really wanted to see through the glass), so I had to make up the colors in the background, and the color should show through the glass so, that's what I tried to accomplish. I know these are very colorful eggs, but they are really white eggs, the the shadows looked so warm, I could see hints of the orange all over the place, so I just tried to paint what I saw, I set this up this morning, before I went to my Marshall classes, and had my plan all worked out. Usually, I scan through my photo's to come up with a subject to paint. I did ask the girls to help me come up with some other suggestions for eggs, since I'd like to carry this theme for at least 10 paintings, hopefully.

I really had to work to get those eggs smooth, the opaques don't like to blend much, but, with a little effort, I ended up dry brushing, and blended them that way, I like this painting, and I hope you like it too.

Painting #170 - second in the egg series

I had a bit extra time today since it was my day off and my classes for Sturgis have been canceled this month due to some surgery one of the students was having done today (today would have been the first class for July), she has made arrangements for a ride for the first part of August so we should be back on schedule, hopefully everything went well and she will be able to come to class in August.

I looked through the china cabinet again, to find a suitable dish, the pink one was fun, so I decided to try another one, this dish is one I got from my mother, it's a beautiful dish but I seldom use it, so it seemed a good idea to use it for a prop. I decided on 3 eggs this time, 2 in the dish (I had originally put the 3 eggs in the dish, but this arrangement seemed better), so, once I decided on the composition, I took photo's (mostly so that I could put the eggs back in the refrigerator, so I set it up, but took pictures to work from, one thing is that the light source stays constant in the photo, I spent about 2 hours on this painting, it's much bigger, the first one I did was on a 6" x 6" canvas, this one is about 9" x 12", and is opaque watercolors on 300 lb. hot press watercolor paper. I really enjoyed painting on the paper this time, I've been so stuck on the gesso, but this time I went with the bare paper. I started out by sketching, then I floated in the pale background, moving from blue to pink to yellow and mixing it up so it's not all the same color, I used the same colors that I painted the eggs and the bowl with, only paler. I then started putting in the blue gray color for the bowl, it changes colors so quickly that I decided to give it a unifying wash of blue gray paler in some places, with the opaques, you can go in and alter the colors, lighter on top of darker, with transparent colors, you either have to paint around the lights or mask them, I'm not as fond of masking, I've done it but it's not my favorite, I always get too much in a hurry and mess up the mask by not taking the correct amount of time to get it in the right place. So, the opaques have been wonderful for this project. Once the first layer of blue was in, I moved on to the eggs, I really enjoyed painting these eggs, the colors are so subtle, moving from warm to cool and the shadows, dark in some places, it's just such a challenge, and the same with the crystal bowl, I really moved back and forth with the lights and darks for the bowl, I had to really fudge some of it, it's virtually impossible for me to do photographic, I am not a photographic artist, I can get it to look photographic but it is not, if you really look close you can see that I didn't get it exact, there are some bits of turquoise here and there too, so now that it's done, I really like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #169 - back to nature

Our Blue Moon group went out sketching, slightly over a week ago and this was started then, I decided to finish it for today's painting. It was fairly blah and I had a bit of convincing to talk myself into working on it but once I got started, it went fairly well. I used the opaques to finish this piece but it was started with the transparent watercolors, that's what I have in my sketching kit.

I usually work on the sky, and I did start it that way, but then I didn't like how dark the sky was, so I re-did it, painting around the trees that were already painted, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. I really worked hardest on the right side of the painting, I really got into the 2 girls on the bank and the trees, then the rocks, and then the water, the left side of the painting was last and, as it's not as important, I didn't spend quite as much time on it. The last thing I worked on was a few more highlights on the water, now I think it's done, I like this painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #168 - another still life

I had a chat with my friend Sue, and she suggested that I do a series, I was going to do apples, but I thought that might be too close to the one I did the other day, and besides that, they were her apples, so, I thought, what do you have that you can use for a still life, well, I found a couple of eggs, trying to keep this simple, so I thought, what else do you want to add, well, I thought about a wine glass, but that really didn't trip the trigger, so I looked around in the china cabinet and found this depression glass sugar bowl that my Mother-in-law had given me a few years ago, love this color and it's so dark, and because I can't just do the simple I thought it might be a nice challenge to capture the transparency of this item, I think it works well, it really is done quickly only about 3 hours of working on it, but, again late so I have to make this short.

