Painting #202 - Aug 14 - My day of rest

You probably think I'm stuck on these 4" paintings, well, not really, I just have been running behind lately, and I can paint a 4" painting (when it's flowers), relatively quickly, and when I'm trying to appease my husband (who dosen't really care much for me being obliged to paint these paintings everyday), well, I chose the small painting, besides the fact that I'm just tired, so, I'm going to make this one quick today so I can get the bed made and head there.

My choice today is this Stargazer Lily today, this one went really quickly, and I did styleize this one a bit, I didn't go too crazy on the detail, I do see that the centers of these flowers have little spiky things on the petals where the spots are, these were fun, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #201 - Aug 13 - glad this day is done

Just tired today, I worked at the Gallery today, it took me 3 hours to get my old paintings down and the new ones up, I had to add them to my inventory list, and the Gallery's list, plus, there were a few that I didn't have on my own list of paintings, so it took a while, there were a few people that came in, but I really had a hard time painting, I didn't get this one done until I got home and then I really didn't get into it until about an hour ago, I chose this photo because I originally thought that I would get two done so I didn't have to spend the time tomorrow painting, well, I didn't get the other one finished, so I'm sure this one will do.

I took this photo several years ago (about 32 years ago), on my lunch hour from the factory I was working at, I was playing with a new camera (an SLR 35 mm), they didn't have the digital that they do now, I still have the SLR but don't use it at all, I've gone strictly digital, I know that the resolution isn't as good, but when you are just using it as reference material, it's good enough, my favorite is this small Kodak that I carry in my purse everywhere I go.

This painting is a composition from a much wider view, I didn't have the close up, so I made a composition of 3 of the trillium with some leaves, this, again, is a small 4" square painting, for this composition, it's enough, it's the Ampersand Aquabord, I almost like the smoother claybord more, but once in a while it works great, this time, I struggled getting the washes to blend, I decided there wasn't much more I could do to it, so it's finished, I like this little painting, and I hope you do too.

Painting #200 - Whew! Made it to 200, love it!

Now it really is downhill from here, I'm feeling stunned, amazed, and gratified, that I did manage to keep this up, I'm not quitting, I'm just amazed that I did it. When you say you're going to do something like this, you never really know (or believe), that you actually can do it, so this is good. Today's painting was started late, so it's a small one, this scene seemed to speak to me, I took this photo several years ago, it's in the U.P. and I believe it's the north shore of Lake Michigan, I don't know for sure, because there were a few pictures I took at Lake Superior just west of White Fish Point, oh well, it's a great lake at any rate.

I wanted something simple that could be done in under an hour, I didn't leave myself time to spend more than that, I have to work at the Gallery tomorrow and I have to get some sleep, mostly so I don't fall asleep trying to paint tomorrow, I had a hard time last month with that. This was a very misty day, I hope you get that, with it being a bit indistinct, the figures are ultra small, so there isn't much detail there, but they do pull you in, so I like that. There were some dead Christmas trees pulled up on the shore in the foreground and I didn't like that large dark brown look there, so I just eliminated them, the rocks look pretty good, and they were there but with the trees on top of them, so I just left the trees off. I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #199 - almost to 200, can't believe it!

Wow, getting close now, I'm on the downhill side now, I have less to paint than are already painted. I felt like painting drippy today, well, not really drippy, but I chose this photo because of all the colors, how they melted together, and also because of the complimentary colors. I have been tempted to paint it several times, and I just decided that it felt right today. I really enjoyed this project today, it is Thursday, so, class in Marshall, I tried to keep it as loose as possible, that way I would still have time to move around and help the girls, I have 5 regular students in Marshall for watercolor, and that's about all the room there is, we share Edith's kitchen (which is very kind of her), so if there were more, it would be hard to fit them in, I could stand, I guess, but I'm sure I'd get tired of that soon enough, I did do that at first, but since I'm doing the blog, the paintings I work on are small, and that seems to fit alright at the end of the table, I feel like a queen with her court, I point and tell and they do, sometimes I show them what I mean, and they all crowd around the table, Pat likes to stand there and watch what I do a lot (I think its because then she doesn't have to figure out what to do, or where to paint what, on her painting, well, not really, but she does like to watch. When I was a student, I liked to watch too, that was how I learned to china paint.), lol.

Well, the grape photo was taken at Meijer gardens in Grand Rapids. My friend Carol and I went there one afternoon, we hadn't been there before, so we decided we should see what all the fuss was about, and it was a lot of fun, we did kind of push it time wise, we were running (almost), to get back before they locked us in for the night. we didn't get to see the gardens but the sculptures were marvelous. Some of the koi that I painted are from that pond there.

