Well, this is the new year, and I have started a new blog, if I haven't told you yet, the new address is just vivianschilling.blogspot.com, it is supposed to be a new start of getting to painting everyday, well, I'm not doing as well as I did in 2011, well in 2012 I got sick and since then I'm getting as it again, but it is much slower. I can't seem to get driven like I was when I said I'd do one a day, I'm afraid that if I say that again, my husband will have a fit. He's of the opinion that is what caused me to get sick, and I'm sure it isn't but he's convinced. So, I'm doing this and as soon as I get this show at Pierce Cedar Creek set up, I'll be able to do much better, right now I'm trying to get everything together for this show. My dear friend Susan kind of got me into it, and I'm glad she did but I'm having a hard time making myself get to it, but the deadline is here, so for the time being, I'm at least painting 3 days of the week, and I've got lots to do gathering, making lists, making cards, and then hanging, wish me luck. And, check out the new blog, I'm not going to be posting on this one anymore, but I'm still painting, check out the new blog to see what I'm doing now.

Just to let you know - been sick

Well, this is a long story, just to up date you on the what for, I had a bout of Congestive heart failure, been in and out of the hospital with several major procedures that were not fun, it's 3 weeks in and out of Borgess and Coldwater hospitals for the last month, and now I'm on Home health care, so I'm stuck at home, I'm pretty shaky, but feel good, so hopefully they will figure out what caused this, and I'll be back, I haven't painted for 5 or so weeks, but I'm going to go out and sketch something right now. Hang in there with me, I do have a painting that I've been working on and hopefully I'll be able to finish that one and get it posted.

Paintout today

What a nice day, it was a scheduled paintout at the Cary Farm in Hastings with the PAAWM group, a bit of a long drive, and the forcast was not good, thank goodness that the weather didn't know that, what a nice day. The Cary's were so generous, they provided us with apples, oranges, doughnuts, muffins, coffee, water, then they brought out a sheet cake, and when it was finished, they provided us with pizza. Wow! They were ever present and wandered around, so friendly, it was a wonderful site and it was a great day.

My friend Carol and I wandered around for quite a while and then decided to get to painting, I took lots of photos so I'll hopefully be able to paint more than this one painting. I usually paint with watercolors, but today I decided to paint with pastels, my surface was a new one for me, I ordered some suade paper, what a lovely surface, it hardly makes any dust, I really like it.

Anyway, I was painting the same scene as Richard Jordan (he's the one that organized the PAAWM group), and he's a very good oil painter, I hope I wasn't encroaching on his space by painting the same location he was, anyway, I worked on this for about 3 hours and I probably could change a few things, but I won't get the opportunity since I donated the painting to the Cary's, they liked my painting, and they were so kind to let us wander all over their property, so I decided to donate this one piece for their generosity. I hope they enjoy it, I really enjoyed the day and I enjoyed painting this picture.

Black River Gorge - Finished April 12, 2012

Here it is, I told you yesterday that I was going to post this one, I've been so excited about this surface, I'm loving it. When I got this board (Strathmore High Plate Illustration Board), I cut it in half and took it to my watercolor class on Tuesday, that was only slightly over 2 weeks ago, wow, two paintings painted on this surface, they are about 15" x 20", just about what a 1/4 sheet of watercolor paper would be. This surface is smooth, but it has a slight tooth, it however, is not slick, but slightly absorbent, a truely lovely surface to paint on. I'm going to finish another one that I started at about the same time (I think I started it on Thursday), that same week as that first waterfall painting I finished.

I have a start photo, which you will see is rather oblique, not much to say what it will be, then as I painted, it really grabbed me, now, you understand, I did all both of the first two, the start and the second stage, all the same day. I didn't have time to finish it then, or I would have, it really grabbed me. I didn't feel that I made much more progress for the 3rd and 4th stages, so I didn't photograph it, well, I probably should have, oh well, live and learn, so I actually worked on this 4 times, once on Tuesday, then on Thursday, and again on Tuesday this week, I had to work the Gallery yesterday afternoon and I had about another hour in this, but didn't quite have it finished, today was putting the water to rights, this painting makes me very happy, I think it's the composition and the bits of detail, I love painting falls and this one really gives me a lot to love, I'm hoping you love it too, I'm going to be exhibiting it in my show at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, MI, August, September & October this year, hope to see you there, I'll be letting you know when the reception is and possibly you can manage to find time to go.