This is done in acrylic, Sue suggested oil but I didn't have the oils here, they are at the studio and I would have had to get them out and re-set up the palette, since the acrylic palette is already set up, that's what I used, I think I'm starting to get the hang of the acrylics anyway, it went pretty well today, I really jumped into the pink and put the shape of the sugar bowl in, then I got into the eggs, and the shadows, I worked all over, fine tuning it here and there, hard to say exactly how it was painted, so I'm going to cut this short, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #167 - suffering a sunburn from yesterday

Yesterday, my daughter and grandson came by to swim in the pool, so, I decided to go out and spend the day with them, well, spending it (all afternoon) in the pool, when you've not been in the sun much, isn't a good thing, I forgot to put on the sunscreen, oops, now I'm paying, my daughter was burnt a bit (not as much as me) and Ryan too, he looked like a lobster, I'll bet he is suffering too, I thought about it when I went in and decided to fix supper and got the sunscreen out, but it was too late, I know I should have thought about it sooner, I'll have to attempt to remember to get it out next time.

Well, I didn't start the day out too good, didn't sleep well (for obvious reasons) and then didn't feel real well to start out, I did improve, but I sure didn't feel much like painting, but I did manage to get one done, this is a subject that I painted in pastel a long time ago, I like this group of buildings and the field of grasses, it just catches your eye (well, mine anyway).

I started this last Tuesday and then didn't get back to it until today, I had it about 1/3 done, it's painted with the opaques on the clayboard, then I decided to re-do the barns and the sky, and that pretty much made it totally re-painted, so this painting's sky was too blue, so the gray with a touch of purple looked a lot better, then the barns were pretty wimpy, I really worked them up, and then I really started to get into this painting, once the problems were solved it went really well, I love the grasses, they really worked up nicely, then the foreground grass and the fence posts, now it is finished, I love this little painting and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #166 - July 9 - another Acrlic

I don't know why, I just picked up the acrylic palette when I set up for the painting, so, since I already had the acrylics out, I decided to paint with them, so, I picked one of those 10" x 10" gessoed illustration board panels I made up, I really didn't have time to do that large of a painting but, since the acrylics were out, I decided to do the larger size anyway. I did take a bit longer painting this than I planned on, but, oh well, it technically is Sunday the 10th, but I did start it and finish it within this last 3 and 1/2 hours, so I'm counting it as one day, this it that same Mandevilla plant that I used the other day, remember, I said I wanted to do another composition of this, so here it is. I may even do it with watercolor, I do like to paint flowers.

I did start out with the pink flowers, then the leaves (I painted yellow green first and then moved into the darker green as a base, after I did that, I worked on the main group of flowers (the two larger blossoms at the bottom, but I still couldn't see how it might look, so I decided to put in some dark for the background, it's really dark blue, then I finished the leaves and the other flowers, I like this painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #165 - July 8 - Something different today

It was a Blue Moon day, we got together to paint, Sue had a setup ready, so we all decided to paint a still life from life. I decided to do that acrylic painting that I've been thinking about doing, remember, I said I might do one, well, here it is. I do believe that I like the oil a bit better for blending, but I have all these acrylics, so I'm going to use them. I did have a good time painting it, like I said though, I would have liked them to cover better and blend better, maybe if I keep working with them, I'll get so I can manage it, of course, my acrylics are the soft body kind, and I think that's why they don't cover as well.

I decided to work on an 8" x 10" gallery wrapped canvas, I painted all around the sides, which you can't see in the photo. I sketched this on the canvas, then started right in with orange on the red pitcher, this red pitcher is a very warm red so the orange was the highlight for the red body. I pretty much laid in all the local color on each of the apples and the cloth, I originally had an antique doll size trike, but it didn't really help the composition, so I took it out, part of the reason I took it out was that it was supposed to be a supporting actor, but it was intricate enough that it was drawing your eye to it, plus the fact that I didn't have a large enough canvas to make it as detailed as it should have been if it was the focal point, and the fact that it was running off the page didn't help, so I took it out. I decided on the striped background. the dots were originally white but I decided with so much orange that they should be blue, so blue they became, this was a fun day, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #164 - July 7 - the clayboard again

I guess I got so wrapped up with the illustration board with the gesso application, that I forgot that I really did enjoy painting on the clayboard, it just seems like I discovered the clayboard again, I really think it depends on what you want to paint on it, but the scenery seems to really work well on this surface. I have had some success with flowers too, but, I think the clayboard really does well with the landscapes. Don't get me wrong, I really like the illustration board with the gesso too, but I had a failure (I over wet it and it damaged the surface and soaked up the board underneath), so I'm kind of staying away from it right now, I'm sure it will get back to it again too, the one trouble with it is that I've been tired again, and those pieces are 10" x 10", it really takes all day for me to finish one of those, or more than one day, parts of 2 or 3.

