Painting #280 - Oct 31 - Should have painted a pumpkin, oh well.

Well, didn't think about the pumpkin, but the flowers seemed the thing again today, this is a rhododendron that was growing out in front of my old house, I should plant some here too, because they are beautiful when they start to get big, this is just a close up of one head, it's not easy to tell what these are if you didn't know, they were pretty much a pink blob, I did catch them in the sunlight and that's the only thing that helped, I'm going to keep this short tonight, so tired, I just have to get to bed. I didn't take a long time to paint this, I wanted to just get the lights and darks in, no major details (like vein lines and such), I'm trying to shorten my painting from 3 hours (or more), on one little painting, I should have started this earlier, but I was really into reading today, I'm in the middle of a very thick book and it's getting very interesting, so I was really bad today, I really need to get some inspiration going, I need someone to kick my but and make me paint all day, I know I can do it, but some days I need a babysitter, is that normal? Well, this is all I had today, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #279 - Oct 30 - a very nice day

I know, it rained, but, my grandchildren were here and I really enjoyed seeing them, they haven't been here together for quite some time since the second oldest one, Michael, went to work, he's 17 now, hard to believe, they got here late Friday night since Mike had to work, so nice to see them, Derek is 13 (Mike's brother and my other grandson, I have 4 all together), I don't get to see the oldest one often, typical when they get older, I guess. Anyway, we didn't do much together, but nice to get to see them on and off all day, Grandpa made his famous 4 bean (now 5 bean) chili (which is a requirement when the boys come, spaghetti one night and chili the other night, and it must be Grandpa's, Grandma doesn't do it just right, I guess, oh well, that way I didn't have to cook all weekend, I didn't even have to make breakfast, since my hubby thinks it's his job to make me breakfast on Sunday's, so nice, I just lounge around and drink coffee, we did the shopping and then I painted,

I decided on this floral, I've been keeping it in the stack of pictures that I'm thinking about painting, so I finally did, it's a bit complicated, but I'll try to give you as much info as I can. I started out by painting the little blue flowers, I brushed them on with the brush strokes making the little bell, actually there were so many bells that it was a bit complicated finding them once the light lavender/blue was on, but I do believe I managed, so you must know that this is just a representation of those flowers, since I did not draw it, the flowers are not exactly like the photo, I took this photo in Holland during the tulip festival about 15 years ago, we took our Mothers with us and it was a very nice day. Anyway, I really like the color of these and the green's really look good too, after I got the flowers laid in, I went for the green and put some leaves and stems in, then it was negative painting with darker green to get the darkness behind the leaves and after than I went in with some darker purple to get the shadows in the flowers (negatively for the most part, once that was done, I went in with some white for the light on the edges of the petals (done positively, I might add, lol), any way, I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #278 - Oct 29 - nice day for painting

After I finally got to it, I really did get into this one, I did drag my feet a bit, but when I finally figured out which one I was doing, it went pretty good, this is another Alaska painting, the photo was taken by my friend and student, the same as the last Alaska pictures were. I really like the serenity of this one, of course this is Denali National Park, quite obvious, no where else quite looks the same, I'm hoping that someday I'll get to see it for myself, but, not sure if that will happen, so I'm really appreciating these small little scenes, for all they are worth. I had to re-do the sky a couple of times, this is on the claybord, which is a bit difficult to smooth out sometimes, I think I finally got it so it suits me, then I had to re-do the mountains since I messed them up re-doing the sky, this river is at it's low in the middle of the season, I'm sure in the spring that it's much deeper, but I really liked the way it snakes through and leaves those little thin spots where you can see the gravel underneath. I'm going to make this really short tonight, running on empty tonight, so, hope you have a great day tomorrow. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #277 - Oct 28 - another small painting today

I really squeezed this one in today, it was a very boggy day, I just couldn't get anything accomplished, well, I did move some stuff around and I did cook supper, but that's pretty much it, except for this small painting, I have several that I could have worked on but, again, I didn't leave myself enough time to complete any one of them, so I decided to do this invented rose painting, I just started with some wet in wet blobs of color, pink and dark yellow, then went in with some cobalt blue and then some yellow green, after it was dry I took my damp brush and wiped out the petals and the bowl of the roses, the blue flowers are just some imaginary bell flowers, I guess. There was no photo to look at, I completed this one out of my head, maybe you'll say "it looks like it", but I really had fun painting it, I've done this type of painting before, and I always enjoy the process, it's a lot of fun to just throw some paint on, wet in wet, and then go in and find some kind of flowers, when I do a much larger one, it gets much more intricate, but I really got into the simplicity of this one, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #276 - Oct 27 - Not a great day for painting

I really thought I'd get more done than this one today, I have so many almost done, but it just wasn't meant to be, I was so tired, which is probably what was wrong, I'm hoping that I can get more done tomorrow, but, I did get one done, now, there seems to be a problem with the upload here on Google Blogger, and I was trying to upload yesterday's painting, again, I removed the one that I uploaded yesterday, I fixed the 5 finger (oops, only 4 fingers should be there), and it if done now, but, the blogger seems to be having trouble uploading my painting now, so hopefully, I'll get that back on later tonight or tomorrow.

Now, I really didn't have much energy to paint today, especially after I found how badly I had goofed (I really was just going with the shape and trying to make the hand look like a hand, and then I painted the fingers without counting them, oh well, it's better now), but class today had me working pretty hard today and I didn't get my painting done in class, so I painted on it instead of china painting during the china painting class tonight, anyway, this is the best I could do tonight, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Well, I'm having the same trouble uploading this one tonight too, so I'll have to see about getting it uploaded a bit later, maybe it's just being touchy now.

