loose and happy

"Ginger Pot," oil, 6x6 inches sold

Ahhh...my brushwork is getting looser and I'm happy. Note to self: if you can't paint a marble in six strokes, walk away, take a break. You are hungry, tired, over-marbled!

Yesterday's painting shows my "steely" marble. Do they still make those?

Faithful - lost and found

"Faithful," oil, 6x6 inches  sold

I'm still working on lost and found edges and am happy with today's painting, 6x6 inch "Faithful." The color and feeling of the actual painting seems more lively and delicate than this image but this is as close as I can get today. Many times, the business of art takes more time than the actual painting.

lost it - Yay!

So happy to have successfully lost the edge on my green marble! It took about six tries, even wiping all paint off and down to the clean white Ampersand panel but I finally got it the way I want it to look.

This is the final 5x7 inch painting of my self-imposed discipline about handling oil paint and I have learned a lot. Each of the the twelve paintings has lessons learned and special meaning to me. As I send them on to new homes through Studio Sales and Daily Paintworks, I find I am missing them. But now, on to a different size and my quest for lost edges and being lost and focusing. A few more thoughts and a link to interesting reading here.

"Green Marble," oil, 5x7 inches  sold

#12 breakthrough

Last night as I was painting on Little Oil #12, the final painting of my "Figure out how to handle oil paint!" series, I had a major breakthrough. The value study was a combination of Naples Yellow Light, Sap Green and Ultramarine Blue. When I applied the local color, Burnt Sienna, to the little copper pot it practically painted itself. Now, that's the way it is supposed to be! Fresh, and lively the first time, with no second (or third or fourth) effort to get a fresh look. Whew! Just in time. I want to go on to a larger painting.

All twelve of the little oils will be posted for sale. "Blessed" is first up and is now on the DPW auction with very good traffic stats, followers and bidding with 5 days to go. I know not everyone likes the auction process so I will post these paintings June 4th on my Studio Sales blog for purchase directly from me using Pay Pal. If they don't sell on Studio Sales, I'll offer them at auction on Daily Paintworks.

#11

The composition and value for "Deliverance"

The background color

"Deliverance," oil, 5x7 inches   sold

#10

Arcana, oil, 5x7  sold

I'm observing how the creative process varies for me depending upon the medium.

With colored pencil, it was careful step by step tedious rendering. Mistakes were made so slowly that I usually caught them in time to correct them.

With pastel, I painted with abandon and if things weren't going well, I just washed or brushed the painting off and began again to keep a fresh look.

OIL: a whole new ballgame. Toning the board is carefree. The value step is easy. Local color comes next and I have to force myself to spend time to get the exact local color that will be compatible with shadows and highlights when I get to the modeling of the form. In the reconciliation step, I always like to add a surprise of color but it must work with the local color of all objects. As always, the painting is about light and the way it affects color, texture and shape. It would be a good idea for me to be working on several oil paintings at the same time, each in different stages of completion. Today's painting, #10, "Arcana" was fun to paint, but difficult to photograph.

"Blessed" is the painting currently on auction at Daily Paintworks.

Nine for Daily Paintworks

I was planning to finish an even dozen of these little 5x7 inch oils before posting any of them on Daily Paintworks but I have had several people email me about purchases so I guess it is time to send them out into the world. I'll post them one at a time on the Daily Paintworks Auction starting the first one at $30 to see how it goes. Also, I'm going to try a 10-day auction instead of my usual 5-7 days. They are shown here in their painting sequence but I'll be posting them in a different order. If you have emailed me about a purchase I have your name and I'll try to remember to contact you with a "heads-up" when your painting is about to be posted. My thanks to each of you for your encouragement of this new work.

local color and finish

Local color added to all.

"Nectarine and Cherry," oil, 5x7 inches  sold

Thanks to all who commented here or emailed me regarding the steps shown for this little painting.

step by step

From the beginning, here is a visual step by step of "Nectarine and Cherry," 5x7 inch oil still life. This is a shot of the still life step up a few feet away from my easel. I paint from this set up, not from a reference photo. Here is a link to my lighting setup idea from Qiang Huang.

That's it for now. Taking a break.

a day in May

A Day in May, oil, 5x7 inches   sold

This is #8 of my dozen 5x7 inch oil still life study paintings. I can't wait to get on to something a different size. I am learning about the medium but also taking more time with composition -size, texture and color relationships. Sometimes it is exhausting.

Beginnings

Beginnings, oil, 5x7 inches

I don't know what I was thinking...well, yes I do. I was thinking the soft felt baby shoe would be good against the shiny silver porridge bowl and crispy dried Statice. Top it off with a reflective marble. Good idea, right? Well, yes but it was a challenge to paint because each surface/texture wanted to be the center of attention. I had to choose. Shoe and silver took a back seat to flowers and marble. Or, at least that's how I see it.

beginning of beginnings

This is the beginning of a new little painting called Beginnings because of the vintage baby shoe and the porridge bowl* from my childhood. I took a photo of my still life set up, printed it in grayscale, drew a big X through it as a reference to help me freehand the scene onto a toned 5x7 Ampersand panel.

Here is the first step of painting. Notice that I had to change the lace on the shoe or make the scene smaller.

This step shows simple placement of values. Tomorrow I'll continue with more local color, then modeling the objects, then bringing it all together with a little detail and concentration on the relationships between the objects. As always, the subject is the light. The objects are there to show the play of light and shadow. *Found this porridge bowl years ago at a garage sale. It is exactly as I remember the one from my childhood but this one is more beat up.

blessed

 I love this cloudy old bottle, turned lavender by the years. Per Qiang Huang's advice, I spent a lot of time working on the composition of the objects.

Here is the line drawing done in blue colored pencil on a toned 5x7 Ampersand panel.