This is the final, now I'll put the 1st and second stages in.

Golden Stream finished - finally

I've worked on this off and on, it's been 2 months, and I really meant to have this, done within the week, well, I got sick, plus the fact that I had to work on that poster, I really got behind. Then, I got waylaid, I found a new surface to work on and I'm pretty excited about it. I have another painting that is almost finished, but I wanted to get this one done, I worked on both today, it was gallery day, and I think I must have worked on this painting about 2-3/4 of my 3-3/4 hour day. I was so excited to get this one done and then I worked on the next one, and was so excited to get so close to finishing it, I forgot to eat dinner, then my students started to arrive, well, I ate my salad when I got home, about half an hour ago.

This painting, as you will recall, is on Ampersand Aquabord, I discovered this surface when I was doing the daily blog painting, and really liked working on it. I wasn't sure when I would work on one this large, but I must have invested in the 22" x 30" bord during one of the orders I placed for bords, I do have several of the 6" square bords left, so I will be painting a few more of those at some point.

This painting has been about 3/4 done for a long time, I only had to finish the lower left corner, well, I think the problem was that those branches in the middle were holding me back, I finally got them done today, then I worked on the rocks on the left and the water right at the corner, this one is finally done and I'm so glad, now I don't have to feel guilty for painting on something else, I am planning on finishing the next one tomorrow, and I'll be posing that one then, hope you'll be watching for it.

New painting - Shimmering Falls finished 3/29/12

Well, even though I have been negligent posting, I have been painting, not as much as I should, since I'm really behind now, but I think I'm changing my approach, now, instead of putting my paintings out as I'm working on it, I've decided to post all levels of each painting when it's all finished, that way, when I link it to Facebook, those who view my work will see the finished piece and then can go to this blog to see the steps, I believe this will be a better approach for me. I still haven't finished the very first painting that I started, so much stuff came up that interrupted my train of thought, and now I'm at a stand still, I see it, it's sitting on the easel and staring at me, but I got diverted when I had the poster to work on, then I was sick, and I found a 16" x 20" Aquabord, and got excited about painting on that surface (that's the next finished painting, I only have a little bit more to do on that one.

Today's painting is is watercolor and gouache, the surface is High Plate Illustration board. I started this one yesterday about 1:30 in the afternoon (I worked the gallery), before I started painting, I took blue painters masking tape and taped all around the edges, the reason for this is to keep the water from separating the sheets of paper making up this surface. I did a rough sketch, then started with the sky, I wanted it to be fairly light so I had quite a bit of water with the blue, then I mixed some brown in the blue to make the light gray for the clouds, and to attempt to make the clouds show up a bit more, I put a bit of opaque white on the tope edge. I then started with the rocks at the left and moved across to the trees at the top, this surface is really absorbent, so it really didn't take long for the paint to sink in enough to keep it from moving together. then the rocks across the middle, I mixed blue, brown, yellow ochre and blue, painting and changing colors as I moved, toward the bottom of the rocks, I added some purple in to cool them down, as I worked the rocks, I kept changing the colors and adding some opaques to add texture, once I got the rocks laid in, I laid a wash of cerulean blue with some prussian blue added for a bit darker blue under the rocks, the first was was very simple.

Then, I started at the top and refined the tree area, I put some blue at the top edge of the trees to indicate farther away, and switched back and forth from green to yellow ochre and back to green, and some blues, I scratched into the tree color to indicate pine trees and some other tree trunks, I really worked up the rocks, adding some burnt sienna and some permanent magenta with the browns and blues and yellow ochre, when that was done, I worked on the foreground rock ledge where the water is cascading, I really laid in the darks, skipping spaces for the water to flow down. It's difficult to explain the layers, I really think you'd have to watch me to see how I work, I really work all over the rocks and the water at this last stage, I felt that the direction of the rocks and the movement of the water were the important part of this composition, I really enjoyed how the paint worked, and how I could really jump into the details fairly fast, of course, you realize that I am not a wimpy painter, I like strong contrast and I really love making the water move, this very last stage is when I jump into the opaques, I started with white, and added some blue in some areas and some green shade in some areas and that's the way it goes, I really like this painting, I think this piece is about the size of a 1/4 sheet, maybe slightly larger, I really enjoyed painting this, I'm unsure exactly where this is. but. I'm thinking it's one of the falls that is on the Black River in the U.P., I really enjoyed this painting and I hope you do too.

