Today I painted with my daughter, Leslie

Purple is one of my least favorite colors, but it is one of Leslie's favorites. She set up this still life for us to paint. The bright green of the apples looked really pretty against the purple backdrop.

I found painting the purple was difficult for me, but I thought Leslie's looked great. (I always think hers looks better. LOL) You can see Leslie's version of the setup here.

(Click on the painting to view larger)

Lemons, white pitcher, and wine bottle

I painted this in my latest class. The instructor emphasized to me the importance of looking at the object I'm painting. My brain wants me to paint what I think a lemon looks like. I was pretty pleased with the lemons. I didn't re-work them at all after I got home.

I sort of learned a lesson with the pepper painting that I need to know when to stop! I can always see things that I think are wrong after I'm done. But most of my "improvements" don't help the painting.

(Click on the painting to view larger)

Ya gotta have a sense of humor!

These peppers were beautiful. They glowed under the light. Ya can't tell that from my painting! I'm posting this because when you mess up, you just have to laugh and move on.

This was a set -up in my class last week. Worked on it for two hours, getting increasingly frustrated. Then I brought it home and worked two more hours! When I realized at the end that I was just dabbing on minute specs of paint here and there, I quit.

I learned some things from this painting, though. If it's a bad painting, working and working on it won't fix it. Sometimes you just have to know when to quit and wipe it off.

My daughter Leslie and I were working on the same setup. You can see her beautiful painting here. Her peppers glow!

Lemons, silver pitcher wine bottle

Here's the little silver pitcher again. I'm sure I'll be painting it many times. This was a two hour study I did in my class. The little white bowl has ridges on it, and I had to figure out how to make them. I didn't want them to look like stripes. Everything is a challenge to me.

My husband and resident critic liked it. He said, "Wow, you can see through the wine bottle." So I felt like this was a good day.

(Click on the painting to view larger)

Lemons, mango, silver pitcher

I love this little pitcher. This was the first time I tried to paint metal. I really enjoyed trying to capture the reflections.

I don't know what I was thinking when I painted the tip of the mango lime green! Again, I didn't get the ellipse right.

My class is only two hours. The instructor says I should be able to complete a painting in two hours, but I haven't managed it so far.

Apples, lemons and blue bowl.

I started a new class in April. This is the first painting that I didn't wipe off. I won't be hanging it, but I did take a picture of it.

At least now you can tell that they are lemons. I really need to work on the ellipses.

So then I didn't paint again for a year

I retired in January of this year, we sold our house and moved at the end of March. I wanted to take classes and paint again. So I've enrolled in a class.

It's like I had to start all over again. My first few painting were what I call "wipers". I'm never going to keep them or show them. But even though it's frustrating, it's also the most fun I've had in years.

So I'm going to let it all hang out and keep a track of my journey. I hope that by next year I'll be able look back and see that I've made progress.

My paintings from Carol Marine's workshop

Carol Marine's workshop at the Coppini Institute

In the summer of 2009 My daughter and I attended workshop with Carol Marine at the Coppini Institute in San Antonio. This was the first time I had heard of daily painting. We painted on small canvases, rather than the great big ones I started out using. Carol taught us about how she composes, gave demonstrations of how she lays in a painting, and it was wonderful. I met some other painters whose blogs I now follow. Here are some pictures from the workshop.

I even took a portrait class

I even took a portrait class. I painted once a week for three hours.

These painting are in the order they were painted, the last at the top.

When class was over, that was it! I just didn't have any time to paint at home.

Another class, more frustrations

My first painting - 2007

Well, we all have to start somewhere.

This is my first painting, done in a class at Laguna Gloria in Austin in about 2007. We went once a week for six weeks.

The first week we painted the setup in black and white. It was supposed to be a value study. The next week, we painted over the under-painting with colors. The fruit is supposed to be an apple, a lemon and a lime.

I actually was pretty proud of this! I'm posting this to keep track of my progress. This is where I started.