Painting #275 - Oct 26 - The portrait is finally done

I've been telling you about it, and today I had to work at the Gallery so I worked on this painting pretty much all day, which was way too many hours. I originally started this on claybord, and I didn't like the results, then I tried it on Aquabord, and again, I didn't like the results, so, I got out the Arches 140# watercolor paper and that seemed to work much better, at least the paint went where I wanted it to. I was using the opaque watercolors again, I really had to keep moving that paint around, I think this might have been a beautiful oil painting, but that isn't what my friend wanted, she liked the watercolors, so I managed, it is a bit dark, I'm hoping she doesn't think it's too dark, part of that is the opaques, they dry darker than they look wet, and transparent watercolors dry lighter, I might try a transparent one if she doesn't like this one, but, for now, this is my painting. It will be difficult to explain how this was painted, since I worked it and re-worked it, and then re-worked it again, it seemed dark, but it just wouldn't get lighter, the background was laid in wet in wet, then wet on dry to finish it, the face and arms were painted wet in wet to start and then wet on dry to fine tune, I moved the right eye up and down, a couple of times, with the opaques, it worked, but with transparent it might not, I should try doing one in transparent just for the fun of it, to see if I can. One of my difficulties is that I have astigmatism, which makes me get things out of whack a bit, then I have to make adjustments constantly, I think it's right then I look again and it's off, I wish I could get laser surgery to correct it, but that costs money I don't have, plus, I wear trifocals and I'd still have to wear glasses, but at least I wouldn't have the trouble getting portraits aligned correctly. Well, I like this portrait, and I hope you do too.

Ok, I screwed up, I had ro repair this painting, it was brought to my attention that I had 5 fingers and a thumb on this painting, so I fixed it.

Painting #274 - Oct 25 - Class today and the outside was brought inside

What I mean by that is, I picked up a bunch of Sycamore leaves on Saturday, if you have never seen a Sycamore leaf, you wouldn't know that they weren't the largest Maple leaves that you had ever seen, that's what I thought when I saw them, and there are a tremendous bunch of Sycamore trees at Rawson's King Mill, where the PAAWM met for the paint-out last week-end, of course, I've already told you about that, but I forgot to say I picked up these leaves, now, since I picked them up, they have lost color, the very largest one was green and yellow but, sadly, now it's starting to become brown, the curled up ones were brown already when I got them, but I loved the tortured look of them, anyway, I amplified the colors so this painting wouldn't become boring with just browns and a small amount of green and yellow, so, where the leaves were brown, I warmed them up a bit with red on one and quinacradone gold on one. I just dropped the very largest one on the bottom and let them overlap, I really did ramp up the color on the yellow and green one too, I took it a bit toward the orange side here and there, I guess, since it is my painting, I can do anything I want, and that's how I see it. I really meant to work on this painting and get it done in class, well that didn't really work out, so I finished it at home, and I didn't get to making the jewelry, maybe I'll take a bit of it with me tomorrow and maybe between paintings and customers (ha), I might be able to make a few earrings tomorrow, I've been feeling like twisting wire, love that too, twisting wire that is. I have lots of paintings that I could work on besides that, so, I'm thinking that I won't be bored, what do you think of that! I like this little painting and I hope you like it too.

Painting #273 - Oct 24 - I really worked hard at my art today

I started working on a portrait commission, I was going to see if I could get it finished for this blog, but, I knew it wasn't going to happen, at 6:30 I started fixing supper and the commission went on the back burner, out came a flower picture and the rest is history. This is going to be short again today, have to do classes tomorrow and I really need to get some sleep. I'm running out of energy anyway, besides, I have to read a couple of pages of my book, I really meant to make some earrings tonight, my supply at the Gallery is getting really low and I'll probably have to make some tomorrow night, hopefully I'll get my blog painting done in class and I can devote the evening to making a few pairs of earrings, sure do have plenty of supplies, I keep buying them, and since I started this blog, I haven't made many jewelry pieces, something I'm going to have to get after too. Seems like I really didn't plan well, no time to get anything done lately except the blog painting, and that's no one's fault but mine, if I just get up in the morning and get it done, I'd have plenty of time to do all kinds of things, including, housework, yuk!

Well, I started out with placement of the flower, then the buds, after that, I put the leaf shapes in and since this is such a simple design, I think you could figure out how things progressed, although, I did do the background somewhere half way in the middle, then, I kept changing it, I'm hoping that you can see that the background moves, ever so slightly, from a warm pinkish purple to a cool blueish purple. Then, I finished the leaves and it's a painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #272 - Oct 23 - not a good day for my painting operation

A bit boggy today, and it is Sunday, even though I didn't get this done until after Midnight, sorry about that, but had major shopping to do today and I really get wiped out with the shopping, hate it. I didn't get started with this until late and I did have one started that I tried to work on but it just wasn't in me to paint the landscape with cows that I started on Saturday.

I scrounged up a photo of marsh marigolds, I know, you're thinking, these don't look just like marsh marigolds, well, they are stylized, and I really like the pinky violet with the yellow, the background is just flat, I kind of relate that to art deco, my version, this is going to be short tonight, it's really late and I still have to make the bed. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #271 - Oct 22 - Another plein air day with my friend

It was another PAAWM paint out, that's Plein Air Painters of West Michigan, that was the organization that arranged the painting retreat last week-end, I'm now an official member, this week it's just the one day, which was at King's Mill in Leonidas, MI. So, today my painting was done on site like last week-end's was, it was a lot of fun, and I took lots of photo's so that I can finish the one that I didn't get finished today, I painted on two, my first one was of some cows that were on a farm across from Kings Mill, I was set up on the road going into the park, and I was looking over the lake, that is where the one that I finished was taken too, I just looked a bit left and this was the scene.