The above is the finished, below follow the first through the 4th stages, I just wanted you to see the finish first.

Poster is finished

This is the poster I did for Nympy Errant, a Tibbits show this summer, I got kind of wrapped up with that, and didn't get to finish the painting yet, then I got sick with such a terrible cold and am just now feeling like doing anything.    I did finish  another one, one you didn't get to see the start of since I was trying to finish the other one first, but since this one is finished, you now get a look.  I will be posting the finish on the other one soon.   So, I've started another painting on Aquabord, this one is much smaller than the other one, but still larger than the small ones I did for my blog last year, I hope you will keep looking, I really feel bad about not posting for so long, so I'm back, and will be doing a much better job of  keeping up with this now, I am a bit behind and will try to catch up, it might be a bit tricky since there is so much going on this spring and summer, but I will try.  Thanks for keeping an eye on this blog.

Part II - painting #1 - week 2 - almost there

I didn't have much opportunity to paint on this particular painting until today, I worked the Gallery today and managed to get about 3-1/2 hours of solid painting time. I really feel that the trees are done, I like the way they turned out. I wasn't sure how I was going to approach the pine trees, I really didn't want to paint all those needles, and my silly brain still wants to put all that information in, I don't know why, I just can't infer it, I must put those needles in, but I found a mini fan brush that really worked for me, I used the gouache again, I think I'm stuck on that, can't seem to make myself go back to the transparent watercolors completely, I did use them on this, but those opaques really call my name. Any way, I finished the trees, then I worked on the middle ground water a bit, and the rocks, I do need to work on the right hand corner more, and I do need to finish the drift wood that is piled up on the rocks,I think I can finish this one soon, I'm going to try to finish it on Friday, that is if they don't press me to work on that poster for Tibbits, I really thought that I'd hear from them my now, but, no, they haven't made an attempt to contact me yet, hopefully I'll find out something soon, well, I'm signing off, I hope you can see the difference on this, I think it's getting much better.

busy week

I don't have a picture for you, I still haven't been able to finish this painting I started, I haven't really been able to paint on it, I got a new student in class last Tuesday and I wasn't able to paint on a regular painting. I've been trying to get the knitting to a point, I did manage to get the scarfs done, now the socks, Wed Chris from the Tibbits called me and talked me into working up a design for a poster, I had to mull that around for a week before I could come up with something that I liked, now just waiting to see if they like one of the 6 that I designed, then I'll have to paint that, I'm going to try to finish the painting, if not tonight when I get home, then tomorrow at the Gallery, I am scheduled to work all day tomorrow, so I might be able to get it done before class. Sorry that I don't have anything to show, but keep looking, I will be finishing this soon and then on to the next. Hope you have a great day.

Painting #1 - Jan 31 - A lot more to do yet

As you can see, there is a lot more to do, I really worked hard on the trees yesterday, I'm not sure if they are done yet or not, it will depend on how they look when the water progresses, I was so enamored with the water the other day, that the trees got left behind, so that was my intention when I got to the painting yesterday. The water does pull me though, I have class today, so I probably won't work on this one there, it's so large, I may work on it when I get home though. The trees were a challenge to me, I don't want them to get too detailed, but the problem is that I've worked so small this last year, that my brain hasn't totally made the disconnection with the detail, obviously, if I try to put too much detail in, it will fall flat. Besides, the intent here is to eliminate the detail, well, not totally, but to try to loosen up, I am trying, stay tuned for more upgrades, and, hopefully, the painting should be done this coming week-end, that is if all goes well. Thanks for watching.

A new plan - here is the new plan for this coming years blog

I hope you all didn't give up on me, it took me a while to figure out my new direction, I probably will not blog daily, maybe I will and maybe I won't, you will just have to check since I don't know yet weather you really need to see everything I'm working on, I will show you when I complete one, and when I start a new or major painting (like yesterday's painting). I went to my friends house (she used to be my china painting instructor many years ago, but since then we've become best friends).

