Seeing the light better with "Yellow" 8" x 8" oil on panel

What a dreary day outside. Cold, rain, wind. So I was drawn to the color yellow this morning. This little pitcher was, in the 60's, a promotional giveaway at Phillips 66 gas stations with a fill-up. I love painting pool balls, especially my Number 1. Since I've been away from painting for some time, I've, over the weeks, tried to figure out how I might see the color better in my set ups. What was I missing? Well, I bought some clip on lights to illuminate my palette that was looking more and more like mud as my painting progressed. Today I noticed, despite the dark weather, that I could see my colors as I mixed with a bit more clarity. But the truth of this solution will reveal itself throughout my next few paintings.

"Snuggled" 8" x 8" oil on Ampersand panel

Long time no paint!

With all the apples available this time of the year, I couldn't resist my urges to work with my "to the applesauce" stash. I would like to focus more on painting folds in fabric, which is really like foreign territory to me. Another artist once told me there were 7 kinds of folds... possible angles and light variations to look for when painting. One would guess if one understands the anatomy of the folds, the language of interpreted light would be easier to understand. I guess this is when I need to "paint what I see and not what I know, but know what I see when I begin to paint". Huh? Makes sense to me. But exhausting when actually practiced. But practice is what painting is all about for me. I just need to get back to the everyday ritual. When working, a lot of times I get lost in thought. But maybe that's because it's unfamiliar territory.

"Reflecting Orange"

I know it has been awhile since I've posted...and painted. I went to Germany to visit my daughter, son-in-law and babu, Max. Also, we all went to Octoberfest in Munich. What a scene! I like a beer occasionally during the hot weather, but wouldn't consider myself a fan of the brew. But the beer was great. A little sweet and light to taste. My little grandson was the main attraction, though, and I just couldn't get enough of him. I took a sketchbook thinking I might do a few gestural drawings, but that didn't happen. I was too busy playing. 

So, I'm back to the daily routine of this and that and finally got a few hours to paint today. I've painted this little orange pitcher only once before and find it a little challenging. The setup is resting on a sheet of foil for some interesting reflections, but then I excluded most of the foreground. Duh! I'm going to work with this again with just switching the pitcher for a pink plastic cup. We'll see how it goes.

By the way, I have a ton of new things to paint if I can just get past the difficult task of doing a setup. Definitely the most difficult task of painting is doing a creative setup, for me. Anyone else feel that way?

"Scarlet"

Nectarines and honeysuckle! And it is summer! We've had some hot, hot weather, but not as bad as others. If I position the fans just right, I can maintain a cool breeze running through the house, except when the sunlight hits the skylight in my studio. Then the heat rises. I have been painting, but I haven't been as pleased with the results. So I don't have much to post.  I'm at a standstill with the quilt for my sewing machine is not behaving right and it is just too hot to hand quilt. Happy news, though, for I sold a painting today!

The "HEART" of My Garden by Susan Jenkins

This is the Heart in my garden and made by Susan Jenkins. She is an artist of many talents, but has recently been making these ceramic hearts with china bits and pieces which she specifically cuts for placement. My heart even has a special ladybug she made and fired from a section of scalloped plate. I have this nailed to the post by my back door for all to see and I treasure it so much. Thank you Susan! If you would like to see her other work go here to here etsy shop. To see her blog and paintings go here.

Current Quilt Frenzy!

I really needed to take a break from painting for several reasons. First, I really needed to clean my house. I really needed to weed the garden. I needed to work on my etsy vintage. I really need now to finish this quilt. I'm going to Germany to see my daughter, son-in-law and baby Max in two months. This quilt was to be a present to all for Max's first birthday, which has now come and gone. So I would really like to get it finished before and take it with me. Yesterday I rigged up a high table with plywood and saw horses to lay out the quilt to baste all the layers together. I had a small umbrella to keep a little cool, but the day was still hot.  The basting is all done, so now I begin the quilting. I still need to cut the grass. I still need some food in the house, but, being the chore I loath the most...food shopping...I will put it off until I'm really low on cat food and coffee. But I'm wanting to paint real bad now with a few days away from my easel.

"Christmas in July" 8" x 8" oil on panel

Guess I'm continuing with the Christmas balls. They so went with the flower with a nice contrast of the green cup in the middle. At first after painting and squinting to see it, the colors and shapes, to me, looked a bit like barkcloth. I did use a new surface, which is the Ampersand with the gessoed surface. But now I'm excited about trying the Ampersand with the clay finish....even smoother than the previous. I love when the paint just slips and slides around on the surface in the beginning stages of a painting.