I always do the sky first, then the distant trees and then the weeds on the right side and the bank there, then the water, I was actually in the process of painting this when a boat full of hunters came through and scared the swans off, you can see the little boat if you really look, and the swans flying over, well, the swans leave a bit to be desired on the detail side, I added them after they were gone, but, I decided to leave them in. I had it critiqued at the paint out and Richard thought it was a competition for the focal point, he felt that the swans should go, but, since I am the captain of my own boat, I liked the idea of having them in and since this is my painting, I want them. I also rippled the water since the boat was coming in and made a wake, it did add to the effect of water, so I put that in, the water was almost totally still, actually.

It's really hard to tell all the bits of detail, and since you are getting to know how I work, you will forgive me for skipping to the end, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #270 - Oct 21 - another late night

I am really having a tough time with this dumb sinus, I took some allergy medicine this afternoon and it wiped me out, but my eye feels better, no headache today so it must be getting better, still, I did get started late, but like I said before, all's well that ends well, I just wasn't up to a really detailed landscape today, even though I have a couple started, just couldn't wrap my head around one, so I picked some of my chickens off the shelf and a hand full of marbles and decided to do this small 4" x 4" painting of chickens and marbles, my fav's, aside from the rivers and falls and the flowers, oops, guess they are all my fav's. Well, I'm going to keep this one short tonight, since I've been running on short energy today.

I sketched the chickens on with a light wash of indian red and then the marbles, I want you to realize these chickens are really small, and the marbles are regular size (actually they are different sizes since they came out of paint cans, my husband saves them for me, love them), the background is a kleenex box box, of course I really didn't fuss too much with that, and then I decided that it was too much so I ran a damp brush over it. Since this is so small, it went rather quickly, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #269 - Oct 20 - Well, a sinus headache kind of changed my mind

I had a river and waterfall scene all picked out to paint today, but, I had a really hard time getting into it, my eye feels like someone punched me, so I didn't get to doing that one, so I rummaged around in my bag of tricks, and found this photo of apples, although this is a very small painting, it really grabs you, I'm going to make this short tonight, since my eye isn't much better, and even my cheek bone hurts, I'm going to call this one done for tonight, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #268 - Oct 19 - got a bit sidetracked today but alls well that ends well

Should-a-would-a, one of my bad traits, it keeps rearing it's ugly head, I did paint, but, like always, I just manage to get this done before it's bed time, I'm sure glad that I said I'd do these blog paintings, because I fear that if I hadn't I wouldn't get much done, I do paint during classes, and since I'm doing the blog, I've just been painting the small paintings, since I have said I would finish one a day, I do, and have managed to do that, but, comes a day when I need some fresh paintings that are larger, especially if I intend to enter any competitions, I will have to consider that, I know if I need a larger painting I can do it, only trouble is that I might have a trouble getting a larger one done in one day, it's not bad if I get to work on one painting all day, trouble is I usually don't, well, I guess I'm not going to worry about that just now, it is a concern though.

I had quite a time finding some new landscape pictures on my computer today, then I had to deal with the program loosing the printer, love those wireless printers, but the computer or program has a tendency of loosing it on a regular basis, sure is frustrating. I finally got it done but then it was time to leave for our Blue Moon Meeting tonight, so my painting operation didn't get started until after 7:00 tonight, but, I managed to paint it during the get together, I only had to finish up the trees when I got home, but now it's done and I'm ready to explain this one.

I decided this looked like the sky was slightly pink, so I laid in the pink, then laid in some periwinkle on top, kind of a pink stripe and a blue stripe, then I blended the two together, when it was smooth enough, I went for the green and tree trunk shapes in the background, then went for the rocks on the banks and foreground, and rock shapes in the background, this let me see the shape of the river. Once that shape was in, I laid in the tree color on the right, then the river color, I used a bit of periwinkle and white with a bit of sky blue added in and when I got to the dark water in the foreground, I used some cobalt blue with some neutral tint added, then I just worked up the rocks and then overlapped the rocks with the green bush and grasses on the left. I then went in with darker green and really punched up the green on the middle ground trees, after I did that, the foreground water didn't have enough depth, so I added some of the dark green over the blue, since this is really a reflection of the trees in the middle ground tree group, it really helped pull the painting together, I dded white for the foam, and some really light blue, then I went straight into the cobalt for some of the wave action in the foreground, last, I punched up some of the trees in the background and then laid in some yellow orange for a few spots of color, to help draw it together and also, a bit of red, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #267 - Oct 18 - It was a good day to paint

Well, I wasn't sure it would be a good day, I forgot to fire the kiln for the China painting class, I woke up at 2:20 and had to run down and load the kiln and do a quick fire, something about Monday was off, I just couldn't get into it yesterday, but today seemed much better, it was a lovely lunch at the H. & C. Burnside Senior Center, they had taco salad, and it was yummy. I managed to get my painting done in class today, and that's good, I had a lovely afternoon class (china painting), and so it was a lovely day.

I really enjoyed this little painting, I had a photo that was just green, the tree was the center and there was no house, so quite a bit of this was invented by me, oh yes, there wasn't any drive way either, so the tree toward the left and the one in the center were what I used from the photo and, of course, the background trees too, I really had a great time working this one up.

I started with the sky, of course, and then the background trees, I painted around the house in the midst of the trees and then the foreground, I decided it needed a driveway so I put that in and once the grass was in, I started to fine tune the background trees, I kept the house white, but decided it needed some shadows on it, and the windows. The trees needed some highlights and some darker branches, then I went in with some lighter branches for the main tree, and a stump in the grass and then a fence in the close right, I really like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #266 - Oct 17 - Wow, unwind day, I'm really tired today

I didn't wait quite as long to get my painting done, here I am, back to my old habits, although it isn't quite as late, I really had to drag my but in here to get this painting done, I really wasn't in the mood today, hopefully that won't last, just tired, I guess.

