Painting #310 - Nov 30 - Late again, with good reason

Well, it's been a stressful day, I worked on a painting before lunch, and after lunch I went over to the studio, guess what, no heat, so, I lit the furnace (good thing Jim showed me how to light it), then, I lit it again, and again, and again, over 20 times, so, when he called me to say he was on his way home, I told him the furnace wouldn't stay lit. Well, to make a long story short, we had to turn the furnace off, and put in a space heater, it just won't stay lit, and when it did light, it made a boom, scared me, so he was checking it out and there is a crack in the furnace block (I am sure I don't have that one correct, but you get the idea, it is really messed up), so he's checking on a furnace tomorrow, so the space heater is going to have to do for now, so I think I will be canceling my painting classes for tomorrow, the space heater is a kerosene heater and it isn't really working well either, it smells really bad, and I think I will be replacing it with the other heater that he has burning in the basement, it doesn't smell, so that's my plan, if he won't move it, I will, we don't really heat the basement, he was burning the fuel off, a few years ago, he loaned it to his mother and she put some bad fuel in, so we are cleaning that one up and I think that one will work better, it is doing a fine job in the basement. I also told him that if the furnace costs too much, that I'm thinking that we will replace the trailer (it's really old and rickety anyway), we looked at a couple this spring and he wouldn't pay $3,000 for one that was almost perfect for what I would have used it for, so, now we will just have to see.

Well, as a result, there was too much left to paint on the one that I was working on before lunch, so I got out a flower picture, and decided on this one of crocus, I'm really thinking spring here, yesterday was our first snow, and it's nasty! I'm ready for spring already, so this it the one for today, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #309 - Nov 29 - A good day to paint but a poor day for travel

What I mean by that is that it was really raining this morning on my way to the Senior Center for classes, once in class I didn't notice what it was doing outside until about 3:30, it started snowing, and it snowed and snowed. By 5:30 it was about 5 or 6 inches deep and the roads were a mess, it usually takes me about 15 min. to get home from Coldwater and it took me slightly over half an hour, so, I didn't go out again once I got here, and if it doesn't melt much, I won't be going anywhere tomorrow either. Well, that will be a good reason to get started working on that portrait.

Today's painting is a photo that my friend Edith gave me, it's on a 5" x 7" Aquabord, the first one I painted was painted on a 1/2 sheet of watercolor paper, when I was looking for something to paint today, it just seemed to say "maybe you should paint a small one and see how that goes", so, that's what I did. I like the misty effect in the distance, and it really went very well, I probably have about 3 hours in this one.

I'm going to make this short today, I've got some TV to watch, I'm addicted to "the Universe" and any thing that is Geological, I really love watching the History channel or H2 (which is the old History International) and the Science channel, I can watch these same shows over and over, so, I must watch, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #308 - Nov 28 - a much better day for painting today

Once I got started with this one, I got very interested, some days it goes good and some days you struggle, so, today it went well, these flowers were taken almost 20 years ago, at my old house, the pink roses were a bush planted from a start that my Mother gave me, I brought a start here too, so I still have these. The white flowers are mock orange, and they made a lovely combination.

I am going to make this short tonight, I have a slight headache, it's been working on being a major headache all day, I wanted to start a portrait today, but, when I went over to the studio, the pilot was out and it was cool in there, I had to call my husband home to light it, he did show me how to do it the next time, so I won't have to have him come home to help me out.

I got to attempting an organization of my file cabinet, while I waited for him to get there, I've been bad about stuffing the magazines and reference material in the cabinet, helter skelter, well, I couldn't get to the files, so I took them out and was sorting through to see what could be thrown away, and really got wrapped up in that, so the portrait is on hold for a day or so, maybe I can get to it Wednesday, we'll see. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #307 - Nov 27 - Didn't do much of anything today, need rest

I'm still tired from this last week, I didn't accomplish anything, really, just this small floral, and I really pushed that. I just couldn't feel it today, and I'm still tired. Hope this small painting will fill my blog obligation, since it's the only one I have today, not very challenging, but some days are just like that, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #306 - Nov 26 - I'm beginning get a bit tired of company

Today we had another family gathering, and it was a mad dash this morning to get everything done, then I had a catastrophe, my bread machine made a mess, well, I guess I really did, I added too much stuff to it and it overflowed, that's the first time it really went over, what a mess, got that cleaned, well, the bread rolls were a bit flat too, I guess it didn't get raised enough, and I had an overflow on the slow cooker, and of course, we didn't get the stuff put up in time and had to throw the stuff in the oven to hurry it up, so I'm kind of glad this day is over, I didn't get at the painting as quickly as I should have so it's late, again. It has felt like Sunday for the last 3 days, now, finally, tomorrow is Sunday, and I'm hoping for a day of rest (well, a rest from cleaning and cooking, hopefully).

