on the easel today

On the easel today at about 50% complete: Two 5x7 studies of a simple country scene. On the left, the sky is blue, the grass is green... I've painted many of these sticking pretty close to the reference photo (shown below).

Reference photo for the scene above

But, one of my favorite painting challenges is taking liberties with the landscape. A pink sky in the middle of the day? Blue grass? That's my goal for the painting on the right.

I'll be teaching two one-day workshops on this subject in July. To write the syllabus for the workshop, I'm working two paintings at once to document exactly what liberties I take. Color is the most obvious one but what else? hmm...

By the way, I'm posting paintings for sale again on the Etsy Shop I opened almost exactly three years ago. I'll be adding more work soon. Returning Beginners Luck, I sold two today. Yay! BBNewtonArt

Lemon #5

Lemon #5, pastel, 5 x 7 inches sold

Another little painting of color, texture and light.  Once again, on Pastelmat but this time I wanted to contrast the smooth plate with the texture of the lemon so more soft pastels were used for additional pigment to move around. Usually, a firmer pastel is the best choice for me to get spontaneous strokes on this surface. See a couple steps below.

Wild

Wild, pastel, 5 x 7 inches

Sometimes I push a pastel painting past the point of no return. When the words "labored, contrived, sweet, pretty and cute" come to mind, it is time for me to hose it off (Wallis paper), brush it off (most other papers) or get the baking soda out (Pastelmat).

I would love to teach a workshop where each student brings a painting that has gone past the point of no return. Together we could breathe new life into it. But it finally occurred to me that most artists probably don't want to haul that type of painting out in front of a room full of other artists. Maybe a private couple hours with me? Anyone interested in that?

This painting was a big mess (well, as big a mess as a 5x7 can be). I finally took most of the pastel off and began again with ABANDON. Yay! I'm happy with it now.  This one is available on Etsy.

Workshops

That's a screen shot from my Facebook page about the three day workshop September 30 through October 2, 2016. My thanks to NWPS President, James Geddes and the Board for inviting me and for being so accommodating to my requests.

Also, I will be teaching four one-day workshops in July 2016 in my Studio. I'll be sending out an email soon to those on my "interested" list.  Studio workshops are limited to 4 students each day. Here are the dates:

 Still Life - exploring color and texture $100
Thursday, July 14, 2016 
OR
Friday, July 22, 2016


 

Landscape - taking liberties with the landscape $100
Thursday, July 21, 2016
OR
Friday, July 15, 2016

Pastel 100 Winners

The 17th Annual Pastel 100 Competition Winners have been published in the April 2016 issue of the Pastel Journal. I am honored to have been on the Juror team.

Pink Grapefruit #3

Pink Grapefruit #3, pastel, 5 x 7 inches sold

More fun with grapefruit. Love this subject.

Right brain, left brain: Tax Time

This is a photo of my little sun-room office. Keyword is little. I have two work surfaces that I swivel-chair between. One has my lovely big iMac where I look at art, review reference photos and post small paintings to my Daily Paintworks gallery. The other surface is where most of my tax preparation is taking place. Art images right brain, tax prep left brain.

I was in the middle of figuring out the percentage of our home that is used for my business and applying that to all expenses that are deductible. In 2015 we lived 5 months in one home and 7 months in this home. Different square footage, different percentages. I was just about to tackle Utilities with the percentage deductible by law as a business expense when my computer (right behind me) sounded "DING" for new email.

Swivel to right brain

There was an email from an artist I follow on Daily Paintworks. She paints DAILY! Her paintings are lovely - that's why I subscribe to her posts - and she isn't giving them away but every one is for sale. I wondered...does she really sell every one? I have been very fortunate with DPW sales but if I painted and posted every single day, I think I would end up with lots of inventory (which I don't want). So....

Swivel to left brain and grab the calculator.

Swivel back to right brain and iMac to look at how long she has been posting on DPW, how many paintings total are in her gallery, clicked on "show available", divided the available by the total to solve for the percentage of sales over the past 5 years.  Hmmmm...would I be happy with that percentage? What am I doing?

Swivel back to left brain and my tax deadline but thinking about art.