Any way, here it is, I decided to do this doorway, I've admired it for a long time, but I couldn't get my head around it, today it worked, although I was tired and I probably quit working on it a bit early, I could have fine tuned it more, but I'm so tired, just want to go to bed, so I'm just making this one short today, have to get to Coldwater tomorrow for classes and I'm hoping I can be fresh and in the mood to paint, going to be tough if I can't.

I sketched this with a light wash of paint, didn't want pencil lines, I contemplated leaving just the white of the board, but decided to paint the off white in, then I put the shadows in, and once that was laid out, I started putting in the siding on the front of the building, the doorway was next, and then the windows, I gave them a couple of different washes, they were different colors, I believe there was screen on the one right by the door. I dry brushed the siding to give it the impression that the paint was wearing off, I used a couple of different colors to achieve this. the very last thing I did was put in the small weed shapes at the very bottom, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Paintings #265 and 265-1 - Oct 16 - For a rainy day, it sure was sunny

All the weather reports told us that we were going to get rained on all day, at 6:00 p.m. it was supposed to clear up, well, it was drizzling at 7:00 a.m., and a few bits at 8:00, but by 9:20 it was clear, not sunny yet but not raining, so it did sunshine sometime after 10:30 and kept sunny until we left at 4:15, so, we had a very good day of painting. I decided to paint on the deck that runs around the building at Pierce Cedar Creek, and I also decided to paint with the oils today, there is only one trouble with that, and that is transporting the painting home without mishap, which did happen to the one with the barn, it was laying on the drivers seat and my purse got laid on the lower right corner, so I will have to liven that up a bit, but I think I'll wait until it is a little dryer then now, since it is very wet and oozy. I also had a mishap while I was painting, the wind picked up and flipped my palette lid over and there was paint on it and it flipped off onto the deck, which is concrete, I had a bit of trouble getting that off the deck, but it looked pretty good when I left. Our next outing was after lunch and that was to Hyla House (the other boarding house, we were in Meadow Lodge), behind that house there were barns and they sure did look like a painting to me.

Also, I did sell a few pieces today during their Arts and Eats, which is something like a bunch of businesses that put out food and art and everyone went from place to place and looked at art and ate, not unlike a Gallery walk, they were very interested in talking to the artists and I had a few that came out and talked to me and watched me paint, some even made comments, it was fun. I'm grateful that I had my palette all made up, and I didn't have to squeeze out paint, I almost didn't paint with the oils, and I probably wouldn't have if it had been rainy all day, we were talking of leaving early, but after breakfast, it was decided that we'd stay, so glad we did, especially since this was a 2 day event, and yesterday was so windy that hardly anyone showed up, today there were quite a few, so it was good. I've considered explaining how I went about this, but my brain is a bit fried from 3 days of concentrated painting, that I'm just going to let you look, I like these paintings, and I hope you do too.

Now, you understand, this painting above is a 16" x 20" canvas, the one below is only a 8" x 8" even though it looks like the first one is small and the last one is larger, it's really the oposite.

Painting #264 - Oct. 15 - What a blustery day!

Wow, we really had a windy day, we really couldn't get out to paint outside, there were those die hard plein air painters that went out and withstood the terrible, cool and windy weather, not us, Susan (and several others besides me), decided to stay in the main building and paint from the hall, window or from the Education building (where we were supposed to store our painting stuff), there were lots that didn't brave the elements besides us. Although, those who did, really got some nice stuff, oh well, maybe we can manage to get something tomorrow. I started one this morning, in my ignorance, I decided to do one that was 10" X 10", one of the MDF boards that I coated with gesso, well, it didn't get done, much to big to finish in the small amount of time we had to paint this morning, then after lunch, we needed a nap (didn't sleep well lastnight), so we didn't get up until 4:00 and then dinner was shortly after 5:00, so there wasn't enough time in the evening to finish that one again. Well, when Sue went for a walk with one of the other girls, and the rest of them went into the demonstration they had scheduled, I decided to find something to paint, I thought that I would paint something from a photo, well, the photo's were at the sleeping location and I was at the main building (I had to wait for Sue to get back), so I went back to the hallway and did pretty much the same picture that I started this morning, only it was only a 6" one this time, much easier to finish in a couple of hours.

One of the nice things is that the sun finally came out for a little while before the sun went completely down, and I got a view of the distant trees in the light (which I really pumped up), so it got much brighter than the one this morning did anyway. I did the sky and then the distant trees and just moved down the page until I had all the background in, then I laid in the trees in the foreground, I kept fine tuning them until I had them the way I wanted, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #263 - Oct 14 - It's the Plein air Retreat - What a cool place!

Well, it's been a busy day, I didn't get much painting in (yet), we still have some daylight, but, we are on a schedule, breakfast at 8:00 a.m., Lunch at 1:00 p.m., Dinner at 5:30 P.M., so, it's almost time for dinner, and by the time we eat, there won't be much daylight left, but we could paint in the evening, so I'm still thinking about painting more, I did these two from 10:30 to 12:30, then we sat in the car to get warm, it was windy and cold, so now the sun is out and the lighting is perfect, but, we must be on schedule to get to dinner (not that I'm hungry just now, but the food is really good, so I will force myself, the heck with a diet, I'm on vacation. We got set up for the art show this week-end here, some doings that have been a regular thing, and hopefully we will sell something, we sure have a lot to sell, I do need to get rid of some of these blog paintings, I put out 3 boxes, and about 7 or 8 framed ones, maybe we'll find someone who wants to buy, but I'm not holding my breath, tomorrow we have located some barns that we want to paint and maybe some other stuff too. For today, we just sat out in front of the Education building and painted the tree and small path that were right there, just too cold and not enough time to go too far, we were starving when lunch came, and I really over ate, oh well, like I said, I'm on vacation. I really like these two paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #262 - Oct 13 - A good day for some things and not for others

I'd like to show you the picture that I painted, but there seems to be a glitch, either my camera isn't working, or the sd card reader on this laptop isn't working, I will have to check it out later, right now I need to get to bed, it's late and I've been messing with this computer for an hour and a half trying to get this picture downloaded, I can see it on the camera but this computer doesn't see it, I'm about fed up with this thing, I think HP will get a piece of my mind, all the trouble I've had with this thing, anyway, the other part of the day was great, sold 15 of my blog paintings, so made a little money, took them to class with me today and my students bought them, so I'm good to go, tomorrow I have to be up early and I'm going to be tired, so I've got to go for now, I'll try downloading this pictures tomorrow and if that doesn't work, I'll have to get back to you with the pictures as soon as I figure out what the problem is. Sorry that you can't see it, it's a little landscape, a fall colors one, looks good to me, sorry that you cant see it yet.