This one is called, "Bud, I think Junior Fell Out" oil on a canvas panel. This is the first time I have painted this blue pot. It's really large, so it held (sorta) the big sunflower blossoms. So I had to use big brushes with the large scale of things and didn't want to get hung up in the little details. 

"The Great Escape" 10"x10" oil on canvas panel

What a surprise to throw in some shiny Christmas balls during one of our hottest days. I like the way that each ball acts as a mirror to everything around it. Fun to try and I plan to do this again, but with varying sizes. 

"Sunflower with Dots" 10"x10" oil on canvas panel

I bought a bunch of sunflowers at the market the other day. I love the shape of the flower. I was searching through my flat file for a piece of colored paper to use as the background of the painting and came across a pastel drawing I did of dots, mainly to test this new paper. I had fun doing the dots and getting reacquainted with my pastels. Why not use this as the background? So, that's where the dots are coming from. I think the sunflower looks a bit weird with just the one leaf, but I wasn't thinking about it too much at the time and just painted what I saw. Looks a bit weird to me.  I do have another sunflower to post and painted the flowers again today.

 I've got myself backed into a corner with re-examining what my priorities are when I approach a painting.  I think that I'm not putting enough thought into the planning stage, because I'm just so excited to begin that I just stumble right in. I believe that design should be my first issue that I tackle, then my color palette... But then sometimes I look at my shelves with my still life things arranged and just want to dive in and paint "THIS"!...then try to make it work somehow. I remember in painting classes being disciplined to paint something I don't really want to, learning to go beyond my desire and tackle the academics of painting head on....not to get wrapped up in the sentimentality of the things. But at home, I'm the boss, and I want to do what I want to do and, not necessarily, what would be best for my skills training. Sometimes I find it beneficial to set up problems for myself to tackle in the beginning. But then I find on most days everything is a problem in the beginning. I'm daily struggling to "find myself" and my "voice" through my painting. Isn't that enough? I know the best thing for me to do is practice and to practice everyday. On good days I SEE everything in brushstrokes. What a way to travel through life. Huh?

"Oatmeal Cookies" oil on masonite

I've been working since the winter on this painting. There's always a first when painting.....raisins out of the box. I had fun with the arrangement of the objects, but had a little trouble getting the whole setup to "glow". The blue in the background helped present a stage against which the objects were on exhibit. Jars of honey are always a plus in a painting for me. Honey cannot help but glow.

"Surrounded" 10" x 10" oil on panel

Yesterday I was really in the mood to work with red. Actually, I just opened my refrigerator and pulled out the red apples. Then later in the afternoon I returned to the kitchen and found cherries ready for the grab. I've never painted cherries before. 

"Hail to the Chief" 10" x 10" oil on panel

Today I moved over a notch on the color wheel and found myself painting orange. That one I don't feel is in a presentable state. Some days things just don't work out as planned.

"Number 12" 10" x 10" oil on linen

I seem to be on to these pool balls for a while now. I especially love the yellow one, which is number 1. I'm currently looking to purchase a number 3, which is a solid redish-orange color. I love drawing spheres, although the yellow ball, now that I'm really looking at it, looks a little off anatomically. Light bulbs, also, are an excellent object to practice your drawing. I wanting this little painting to be viewed mostly in shadow with accents from the light source. 

"Love"

This is the other embroidery I purchased along with "The Peaceable Kingdom". Don't want to sell this one either, so I pulled it out of the etsy shop. Now to get down to some serious painting!

"Peaceable Kingdom" farewell!

I had a sale in my etsy shop this week that actually saddened me. This is a picture of an embroidery I purchased at a tag sale on my street a few years ago. In the basement of this house, I came across a young girls entire school art portfolio. I remember when I did one of these pieces in high school. Well, I found two that were absolutely adorable so I purchased them both and this is one of them. Done in 1970, the artist's name is Debbie Easton and is depicting "The Lion and the Lamb" embroidered with yarn on a piece of burlap. It reminds me of a sampler like the ones done by young girls years ago. The couch stitch is mostly used throughout. This is the image I have on my computer desktop at the moment. I really did not think it would sell, so I felt somewhat safe in having it listed to "round-out" my shop. What a surprise when I checked the sales in my shop and found that someone in Arizona had purchased it. I wrote an email telling the purchaser how I felt about it leaving my house and I was reassured it was going to a loving home. Farewell to a beautiful piece of Debbie's art class project.....