I tossed around a barn picture, I know I did a barn picture yesterday, but this one seemed the one for today, after I started it, I wasn't sure it was the correct selection. All those bricks, and the vine growing up the end, whew! I guess I didn't think of all that, I'm glad it's finished, I started to stress out with it, I was tired to begin with, and I probably should have selected a floral, but, once it was started, I just kept working. The hardest part was the vine, and then the bricks, mostly the bricks because there were so many, I just got tired of them but they do look nice. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #305 - Nov 25 - I did not shop on Black Friday

This is the best day to stay home, I never shop on Black Friday, the shopping was done yesterday, and it wasn't too busy, of course, it was right at the time for dinner, and most people were having theirs, and we were late to my daughters, but, all's well that ends well, the dinner was great and went really well, we stayed until 5:00 and I'm sure she was whipped, but I really do think she's a glutton for punishment, she let my other grandson, Derek, stay for the night, and those two boys were wound up like eight day clocks, and full of pie, I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do than keep 2 hyper 11 and 13 year old boys (Ryan is her only child and he's the 11 year old). She must have survived, she came over about 11:00 a.m. today, I gave her a perm, it took about 3-1/2 hours, she has long hair, the major part is rolling it up on the rollers.

Well, then I tried to paint and couldn't get into it. I took a break, took a short nap, cooked supper, washed dishes, watched some TV and then painted. I have about an hour and a half in this one, I took this photo over 25 years ago, and this barn is no longer there, of course, you can see it must have fallen down, you can see right through it. The sky was really light against the darkness of the barn, it was dusk, and the sky was slightly pink, well, it was pretty boring the way it really was, so I ramped up the colors, and lightened the barn a bit, then it was fairly quick, I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #304 - Nov 24 - Thanksgiving - wonderful day

Well, I had a lovely Thanksgiving, I didn't have to cook, my daughter invited us over for dinner and cooked enough food for an army, plus, I got a wonderful new buffet crockpot that cooks three different things, I've wanted one for over a year and we just got one today, I'm planning on using it for Saturday, another family gathering and the last of the Thanksgiving meals, then we are good until Christmas, then I can use it again.

Well, today's painting is that winter scene that I started on Tuesday, and worked on yesterday at the Gallery, I really didn't get much time to work on this, only about an hour and a half, I really had to finish the trees and the road, and fine tune the snow and bridge area, I think this painting works now, so I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #303 - Nov 23 - another floral

Today's painting is the demo painting I was working on for my last Months Sturgis class, we worked on it in class and I was showing them how to work it up to a finished painting, I probably had about 2-1/2 or so hours in it before I started working on it today. I was going to finish the landscape that I had started yesterday, but, the floral was what caught my eye and the brush wouldn't let me change venue's, so, I finished this one first, I did work on the landscape but it's not finished yet, I will try to get it finished tomorrow.

Of course, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I have to bake some pies tonight, I will be heading to the store as soon as this is finished, I had the request for pumpkin and I evidently forgot to pick up a can. I have all kinds of other pies, and I will probably fix one but, the pumpkin is a Thanksgiving staple, and I can't believe that I forgot to pick it up.

I really re-did the background, it was too flat, so I gave it another layer of paint then I splattered, I splattered with the blue and then I splattered with water, then it was too picky, so I smoothed out one section, the section at the top, now it makes me happier. I really put the detail in the flowers, they were flat when I started and the leaves were flat, and dull, so I darkened them up and since I had laid in the green before, I didn't want it that dark, so I added some opaque to the tips of a couple of the leaves and the sides of the stems. I really like this painting (I would say little but, it's a 1/4 sheet of watercolor paper, this is painted translucently, with the exception of the tips of the leaves and the stems), and I hope you like it too.

Painting #302 - Nov 22 - very tired today, back to my old habits

Well, my cousins left and I got home from work and didn't get right after my painting, now, here it is late again, and I'm exhausted, so this will be a short one, I originally started a snow scene but I wasn't up to finishing it tonight, maybe tomorrow, so I went with the old stand by, flowers. I added the blue flowers to accent the yellow and orange of the yellow flowers, then I put in some foliage and did some negative painting. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #301 - Nov 21 - Well, I did accomplish something today

I certainly got a lot done today, but not as much as I thought I would, but do you ever get all the things done that you plan? Never, I say, well, at lease I did get my blog painting done before midnight again today. I have classes tomorrow so I'd like to get to bed at a semi descent hour, my cousins are still here, and that I got the paintings done and the cooking and all, is amazing, well, usually I do better when someone is watching me, I think its because I can't procrastinate as much, I am the worlds best procrastinator, this week is going to be tough to get anything done, Thanksgiving Thursday, and we have grandchildren all week, starting tomorrow, sometimes that puts me off, then my Sandy (daughter), wants a perm on Friday, she has long hair and that really takes a long time, and we have Hubby's family Thanksgiving on Saturday, and Sunday is my Husbands day, so it won't be much of an extra painting day, I'd really like to get after that portrait of my nephew and neice that my Sister-in-law wants me to paint, we are planning on going to Minnesota again the week after Christmas, and I'd like to take it with me, so I really need to get painting on that.