Ok, now, I finally figured out what I did, I wiped the photo's off my SD card and inadvertently changed where it was saved to, so, when I took the picture, it saved it to the permanent partition in the camera, so it didn't show up on the SD card, I finally got it figured out and I'm good to go now.

I really felt bad about not having the picture for the blog last night, so here it is, I'm not going to talk much, we are resting a bit, my hip started to bother me and I don't want to over do and end up not being able to paint. So, here is the painting, it really explains itself, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #261 - Oct 12 - Kind of a messed up day

Well, I started this day out pretty good, got everything done that I had to before I left to go to the gallery, even made it to pick up Susan's stuff for the Friday night Gallery event (we donated brownies and stuff), I was still early, so, stopped to pick up a sandwich, then on to Wal-mart for candy and a pop, well, got to the Gallery, and Mark was there, well, I assumed he was waiting for me to get there to leave, NOT! He was there for the whole day, so I raced around to get there, and didn't have to. Well, I did paint, I worked on 3 paintings, the extra King's mill I have to do (since I told one of my students that I would sell her my blog painting of Kings Mill, well, guess who sold it back in September at the Constantine Fall Festival, so I decided to paint another one, and I'm almost done with it, it's not exactly the same, but close, I'm sure it will be ok. I started one a 7-1/2" x 15", which will be framed 10" x 20", a very nice size, and this one, I didn't get the other 2 done, but this one is, now. I had to fine tune it when I got home, but it only took about 45 min.

This painting is on Aquabord, 4" x 4", it's very small, just not enough time to do a big one, I did spend quite a bit of time working up the Kings Mill painting, I'll be glad when I get it done. This is a similar one to the one I did the other day, I used the same chicken pitcher but it is different then the other one, it's in a different direction for one and I have several other things in this painting, chickens are my favorite, they are part of my chicken collection, I didn't put the marbles in this one. Anyway, I sketched this one on, just to make sure that I got the right proportions and didn't overlap too much one way or the other. Then, I put a basic medium wash on all the things, once that was done, I jumped right into the dark green for the background, I know, it looks black, but it's not, just very dark. then I just worked back to forward until it looked it's best, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #260 - Small class today, so I got a lot done

My students are all on vacation this week, just one showed up, so I really managed to get this painting done during class, I've attempted to paint this one before (it's not finished yet, the other one, that is), but got stalled and since my blogging started, I've not managed to get back to it, I'm not sure if I will stick with the same composition, though. In the other one, I decided to put in a couple figures working on a boat next to the small building on the left, and I'm not feeling the love for those figures yet. In my previous paintings, I've decided that I'm too literal with my compositions, that is, I think I'm too tied to the photo to change anything, now, however, I feel more confident that I can, but, since I've been doing these small ones, am I going to be able to switch back to the larger versions? Well, I will find out in a few months, I really am having a hard time realizing that this year is almost gone now, I'm totally amazed, it seems like I just started this project.

Well, here goes nothing, or I mean something. I started with the sky, I used sky blue (Am. Journey) and then floated the white right in while it was wet, that's my favorite way to make the clouds, then I did the foreground, wow, that's a reverse, and then the lighthouse, and finally the lake, I believe this is Lake Superior, I'm not sure which light house, I believe it's either Eagle Harbor, or Eagle River, I'm unsure. When that was dry, I jumped right in and started working up the lighthouse, this was really hidden behind a big bunch of trees, and I could barely see it, so, I decided to play down the trees and work up the lighthouse, now this may, or may not look like that lighthouse, I did improvise where I couldn't see that well, then, I put those white things, what ever they are, in, and the railing to the water, the telephone pole had to go in since I wanted the wire to lead you to and from the building on the left side. Now, I did work a bit more on the foreground, but I really wanted to keep that translucent feel to it, so just didn't work it up quite as much, it was flat anyway. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #259 - Oct 10 - Amazing day, got lots done

I really wanted to make it to the Studio, but, not today, but, I did manage to get my paintings all numbered and taken care of, I've been behind for about 3 months now, so, I'm finally caught up, and that's a good thing. A bit stressful at times and it took me all day to finish it (I knew I'd have trouble if I let it get behind me), so now I can feel much better, and actually feel good about taking 3 days for a paint out this coming weekend. I still have to figure out which paintings I'm taking (we can have a table to sell paintings) and I still need to pack, but I'm feeling much better about the rest.

We had a bit of a problem today, the hot water heater started to make weird sounds, and we had no water, upon investigating that, we found a broken pipe going to the hot water heater, and so we had to shut that all down, and we did get that done before it ruined something, I don't know why the pipe broke, but that's what it did, now we have to go for parts tomorrow and fix it (my husband worked late today and didn't get home in time to get to Home Depot to get the parts), well, that means just a birdy bath tomorrow, so, it will be nice to take a shower when it's fixed, also, I can't do the dishes either, not good on that count, just hope he can get it fixed tomorrow.