Revisiting Leavenworth

Leavenworth Afternoon, pastel, 5 x 7 inches
sold

It has been years since I was at Sleeping Lady Resort in Leavenworth, WA but I find myself going back again and again to the reference photos I took on that visit.

This time, I painted a scene from late afternoon as the sun cast long shadows of the trees along the riverbank. I started this in our Friday afternoon painting group and finished it up in the Studio. The paper is Pastelmat, my new favorite surface. I took one progress photo before I got involved in painting and forgot to pause to take more.

Pink Grapefruit #2

Pink Grapefruit #2, pastel, 5 x 7 inches
sold

Such a fun subject to paint! I took a couple progress photos but then got so involved in painting that I forgot to take more. That always happens.

I love grapefruit, do you?

I have fallen in love with a pink grapefruit. Yesterday I sliced one up and took two dozen reference photos. I deleted a few photos, cropped the rest to 5x7 inch format and painted one today. What fun!

So many opportunities with this subject to learn texture, color, value, composition.

I think I will teach a Beginning Pastel workshop with grapefruit as the subject. A one day workshop in my Studio, only three students each day. If you are interested, please email me...barbara newton at comcast dot net.     Click on each photo below to see my enthusiasm for this subject.

Pink Grapefruit 1, pastel, 5x7 inches  sold

Friday 2-19-2016

Citrus, pastel, 5x7 sold

I'm continuing with my fruit series, this time with a side-lit lemon. This series is about pushing color and texture. Fortunately, these paintings have received a warm reception on my Daily Paintworks Gallery (that means they've sold). If they don't sell, I plan to hang them in my kitchen.

I'm beginning to make notes as I paint, things I would tell a group of artists in a workshop setting. Numerous people have emailed me asking if I have plans to start teaching again and I think I have your name (somewhere). I have some teaching opportunities on the horizon (summer/fall 2016). If you are interested in painting with me, please send me an email so I can make sure you are on my workshop announcement list before the workshops are advertised.

Friday 2-12-2016

Cutie, pastel, 5 x 7 inches, sold

Last week I had the pleasure of being a speaker for Women Painters of Washington at Seattle Art Museum. I shared the stage with artist friend Barbara Noonan and together we spoke of our art practices, what motivates us to paint, etc. The collective groan from our audience was in response to the time we spend on the business of art compared to the time we spend painting. We agree that the business of art takes twice as long as our time at the easel.

After one of these small studies is complete I
1. Photograph it
2. Post it to Daily Paintworks for purchase
3. post it to my Pinterest Gallery
4. Post it to my Professional Page on Facebook
5. Blog about it here and post it to my Recent Paintings Blog
6. Enter the painting image and information in my Filemaker Pro Art Database

When it sells I
1. Package it up for shipment,
2. Buy postage online and print a packing slip and shipping label.
3. Record the sale in Quickbooks to create and print an invoice for my records
4. Ship it. NEW TIME SAVER - starting now, I plan to ship only on Wednesdays.

Things I don't have to do for these small paintings:
1. Frame them
2. Deliver them to a gallery or show
 

Friday 2-5-2016

Marble and Tomato - RED, pastel 5 x 7 inches

Two shiny red objects. A marble and a tomato for my Friday painting. I've painted lots of marbles in oil but this is my first in pastel. See detail photos and step x step progression below. Ground is wine PastelMat. Sold

Studio: Rose wall

I have been in my new Studio almost 9 months and I finally painted ONE wall a lovely Rose color (Sherwin Williams 6318, Resounding Rose), one of the colors in the Studio rug. My former Studio was seven colors over 25 years. When I was done with the wall and began hanging paintings, I realized this is a color I've been using in my pastel work for some time. And my Cathy Woo painting is happy (see below).

Friday 1-29-2016

1-29-2016  Frost Peach, pastel, 5 x 7 inches

sold on DailyPaintworks

Another afternoon with the local community center group. The past two Fridays I have brought an unfinished piece home and pushed it further. Looking closer, using more aggressive marks and color shifts. Transferring energy instead of the usual quietude of my work; it's difficult to get to sleep after that. I am loving this new pastel technique.