Impatient to paint but...

Note to self: Moving, Christmas, and painting, don't seem to go together. Painting has been coming in last on a very long list, thus no blog posts lately. However, I have made a bit of progress imagining my new painting space. It's a very large basement room. One priority for this space is a coffee/contemplation corner...a place to sit and think, imagine, and meditate. I've repurposed a bookcase that was left by the previous owners to give myself some extra shelves and I've got my storage into place. Emptying boxes of supplies, books, reference photos, etc is the next step...before painting. But first, I'm planning on having a very merry Christmas and I wish you and yours the very same! Cheers!

 

 

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A Pink (oil, 6"x6")

In today's painting session, I focused on pink almost exclusively. I've heard that pink is calming and I could use an island or two of calm right now. Between planning for our move, waiting for insurance quotes for basement damage, and sorting through belongings, I haven't had the energy and/or time to paint. When I say I focused... I mean it! I had to take my addled brain and my idle hands to my messed up art room (that's where the water damage is) and force them to focus on painting. It did me a world of good and I don't mind the result either. Cheers!

 

 

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Royal rework (oil, 12"x12")

My oil version of "Royal" has been languishing in my studio awaiting some attention. I gave I a very few minutes to it today to see whether I could make a difference. I like it better with these few changes. What do you think?

Here's the original version...

 

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Bloomin ( oil, 8"x8")

We've had a wonderfully warm summer and apparently the flowers LOVE all the heat! Have a wonderful summer day!

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Lily Cheer (oil, 8"x10")

Just a little bouquet from our yard to brighten up the house. I love both the bright yellow lilies contrasting with the dark red/green foliage and the green of the antique jar I put them in. I'm loving painting still life right now. Good thing because I haven't got enough time and/or energy to be painting outside much this year. Cheers!

 

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Out to Sea (oil, 6"x6")

Just across the sandbar is the open sea... Somewhere. I've been tinting a few of these little 6"x6" deep canvasses when I've had landscape friendly paint left on my palette. This canvas suggested a cloudy scene and this came from that suggestion. Cheers!

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Monday (oil, 8"x10")

Monday was always the day for laundry where I grew up. How about you? Have a great day!

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Garden Pot (oil, 6"x6")

This painting has been a long time in developing. It started out with an allover blue layer which was allowed to dry. Then, each time I painted, I used what I scraped off of my palette on this canvas. The goal today was to resolve this one. I love the texture in this little guy. Cheers!

 

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Evening Farewell [oil, 8”x10”]

This is a gorgeous time of year when the sun sets in the northwest and we have the softest evening light.  The swells are gentle and the sun sparkles before it slips behind the surrounding hills.  I took the reference photo for this painting in August 2010 when Ron and I visited Chuck and Elaine’s lake home in Sorrento, BC.  What a gorgeous, special place it is!  Wonderful memories to cherish forever.

Geranium Red (oil, 8"x10")

This week, despite fantastic weather, I've been painting inside. I am trying out a couple of new tools on my iPad. First, I took a photo of my still life setup with my iPad and opened it in an ap called Value Viewer. I made the image black and white and played with the program until I felt I had a decent value pattern. Then I formatted the image to my 8"x10" size, added grid lines, and sketched the outline on my panel. Finally, I painted.

This is the black and white image I was sketching from. I think this will be a helpful tool for studying subjects. It has a notan feature as well, which I found useful for confirming relative lightness and darkness of portions of my subject and simplification. I like the way the flower turned out in this and it was a lot of fun to paint. I do want to work on my drawing skills though... This bowl is not quite the right shape. Cheers!

 

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