Well, I did work at my blog stuff all day, but I didn't get much time to paint, so it's a very small one today, but cute. I decided to do the other goat baby that was laying on that shelter roof, you've seen the two goats a few weeks ago, now here is the third one, remember, I didn't have room on my other board to include all three, so that really was good for me today, I just did this one and I'm happy with that, I did pretty much the same, I laid in the reddish color for the goat and then the green in the background, and the gray/purple for the roof top, then I just kept working on the goat until it was to my satisfaction, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #258 - Oct 9 - Sunday and the painting is skimpy - oops!

Well, I realize that I started this yesterday and I did get a late start, again, but it is Sunday, and that is my day to spend with my husband, so that means that I don't get to paint as much, it is getting late too. I did paint tho, and I did finish a painting, so, I'm good. I originally intended paint on another painting that I started last Thursday, but that is quite complicated, and I'm still suffering from the fringes of a cold that I acquired, slightly over a week and a half ago. Today I had some problems with my lungs, I am athsmatic but isn't the only thing, my sinus' have been terrible the last few days and I just can't seem to get that cleared up, so the darned cold heads right for my lungs, where I'm the most vulnerable, oh, I am not technically sick, just not at the top of my game yet, I'm sure hoping I can get that cleared up by this Friday, I am going to do some plein air painting, three whole days of it, and, out in the weeds, that may have been what started this up again (yesterday I was in the weeds at Susan's), since I am allergic to lots of pollen. So, I'm going to have to take extra allergy meds, and my breathing meds, and what ever else I have to, to make it through 3 days without caving in. I intend to have a good time, and take advantage of every min. of painting time that I can cram in.

Ok, this was started just looking at the bush outside of Sue's window, well, I did take a couple of pictures so I could finish it, but, the photo's don't help, so I basically made up what I needed, so it made a fair composition. The rose was in direct sun light, but I was on the back side of that, looking out the window, the light on the petals was very bright and it was quite striking, I'm hoping you get that by looking at this rose, the darker pink on the rose bowl is basically shadows from the petals overlaying each other, so I just painted what I saw, when the light is so bright, it fades out the pink of the rose, so that's why it looks mostly white with bits of pink.

I started with the rose, and then laid in the green for the background, I didn't want this to get too dark, but I needed some darks to make it stand out, so I lifted some color off the background and then while it was wet, went in with some dark green, then, I got into the red, the stems at the ends, where the growth was new, was redish, so I just ramped it up a bit, there isn't much more I can say about this, so, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #257 - It was a paint out day, just getting practiced up for next week.

What a beautiful day for a sketching trip, of course we didn't go far (Susan, Bev & I), just her backyard, but what a perfect day to paint plein air. It really started to get hot, but not at first, just a bit, this happens to be Susuan's lane and what a beautiful place, I was sitting in the weeds but the only bugs I noticed were spiders, of which I killed, at least I think I did, I saw it's guts but it was still kicking when it fell off my easel, and that was in the weeds so I couldn't see if it lived. I'm sorry, I just had to kill it, I'm allergic to spiders so it had to go. Anyway, I had a great day painting and here it is, I used my opaques and I painted on a gessoed piece of MDF (which is what I used to call masonite), the board was kind of a gift, I helped my friend frame the pictures she bought from me a couple weeks ago, and these boards were used for the backing (she didn't need them, so she gave them to me, there were no holes, and they were smooth on both sides, so, I decided to gesso them, and now I see that they do ok with paint one them, of course it's just like painting on the hot pressed illustration board that I coated with gesso a while ago, so, I enjoyed painting on it. We had a lovely day and when it was lunch time, we went inside, there I worked at a table and painted the rose that was just outside her kitchen window, so that one was even plein air, technically. Of course, I didn't get that one done yet and it's late so I'm not finishing it tonight, it's late but not as late as I usually am, I might even get to bed before 12:30, amazing.

I am going to make this short, I am tired though, so, I started with the blue for the sky, then I moved down and laid in the golden color and some greens for the tree line, then I just kept moving down, I laid in the path with some beige, made with yellow ochre and brown with white in it, then I started by laying in some shadow, then I went back in with some lighter beige color (with white added), to lighten the light strips on the path and I just kept doing that until I got the the foreground, I did about 75 per cent of this in the field, then I came home and put in the branches on the trees and the foreground weeds, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #256 - Oct 7 - A simple little still life tonight

Running out of energy again tonight, so I decided to gather a couple little things (love chickens and marbles), so I decided to do this simple little set-up with chickens and marbles. The marbles were my Father-in-laws (I personally never got to meet him, he passed away before I became his daughter-in-law), but they knew I loved the marbles so they gave them to me, I have several jars, you did see one of the compositions with some of the jars several months ago, and the chicken basket was my Mother-in-law's, which I acquired after she passed away, and the chicken pitcher was given to me by my sister (she loves to shop for things she thinks you will like), so this is a special little set up.

I really didn't take a lot of time with this one, have about 2-1/2 hours in this, but I finished the oil painting that I was helping a friend with, and I worked on a couple of other oil paintings, sat for a couple of hours at the Hillsdale Art Guild's show today, and got my blog painting done, so I'm about whipped and ready for bed, so this will be a short one.