I started a 22" x 30" painting, the surface is Aquabord (I don't plan on working on this surface always), I had purchased one a while ago, it was wrapped in the plastic but I had some water damage in my studio a while ago and I didn't notice that it had gotten wet, well, the water had stained the bottom edge of the board, so I decided, since that surface is fairly expensive for that size, that I would see if I could repair it. Scrubbing it didn't work, so I gessoed it, it took several layers but it finally got so I couldn't see it, I realized that the place that the gesso was was smooth and the Aquabord is textured like watercolor paper, so I tried a couple of different things to acquire the texture necessary to get close to the texture on the board, finally I had a piece of paper towel and after I painted the gesso on, I laid the paper towel down and it really worked, you can't see the difference now that it's painted, it works for me, with the gesso on it, it should be sealed and good to go, I will monitor this to make sure that it doesn't re-appear and I will keep you apprised.

Now, this was painted all in one day I have about 7 or more hours working on this one, and I will not always have that many hours to work on one painting everyday, what I'm proposing is that I show you the progress I'm making and hopefully I will complete at least 30 paintings this year, I will say that my intent is half sheet or larger paintings, but not to just limit myself, I will tell you that I may work smaller, it will depend on lots of things, first of all, if I start a painting in a class, I may have to work smaller because of space, on the Thursday class we are a bit more limited than the Tuesday class, I don't intend to blog this daily, I think I mentioned that, but I will be on here 2 or 3 times a week to up date my progress, today's painting has a lot more photo's since I worked hard on it all day, most days, I will have 2 or 3 hours at most so it won't be necessary to show so many different views, also, when I'm working in class, I will be working on finishing paintings that are already started (from last year and before, I'm fond of starting paintings, and sometimes I have to look at them for a while before I figure out what needs to be done, probably one of the reasons that a painting a day was a bit difficult for me), but I do want to paint all the days, even the ones that I'm not teaching, I will say that I probably won't be painting on Sundays, since that is my day to spend with the family.

This first photo is the last photo I took, I will then show you the progress from start to last, I just know that if I post this on facebook, that the first photo is the one that shows up and I didn't think that would look very impressive, so here goes.

The following photo's are the first followed by the next progression, now remember, the first one is the last one for now, I'm still working on this one.

As you can see, this painting isn't done, but that's my plan, you will see the progress until it's completed, if I finish one in my class, I will post that separately, thanks for viewing my blog last year and hopefully, you will follow this part.

Painting #365 - Last, but not least

This is the final painting for this blog obligation, I said I'd do it and I did, I made it! Whew! Wasn't sure that I would, or could. I started getting at the paintings late, most nights, and I dragged my feet, at that, but, I did do what I said I'd do. I really don't know how those daily painters do it, how do you paint one a day on a continuous basis, I think if I had done this when I was in my 30's I might have been better equipped to deal with it, now, don't get me wrong, I did enjoy doing this, I especially like chatting, I really feel that part helps you know the real me, I do have my struggles, one being that in order for me to get anything done, I have to give myself deadlines, and pressure myself into doing it, once I get started, I really don't have trouble, it's the starting that's hard, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one that struggles with that, I am hoping that this experience has helped me be aware of how short our lives are (especially since it doesn't seem possible that this year is over already), and that if I'm going to make this art my career, I must work at it like a job, I do work at it like a job 3 days of the week, but those on those days that I don't teach, I can find all kinds of reasons not to get to the studio. In order for me to do this blog painting, I had to bring a small studio over here (at the house), and set it up at my dining room table, if I'd had to go to the studio, I would have felt that I was neglecting my husband, and even as it was, I did do that a bit, he is very happy that this blog is over, little does he know that I intend to keep blogging, about my paintings, and I'm hoping that I can figure out what I really want to do, I know if I don't tell you what I'm going to do, I'll probably not do it, because I know me, well, enough of that.

This painting was started last Tuesday, remember, I said that I got it started and was excited about it, well, I tried to paint on it some yesterday, but didn't have enough time, or energy to work at it more than a bit. Today, however, I meant to complete it and I worked at it very diligently at class, and then I have about 2 hours in it after dinner. I tried not to make it too detailed, but detailed enough, sometimes tricky for me. I left the figure of the fisherman until last, and I really enjoyed painting him, this photo was taken on a short vacation that my husband and I took a few years ago, now don't ask me where it is, for sure, it's probably in the U.P., possibly along the black river, there is a State Park and there are about 5 different falls that are on a couple of mile hike, I'm not sure that I would be able to do it anymore, but it was great getting these photo's when we did. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

I will get back to you in the next week to decide what the next blog will be, I want to continue painting, but I want to work on some that are much larger, I'm really counting on getting some larger new stuff done for my up coming shows, toodles for now. Vivian