The grape color (blue) was what I jumped into first, then the purple, well not purple, its really more like permanent magenta, then, I dropped in some green and some yellow ochre along with some purple on the grapes. I then floated in some darks around the leaves and started to fine tune the grapes by adding some lights and some darker blue, the rest was just adding more of the splotchy colors on the leaves and some spattering, and then just put in more highlights on the grapes and finally I added some neutral tint to some spots in the background, I like this little painting, and I hope you like it too.

Painting #198 - Aug 10 - Another class project

Well, here I go again, another project that is just a bit above their head, I thought it would be a good exercise for white, I forgot that there would be a lot of negative painting, opps again! We are going to try a still life next time, maybe that will be a little better, I can do that! I just forgot that those petals in the middle might be too hard to figure out, well, we'll try something else, maybe they'd like the swan, that was white, we'll see.

Well, I had them start with the yellowish color in the middle and alternating with a cobalt blue for the petal shadows, then I went back into the yellow with a bit darker color to make it stand out better, I just mixed some of the cobalt blue in to make a grayed down yellow for the shadows under the ball head, and I just darkened it a bit more for some definition of the petals, the lower petals were painted in with a light pink, then to make the shadows I made it a darker pink with some cobalt added, and finally, almost straight cobalt blue. I mixed sap green with some black for the background green, I painted around the bud in the foreground and the stem, and I put one positive leaf shape in by painting it negatively, the background wasn't dark enough for me, so, I got into a new color I acquired, a ShinHan Hybrid watercolor called Shadow green, wow, is that dark green! I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #197 - Aug 9 - A pretty abstract day

Well, the order for the day, abstraction, class today was really quite interesting. My friend Sue decided to bring the painting her husband bought her for Christmas, in today, of course, he bought it from me. In my estimation, it is an unusual piece, it's abstract, not my usual style, I've done a couple abstract pieces here on the blog site, but they were just for fun, I don't feel it's my strong suit, but that's not to say it couldn't progress, I do want to grow in that area, and the only way to do that is to do abstracts.

So, today's piece is an abstraction, I'm not sure what she meant me to do, but, I decided to do a still life, the fruit I've been doing seemed to call my name, so that was my choice, it's the cherries, this isn't a composition you've seen, I did set this one up when I was taking photo's of the Queen Anne Cherries a week or so ago, I put the cherries in the wine glass, like I did the dark sweet cherries, but I wasn't happy just doing the same set-up so I added a few things, here are the cherries in the wine glass and along with it are a cream pitcher (that round blob in the middle), and a sugar dispenser, the background is just invented as I was painting along, I really got into this, and it went really well, I managed to get it done in class, which is about 2 hours, since I gave a little talk (explaining what I was trying to do as I drew it on the board), I then sketched out my design on the 8" x 10" Ampersand Aquabord, I tried to help them understand the concept of abstract and the difference between an abstraction of reality (my personal favorite), and non-objective (the kind that has no reality). I'm thinking I should do more of these, since this one went so well, I really like this painting and I hope you do to.

Painting #196 - Aug 8 - Live, love & Laugh

I know, what's up, right? Well, had another friend die, so sad, I also know that as I'm aging, so are they, but I now know how my mother felt when all her friends were dying, it's just sad, so I'm going to get to go to this funeral, I've only known Jean 5 years but she was special, super sweet, and very generous, her last 2 years were hell, she had cancer, so, enough said.

I will also confess, I chose this photo because I knew I could paint it quickly, I spent the whole day getting mats cut, I still have about 25 to do, but that is less than half of what there was, I have been bad this last 2 months about getting to the studio and cutting, I put the equipment away, since I will not be able to get to the others until Friday, and I have china painting class on Thursday, I've not always been good about putting the stuff put away until I absolutely have to, it's a bad habit, I'm trying to get myself into a rhythm, probably the only way that I will be able to correct all my lazy habits, I am trying, this blog operation is a device to get me into better painting and organizational habits. I did get this painting done tonight before 10:15 (and that's amazing because, I didn't start it until 9:00, opps!), well, I'm thinking that is what I have to do, look for the simple compositions for a little while, to get me back on schedule.

I did not draw this, I just started with the sky, then while that was wet, I put in the distant hills (the far distance, they are blue/purple), then the close hill, and the middle ground, then the round bales of hay and the grass, I didn't put the trees in the foreground and the middle ground until last. I also forgot to mention that I used a 5" x 5" Aquabord, these paint up so quickly and I really needed that today, since my back feels like a pretzel from leaning over the mat cutter. I laid in a bit more color on the close hill, then went over it with a bit of misty blue, so it looked like distant atmosphere. Then, I worked on the bales, they were really easy and once they were in, I put the tree in over the background, and the grasses in the foreground, then, I decided to put in the drive to lead you into the painting, of course there was no drive in the photo, and no puddles. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.