I drew the shapes of the pitcher, basket and marbles, then went in and mixed purple and neutral tint for the background, and it didn't get dark enough, so I added black to that mixture to darken it a bit more, it looks dark here, but really, it's not that dark. then I started with the chicken pitcher and moved down to the basket, the ribbon on the basket is really not nearly as difficult as it looks, it's all just fudged, and that includes the basket, I just laid in the shapes of the splines and the made sideways strokes to indicate the weft of the basket (I'm sure that isn't the correct terminology, but, you get the picture, I've never made baskets, and I'm sure I never will, even though my Great Grandmother did make baskets, just don't have enough time), the marbles and the ribbon on top of the basket chicken were last. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #255 - another stream with rocks picture and then some

Well, I really struggled to get this one done, I had originally started one of a house and driveway in winter, but it was actually 10" x 10" and I wasn't sure I could get that one done during my china painting class (since I didn't get it done in my watercolor class today), and since I couldn't feel confident about that one, I decided to do another stream picture, well, I didn't start it until 9:30, pretty late, and I just got done with it, and it's 1:00 a.m. so that took awhile, I probably should have stuck with the house painting, oh well, done now. Well, I looked around for one of the Ampersand claybord's but I had them blocked off in the front room (my studio is a 12' x 50' trailer and I have it jam packed, I put up my drafting table the other day and the only place to set it up is right in front of the doorway to the front room, so I couldn't get the the small ones, this is a board that I coated with gesso it's about 7" x 10", not a good choice but that's the way it is, so it took too long but it's done now, while I waited for the first wash to dry (takes a bit for that since it's on gesso), I painted these 2 little strips, they were going to be book marks, maybe they still will, who knows, but I had them left over from my Strathmore Museum board that I cut my matts with, I just couldnt' waste it, and I thought I'd just do a little design, I really liked painting on it, so I kind of got wrapped up working on this instead of painting my blog painting, now I have a headache, so this is going to be short.

I started this painting by laying in a dark green at the top and worked my way down with a dark brown and then threw in some blue and green to that mix for the water, I laid in the coastal fog and purple for the rocks and the started to work on the water, when the water looked about right, I did the rocks, laying the ones in the foreground under the water is kind of fun, and the ones on top, then I did the green leaves, the leaves started to get too picky so I mushed them around with a larger brush, I like this little painting and I hope you do too, my fav is the little blue flowers though, they really were fun.

Painting #254 - Oct 5 - Got it together today, haven't made it to the studio though.

As soon as this is done, I'm heading to the studio for a couple hours, I have lots to do, but I did get my painting done early today, that probably won't happen often, but today is Blue Moon and I didn't want to have to paint it at Susan's, I have something else that I want to do there. I decided to finish this petunia painting that I started at the Constantine fair, well, I meant to work on it, but, I didn't like it, that was probably why I didn't want to work on it, so, I wiped it off and started over, this petunia painting was made up, although I did go out and pick a couple of flowers off my petunia's on the porch, so they aren't the same purple petunias that I started with, it went fairly fast and I'm pretty happy with the results, this is on a 5" x 5" aquabord, with the opaques, so, lets get started.

First thing I did was wipe it off, so then I got the purple out and painted over the ghost, there was a bit of residue, and I just floated the purple flower color over that, then I put the green at the top on and then placed some green for foliage at the underside of the flowers, then I concentrated on the flowers, these particular petunias are very veiney, as you can see they show up pretty good, I got the flowers in and concentrated on the negative spaces on the foliage, once that was done I floated some pink on the lightest leaves for some contrast, since there was pink in the washed out background, then, to play that down, since it was rough looking, I floated some white over it translucently so it wasn't so strong and the texture of the bord didn't come trough so much, and that was pretty much it, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #253 - Oct 4 - I'm not going to say it!

Well, I think you know what I mean, and that's just the way it is, can't help it, I think I'm a night owl. I worked on this painting today in class, but I didn't get it done, so, I was going to come right home and get right at it and get it done, well, I didn't, and I guess there isn't any excuse, so no reason to explain why I didn't.

This painting took me a lot longer than I intended, I worked on it for about an hour in class and then I have about 3 hours when I got home, don't know if it's that I'm finally getting filled up with rocks and water or what, but it didn't go as quickly as I thought it would, I thought I would be able to finish it in an hour, and that didn't work. Oh well, I got it done, and that's what counts, I'm looking forward to getting in the studio tomorrow, I want to finish that oil I was working on yesterday, don't know if it will be dry enough to work on yet, but I just want to try, I'm anxious to get it done and out of the way, I was going to try to get a painting done for the Park show, but that didn't pan out, now I'm going to work on something for the Ella Sharp (a local, well relatively local)competition, I would like to get in it this year, that show leans a bit modern, and I don't know if my work will make it, I'm a bit traditional, well, except for the opaques that I've been using lately, that's not really traditional.

I started this painting by laying in the green at the top, and then I worked on the rock area just below them, then I moved to the other rocks, which let me find the water. Then, I put in the darker part of the water, as with most of these, I've been using a lot of neutral tint by Lucas, that a very interesting purply brown, added to the gray it really makes a nice rock color, of course that's not the only color that I use, can't make the rocks all the same color, too boring, but it is the color I usually lay them in with. after that, I worked up the trees with several layers of different greens in the shape of the forward leaves, then put that shadow green by Shinhan (love that color, it is so dark and lucious), in the darker areas, and then moved around with a watered down version so it wouldn't bee too dark, the rocks gave me a bit of trouble tonight, I just couldn't get into them, maybe tomorrow I'll figure out something else, so I don't have to do the rocks for a while, any way, I finished the water by making the water movement with darker colors alternating with the lighter colors, then white on top to make the foam, then I finished it off with some indication of tree limbs on the background trees and it's done, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #252 - Oct 3 - Well, it's a long story tonight

I don't have a brain in my head, well, when I'm painting, that is. I am in the dog house, I forgot to go to my SWMWS meeting tonight, I got over to the studio this afternoon, never a thought in my head that it was the first Monday in October, oops, I'm the secretary, well, by the time I realized it, it was too late to make it, I live about 50 min away, so, sorry guys, didn't mean it. Nothing I can do about it now, maybe they will think about getting a different secretary, I really didn't mean to do that, I thought about it Friday, then I was in the process of trying to get into that plein air retreat, then the weekend, and Monday came, and since I didn't get to do much in the studio over the weekend, I was looking forward to painting some things and getting some matts cut, well, I sure can't think of two things at one time, and painting, when I'm at it, I'm at it, oh well, I'll try to do better next time.

