Painting #134, June 7th, classes today

I've been just numbering these paintings, but, I think that I should be putting the date on them too, I think everyone could eventually figure out the date, but this should be simpler.

This painting's first life was an acrylic, an 11" x 14" done on a gesso board (much larger than I normally work, so it took a bit longer to complete), I did a fun workshop with the City of Coldwater back in March and this was a demo that was just the first layer of paint, I used bubble wrap to create some textures, and did lots of other things (I can't think what they were at this point), but it wasn't very inspiring, so, I decided to cover it with gesso, and when it was coated a couple of times (enough to cover up the ugly beneath), I decided to paint on the gesso with my gouache, once the gesso is dry, it's just a surface, I do like painting on the gesso with the gouache, so, as long as I mat it and frame it behind glass or plexiglass it will endure as long as the other watermedia that I have done. I put the first layer of this painting on last Wednesday, at Blue Moon, but really didn't get to far into it, so today, I decided to attempt to work it into a painting, I think it worked pretty well, the photo was just a picture of this barn and the grasses and trees, I added the painter (I'd think it was me except that it's too thin, or maybe it was me 15 years ago, lol, once upon a time, I was thinner), I think it adds something to it and it also puts the blue of the sky someplace except the sky, so this is good.

I think you already know how I work, so this was done the same way, I work on the farthest and come forward, that way the layers that overlap do it in the right order. I'm tired tonight and I'd better get to bed, tomorrow night is another class and I have to come up with what we are doing, I like this painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #133, it was a demo tonight

My watercolor society asked me to do a presentation tonight, I decided that they probably had seen most of my styles of watercolor, but, I was sure they hadn't seen a demo on clayboard, some of them had purchased some, and some had used acrylics on it, but I demoed the opaques (gouache), on this particular surface, I think I chose correctly, I was a very nice demo, even though it was a relatively small group, but I didn't feel it was horribly small, I've given demo's for much smaller groups. Anyway, I had a good time and I really got a lot of nice comments on my blog paintings, I took them all, all 132, that was a lot, I know, but I wanted them to get the feel of how many that really is, there were 3 boxes (all matted), and a small group of oil paintings, the watercolor society probably wasn't as thrilled to see the oils, but, they were part of my blog, so I included them.

I got a late start with this today since I waited to do the whole demo at the club meeting, so, I got to paint on it for about an hour and a bit more, then when I got home, I finished it, I only worked on it another 2 hours, that's slightly over 3-1/2 hours total and it was an 8" square, so I feel that's pretty good, I kept it fairly simple so that I could get more done during the time alloted me, well, obviously, I didn't finish it, but I think several will check out the blog now, maybe I'll get a few more followers, hope so.

This painting is on clayboard, I laid in a wash of sky, a mix of sky blue and coastal fog (American Journey colors, Cheep Joe's brand), and some purple, that was darker than I wanted, so I added some white and floated it on, and I do mean floated, lots of water, I wanted them to see how the clayboard absorbs the paint a little bit at a time. Then the tree line, then the bushes and brush along the marshy area in the back, now, you realize this is just a beginning wash, just to give the clayboard a tooth, the water was next and the scum on the top and then the bunch of brush in the middle, and finally the foreground water, then it was fine tune everything, kind of hard to explain all of it, as it just progresses, I work here, and then I work there, until it pulls together, and when I can't think what else to do to make it better, I calls it good! I like this painting and I sure hope you do too.

Painting #132 another fun filled day

Family fun, didn't have a whole lot of time to paint, the grandkids were here and I had lots to do, then unexpectedly my oldest grandson came to help me clean the pool, what a nice surprise, we had a lovely dinner and it was great to see him (he's been a bit distant lately), so it was a good day, except for the fact that my husband had to work all day (no day off this week), and he's very tired (and grumpy, understandable).

I decided on this simple scene as I knew I could pull it off quickly, still having computer problems, and had almost 2 hours of dealing with my virus scan, for some reason the computer doesn't recognize it, and I have had an assistant helping me, and still not working, just about to tell them to take their program (and shove it), and I'll get something else, either that or I'm taking this computer and have someone to go through it, that knows what they are doing to straighten it out.

Ok, now, on with the painting. I have painted this scene a couple of times, I sold one, and that inspired me to paint another one, but, it never looks the same, so this one (being square), doesn't look exactly like it either, I really enjoyed the free form of the flowery foreground and the willowy trees in the back. So, this painting is done precisely the same as all the others I've been doing, front to back, it's on the clayboard again, and I only painted it quicker, I really rushed this one. Just about time to shut this down, time for bed, so I'm very happy with this painting and I hope you enjoy it too.

Painting #131, a whole day of painting

I had almost the whole day to work on this, I did work on 2 others but this one is the one that kept me at it. I had to work at the gallery today, and I didn't have many customers, it would have been nice to have a few that wanted to buy paintings, but no luck with that. I did have plenty of time to paint and I did talk to a couple of customers that were very interested in my art, so I felt good about that.

I started this one, or I should say, I designed this one on Wednesday at Blue Moon, I only got the sky painted though, so I decided to give it the rest of the first layer, that amounts to a mid value of the local color (I guess I'm still thinking like a pastel artist, my first love), usually with watercolor you start with the light colors and work your way up to the darks, but, since I'm working with the opaques, I can work that way and get away with it. I then decided to design another one and put that one aside to dry, I should be able to finish the other one tomorrow, if not then I will have it done Monday (hopefully). Monday night is Watercolor society, and I'm demoing working on clayboard, I will have to figure out what to paint on Monday, if I get Mondays done before the meeting, then I will stockpile it for when we go to the wedding in Minnesota (I will need 3, doubt that I will have time to paint while I'm gone).

