Painting #263 - Oct 14 - It's the Plein air Retreat - What a cool place!

Well, it's been a busy day, I didn't get much painting in (yet), we still have some daylight, but, we are on a schedule, breakfast at 8:00 a.m., Lunch at 1:00 p.m., Dinner at 5:30 P.M., so, it's almost time for dinner, and by the time we eat, there won't be much daylight left, but we could paint in the evening, so I'm still thinking about painting more, I did these two from 10:30 to 12:30, then we sat in the car to get warm, it was windy and cold, so now the sun is out and the lighting is perfect, but, we must be on schedule to get to dinner (not that I'm hungry just now, but the food is really good, so I will force myself, the heck with a diet, I'm on vacation. We got set up for the art show this week-end here, some doings that have been a regular thing, and hopefully we will sell something, we sure have a lot to sell, I do need to get rid of some of these blog paintings, I put out 3 boxes, and about 7 or 8 framed ones, maybe we'll find someone who wants to buy, but I'm not holding my breath, tomorrow we have located some barns that we want to paint and maybe some other stuff too. For today, we just sat out in front of the Education building and painted the tree and small path that were right there, just too cold and not enough time to go too far, we were starving when lunch came, and I really over ate, oh well, like I said, I'm on vacation. I really like these two paintings and I hope you do too.

Painting #262 - Oct 13 - A good day for some things and not for others

I'd like to show you the picture that I painted, but there seems to be a glitch, either my camera isn't working, or the sd card reader on this laptop isn't working, I will have to check it out later, right now I need to get to bed, it's late and I've been messing with this computer for an hour and a half trying to get this picture downloaded, I can see it on the camera but this computer doesn't see it, I'm about fed up with this thing, I think HP will get a piece of my mind, all the trouble I've had with this thing, anyway, the other part of the day was great, sold 15 of my blog paintings, so made a little money, took them to class with me today and my students bought them, so I'm good to go, tomorrow I have to be up early and I'm going to be tired, so I've got to go for now, I'll try downloading this pictures tomorrow and if that doesn't work, I'll have to get back to you with the pictures as soon as I figure out what the problem is. Sorry that you can't see it, it's a little landscape, a fall colors one, looks good to me, sorry that you cant see it yet.

Ok, now, I finally figured out what I did, I wiped the photo's off my SD card and inadvertently changed where it was saved to, so, when I took the picture, it saved it to the permanent partition in the camera, so it didn't show up on the SD card, I finally got it figured out and I'm good to go now.

I really felt bad about not having the picture for the blog last night, so here it is, I'm not going to talk much, we are resting a bit, my hip started to bother me and I don't want to over do and end up not being able to paint. So, here is the painting, it really explains itself, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #261 - Oct 12 - Kind of a messed up day

Well, I started this day out pretty good, got everything done that I had to before I left to go to the gallery, even made it to pick up Susan's stuff for the Friday night Gallery event (we donated brownies and stuff), I was still early, so, stopped to pick up a sandwich, then on to Wal-mart for candy and a pop, well, got to the Gallery, and Mark was there, well, I assumed he was waiting for me to get there to leave, NOT! He was there for the whole day, so I raced around to get there, and didn't have to. Well, I did paint, I worked on 3 paintings, the extra King's mill I have to do (since I told one of my students that I would sell her my blog painting of Kings Mill, well, guess who sold it back in September at the Constantine Fall Festival, so I decided to paint another one, and I'm almost done with it, it's not exactly the same, but close, I'm sure it will be ok. I started one a 7-1/2" x 15", which will be framed 10" x 20", a very nice size, and this one, I didn't get the other 2 done, but this one is, now. I had to fine tune it when I got home, but it only took about 45 min.

This painting is on Aquabord, 4" x 4", it's very small, just not enough time to do a big one, I did spend quite a bit of time working up the Kings Mill painting, I'll be glad when I get it done. This is a similar one to the one I did the other day, I used the same chicken pitcher but it is different then the other one, it's in a different direction for one and I have several other things in this painting, chickens are my favorite, they are part of my chicken collection, I didn't put the marbles in this one. Anyway, I sketched this one on, just to make sure that I got the right proportions and didn't overlap too much one way or the other. Then, I put a basic medium wash on all the things, once that was done, I jumped right into the dark green for the background, I know, it looks black, but it's not, just very dark. then I just worked back to forward until it looked it's best, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #260 - Small class today, so I got a lot done

My students are all on vacation this week, just one showed up, so I really managed to get this painting done during class, I've attempted to paint this one before (it's not finished yet, the other one, that is), but got stalled and since my blogging started, I've not managed to get back to it, I'm not sure if I will stick with the same composition, though. In the other one, I decided to put in a couple figures working on a boat next to the small building on the left, and I'm not feeling the love for those figures yet. In my previous paintings, I've decided that I'm too literal with my compositions, that is, I think I'm too tied to the photo to change anything, now, however, I feel more confident that I can, but, since I've been doing these small ones, am I going to be able to switch back to the larger versions? Well, I will find out in a few months, I really am having a hard time realizing that this year is almost gone now, I'm totally amazed, it seems like I just started this project.