Anyway, I did some oil painting today, nothing that I can show you, it's really someone else's work (not a professional, Just one of my students), they asked me to help them out, and I accepted, but it was fun, I really was getting right into it, the unfortunate thing about it is that there is no good photo, the only photo is a newspaper clipping that's about on it's last leg, all yellow and the faces on these people are so small that I can't be expected to get a likeness, if I had a bit better of a photo, I might be able to, but at this point, I've already enhanced it 100% and I still have to do the faces, hopefully I'll be able to finish it this week and get that one out of the way, then on to the next, still haven't done the portrait, I'm working my way up to it. Now that I'm getting to the studio on a more frequent basis, I may be able to get some of this stuff done, so, I got to painting late again today, so I chose this simple landscape for that reason.

I painted the very pale blue gray sky in, and how I proceeded was to lay the foggy hills right in the sky color, since it did melt right in, then I just greened up the grayed blue for the next line of trees and I just kept adding green until I got to the foreground rock, I painted this on 6" x 6" aquabord and I used the opaque watercolors, next time I try this I'm thinking that I might try to paint it translucently, that should be a challenge since I'm so accustomed to the opaques now. Then, I painted a middle tone on the rocks and jammed in some weeds on the left corner, then I just worked on the rocks until I felt it portrayed them as best as I could, then the trees just beyond the rocks, I spattered, to enhance the rocks and then I spattered the weeds and, ta da! It's a painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #251 - Oct 2 - Another late start

Here we go again, I think I must like being tired from staying up too late, it's technically the 3rd now, but this is my painting for the 2nd, I have multiple reasons for being late today, the major one is, it's husbands day, we got a late start for the shopping today, then out to eat and then over to my daughters (had to check out some school fund raiser thing for Mr. Ryan), so, we get a bunch of stuff that maybe we could get along without, but if it helps the school projects, that's good, so we got something, well, not yet, but we did order it.

I was going to do another lighthouse view of Big Sable, but, it didn't make me feel good, so, off it came, and on with this pear still life, remember I told you I'd be doing another one, this particular one, if you couldn't figure it out, was taken just after the other one (I think I did the apple pear study, day before yesterday), and I mean by that is that I had decided to cut the pear in half and then quarters, well, I chose to take a couple photo's, I really liked the pear center so I cut it in half and laid the others on the plate with the peals, now remember this is red pears, and those apple pears (I cut them both at the same time, that was my lunch), those strange little things on the other side of the knife are the centers of the quarters that I cut out.

Now, mind you, this was a bit tricky, since I had started the painting as a lighthouse, and then wiped it off, so I had to make my lines dark enough to find my pear shapes and the plate, once that was all drawn on (I did it with the brush and paint, I don't usually draw on these unless I feel I really need to be precise), well, as the paint got laid on, the lighthouse became lost, and the pears and knife became found, I did get really opaque with this one, since there was an underneath color, where I wanted white, I really had to lay in the paint. If you notice, I tried to show the texture of the table cloth again, I textured it with some line work to make it look like a weave, I could see the table cloth texture and I wanted it to feel like a table cloth so that's why, I only did it in the lower half, the top one was much darker and I didn't want to draw your eye they, hopefully this worked.

I floated in the table cloth colors, and got that how I wanted it, then I jumped in with local colors for the pears and the plate, since it was really kind of dark for this one, I chose to play that down pretty much. I love the contrast of the pears on the plate, and the gray/green/blue shadows on the white flesh of the apple pear that was quartered on the plate, the 1/2 pear is a red pear, but all you can see is just a very thin line of red, but it's enough, I'd like to tell you how this progressed but it's pretty complicated, love playing with those just slightly off white colors, grays, greens and blues to indicate the shaded flesh of that fruit, I don't know if you can see it or not, but that 1/2 pear really almost looks wet, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #250 - Oct 1 - A bit late again tonight

I'm bad and I know it, I don't seem to get at the painting until it should already be done, oh well, just the way it is, I guess.

Today's painting is another photo from North Carolina (again), I'm sure these photo's were taken before I had digital, which means that it was taken in North Carolina, I didn't get very far in my picture taking ventures, except local stuff, until I was married, for the second time, my husband is very sweet about taking me on trips, the first year we went, I don't think I had the digital camera yet, but these photo's look like North Carolina to me, and so that's were it was, I'm fairly sure it was even the same stream, my Brother-in-law let me out of the car, he drove on and waited about a mile or so up the road, because I was driving him crazy wanting to stop, I actually got out on the rocks in the middle, jumping back and forth so I could get these pictures that look like I was in the middle of the stream, and that is surely where I was. Of course, I was much more limber then, and thinner, and younger, did I say that?

I've really been loving painting these little paintings of the rocks and streams with the little falls, I've got about 2-1/2 hours in this, or so. I painted it on a 5" x 7" aquabord, with the opaques (again). I started by laying in a mixture of neutral tint (a Lucas color), and purple and some coastal fog (an American Journey color), then started by painting the background rocks, then I moved to the rocks in the middle and then on to the ones in the foreground, that pretty much made my waterfall shape then I dropped some green in for the leaves and some darker neutral tint to set them back, the water, where it's greenish, was put in with some sap green mixed with purple and neutral tint added, I grayed it down a bit so it wasn't so bright. Then I started working on the rocks, putting shadows in, then going back in with some highlights, and then blending when applicable, I splattered darker and lighter on at this point so I didn't get too far with the water and then I finished the rocks. Next the water, and some indication of the movement of the water going over the rocks, I put some periwinkle blue on the shadow side of the falls and mixed some purple in for the middle area, then I worked on the tree leaves in the back, oh, I did go in with neutral tint and set the area under the leaves dark and painted around the tree trunks, then the leaves, a few layers of different colors of green. Then, I worked on the falls by getting into the white, and the rest is history, I really like this little painting, and I hope you do too.