I worked this one up my usual way, background first, the sky was first, then the background buildings, then the purple trees that are behind the buildings, then I did the foreground building on the right and the tree trunk, then the large barn on the left and the smaller one, and then the tree trunk on the left. Once that was done then I put in the branches of the trees and the foreground grasses, I really like this painting, and I hope you do too.

painting #130, painted off and on all day, good day

I really thought that with the neighbor having a yard sale in my front yard, that I wouldn't get much done, well, I did, I got this painting done before 1:00 a.m., wow, it's getting to be a record. I'm almost getting used to getting 5 hours of sleep, ugh! Well, the yard sale isn't doing well, hate to say it but told her it was a lot of work, for little or no pay and then you have all that stuff to get rid of, and believe me, it's some nice stuff, like new, and some of it is new. Oh well, you can't figure why people don't want to buy.

Well, on with today's painting, I painted this on watercolor paper coated with gesso, I ripped up a bunch of old paintings and coated them with gesso, and I think it works, this is an old falling down house that they bulldozed a year ago or more, I'm glad I got pictures of it before it became history, I'm very fond of this kind of subject matter, I love the broken boards and the overgrown stuff climbing all over, and the empty windows, I chose this subject matter for a workshop I took about a year ago, we did it in black and white, gray, and wild colors, but this is neither, I like to fine tune the detail more than that bunch of small paintings would afford. I'm into local color, so when I choose a site and take pictures, I compose my photo (generally, sometimes I get way too close and have to stick a bunch of photo's together, but I then can make the composition as I see fit.

This is done with the opaques, some opaque, and some translucent. I painted on this a bit here and a bit there today, I thought that the insurance man was coming but since we had those stormes last week end, he had to cancel. I will have to call and make another appointment, but I canceled an eye appointment because I had accidentally scheduled both at the same time, I could have gotten the eye appointment out of the way, oh well. I probably won't go into much detail about the painting, it was done the usual way, I put the background in first and the work my way forward. I put in the branches of the trees last and I think it's done, I like this painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #129, the days seem to be getting longer, but is that good?

My days have been getting longer, haven't been able to get this blog done until 1:00 a.m., yesterday, and today, the days are longer, but, boy, am I tired, will have to make this one short.

This is translucent opaque watercolors on 140# D'Arches, I haven't been painting on just regular paper lately, but today seemed like a good day to get back to it, needed to be able to blend those colors, it isn't easy to do it on the gesso board nor the clayboard, sometimes you just need to be able to pull a wash, and today was it. I decided to do this picture of the water lily because, I just wasn't up to working on either of the other pieces that I had started, I felt that I could pull this one off in a couple hours maybe 3 at most, I didn't get really started until 10:00, lots of things got in my way again today, I'm still fighting with the laptop, I may have to take it back to factory, but not tonight, got to hit the bed, so tired. Tomorrow my neighbor is having a yard sale in my front yard, so I'm sure it's going to be another struggle to get anything done.

I have to get mats cut again, I have been making the paintings much larger than the 6" square ones I was doing, now, I'm having to cut mats for them since all the mats I already have cut are for the 6" ones, I should have stuck to the 6" ones, only, I was feeling restricted, just couldn't put all those compositions on the 6" one. So, I've told you that it's translucent, but there is some heavy opaques on it, I did leave the white for the lily, but I had to paint in the leaves for those fern looking weeds on the left, other than that, it's translucent, I like this painting, and I hope you do to.

Painting #128, it was a day of accomplishment

Accomplishment yes, painting, not too much, I did get the painting done, but very late, fought with the computer again today, that usually takes up more time than I think is necessary, isn't the computer supposed to be more efficient? Well, when you have to dink around trying to figure out how and where to go in a program, it isn't efficient, I was trying out a new program for my new laptop, was considering investing in a program that should be compatible with my Corel Photo Paint program, since I invested in an upgrade for the laptop (the Photo paint program), I assmed that by investing in a new Corel Wordperfect Suite, that it would fit right in with the Corel Photo program like the old version I have, did, well, think again, I don't know where they get these programmers, they just get the darn programs so complicated and nothing works together anymore, I would just install the old program on here, but, guess what, it won't work with Windows 7, imagine that, so, I will have to do all my major art stuff on the old main computer so it looks good. I've already had to upgrade several programs, I'm sure not happy about that, well, let's get on with this painting.

I started this painting a few days ago, and worked on it a couple of times, but it didn't get me, had Blue Moon tonight and started 2 other paintings and didn't work on this one until I got home, one of the problems is that I had misplaced the reference material I was using and I couldn't get the flower to look corect, well, I found some photo's, and they weren't the ones, but I decided to sponge off some of the flower and reconstruct it. So, this painting is very opaque, I usually work with the opaques in a translucent manner but, this time they are opaque. I had to reconstruct both the yellow and the purple flower, I also got the gesso out and re-worked the background and reshaped the leaves, so, this finally got finished, way late, and I'm glad it's finished, I like this painting and I hope you do too.