Painting #342 - Jan 1 2012 - Happy New Year everyone

Happy New Year, I'm so happy to be here and painting, still. When I started this project, it seemed like a long way away, now it's so close, 23 days, woo hoo! I'm still debating how much I plan on doing after the 365 days are up, I want to paint, that's been my main objective, but I don't believe I will complete one every day, I may be able to complete one in a day, but it will be for a different reason, I have lots that I want to do, but that also includes things that are not painting, but art related, I also have stuff that has to be sorted and gotten rid of, so that is another thing that I need to do, I still have almost all of the stuff in this house, upstairs and down, that we stored from my Mother's, after she passed away, I really need to get that stuff out of here, I'd like to clean out the basement so I can set up my ceramic studio, I have 2 potters wheels that I've never been able to use, I need to get the stuff out of the way and electrical outlets put in, and lighting, I also have a bead torch, and I do make jewelry, my hand made bead collection is so low, I've been using stuff from the store, not as interesting, and my jewelry supply is getting really low at the Gallery, that is my main money maker at the gallery.

I decided to use this photo, it's one that my Mother took, in Pennsylvania, obviously of the Amish, the photo was taken from the car, and the figures are so small, I really couldn't get much detail out of it, so this is the best I could do, I would like some of those Amish pictures, but I'm not brave enough to boldly take pictures of them when I know they don't like it, so I don't, I have taken pictures of their fields after the wheat has been stacked, and, as you will recall, the buggy's going up the hill, otherwise, I don't have the nerve.

This is on 4" x 4" Aquabord, I decided that since I couldn't see the detail, it was best to go small, the sky was laid in, sky blue at the top and cobalt violet at the horizon, then I went in and muddled some white in for a cloudy effect, there were no clouds but with the sky being that large I had to do something, then, while it was still wet, I laid in the very far away light horizon, then the trees and finally the field and foreground, I put the roofs of the barns in, so I'd know where to lay in the white for the buildings, I let that dry before I worked up the barns and background trees, then the field, I did the horses and figures on the equipment last, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.