Today's painting was a challenge, the back lighting was kind of tricky and the sun shinning through the trees, but now that it's done, I'm happy with the way it looks. I painted it while my cousin Sandy was watching (well, she was reading part time too), so, I guess I'm going to make this short tonight, can't get my fingers around this machine today, so I think you already know how I produce these paintings, so I'm just going to close this for now, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #300 - Nov 20 - Whew! made 300 - and we even had company for dinner today.

Here it is only 8:00 p.m. and my painting is finished, I can't believe that I actually got it done already. I started it this morning while I was waiting for other stuff to get cooked, I had it about 3/4 done before anyone even got here, so I'm very happy about that, I'd like to keep this practice up, I'm going to try.

This is the autumn landscape that I thought about doing last Tuesday, well, I think it's been enough time now that I could do it. I really liked the colors of this one, so that's the one I chose.

The sky is very small here so it went quickly, then I charged in with the yellow and orange, I mixed a bit of red in and then added a bit of Jauan Brilliant to knock it down to a dull pink, then the green, then the water reflection, once the reflection was right (now remember this is just the underpainting), I put in the blue, green and so on for the lower water area. then the banks. That had to dry before I started the leaf detail, then it's pretty much just adding more leaves of different values and the tree trunks, then I really brought up the water detail since I had to overlap the leaves, then I put the rocks in, and fine tuned it with more leaves, and ta da! It's a painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #299 - Nov 19 - Almost there, only 66 more to go

I'm short timing it, I've been thinking of what I'll do when the year is over, I doubt that I will obligate myself to painting one a day, I'm feeling the strain of this obligation, not that I'm unhappy with the painting, I'm just feeling the pressure of having to do it, sometimes I'm lazy (and that's why I decided to do this), I've really neglected my other things I do, like knitting, and the jewelry, I haven't made any jewelry for almost a year, and my supplies at the Gallery are really getting low. But, aside from that, I want to do something, I'm thinking that I'll (maybe), paint everyday, but not to finish one, but maybe just show you the progress each day, then show you the completed piece, hopefully one a week, that way I can work on larger pieces and enter some competitions, I don't think these small paintings would make a very big impact on a competition, so, that's the game plan at this point, I have so many paintings that need finished, so, I think I might start with those, I do have a show coming up in August of 2012, so I must work toward that, and I'll be thinking about the one that I have scheduled for 2013 at Pierce Cedar Creek, I will be doing a big bunch of Michigan Landscapes and flowers, so, I do have my work cut out for me, I must paint, so paint I will.

This painting is from the Rawson's King Mill, it was taken during the paint out we did a few weeks ago. We were packing the car up and noticed this little lane and this row of trees, I really liked the main one there in the foreground, so this was my choice today, I cleaned all morning and half the afternoon (my cousin and I are chatting just now), kind of whipped, but I made it, I did get this started just about the time they got here, so I finished it about quarter to ll:00 and I'm going to make this short, we are having a dinner tomorrow for our Thanksgiving with my cousin and my family, maybe we'll have Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving too, who knows who will be here, any way, I'm tired and I think I'll head to bed, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #298 - Nov 18 - what a day, busy, but not done yet

House cleaning is a chore that takes me all day, when I do it, and today was the organization day, tomorrow is the clean day, so, I guess you would say that I'm half done, hopefully I'll get the cleaning part done before my cousin gets here tomorrow, I'm as bad with the housecleaning as I am with getting at the painting, I wait until the last minute to get it done, I really love the house to be clean, like I really love to paint, but I'm a procrastinator, I just can't make myself get at it until I have just enough time to get it done, why is that? Well, things are put away, I have the bathroom to clean and the dusting and the sweeping to do yet, then the mopping, I think I'll be in good shape, I'll let you know tomorrow.

Today, I decided to finish a painting that I started a long time ago, this is an ink resist, if you look back to the ink resist that I posted several months ago, you will see when I started it. All that was done was the ink part, the painting was done today, I was just going to see how it would look with color on it, but it just became my painting for today, I couldn't put the brush down, well, in between moving stuff and putting things away, so it's now finished. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #297 - Nov 17 - It was class day and they are always busy

I had to finish this during my evening class, but got it done, I've been working on a small abstract, and I did paint on that a bit today, but it's not done yet, still needs lots of work so you don't get to see that one. This is a painting of a photo that my student, and friend, Pat gave me to use, it's in North Carolina. This must be in the flat part of the state, I don't see many rocks, like in the Northern part where the mountains are, but I'm not sure. I had this about 1/2 done when I left Marshall, so I had about an hour and a half to complete it, of course we don't get much painting done when everyone first gets to class (because we talk a lot), but I felt good that I got it done before we left the studio.