This is how I left the painting last night. It is good advice to sleep on a problem.

Blessed, oil, 5x7 inches  sold

Finally brought it all together this morning. Don't shake old poppy heads over your oil paint palette. I had to throw out all the poppy-seeded paint! Almost all parts of this painting were better than this at one time or another during the painting of this little scene but I just COULD NOT work on it any longer. Love doing glass. It reminds me of my perfume bottle illustration days as a young fashion illustrator.

five easy pieces?

Five easy pieces?...No, but I AM learning a lot about oil paint and about my observation skills.

Orange Cup, oil, 7x5 inches  sold

mother's day rose

"Mother's Day," oil, 5x7 inches   sold

My Mother's Day roses were the motivation for this set up but they all died days ago while I was still painting. I should have painted the rose first. When I have a dozen of these 5x7 oil paintings complete, I'll begin putting them on my Daily Paintworks Gallery for purchase.

still loving it

Shells and Spoon, oil, 5 x 7 inches   sold

I'm still loving my play time with oils. It's play because I am painting without a thought of filling gallery commitments or entering competitions. I'm just practicing and learning a skill. This is extremely freeing to me. If you would like to read more of my thoughts on this, click here.

brush and marbles

Brush and Marbles, oil, 5 x 7 inches   sold

 Learning more about oil paint and listening to classical music for the first time while I paint. Fun!

art supplies #1

Art Supplies #1, oil on Gessobord, 7x5 inches

Time to quit painting on this one and move on.

added color

I added local color. This stage is supposed to be right brain but I feel I have to be careful with placement of paint so I don't get myself into trouble later and at the same time I'm trying to not go into the modeling stage too quickly (always my problem because I gravitate to detail). I'm still very timid but I know I will get looser and more expressive with practice.

starting anew

I found an example of a simple set up painted by Qiang Huang and set up my own similar setup.

Here is the value step of my painting. I must give myself more information at this stage than Qiang would because I'm not as experienced in oil. Someday, this step should go much more quickly. By the way, this under painting or grisaille is the technique I used when working in colored pencil many years ago. See the example.

Teapot waiting

I continued painting on my teapot and now I will leave it for future finish work. I look forward to start a FRESH painting.

Painting #3

Today I'm working on painting #3 from the Qiang Huang workshop. I printed a photo of my still life set up from the workshop and am painting from that reference because I don't own the teapot and the flowers have died. The lighting at the workshop wasn't great (a fluorescent bulb) and even though Qiang had me warm it up once, it was still too cool. Today I'm using a natural light bulb with blue filter overlay to simulate North light (Qiang's idea).

First I warm up the background, paint over most of the handle to push it back, add more warmth to the body of the teapot and simplify the linen. I will indicate the handle in a much more abbreviated manner than in my original painting.

Working on still life objects again reminds me of when I worked as a fashion illustrator just out of art school. Being the newest artist on staff, I was the person who illustrated perfume bottles, handbags and even a sack of TurfBuilder! As an illustration, I would want the teapot handle to appear as much like "real life" as possible - thick and dark, which made it come forward instead of taking a supporting role to the flowers and orange which are the center of interest in this painting. I begin to define the shape of the flowers by cutting into them with a dark area of the teapot.

 This is as far as I could get today. I'll set it aside and think about it. Click on the image to enlarge.

three keepers

I'm back in my studio with lots of thoughts swirling around my brain. I feel big changes coming for me regarding my painting. I'll talk more about those changes soon on my Golden Years Blog. That blog is about the emotional journey of being an artist. I try to keep this Art Journal blog mainly about the painting process.

Above are the three unfinished paintings from the workshop: two low-key, one high-key. Per Qiang Huang's advice, I will not wipe them off - I will continue to paint on them and will post them again when I consider them finished.

Below is the group photo of our workshop attendees, most local but one from South Africa and one from Maryland. My image in this photo (front row, in front of Qiang) amuses me. I feel I am a totally different person now than I was in my high school Art Club group shot but apparently not if body language is an indicator. Same seated pose.

Day Three

This is my still life set up for day three. I'll continue working on this 9x12 inch painting tomorrow afternoon in the final hours of this great 4-day workshop. Qiang Huang is the most thoughtful painter I know as well as an excellent communicator, both in words and writing. Before Qiang makes a stroke on canvas, he has fully evaluated the color value, the hue, the intensity, and whether the color is transparent or opaque and then he places it exactly where he wants it.

I go through times of painting by "intuition" and many times I get lucky with the result but I think it is time for me to be more thoughtful. I may be posting small (thoughtful) studies for some time to come.

Day Two

This is a pretty bad photo of today's effort. I am actually pleased with parts of this painting because Qiang Huang gave me very good advice at each step of the four-step process. Sadly, I discovered that my beloved Viva paper towels shed when prepping the canvas with linseed oil.

Day One

I just finished the first of four days with oil painter Qiang Huang. My workshop day ended with an OK apple painted in the middle of an overworked still life.

My day started with my usual breakfast. I brought our Muffin Man muffins, avocado, my mocha mix, eggs and my handy little microwave egg poacher that I use at home most mornings. However, I forgot to bring a spoon. The photo above shows how to eat a poached egg using half of the egg shell as a spoon.

the end...aqua afternoon

"Aqua Afternoon" is the last of the small framed paintings in my studio. This frame is gold and a little smaller at 5.75 x 7.5 inches. The painting is 2.75 x 4.25 inches. See it with the magnifier at Daily Paintworks. Sold

beach path number 2

A scene from the Washington coast. Click to enlarge or visit my gallery at Daily Paintworks to use the magnifier on this little painting. 

Beach Path Number 2, pastel, image 2.75x4.75, framed 6x8 inches Sold

The kitchen is a good place to hang these very small paintings.