This scene is reminiscent of many back dirt roads, and just seemed to call me. I took this photo on an outing with my friend Carol, we went out sketching (and taking photo's) several years ago, I was looking through my photo's and found it and decided to work it up, I do think I need to finish a bit more on the limbs of this tree, but I have to look at it in the morning, right now my eyes are crossed (well, not crossed, but very tired), so, I put the sky in, while it was wet, I added the line of trees in the back and then the middle ground trees, I put in the patch of dried grasses in the middle, and then the green in the foreground, and last but not least, I put in the two trees in the foreground. I like this painting and I hope you do too.

Painting 163 - July 6 albeit a few min, past 12:00 a.m.

Got a late start today, still having a few computer problems, well, I think I have it fixed, somehow, this computer keeps loosing the wireless program for my wireless printer, I had to connect it directly to the computer via USB, then tell it I wanted to switch it from USB to wireless, never had it connected directly so don't really understand why it lost it, but it did find it and now I can print again, kind of hard to print when it doesn't see it. So, enough of the computer stuff.

I had a bit of confusion today, couldn't remember that we decided to do the Blue Moon thing on Friday instead of Wednesday, got in my car and drove over to Sue's, funny thing, no one was there except Sue, so I drove by and called her on the cell phone, really felt dumb, but oh well, decided to go sketch, I drove all over, and didn't find a thing, so I went home (after about an hour and a half, my husband would have a stroke about the gass, oops), so, when I got home, I got my new bush (well, it's a vine), and put it in the sunshine and took a bunch of pictures of it in different directions, this vine is so pretty, large pink tubular flowers and it's going to bloom for a while, hopefully, we'll get it planted before it doesn't have a chance to get set in the ground before winter comes, it's called a Mandevilla, really pretty.

I decided to do just a small one for now, I am considering making a much larger composition since they are so pretty, you really can't tell what the flowers really look like with this view, but I did like this composition, so, that means you will probably see a larger composition of this. First I painted the medium pink, then I put a bit darker pink for the petal definition, once the flower was in (and I didn't draw it, again), I put the green for the leaves in and finally the gravel (I know it's really hard to see that but I did like it in the background instead of the normal blue that we all have a tendency to do behind flowers), I really worked up the background first then the leaves, I like the simplicity of these leaves, then I fine tuned the flower, and put the white bits on the edges of the leaves and the flowers, now, I really do like this little painting, oh yes, I forgot to tell you it's on 4" x 4" clayboard, I only had time to do one, but I do think this works, and I hope you like it too.

Painting #162 - a very small addition today

I really intended to paint something else today, but, as the day progressed, the paintings went down the tube, I really wasn't happy with my portrait sky, I know, you didn't get to see that one, well, now you never will, I was painting it on the illustration board with a gesso surface, well, I re-wet the sky and re-painted it, when that dried, it didn't suit me either, so guess what, I re-wet it and re-did it again, well, they say the third time is a charm, oh no it isn't, I was still unhappy with the sky and was about to do it over again and realized that the corners were soggy and there was a ripple in the surface paper, guess I won't be finishing that painting, duh! I should have waxed the edges like my friend showed me with the watercolor board, if I had done that, I might have been ok, oh well, I will just have to do another one later. I did work on another one that was on the clayboard, but it isn't nearly finished enough to get it completed tonight, so, I was just showing my friend Elaine how I would approach a painting (she was working on a picture of her grandchildren walking on a path, similar to one she saw somewhere else, so, I wet the paper, then I splattered, I threw, I painted into, there wasn't much else I could have done, when that was dry, I was showing her how to put the trees in, and I just kept working, I finally decided to put the figures in and I just kept working until it was almost done, this one didn't take too long, I'll bet I don't have more than an hour and a 1/2 into it, so, I decided to fine tune it (make the figures a bit more clear), and I'm calling it a painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #161 - Happy 4th of July!