Painting #364 - A quiet day, not much happening

Everyone needs those days once in a while, I should have really jumped in and painted a bit more, I did paint, but not as much as I should have, tomorrow is the last blog, I hope you can keep me in mind, I plan on doing something, just not totally sure what yet, I'm hoping that I'll be able to figure out what it is I want to do. I've tossed around a couple of different ideas, I have lots to do, I'm scheduled to have a show of some of these blogs at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, that's scheduled for August, Sept. and Oct., I have lots to do to get ready for that, among those things is a lot of matting and framing along with some painting, since I don't want the show to be just the small paintings that I've been painting, I'm tossing around figuring out the best ones and possibly having one of those books made up, wow, wouldn't that be neat, so, I'm still thinking and I will be painting, so maybe I'll keep you apprised of how those things are coming along, I also thought about a weekly painting, but then I'm still thinking about that one, since some paintings, especially the large ones, take longer than a week, and I don't want to get myself in the same situation where I'm pressured to produce a painting, that should be a natural thing, my intention was to get a new habit to paint everyday, I would like to see if that has happened, and go from there for now.

This painting is another of the 4" x 6" postcard size, on 300 lb. watercolor paper. I started it out with a wet-in-wet technique with acrylic, then I let that dry and got out the gouache and watercolors, did I mention that my palette is kind of a mixture of both, some of the paints are American Journey paints (Cheap Joe's), and they say transparent, but quite a few of those have white in them, and that makes them opaque.

In my original composition, I had left the birch tree, that crosses the river there in the foreground, out, well, I thought that spot looked so un interesting, that I put it in, so I got the gesso out and wiped out the watercolor paint, then laid in the gesso, when that was dry, I got out the palette knife and tried the palette knife technique again, I was quite happy with the result. The remainder of this painting was to just fill in the leaves of the trees hanging down and put the branches in, then fine tune the rocks and the water and, TA DA! Its a painting, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #363 - Jan 22 - Going to be busy today, so I got this done early

The Opening reception for the Carnegie Center for The Arts in Three Rivers is today, so I jumped right on that painting that I was trying to get done yesterday to finish it. I am sure that the afternoon is going to be very busy, since we have not done any major shopping lately in addition to the show, and I'm certain that we will be dinning out too, so just in case that I get to exhausted from all that activity (I'm getting so I don't have the same stamina anymore, I used to be able to go and go and go, but something happens when you turn 55, I do believe that's the magic number when things really go downhill, and since I passed that almost 11 years ago, you guessed it, I'm much less able to do that, gaining weight will have something to do with that too, or maybe it's the other way around, the weight is from doing less, I really think it's both).

this little painting, again, is on 300 lb. watercolor paper (it's 4" x 6" again, I have to use up those pieces I cut for the postcards), I've been experimenting with ways to start things, so I used the acrylics to lay in the beginning washes, when that was dry, I switched to the gouache, I feel much more comfortable with the gouache, maybe it has to do with the acrylics drying so fast, I have enjoyed the acrylics, but the gouache is much easier to manipulate. At any rate, I then started to build up the background trees, since the sky is sort of a pinkish color, I used magenta added to the green, well, that was too dark, so I just thinned it down and added more magenta, that worked, then I moved to the water, and worked that up, the foreground weeds were put in last, and finally I added a skim of white to add the effect of the water, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #362 - Jan 21 - a bit of a slow day

I surely didn't get as much done as I thought I would, I did finish the painting that I worked on yesterday, you will see my deviated composition, what I mean by that is that I never start with the foreground, but this time I did, you remember, I said that I tried the technique of painting the birch trees with a palette knife, well, that's what I did, all the trees went in first, then, I sorted through some photo's that might fit this tree composition, I think this works very well, so, I painted around the trees with the landscape, a bit more difficult that I like, but I suppose I could have masked the trees, but I didn't. I did work on another one, I was trying to get that one done too, and my plan was to get another one done for tomorrow, well, tomorrow's painting will have to be done in the morning, I will attempt to finish it in the morning. I just couldn't do it tonight, I didn't go to bed until almost 3:00 a.m. and then I read for an hour, my dear friend, Sue called this morning and got me up, so far I haven't napped, but I am not up to painting more tonight, I know these are small, but I never said how big I was going to paint, although, when I started this blog my intention was to keep them all 6" x 6", well, I got tired of the 6" size and decided to work in a few other sizes, now it just depends on how tired I am or if I am really inspired, the larger pieces, the more inspiration, although, that's not totally true since sometimes, I just choose the size and then work.

