Triplets

Very hot today so worked on painting of pears.  After struggling with colors of pears being too cool and green I remembered that my brushes must not be clean enough and it was impacting my color.  

Trio of Treats

Today's exercise in painting

Outdoor Setup

I made the pochade box from Tom Brown's plans.  So quick and easy to set up.  Now if I could only paint the hibiscus.  Seem to struggle with flowers sometimes.  I will keep trying although in the Texas heat, the plein air sessions are limited between dips into the pool to cool off. 

Half Full

Wanted to try this little red bottle.  Difficult with the strange top to it but it is close.  

Odd Little Jug

This little jug has an almost flower like spout. I enjoyed using the orange against the blue jug.

Kitchen Treaures

Today I sent off my registration for the Lone Star Art Guild annual convention show in July.  I am entering this painting as it won a ribbon in my local art league judged show thus allowing me to enter the show.  This years convention is close to home so looking forward to attending.

Red Hot

Wanted to attempt some peppers again.  My last attempt was very frustrating so I tried to go bigger on a small panel.

Leftover Flowers

A few flowers that were left over from a Mother's Day bouquet.  Loved the dark color and the contrast of the blue jar.  A shot of my palette when done.

Thirsty

A little still life in oil using a water bottle.  Recycling is good

Dancing in the Dark

It was difficult  to have the eggplant show with such a dark background and subject matter.  It shows more in the photo

Fresh Squeezed

The object of this painting exercise was to capture the essence of the metal in the knife and the sections of the oranges.  I enjoy painting oranges and lemons.  So many variations in the colors.

Winter berries

Winter berries that grow wild here in Texaa

Striped Furniture Project

I did get my creative juices flowing by taking a old wood dresser that my husband said to throw away and redid it. 

 I had to repair the rails, put in new bottoms to the drawers.  Of course I had to wait until now to do it as the Texas heat in the garage is a not a fun place to work.

  After repairs, sanding, priming, painting, striping, more painting, distressing and antiquing, along with new knobs I was happy with the final result. I even lined the drawers with black and white stripe wrapping paper.

Original 

Primer 

Painted with front

Blue tape for the stripes.  Had such issue in trying to make the holes for the knobs fall in the correct place

Front Painted with tape.  Once I pulled off the tape, the white was "too white"

The Final Version - distressed, glazed to tone down white

Missing in Action - figured I would post paintings I have done but not posted. Not that I have been painting as much as I would like, but I am going to try to get into the studio more

Virtual Paintout Challenge - July Hong Kong

Seems like the last few months my painting time has been greatly reduced. I was glad to get back to it, and enjoyed how quickly the painting came together especially since I have very limited experience painting people.

Here is my submission for the July Virtual Paintout challenge.  Hong Kong street view from Google maps

My Mom, The Style Icon: Mona Lisa Smile

My Mom, The Style Icon: Mona Lisa Smile: "Mona Lisa Smile"

My mother was an artist and so wish she was here to see that I am painting.

Stavanger, Norway - March Virtual Paintout

This is my submission for the March challenge for Virtual Paintout Challenge.  Thanks to the demo given by LaNell Arndt  at the Woodlands Art League, for help on the sky.  Watching her demo helped me with this.

Kitchen Sink

This is my submittal for the Rookie painter challenge, that I missed the deadline.  Oh well, and the original picture.  I enjoyed trying to get the liquid reflection in the pan right, and was happy in general with it.  

Virtual Paintout Challenge February 2010 San Francisco Bay Area

This month is SF Bay Area  for the Virtual Paintout Challenge  My old home.  Enjoyed exploring old spots and new ones for the challenge.
This is Sheridan Street in the Presidio.  The old Army base by the Golden Gate Bridge.

Here is the Google shot I worked from, it was too washed out, so I brightened it up.  I tried to do a painterly technique.  Not too sure about it, and after dropping my pallette knife across it and having to try to fix it.