Now that it's just slightly after the 4th, I'm wishing you happy 4th, ah well, I did try, I had to wait to take the photo until the sky was dry, I had splattered the foreground and the splatters got all over the sky, so I had to re-do the sky, I usually like to get the sky done first and I really did, but I had to re-do it a bit, and, darn, it was a perfect sky, well, I like this one too.

I realize that you are probably not into winter yet, but I like painting the snow, and this painting is a composition I painted in pastel and I really enjoyed it. I decided to work on the clayboard again today, I really do like painting on the clayboard, so this one went pretty well.

I painted the sky, after it dried, I floated in the house over the hill (mind you, I did not draw any of this, I just painted it), then I put in the shadow side of the ditch, this side of the fence, then the fence and finally the snow on the hill going up to the house, after that was dry, I went in with some darker colors and some purple to add to the shadow information, then some medium blue for the shadow snow and then the snow and some of the weed info on the hill, after that, I did the brush, and worked back into the shadows and once I got that, I went in with some highlights on the fence and the weeds and finally the white snow. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #160 - another lounging day

I don't believe I've had enough of those lately, so I don't feel guilty for taking another one. I didn't get to painting until late again, and I didn't actually start this one today, I started it on Tuesday in class, I know that the shape of the coffee pot is off, but, at this point I doubt that anyone will know, except me that is, I had originally painted in the dark background, and then discovered that the shape was off a bit, oh well, I suppose I could have really morphed it and made it abstract, but that isn't what I had in mind, this painting isn't my favorite but it does have some qualities that I like, I used the opaque paints again but painted with them translucently, and the white of the paper is showing through, just like a normal watercolor, I did this basic composition once before about 28 years ago, I did a demo for my pastel club, and this was the set up, of course, that painting was in pastel.

I'm very tempted to get out the acrylics for tomorrows painting, we'll see if I have enough time to play with those, we do have to go over to the neighbors house for a fish fry, kind of a picnic, they have a stocked pond and they fish it all the time, so should be fun, this is going to be short tonight, I really do have to get to bed, I like this painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #159 - I'm taking it easier today

After yesterday's painting, I need a rest, so I really didn't have a good idea for a painting today so I decided to take the easy road today. I am really tired, didn't get as much sleep, again, as I really need. I finished yesterday's painting at 3:30 a.m., which technically is today, oops! but, I did get a painting done, albeit late, and I was very happy with yesterday's painting, so this one is much simpler, and went a lot faster, I didn't have a bird in my photo, but, you know what, that's my decision, and I do think this painting needs something, that tree stump (I know, it shouldn't be smack in the middle, but I can always set it off to the side by moving the painting back and forth to find where the stump looks best (that's done with the mat), I really started to get into the grasses, and I did really get into the trees, then, once the tree trunks were in, I got out the splatter brush (usually a liner), and splattered green for the foliage, then I took the spray bottle, and spritzed it to spread out the little dots. I know this painting isn't a prize winner, but it's all I had in me today, but, even then, I think this little painting works, I hope you enjoy this painting too.

Painting #158 - July 1 - a bit late getting this done

It was a very busy day, Dr.'s appointment, and delayed with that because of an emergency (E.R.), not me, the Dr., so I sat and waited, I was there over an hour and a half, then it was Dam Days in Sturgis, and the Gallery had a Dam Good Pie sale, of which I made 2 pies, I met Susan about 2:40 or so and we headed over to do ticket sales, then we sat and sketched, and you will see what I sketched, here it is, they had a couple of guys playing guitar and singing, so Sue and I sketched. I got enthused about it, and decided that it would make a great blog painting, so I didn't get started until after 9:00 p.m., so this is really late, of course, I wasn't just happy making the shapes and blanking out the faces, I had to do portraits, why? Well, I just couldn't stop myself, I took some pictures while I was there and it just seemed like the one I wanted to paint. So, I'm not getting any sleep tonight, I've got to quit doing that.

This is the first sketch

and, this is the last one, it's Cole & Clay

So, now I'm on my way to bed, finally, hope you enjoy this one as much as I did painting it. good night.