Second Day of Painting in Converse

I painted a well-known landmark--a Shell gas station on Route 18, the second day I was in Converse. The home across the street had just been sold and the owner granted permission to set up my easel on their property, which offered a nice shady place to paint.

Still Life with Pears and Blueberries

9" x 12" oil on canvas

It's still a bit too rainy and cold to paint outside here in Northwest Ohio, so I painted one of my standard go-to subjects: pears. Painting from life produces fresh paintings with lovely lost edges.

Alla Prima Portrait Painting

Our model last Saturday was a thirteen year old named Mae-Lin who posed in a chef hat with a bowl.

9" x 12" oil on linen

Dip Nets

This is a restaurant where we painted in Port Clyde when it was raining. I loved the colorful lobster buoys and the yellow reflections from the overhang. My friend painted facing the other direction.

Tegan

This young lady modeled for our portrait group last week. She was so professional and we appreciated her steady gaze, excellent posture and ability to return to the pose--and her beautiful costume, of course!

Traditional Syrian

Another fine model from our weekly portrait group. The handsome young man is Syrian and is dressed in a ceremonial Syrian style of dress. The scarf was his grandfather's. Youssef is thankful to be living in the United States. He has many family members whose lives have been destroyed by the warring factions in Syria.

This is that rare portrait that I an happy with after one pose and feel nothing else needs to be done to it.

Youssef 

9" x 12" oil on panel

A New Year and A New Studio

I am in the process of moving my studio form the first floor to the lower level-- a fancy name for the basement. It doesn't look much like a basement anymore, thanks to the hard work of my husband, who built some closet space, added a drop ceiling, dry walled and carpeted it. It's actually quite an attractive setting and I'll try to use drop cloths so it stays that way.

I did find a few minutes to paint something the other night --other than a wall or some trim, and believe me, there is plenty of that left to do.

It is the ubiquitous pear, a frequent subject, but one I never tire of. I think pears are like people. Each is unique. Some need to be propped up and others stand on their own. Many are bruised from being knocked about, while others have a hard shell which is relatively unblemished. And of course they age like us too; acquiring dark spots, soft places and wrinkles, which lower their chances of finding a suitable mate -- I mean diner-- you know- someone who wants them-- to eat.

Anyway, I've picked on pears enough so I'll just post it.

6" x 6" oil gessoed panel

OPAS Competition

This is the painting I chose to enter in the competition. I just loved the the composition and the complimentary color scheme. Unfortunately, there were a lot of good paintings and mine didn't win anything. The owner of the gallery did choose it to be left there for the show through November so maybe someone will buy it.

I didn't have a chance to photograph it before I put it in the frame.

I painted it at Pigeon Roost, a pumpkin farm south of Newark, Ohio.

11"x 14"oil on canvas

Plein Air OPAS

This is the first painting of five I completed over a two day period in a plein air competition in Licking County, Ohio.

12" x 16" oil on panel

Reeves Farm 12" x 16"

Somewhere Near Newark, Ohio

I was pretty happy with this, the third painting I did today. I spent less time on it and it is smaller than the other two, but I really enjoyed painting it. The sun was hiding behind clouds by the time I set up my easel but that didn't bother me at all.

Field on Cotterman Road

9" x 12"

oil on linen

Strange Stuff

I think it's fun to paint things I've never painted before. There's a challenge in matching colors and textures. A friend gave me some homegrown sweet potatoes a few days ago and I ended up boiling most of them but a few ended up in this still life. I'm not sure it was a wonderful idea, because they're not the prettiest things I've ever painted, but they are unusual, very unlike the ones you buy at a supermarket.

I'm sure I learned something from this exercise, even if it was only not to paint ugly vegetables that look like invaders form another planet.

UPDATE:
I couldn't stand this painting. The sweet potatoes resembled hungry creatures from another planet and the pear on the side did nothing for the painting. I really learned a lesson about how important it is to set up appealing objects and not just paint something for the sake of painting it. I did have fun painting the textures of the sweet potato, but there is a reason you don't see many paintings of these vegetables, and the reason is that they are ugly.

Last night I pulled out my vase and the copper incense burner and resolved to fix it or pitch it. It was relatively easy to paint the offending pieces out of the picture and just leave the ones I liked. When I was finished I noticed a benefit of the pinkish underpainting under the vase left by the itinerant potatoes: a nice little sparkle appeared where the potatoes had rested, accenting the bright greens and making the piece more lively.

8" x 10" oil on canvas

Green and Copper 8" x 10"

Angel in Her Wedding Dress

Angel is from Taiwan. She moved to the U.S. recently after marrying her fiancee. She was the model at our portrait group last week and everyone was inspired by her beauty.

I hope to do a larger painting of her. This one is 12" x 16".