Well, this is a small landscape with birch trees, the landscape itself didn't have any trees in the foreground, but I felt I could pull it off because the river turned right at the foreground, which made it possible for the trees, of course, I've seen other river scenes that when you are up high, the trees are in the foreground when the water comes clear to the bottom, for instance, the Taquamenon Falls pictures I have, lots of those have trees that stretch from top to bottom. I really had a lot of fun with this painting, and I really like it, I sure hope you like it too.

Painting #361 - Jan 20 - Snow again, didn't get as much done as I wanted.

Watched a short video clip this afternoon, Sterling Edwards, I took a workshop with him about 6 years ago, doesn't seem possible that it's been that long ago, well, the video was really a short clip about a palette knife technique, so I ran over to the studio to get mine so I could practice, I've been using acrylics, but in a watercolor manner, so I tried it on one of the 4" x 6" pieces of paper that I cut up for the postcards, and I made birch trees, wow, it really worked, I've never painted with a palette knife with the watermedia, I have with oils, but not a lot, even then. I got so excited, it really did work, so, when it was dry I decided to try to filling in with a small landscape behind, well, I'd show you that, but it got late and I didn't get that one finished. I already had my painting done for today, so that's the one that you get today, I did try to paint the trees with the acrylic, but it didn't work very well, but the trees in this small barn painting were painted in with the knife, I don't know if it was how I was holding the knife, but they got wider than I relly wanted, oh well, they look pretty good, anyway, this painting is one of 4 that I started today, I will be working on the others this week-end, this is my last week-end for painting, and I have an art show to attend on Sunday, so I'm going to paint at least one for Sunday so I don't have to stress out how to get that one done, I have a plan, and I have 3 paintings to finish tomorrow, so I can use one or two for Sunday, Monday, I plan on finishing the painting I started on Tuesday, wish me luck, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #360 - Jan 19 - So tired today, maybe worked too hard yesterday.

Yesterday was a great day of accomplishment, but today was a dud, I painted, but I meant to have two instead of one, oh well, one is all I said I'd do, I was trying to get those postcards done, but I've since decided that I wasn't sure I wanted to send them off just now, there are a few that I really like and I didn't know if I was ready to sell them yet. I like to look at them for a while, see if they inspire me to paint larger ones of the same scene, I have thought of that, there are several that I've done that I wish they were larger paintings, they carry so nicely. I have painted these small ones all year, am I going to be able to translate the scenes into larger watercolors? I guess I'll find out here directly.

Ok, now here is the painting for day, this is the Taquamenon Falls painting I was partially working on yesterday, I've finished it, it also is acrylic, I did have one more started, but not finished yet, maybe I'll see about finishing it tonight yet, we'll see. I've painted this painting a couple of times before, believe it or not, this is the large one, imagine that, the others are smaller, one is only about 1-1/2" x 2", really small. I have about 2-1/2 hours in this one, as with yesterday's painting, this was early Fall, and there was a skim of ice on the water, no snow, but there was ice, this, if you didn't know it, is a famous falls in Michigan's Upper Penninsula, this is the lower falls, the upper falls are much larger, and, in my opinion, much less interesting. I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #359 - Wow, a really great painting day

Since we had our Blue Moon meeting on Monday, I decided to try to paint some of those 4" x 6" postcards today, I started my painting, then decided that I might be able to rescue a couple of small postcard paintings I painted a couple of years ago, and make them better, so I went over and to the studio to retrieve them, they were originally watercolors, but they left me a bit flat (I mean that I didn't feel that they were that great), so while I waited on my blog painting to dry a bit, I decided to amplify them with some acrylics, that really made them pop, I think they are both better now. I really painted all day, except for the time between the painting that I knitted, cooked dinner, did laundry, and washed dishes, wow, like I said it was a good day, I also have half of my tomorrow's blog painting done, I was on a roll.