But fun and done rather quickly for a change.

Rookie Painter Challenge

This is my first submission to the Rookie Painter challenge blog.  I loved the photo and wanted to try it.
I enjoyed working on the oranges.

Here is the original photo

Fruit Week

Oh the ellipse.  I am trying so hard to improve in my drawing of them.  I have re read my art books, practices and am still suffering in trying to get them correct.  

Starts

Starts, trying to do more quick studies.  This is on a piece of canvas paper from a still life I set up.

Virtual Paint out Challenge January 2010 Corsica

I started participating in the Virtual Paint out monthly challenge where a place is listed and using Google maps, you take the street view to pick  a location to paint from the map.  It was fun to see the different spots in Corsica and to pick a location.  The blog to see the submissions is:  http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com

Here is the spot I picked and my interpretation.
It is on a panel, in oil 6 x 6

6 Impasse de la Route de Ville, Bastia, Northern Corsica, France


I had some difficulty in getting the corner bricks right, and I enhanced the color as it was very washed out in the original photo making everything look sort of gray.

2010

I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions. But sometimes it is good to think about the year ahead to put things into perspective and to at least give a little thought and focus to the months ahead.

I do want to try to do more painting this year.  Not to get so hung up on making finished paintings, but doing lots of starts and studies as many artists and books advise.  Get more at ease with color choices, getting the starts down, seeing the shapes, lights and shadows, subject material.

All of these areas will teach me more about the craft and can help me improve.

I won't set some sort of number or goal to achieve, but will work to carve time out to retreat to my studio, to let the creative side be nurtured and encouraged.

Here is to a creative and growing year!

Different Strokes Portrait Challenge

This was the mystery artist that I was to paint as part of the DSDF year end challenge. Those who wanted to participate sent in a photo of themselves, and in return, you received one in which to paint. A swap. It turns out that my mystery artist is:   Rajalekshmy Usha.  Her portrait of me is on her blog.

 This is the first portrait I have done as I am new to art and painting,  and struggled with the assignment.  I tried 3 other times and was very frustrated at the results even this final version.  It wasn't for lack of trying!   Only by trying new things will I improve.  I learned a lot from the exercise, one being that portraits are very difficult to paint.  It is easy for the features to get away from you,  but I loved the challenge and the portraits that were submitted were fantastic.  Be sure to take a look

On the Way Home

This is the latest installment from Different Stokes challenge.  The original photo that Karin provided is below.  I had trouble with trying to get all three people working so small as I was working 6 x 6,  so I started over and figured I would try only one person, as this is only the 3rd person I have ever attempted to paint.  The original was so dark, on the one figure, so I brightened it up when I used only one person.

My Neighbor Rocks

Rob, our neighbor is a "peach" as my mother would say.  He is very handy with power tools.  He drove me to Home Depot to pick up full size sheets of hardboard with his truck.  After I did three coats of gesso on them in the garage, he and his Dad who was visiting took the sheets and cut them for me on his table saw.

I now have many assorted sizes of panels on which to paint.  It saved me loads of cash, if I had to buy them, and the cutting job was superb!

I should have taken a picture of the men at work but I totally forgot.

But I am so grateful for the help.  Thanks again Rob!

City Rooftops

This is the latest challenge from differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com/
Wished I had some good "graffiti" to paint on the side of the building.

Mr. Carrot

One of our Westies, Greta has a fondness for her Mr. Carrot.  It is the only toy she plays with.  We have numerous ones that we stock up on so as not to be without.  It squeaks and she had a habit of playing with it in the middle of the night.  We have a defective one, that we call Quiet Carrot that we try to remember to put it out at night.

This one was fun to paint.  It went quite fast, and looks like her.  I am starting one of our other westie, Gus.

Holiday Spirit

Thought I would try to get something that could be for Christmas. This one I tried to paint more painterly and was happy with the results. The present painting was my other attempt