Well, here goes nothing, or I mean something. I started with the sky, I used sky blue (Am. Journey) and then floated the white right in while it was wet, that's my favorite way to make the clouds, then I did the foreground, wow, that's a reverse, and then the lighthouse, and finally the lake, I believe this is Lake Superior, I'm not sure which light house, I believe it's either Eagle Harbor, or Eagle River, I'm unsure. When that was dry, I jumped right in and started working up the lighthouse, this was really hidden behind a big bunch of trees, and I could barely see it, so, I decided to play down the trees and work up the lighthouse, now this may, or may not look like that lighthouse, I did improvise where I couldn't see that well, then, I put those white things, what ever they are, in, and the railing to the water, the telephone pole had to go in since I wanted the wire to lead you to and from the building on the left side. Now, I did work a bit more on the foreground, but I really wanted to keep that translucent feel to it, so just didn't work it up quite as much, it was flat anyway. I really like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #259 - Oct 10 - Amazing day, got lots done

I really wanted to make it to the Studio, but, not today, but, I did manage to get my paintings all numbered and taken care of, I've been behind for about 3 months now, so, I'm finally caught up, and that's a good thing. A bit stressful at times and it took me all day to finish it (I knew I'd have trouble if I let it get behind me), so now I can feel much better, and actually feel good about taking 3 days for a paint out this coming weekend. I still have to figure out which paintings I'm taking (we can have a table to sell paintings) and I still need to pack, but I'm feeling much better about the rest.

We had a bit of a problem today, the hot water heater started to make weird sounds, and we had no water, upon investigating that, we found a broken pipe going to the hot water heater, and so we had to shut that all down, and we did get that done before it ruined something, I don't know why the pipe broke, but that's what it did, now we have to go for parts tomorrow and fix it (my husband worked late today and didn't get home in time to get to Home Depot to get the parts), well, that means just a birdy bath tomorrow, so, it will be nice to take a shower when it's fixed, also, I can't do the dishes either, not good on that count, just hope he can get it fixed tomorrow.

Well, I did work at my blog stuff all day, but I didn't get much time to paint, so it's a very small one today, but cute. I decided to do the other goat baby that was laying on that shelter roof, you've seen the two goats a few weeks ago, now here is the third one, remember, I didn't have room on my other board to include all three, so that really was good for me today, I just did this one and I'm happy with that, I did pretty much the same, I laid in the reddish color for the goat and then the green in the background, and the gray/purple for the roof top, then I just kept working on the goat until it was to my satisfaction, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #258 - Oct 9 - Sunday and the painting is skimpy - oops!

Well, I realize that I started this yesterday and I did get a late start, again, but it is Sunday, and that is my day to spend with my husband, so that means that I don't get to paint as much, it is getting late too. I did paint tho, and I did finish a painting, so, I'm good. I originally intended paint on another painting that I started last Thursday, but that is quite complicated, and I'm still suffering from the fringes of a cold that I acquired, slightly over a week and a half ago. Today I had some problems with my lungs, I am athsmatic but isn't the only thing, my sinus' have been terrible the last few days and I just can't seem to get that cleared up, so the darned cold heads right for my lungs, where I'm the most vulnerable, oh, I am not technically sick, just not at the top of my game yet, I'm sure hoping I can get that cleared up by this Friday, I am going to do some plein air painting, three whole days of it, and, out in the weeds, that may have been what started this up again (yesterday I was in the weeds at Susan's), since I am allergic to lots of pollen. So, I'm going to have to take extra allergy meds, and my breathing meds, and what ever else I have to, to make it through 3 days without caving in. I intend to have a good time, and take advantage of every min. of painting time that I can cram in.

Ok, this was started just looking at the bush outside of Sue's window, well, I did take a couple of pictures so I could finish it, but, the photo's don't help, so I basically made up what I needed, so it made a fair composition. The rose was in direct sun light, but I was on the back side of that, looking out the window, the light on the petals was very bright and it was quite striking, I'm hoping you get that by looking at this rose, the darker pink on the rose bowl is basically shadows from the petals overlaying each other, so I just painted what I saw, when the light is so bright, it fades out the pink of the rose, so that's why it looks mostly white with bits of pink.

I started with the rose, and then laid in the green for the background, I didn't want this to get too dark, but I needed some darks to make it stand out, so I lifted some color off the background and then while it was wet, went in with some dark green, then, I got into the red, the stems at the ends, where the growth was new, was redish, so I just ramped it up a bit, there isn't much more I can say about this, so, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.

Painting #257 - It was a paint out day, just getting practiced up for next week.

What a beautiful day for a sketching trip, of course we didn't go far (Susan, Bev & I), just her backyard, but what a perfect day to paint plein air. It really started to get hot, but not at first, just a bit, this happens to be Susuan's lane and what a beautiful place, I was sitting in the weeds but the only bugs I noticed were spiders, of which I killed, at least I think I did, I saw it's guts but it was still kicking when it fell off my easel, and that was in the weeds so I couldn't see if it lived. I'm sorry, I just had to kill it, I'm allergic to spiders so it had to go. Anyway, I had a great day painting and here it is, I used my opaques and I painted on a gessoed piece of MDF (which is what I used to call masonite), the board was kind of a gift, I helped my friend frame the pictures she bought from me a couple weeks ago, and these boards were used for the backing (she didn't need them, so she gave them to me, there were no holes, and they were smooth on both sides, so, I decided to gesso them, and now I see that they do ok with paint one them, of course it's just like painting on the hot pressed illustration board that I coated with gesso a while ago, so, I enjoyed painting on it. We had a lovely day and when it was lunch time, we went inside, there I worked at a table and painted the rose that was just outside her kitchen window, so that one was even plein air, technically. Of course, I didn't get that one done yet and it's late so I'm not finishing it tonight, it's late but not as late as I usually am, I might even get to bed before 12:30, amazing.

I am going to make this short, I am tired though, so, I started with the blue for the sky, then I moved down and laid in the golden color and some greens for the tree line, then I just kept moving down, I laid in the path with some beige, made with yellow ochre and brown with white in it, then I started by laying in some shadow, then I went back in with some lighter beige color (with white added), to lighten the light strips on the path and I just kept doing that until I got the the foreground, I did about 75 per cent of this in the field, then I came home and put in the branches on the trees and the foreground weeds, I like this little painting and I hope you do too.