This is painted on Aquabord with the opaques, again. I painted the sky first then put in the green for the trees, I didn't get the tree trunks in until almost finished with the green part, I worked top down with this one, the water was next and I warmed up the water at the back edge so it showed a bit more reflection than in the photo, then the foreground on the left, I spattered a couple of different colors, using a couple of different sizes of brushes, one for larger and one for small, then I worked on the totems, I decided to ramp up the foreground with some orange mixed in with a bit of brown for shadows because there was orange on the totems, I was using brown, but it looked dull and flat, so I ramped that up with some permanent violet in the shadows and on one side of the rocks, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #296 - Nov 16 - another busy day

Being so busy, it sure seems to be the way it is lately, I really tried to get this painting done before I had to go shopping with the neighbor, she really wanted to go to Sam's club for some things she couldn't get the last time we went, and I did need to go to Gordon's Foods, so we went shopping, I did start working on this before I went, only I didn't get it totally done, it's not as late though, as I have been, so this is relatively early, it's only 10:30, so I might actually get to bed by Midnight tonight, which would be good since I have to do 3 classes tomorrow, I am usually so tired that I want to zoom home so I can take a 30 min. nap, I would like to not be tired, but since I started this blog operation, I've had a tendency to push the limit with getting these paintings done, I am painting, and that's always good, but I do have a bunch of things that I want to get after, among them is more acrylics and some pastels and also, some oils, and that doesn't mean I want to give up on the watercolor, I just want to do so many things that I know I'll never get them all done, especially if I don't paint everyday, I'm working on my next blog operation, since I am getting close to having this year done, my energy levels aren't as good as they used to be, there was a time when I could produce 3 portraits a week, and still get some paintings done (of course the paintings that weren't portraits I painted at work, I worked in a factory, and on breaks and lunch, when I should have been eating, I painted, of course, I was much skinnier then too), but, that was several years ago though, and I have slowed down, and I'm not equal to that any longer. I feel good about painting everyday, since I got involved with my husband and then married, I haven't painted as much as I should, one of the reasons is that I lost the good factory job (they went bankrupt), and I had to look for another one, and of course, it wasn't first shift like the first one was, this was 3rd shift and I really couldn't get anything done, I couldn't get to my art functions and I really had a hard time working on my art, so my job now, a watercolor and china painting instructor, is so wonderful, it doesn't pay as much but I'm much happier.

My painting for today is the still life that was started several days ago, I wanted to get my painting done early, and since this was already laid out, and the first layer was already applied, I decided to finish it. I do enjoy those still life paintings, the tricky part is the glass bowl, and I do love a challenge, the background was light, and I decided to darken it for drama, and I eliminated a wine glass and one large yellow pear, so, I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #295 - Nov 15 - It was a good paint day

It sure was a busy day, it started out like usual, watercolor class in the morning and china painting class in the afternoon, but then I had an Arts Alive meeting at 5:15 and that meeting ran over by about an hour and a half, which interrupted our dinner hour plans (the Blue Moon girls decided to do dinner out, and then to go on to Susan's for our Blue Moon Meeting, when the Arts Alive meeting ran over so much, there wasn't enough time to get to Sue's for our other meeting, so we canceled it, and home I came. Well, I'm glad that I had my blog painting finished during class, then I didn't have to race home and try to finish one, that was so much better. My life has been getting too complicated lately, when I stay up so late trying to get these paintings done (because I'm a poor judge of how much time it will take me to complete a painting, especially when I haven't started it yet, because I procrastinate), and I don't get enough sleep, I just don't function well. It's much so better to have it completed early, I must remember that.

I really got into this painting today, I had started this one last Thursday, it was just a basic under painting all over, but, it was a cold under painting, and, it really chilled me, I mean that I just couldn't get into it, I really wanted to paint another fall scene like the one yesterday, but my friend and student Sue, convinced me that it was too much like the painting I just finished, and she was right. So, I had another one started that I was considering, I started that one sometime last week (it was a still life like the ones I did with the fruit), but that one didn't trip my trigger, so, it was this one, I scoped it out, and decided that if I warmed it up a bit, I might be able to salvage it, so that's what I did.