Old Barn, Plein Air

I prefer to paint outdoors when I have the opportunity in the summer. I painted this plein air piece on a warm morning in July last week. The farm has been in the Fry family for generations. When I paint I aim for a "mood" more than a photographic image. The painting should tell the viewer a little bit about how I felt when I viewed the subject.

I was feeling really relaxed and on my game that day, so maybe some of that comes through. It was a perfect morning for plein air and that always cheers me too.

11" x 14"

Turn of the Century Barn

Painting form the Live Model

This is the lovely Jessica again; this time I used my standard medium, oil paint. It's from the same angle as the pastel I did last week, but the lighting is a little more defined in this version.

11" x 14"

Miranda

This is a more detailed painting of Miranda, who I painted last week at the Hyter portrait group. I used my study to create an umber underpainting. The values were there and when Miranda posed I used the two hour window to block in the color. The study was very helpful. The new painting is larger and more developed and I like her expression very much. It's often difficult for me to capture a child this age and make her look her age. Usually I end up making them look much older.

Miranda

18" x 14" oil on linen

Another Portrait Oil on Arches Paper

I am still experimenting with the Arches oil paper. I forgot to bring any oil/Liquin mixture with me to the portrait group so this one was done with Gamsol only. I think it will dry very quickly, so it will be a good test piece. I need to know how long it takes with oil and without. If my oil paintings can dry in a day or two in Paris I will be able to easily take them home in the suitcase in a stack inside some cardboard. It won't even matter what size I do as long as the dimensions are small enough to fit in my bag.

This girl is only 13. Her name is Cassandra. Is it me, or are children maturing WAY FASTER than they used to? She is a pretty girl and I may have made her look just a bit older than she is. In my defense she did have on some really red lipstick.

9"x 12"oil on paper

A New Year, Painting the Same Old Stuff

Here it is 2015 and I am painting the same old things. That's what I would tell myself if I were not an optimist. But I am an optimist, so this year I will paint bigger and better paintings. If they are not better, they will certainly be more thoughtful and more thoughtfully composed. So even if I paint the same "stuff" I painted last year this year it will be arranged better, which will result in a better painting. Readers might think that this resolution is too easy to achieve. Why not resolve to paint one painting a day for thirty days, or even sixty days. We all know there are plenty of artists out there doing that. I am beyond the place where I need to challenge myself to paint. I don't need any incentives because I already enjoy the process. I also have a tendency to speed through projects a bit too quickly so the last thing I need to do is a thirty day challenge.

So my resolution this year is to look twice and make one stroke. Consider the possibilities before jumping in. Mark out my compositions in a linear fashion prior to pushing the paint onto canvas. In other words, I'll be a more intentional painter. Hopefully this will translate into becoming a better one. That's my goal anyway and I think goals are a necessary part of improving.

We also purchased a Sole 80 for ourselves this year so another goal will be getting into really good shape and running a 5K next October.

So here is my first painting of 2015. It is another still life and it does include things I have painted before. But hopefully the arrangement is more interesting than what I might have done previously and  maybe I have paid more attention to the edges than I have in the past.

Happy New Years and good luck with those resolutions!

Experimenting with the Cadmium Palette

I used to use the warm Cadmium colors all the time and they were always on my palette. As I became more proficient at mixing color I eliminated a few secondary cadmiums. like cadmium orange and cadmium yellow deep. I purchased some tubes of warm cadmiums for the last workshop I took so they are back on my palette. I have, essentially, re-discovered them. I now recall why I had them in the first place. It is impossible to mix the brilliant colors of the cadmiums and they are nicely opaque. Having more choices to choose from when you want to warm a gray also gives your painting more substance. (I like to think so anyway.)

I am not afraid of their toxicity. I don't eat paint and I am not a finger painter. I like to keep my hands clean so I just doný worry about being poisoned.

I like the glass vase in this painting and the random nature of the grapes. Perhaps there is a bit too much red overall but I did achieve a sense of unity and there is a nice path that takes the eye through the piece.

Apples and Grapes, 9" x 12" oil on canvas

Still Life with Pears and Oil Can

I took a break from the commissions to paint something for myself. I wanted to jog my memory about the class I took a few weeks ago so I decided to use a complimentary violet and gold color scheme. I paid attention to what I learned and even though  I used two pears I varied their position and their color. I think I was pretty successful in keeping the painting loose and the brushstrokes varied. It was a fun exercise and really reinforced the lessons I learned at Huang's workshop.

Pears with Oil Can

8 x 10 oil on canvas

Here is painting no 2 from the workshop I attended last weekend

I added the bottle behind the copper incense burner when I returned home because the composition seemed a bit off. Composition is something I really need to pay closer attention to. I used to just throw random objects out there and if they looked good I painted them. I looked for a "thematic" connection and ignored the textural and size ranges for the most part. An important lesson I took away from this workshop is to position the objects intentionally, varying the size, colors, texture and materials.

9" x 12" oil on linen

Chinese Vase with Lemons