Well, as you probably know, this is acrylic, again, I really painted with the acrylic's all day today, I went through the photo's yesterday and picked out enough photo's to complete the 6 postcards, but, the problem is, they should have been in the mail today, unless I drive to Muskegon on Friday, well, I don't know if I'll do that or not, but, looking on the bright side, I have my blog painting done early, I am feeling really good about that. I am making this short, I have knitting to do for a bit before bed, tomorrow morning I will paint before leaving for class and try to get the blog painting done before I leave for class, mostly so that I can work on the painting that I started yesterday in class, I didn't have an opportunity to work on it today, what with all the stuff I did, such a busy day, I'm still in shock that I got so much done. I like this little painting (actually the blog painting is the winter scene, the two flower paintings are just thrown in for a lark. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

This is the blog painting, the following floral's are the repaired paintings I worked on today.

Painting #358 - Jan 17 - class day, but didn't get one done in class

I worked on 2, but I'm thinking of wiping the paint off the first one, I had it started over a month ago, but I'm having a real hard time working on it, it's not making me happy, so, when it doesn't make you happy, move on, and make it something else, that's how I'm feeling. So I started a different one, and I really like that one, but again, it's an 8" x 10" and I couldn't get that one done. It was an Arts Alive meeting tonight, and I didn't get home until 7:35 or so, after the meeting I had to stop at the store, so when I got home there was supper to make, well, that doesn't leave much time to paint, so I cut up some 300 lb watercolor paper to 6" x 4" (my friend Sue is trying to talk me into painting these small paintings to send off to Muskegon for a special sale they are having for postcard paintings), well, I thought, if I can manage to get some done tomorrow, I may, but I did paint one tonight, just in case.

This painting, as I told you above, is on 300 lb watercolor paper, but it's acrylic and not watercolor, the acrylic paint on the smooth surface of the claybord much easier than on the paper, but since this could be one of those postcards, I wanted it to be permanent, so I used the acrylic's. I sorted through the pictures to find something that I thought I could get done in an hour or so, and this one took me about 2 hours, it's painted like transparent watercolor for the sky and the far trees, and part of the water, then I used the acrylics like I use my gouache, and that really works for me, but I did have difficulty with making the paint move on this paper, it just wanted to be dry, of course part of that is that the paint practically drys on the brush before you get it to the paper, well, I did manage to get this painted and I do really like this little painting, so I'm hoping that you like it too.

Painting #357 - Jan 16 - Great painting day

It was a very inspirational day, we had our Blue Moon meeting today instead of Wednesday (our usual), so since Sue didn't have school today, we met early (which means no beer, boo hoo, just kidding), don't need beer to paint, but we did have the chocolate (dark of course), and the pretzels, so we were all working on some project or other, no general project for all, which we sometimes do. Sue was working on some 4" x 6" paintings for something going on in Muskegon, Carol was working on a small landscape, Bev was working on our next Tibbits show, which is Black & White, and I was working on my blog painting, I brought out the Mill painting that I had started the other day in acrylics, I almost got it done at Sue's, but I did have a lot to do, and still needed a couple hours to complete it when I got home, all total, I probably have about 11 hours in this one, it was a major project for me, I am not used to working with the acrylics, so I struggled a bit, but I do believe I have it down pretty good, I really did enjoy working on this painting, as as I said before when I was working on the acrylics, I just painted with them like I paint with the gouache, that really works for me, I'm not much into the texture of the paint showing, I like the smoothness of this, so I'm pretty sure that is my style for the time being.

This painting is quite complicated, I worked on the right hand corner first, I said before, I start these paintings out with a thin overall middle tone in the local color to get the placement, now then, I have made adjustments to this one, I had to adjust the width of the front on the mill (I had it too wide), and I made adjustments to the roof too, but the rest if pretty close to how I first laid it in. Like I said, I started with the right hand corner first and got that to a fairly close finish, then, I did change the color of the sky too, almost forgot to mention that, I had it blue at first, but the photo looks fairly white, well, white isn't very interesting, so I made it yellow, I really like the change, the photo did have the blue reflections in the water though, so I think this really works. I meant to mention where this lovely mill is, for those of you who do not know, this is in Bellevue, MI, I went there to take these pictures so many years ago with my Mother, so this painting makes me think of my Mom, miss her. Now, today I really got into finishing this, and I absolutely love the water reflections of the mill, and the green scum, love it.

I really meant to explain how I worked on this, I do get carried away, well, I always work from the farthest to the closest, which also works for me, then the stuff that's closest, is on top of the behind stuff, I think it gives it more depth, oh yes, did I say that one of the reasons that it took so long to paint was that it was an 8" x 10" on claybord, I do think I mentioned it the other day when I started it, but just to make sure, I said it again. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.