The first thing I did was mix up a warmer green and lay that in on top of the colder green that I had originally laid in, then I smoothed out the sky one more time, then I laid a mix of turquoise with some green added to warm that up, and smoothed it over the turquoise water, so, that really got me started, and from there you can pretty much figure out what I did, I warmed the rocks up, they were a cold grey/purple, so, when I worked on them I added some yellow ochre and some brown with some white added to come up with a warm beige, it didn't take long after than, I just kept working the trees in the background, and then, the middle ground, until it suited me, then on to the bridge, and waterfalls, once they worked the right way, I moved to the foreground trees, and, ta da! It's a painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #294 - Nov 14 - An interesting day

I've been collecting acrylic paints for quite some time, so, today I decided to attempt to work with them in a watercolor and gouache way. I have been painting with the gouache this past year (I still will be painting those and the transparent colors too), but my friend Susan has been very intrigued with these for a long while, so I'm trying them, I wanted to work with them over the weekend but that didn't work out, so, today seemed like a good day to try, over the weekend I did get the palette set up, so it was ready and waiting, I decided to work with these on watercolor paper, in keeping with my watercolor passion, plus the fact that most watercolor art competitions will allow acrylics as long as they are painted on paper. I had always thought that acrylics were really a replacement for oils, but I don't think so anymore, I did have a bit of trouble getting it to flow off the liner brush, even adding water didn't work really well, but maybe that is because of the 300 lb paper I was working on, this painting is a bit larger than my usual and it did take me a couple hours longer, but that's not all bad, I did enjoy working with them in this watermedia way.

I started this out wet in wet, I drew the basic shapes of the trees and the water and then wet the top half and worked on that, then wet the river area and painted that and then the foreground left side, I let that dry, then I started with the background trees and went in with thicker paint and just built it up, to about 1/2 the finished value. The water was a fairly flat area and I didn't get too carried away with changing the value except on the lower right side, I did go in and put the warm reflection areas in at this time too. then I filled in the left side, I really brought up the left side first, not my usual way, but that's how it worked, that was almost done before I jumped into the background, and put a bit more information there, then I switched to the water and finished that, it was darker to light in this instance, that's pretty much how I do the gouache too. I like this little painting and will probably do more, so I'm hoping that you like it too.

Painting #293 - Nov 13 - Got another late start, it is Sunday, after all.

Well, I never manage to get these paintings done early, I'm thinking it's because I'm really a night\ owl, I can stay up late, and I have a hard time getting up early in the morning, I really think it takes all kinds to make this world go around, so it's ok. This painting is of a flower, again, and it's small, so I could get it done in time, I do need to get some sleep, I have a busy day tomorrow, and I'm thinking it's going to be a busy week, my cousin from Milwaukee is coming next week-end and I have to clean house, but I'm not going to be home much, so one day, I will have to really get after the cleaning, I have a tendency to let the housework go, not the greatest housekeeper, never have been and probably never will be, I get by, when it jumps out at me, I clean it.

I really would have liked to get over to the studio today, but that didn't work out, so I made do with the dining room table, I bought a special daylight to set up so I get the correct lighting, I have a couple of those at the studio too. My house has lots of windows, but, for some reason (I think it's because I'm getting old and things look darker), I don't see as well as I used to, so the light does help.

These flowers are very unusual, I made up this composition from a photo, the photo only had the one bunch of flowers but I felt that the pink needed to move around the painting a bit, I really stylized these, I've been leaning toward some abstraction, at least a bit, I'm not sure that I can go totally abstract, but I'd like to do some more, I know, I've done some, but I don't feel comfortable with that yet, I'm feeling that I need to work toward something here and I'm not sure what, but the abstraction is intriguing, I've been buying several books on that subject and some do actually give you a way to start, by abstracting the reality that I'm used to, so this may be another step in my painting evolution, let's hope so, I don't want to do the exact same stuff all the time, and I don't want to copy someone else, but using someone else's ideas and pushing it my way does appeal to me, we'll see, but for today, I'm just getting a little abstract, not much, but something. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #292 - Nov 12 - got a late start but happy with the results

The day started out pretty good, I got over to the studio about 12:20 or so, and, because it was a mess, I moved stuff around and organized the main room (my class room), put stuff away, moved the frames and framing stuff into the back room so it wasn't taking up so much space, then I decided to do some color swatches of my pastels, I just ordered some new ones (I've had lots of pastels, I used to just paint pastels and only painted the watercolor when I went to workshops), but my main pastels were Rembrandt, I've drooled over the schminke pastels, but couldn't afford them, and the Senellier pastels, so I ordered some half stick sets and decided that I just had to do the color swatches, so I did all of them every one I had, when I was done with that, I started a painting, of course it was then time to cook supper, so I didn't get to work on it again tonight, so, I got the one out that I had half done (that's what I thought, except that I re-did the whole thing), so it took me a bit longer than I intended, but it's done and now I don't have to look at the blobs anymore.