"Azalea in Blue" 6" x 6" oil on panel

Well, I have received advise from several people to paint smaller. People, on etsy, are looking to spend less on a painting, perhaps their first, to begin their collection. I've painted 6" x 6" only a few times, fearing I would not be able to cram all my ideas into such a small space. I had to use different size brushes from what I usually use. I love big brushes, relatively speaking. A larger brush holds more paint, therefore allowing me to drag that sentence out a bit longer. I can see what is going on with the canvas when painted not so small. So, on this painting, I kept with medium size brushes busy with the establishing of my major shapes. I love to see the tracts of the brush as it releases the paints. Brush strokes show their organic capability, I think, with the larger brush. "Keep it simple," I keep telling myself. In painting classes I was taught to "Start with a broom and end with a bristle". I could just as well forget the bristle stage completely. Larger statements and a loud voice need ample tools.

Are My Colors Right/Correct?

It seems that I have a real issue with photographing my art. I'm getting colors that vary widely with the same camera and the same monitor, but photographed in different places. What a HUGE difference! This painting that I did last year I experimented with today. These are pools balls that I painted resting on a piece of tin foil...to reflect the image. Neither photo is exactly correct, but the first picture is closer to the actual painting. It's 22" x 24", which is large and has a black frame on it. I used to photograph art for collectors eons ago, before the digital camera was out. I used special film and lights and would bracket my exposures. It was a lot of work, but I always got accurate results. Is this a Photoshop issue? Does anyone know how I can get accurate results without the use of an Adobe program? Darcy, could you ask your husband, please?

"Rebecca at the Well"

Boy, was today a great day! I painted not so good today, but received something in the mail that is so beautiful! I have met some wonderful people and great artists since I've had my computer, but most recently since beginning this blog a little over a year ago. Yes, this is about you, Dulcy. Dulcy does the most beautiful rug hooking and is a pattern designer, as well. you can see her at: Dulcy's Doorstep. She was recently featured in HAUTE HANDBAGS Magazine with one of her beautiful creations. Well, I just had to own a piece of her "wonderful"! Her handbag arrived today and the colors are so rich and deep. Pinks and greens! I love it! I'm taking it to bed with me tonight. I love the way she leads your eye around the picture, or pattern, by the direction of her her hooking. It all has so much movement....like flowers blowing in the breeze. Thank you, Dulcy. I will treasure it forever. 

I had some trouble painting today and wiped out 3 or 4 times, so I'm showing an older painting I did from one of my favorite spots on earth to paint. Block Island, Rhode Island. This is just the beginning of a painting of "Rebecca at the Well", which is the name of a statue at the only rotary on an island that is only 3 miles wide by 7 miles long. Beautiful place to go for a weekend. I think of it as "little Ireland". Perhaps my painting tomorrow will be a little more successful. What I wiped out today was really bad. No pictures of this one.

just the seeds added.....to the Strawberries

I have not gotten to paint for the last few days, but I just could not look at these strawberries any longer without seeds. So on the first attempt I added lots, way too many. So I wiped out, since the painting was dry, and tried again. I just wanted to suggest seeds without defining the whole lot. Much improved, I think. Also, the painting a few posts back with my brushes and apples....well, I switched the painting. Usually I don't like to go back in and rework after I've declared "done". I have ruined more paintings that way without the ability to edit it back to the way it was. I only have a memory through a photo image. I also have photos of a few "could have beens" if I just had not been so hasty in wiping out.

This painting, I think in looking back, had a really good start...and I wiped it out. The setup was placed on a piece of white acrylic, so I could get some interesting reflections to paint. I had never done that kind of setup before. Here the dark background really made that vase glow! What was I thinking! Guess I was just afraid of the challenge. 

"Magnolia" 20" x 20" oil on linen

I've always wanted to paint a watercolor or oil palette. This is my little Cotman I sometimes use when I travel. I seem to have lost the little water reserve that goes with it. The magnolia blossom I picked earlier yesterday. Then in the afternoon the skies opened up and the rains came. When the storms were over all the blossoms were on the ground. When I returned to my easel this morning the blossom I had picked was pale and limp, so I had to paint this flower from my memory, which is rather scattered and sparse. I really should go back to watercolors for awhile and take a break from oils. 

"My Brushes and Apples" 11" x 14" oil on linen

Today was surprisingly busy just in my back yard. Just tree stuff, but enough interruptions to distract and redirect. I love painting these green apples with this turquoise pitcher. Needs a spot more of red, though.