I've been looking at this painting for 3 weeks, I started it at the paint out with PAAWM at Rawson's King Mill in Leonidas. This was the first one I started, but the cows weren't cooperative, so I gave up on it and painted across the lake, I really wasn't happy with much of it, I have re-painted the whole thing, I changed the sky, it was too busy, I re-vamped the house, I re-did the pasture, I re-did the cows, and I re-did the pond and trees. I really got in to doing the pasture, when I started to negatively paint the light instead of painting the dark shadow, before I did that I really changed the sky and house, I added a field in the far distance then put in the trees at the house level, after I got the pasture like I wanted, I worked on the cows, they were just blobs before, now they look like cows, then I worked the pond, the water was so still that it looked stilted, so, I rippled it a bit and made the reflections wave a bit, then to cover up the reflection of the tree in the foreground I added some close up weeds, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #291 - Nov 11 - A bit of an organizational day

Not that I'm organized, far from it, but, my art books were is such a sad state, I had them stacked every which way, and if I tried to find one particular book, well, forget that, I am terrible about art books, I really have a hard time when it comes to books, especially art books, I think I have over 600, I'm pretty sure of it, well, I have a book shelf at the studio (so I can access them while I'm working), well, I'm good at getting them out but putting them back, well, they get shoved and stacked instead of inserted, know what I mean? So, I got that a bit organized, and got my pastels out, want to do something with those for a while tomorrow, so much I want to do and I seem always to run out of time, well, I'm going to try, maybe have a pastel tomorrow, who knows.

Today, I decided to do the floral again, love this peony, I have some of the old fashioned ones (not the double ones), but they are pink, these are a creamy yellow, the sun was shining so brightly that the edges looked white, love it, I did paint this in about an hour, it's on 4" x 4" aquabord, it mixed the yellow with white to get the shape of the flower, I really started with placing the center of the flower then started laying in the petals, the middle tone green was floated around the flower, then I negatively found the leaves by painting some darker green around the flower, the petals were enhanced by some yellow mixed with some pink and gray green, then I went in with white and lifted the petal edges, then pulled the white in ripples pulling it toward the center, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #290 - Nov 10 - almost cut off more than I could chew

I was really into painting this portrait, but, I always want it to look like the model, this time it's my Aunt Margaret, I worked on it most of the afternoon, and then about 3-1/2 hours after I got home, it's late and I'm going to make this short, this is done on a 12" x 12" watercolor canvas, with the opaques, so I struggled to get the lights light enough, I think I may try this one one more time, but, not tonight, I'm exhausted, got to get to bed, busy day tomorrow and looks like all next week, so I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #289 - Nov 9 - Another demo painting

This time I was demonstrating for the Sturgis group, they liked the last leaves I did and thought they would like to try that, the original painting I started this afternoon was too big, and too complicated to finish, I'm hoping to get that done tomorrow, it's another portrait, this time my Aunt. I have admired the pose for several months, with no intention of painting it, but, the Tibbits Gallery hung the newest themed show, "Eat Drink and be Merry", and I decided to paint it for that, but, alas, I didn't get enough time to finish painting it, mostly because I had to prepare for class tonight, which meant that I had photo's to get around and copies to make, the only trouble is that my word processing program seemed to loose the connection that allows it to insert photo's, I struggled for over an hour trying to shut the computer down, re-starting it, I tried to go to the website and download the update, that didn't work several times, then I finally decided try to re-load it, but that didn't work either, so I had to remove it and re-load it to finally get it to work, I don't know if it's this computer or I'm just unlucky, but, I finally got it done, but then I only had an hour to paint, so the demo painting is my blog painting tonight, I finished it in about an hour and a half after I got home.

This is painted on 1/4 sheet of 300 lb. watercolor paper, and, for the most part, is painted transparently, I did use a bit of the opaques, mostly on the turnbacks (where the leaves roll over), turnbacks is a china painting term. So, this is basically a wet-in-wet painting, even though we just painted the wet-in-wet one leaf at a time, the detail was put in wet on dry at the end, the background was done one corner at a time, of course, wet-in-wet, and the shadows were put in wet on dry and then the edges wiped with a damp brush to blend, I like this painting (which are the same leaves as last time but a different grouping), and I hope you do too.

Painting #288 - Nov 8 - lots of fun today

After watching the demonstration last night at SWMWS (watercolor club), my friend Carol thought that it would be a great idea if I would demo what we learned last night during our local watercolor class, well, mine doesn't look exactly like Don's, but it was really fun to do, he says that he usually starts out by making a value study, well, I skipped that part, I probably would have done better if I had done a value study, I do like to do them, but, the class was all primed for me to paint, so, I found a photo in my bag that had some colors and a house, enough to get me going, of course, I changed the shape of the house and I didn't see a barn, but it really kind of needed the barn, so I improvised a barn, well, this was so much fun, I just got carried away, Don, you do yours, your way, and I'll do mine, my way, I really enjoyed the little added things that made it for me, like the orange branches at the top of the trees and some of the little other things I did to pull it together for me, like the drive way, this was a lot of fun, all bright colors, straight from the tube, basically, the paint was really thick and straight onto dry paper, thinking of the color, you have to make sure you don't put orange and blue straight together, they would make brown, but buffer it with some green and then yellow then to the orange, really works, the part that really got me was when I figured out how to make it mine, like the branches, he used just a flat brush, but I did change that out and use a liner, I like the feel of the liner and so I used one. the windows in the house and some stuff that was leaning on the house, the drive, and then the boards on the barn and the standing seam roof, like I said, I really loved painting this and I hope you like it too.

Painting #287 - Nov 7 - Such a busy day, getting lots done and SWMWS meeting tonight

Well, I knew I was going to have to be organized today, I forgot to go the the meeting last month because I was working in the studio and lost track of what day it was, I have a backup plan for today, my friend Carol is supposed to call and remind me at about 4:00 this afternoon, I do remember today though, but just in case I do get engrossed, she'd better still call me, I'm heading over to the studio now to work up a painting for the Arts Alive display, the theme this time is Eat Drink and be Merry, I have an idea, but I may not get it done today, we'll see, hopefully I will manage to come up with something unique.

The painting for today was a demonstration for the Thursday watercolor group, they are trying to get some Christmas cards done and Pat was trying to paint this one so I demo'd it, I changed it up quite a bit, I didn't want it to be the exact same, I decided to put the sun in, obviously this is early morning, and cold, brrrrrrr! I used the basic formula that she was working on but I decided to make the snow reflect the color of the early sunshine and to put the sun in the picture and to blur out the trees right in front of it. I also put in some extra branches and left out some things, so this has become my painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #286 - Nov 6 - A beautiful day, sunshine and warm

I was beautiful out today, it would have been a great day to paint outside, well, I didn't manage that, it is Sunday, after all, and the day that I spend with my Husband (all except when I have to paint my blog painting), since I don't want to spend a great deal of time painting. We usually do our shopping on Sunday, and then, sometimes we go out to eat, which we did today. I kind of keep it simple when I'm trying to spend some time with my hubby, so I pick a simple subject that can get done in a reasonable amount of time, thus, I chose flowers, I'm well acquainted with flowers, being a china painter, I've been painting them for over 30 years, there are several that I can just paint without reference material, I have painted iris without reference material, but today I did have a photo today, I love iris, and I love the rich color of this one, the sunlight made the highlights blue, I decided to stylize this one and to make it stand out, the contrast had to be stark, instead of dark, I decided to go white, since the flower was really dark.

I started out with just painting the underneath color, what you could call the middle value of this wine colored iris, I used orange and a red violet to make the body color, since the purple of this one was muted. I then put in the leaf shapes, and I liked the way it looked, so, I left the background white. I used the periwinkle blue for the blue highlights, and then, I added the Lucas color, Neutral Tint to darken the purple to make the darks, I really like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #285 - Nov 5 - Two days in a row of portrats

I didn't intend to paint this little girl two times, well, actually 3 times, you saw her a couple weeks ago, but today's painting was started yesterday, it's the one I started on paper and then decided to do one on claybord, so I was getting my things around to paint this afternoon, and that paper portrait was laying on top of my photo's and grabbed my attention, before you know it, my brush was in my hand and I was working on it again. Well, I couldn't stop, it just became my today's blog painting, it's slightly different from yesterdays, this one, she was looking down, the thing that put me off yesterday was that the shading on the face is so flat, but, today it didn't seem to make me crazy, I just kept painting, and smoothing, and painting and smoothing, this is a very similar process that I do when I'm working with my pastels, I don't think I can do the transparent watercolors doing portraits because I have to make so many corrections, I even had to make some corrections tonight after I thought it was done, I decided to take a photo of the painting with the photo I used, when I looked through the camera, the face was too wide, so I trimmed it up, I'd have a hard time explaining what I did, mostly because I kept working back and forth, when you work with opaques, you think it light enough and then you have to constantly make adjustments to lighten it up when it's dry, which sometimes work and sometimes don't, the reason for that is that the paint looks the right value when you're painting it, then it dries darker, I like this little painting now and I hope you do too.

Painting #284 - Nov 4 - An Unusual day, good but unusual

The portrait that I did a little over a week ago is gone, well, it was a commission, it took me a long time to get into it, I started it 3 times, not counting the 4th, which was quite a job, worked on it all day a week ago Wednesday, but it got done, I worried that she would think it was too dark and fussed about it for a over a week, but she liked it, said it looked like her, well, she also said it was big, I guess she was expecting one of my 6" x 6", she bought a 10" square frame to put it in and it was matted to 11" x 14", so, she had this frame and now I am doing another portrait of her grandchild, well, I don't know what got into me, I just felt like painting that portrait, I worked on it for several hours, I started it twice, once on paper, but I didn't like that pose, so, I started this one, it's on claybord, it's 5" x 5", the frame she bought had a wonderful mat already in and we might as well use that, it's going to really look nice in that frame and I will put it in the frame for her since I brought it home. I knew I'd have trouble making it smooth enough, and it does look just a little blotchy to me, but, that was what I managed today, I'm tired, and need to get to bed so I'm going to make this short, I really need to start these major projects earlier so I don't make this blog operation so late, well, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #283 - Nov 3 - got lots done but little to show for it.

Class day today in Marshall, it always starts out with china painting class, I really didn't get to paint much but I got a plate measured out for a very complicated design, and it took quite a while, hopefully it will be wonderful when it's done, when I do get it done, maybe I'll show you.

Then, we have watercolor class in the afternoon, well, I got 3 started, but nothing finished, mostly because I was demonstrating quite a lot, showing them how I would do it, that really helps them figure out how to proceed. Well, since I didn't finish in the afternoon, I had to work on it during my evening class, which didn't start out too well (painting wise that is), I did a lot of talking, and so did they. Well, finally I decided to jump on these California poppies (which really makes it 4 paintings I started today, and only finished one, oh well, they will get done another day).

They can be many colors, usually you think of them as being a simple little orange flower, but, these were pink, white, orange, and yellow, I did have fun painting them, once I figured out what to paint, they went fairly quickly, good thing or I'd still be painting, took me about an hour and 15 min., but I got one done, that's what counts. I just got out the indian yellow and and some cadmium orange, I got some permanent rose and some of the Jauan Brilliant #1, I just painted in the flowers and then went in with some green for the background, the leaves of these flowers are very fern like, so I tried to indicate that without too much detail, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #282 - Nov 2 - It was a very nice day

I'm going to make this short, I'm a bit late getting to Blue Moon, haven't heard from them to say it wasn't going, so I guess I'm just a bit late then, so this will be quick. I kind of decided on this, one reason is that it is Fall and that time of year, but I have been intrigued by the misty quality of these fall photo's, this may not show that as much as I intended, but I think it works.

I always start with the sky, I laid in a quick wash of the tree colors, yellow and orange at the top and kind of a purple gray to indicate the tree branches far away, then some green and yellow, then I put in the foreground green and yellow ochre, when that was dry, I put in the fence posts, and the tree, I decided to try to enhance it with a bit of pastel, I did rub it in quite a bit, so it's very smooth, I finished off by darkening the shadows under the fence posts and the gate, I like this little painting and I hope you do too, got to go, it's Blue Moon night.

Painting #281 - Nov 1 - It's another pink day

I think this one is the pinkest, literally, it's so pink it's day-glow. A few months ago, I ordered some paint, a new brand that I hadn't heard of before, when the box came, the total contents of this box were covered with this day-glow hot pink, you can't imagine how awful this looked, luckily, all the stuff was wrapped in plastic, so nothing was ruined, what happened was that the shipping company had delivered the box upside down, and the paint was on the top, well, the hot pink tub ruptured and, evidently, the box was heavy enough (I had ordered a bunch of those Aquabords and Claybords for my blogging operation), that they had to roll the box instead of picking it up, which really spread the paint all over everything, the tub of paint was, of course, replaced by the Company I ordered it from, so there was a bit left in the tube, and now I have another tube, well, this paint is so hot and bright that this is the first painting that I used it on, but it's perfect for this painting, the light was so bright and it showed through the petals which made them glow, wow, it really made these petals pop, now, I'll have to figure out something else to use this color with, it's even more intense than Holbine's Opera, and that's pretty intense.


The first thing I did with this is draw the shape of the flowers, I just didn't want to rely on getting the shapes right just jumping in with the paint. then I just painted a layer of Flamingo pink (a Cheap Joe's paint - American Journey) and a bit of yellow for the throats, I also used a purple (reddish) that I don't know what the company is, and a bit of periwinkle blue (another Cheap Joe's American Journey paint), then the green was a mixture. I decided to put a purple/gray mix in the background, which was flat at first, when I got the flowers the way I wanted them I decided to lighten the background a bit in the upper right corner, mostly so I could darken the other corners up to make the flowers pop, then I went in with some green and some darker purple to indicate that it was among a bunch of these (Snap Dragons if you couldn't tell), and it's looks good to me, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.