Whatcha Doing?

I thought these apples looked like they are carrying on a conversation.

This is my first post in over a week.  I managed to produce two paintings while I was in Houston last week. However, I didn't get any pictures of them, as my daughter wanted to keep both of them to hang in her kitchen.

I really like the center apple in this one, but I'm not happy with the bowl.  I'll have to let it rest a bit to figure out what's wrong.  I think the reflected light at the bottom is too bright.   There's quite a glare on the photo also, but I just wanted to get something posted.

No Posts This Week

I'm in Houston this week with my daughter and her two children.  Her husband has a meeting in Chicago all week.  (Who was the scheduler for that?!!)  Since my daughter works, I help get the children off to school, help with homework, and do a little cooking.  They all love coming home to a house that smells of dinner on the table. 

I did bring my painting supplies, so I hope to be able to paint a little.  I'll still be visiting all your blogs though to see what you are doing.  Have a great week! 

Golden Apples

This is a little different from my last few posts.  Less fussy.  I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going.  Guess it will just evolve.

8 " X 8" oil on canvas panel

Re-use/ Recycle

I found this little creamer at the thrift store--my prop supply store.  I like finding little treasures that someone else no longer wants.  I wander up and down the aisles looking not for function, but for form.   I loved the form of this wide-mouthed little creamer.   I think it has lots more use in it as a prop.

I have been meaning to paint it since before Christmas but somehow it kept getting moved to the end of the line.  I didn't know what else to pair up with it.  Today I decided to put it on a linen napkin, and a lemon from the fridge seemed to fit with it nicely.

Today I was playing around with color.  One of my prior art teachers would be incensed--"there's no purple in that shadow!"  I know, but I like it like that.

I painted this on a recycled panel.  I do that a lot.  Since I'm getting a lot  of practice paintings lying around, I've been dividing them into "keepers" and ugh.   At the end of the day, I use the leftover paint on my palette to cover the uglies, put them in the garage to dry, and reuse the panel.

Lots of them are from when I first started to paint.  Not always.   But lately I have been keeping more of them than I did in the beginning.  It's funny too that as I gain more experience, paintings that I thought were pretty good get moved out of the "keepers" pile.

Apple Trio

I thought I'd have another go at the green apples.  I think the colors are better on this one.  I started out with a cadmium-yellow-medium mixture this time so the paint wasn't transparent.  I'm still not happy with  the painting though.  Too monochrome.  So I guess I'll have to do it again.

This is on an 8 inch by 8 inch canvas panel, my favorite size.  I got a new supply this week, so I'm set!

Green apples and pumpkin pie

I had these apples in a bowl on the kitchen counter, and I thought I'd channel my inner Carol Marine and paint apples.  She had such beautiful apple paintings in her show.

I really climbed the learning curve on this one.  Because the apples are such a light yellow green, I used my lightest yellow--cadmium yellow pale is the name.  That turned out to be a mistake, because it is a transparent yellow, and everything I tried mixing with it made a transparent color.  I was mushing paint around on the canvas for a couple of hours.  Finally I added cadmium yellow medium to the mix.  It is an opaque color, and even though it is a darker yellow, it made the apples brighter.  Go figure.


So I made a pumpkin pie.  It's my son-in-law's favorite.   I got some brownie points for the pie, as well as the satisfaction of success (unlike my apple painting).  When my SIL was about six or seven, he lived across the street from an elderly, white-haired lady.  She used to bake pumpkin pies for him, and he'd go visit and eat pie.  One of his favorite childhood memories.

Sweet Success! 

Can You Say Fabulous?

My daughter and I attended Carol Marine's reception at the Nueva Street Gallery here in San Antonio last night.  Carol's works are fabulous.  Pictures don't begin to capture the luminous quality of her paintings.  The subject matter is relatively simple, but the paintings are beautifully complex.  She uses a large brush on these large canvases, and it looks as if each stroke was individually mixed and laid down.  I could have looked for hours.

I asked her permission to take some photos, and she graciously agreed.  Here are a few shots.

Carol in front of four of her paintings.

This is Susan Carlin, the owner of Nueva Street Gallery, talking with Carol.

The painting on the left had already sold that afternoon, before the reception.  It was my favorite.

The painting on the right is toned with a bright pink.  Carol allowed it to show through in many areas of the painting, particularly in the teapot.  It has an amazing glow.  The photo just doesn't show it off.

And of course, the obligatory photo of my daughter and me with Carol.   I hope we didn't invade her space too much.  If you aren't familiar with Carol's blog it's really worth a visit.

Apple and mug

I spent the last two days of painting time in my class working on a larger painting.  Usually I go only once a week, but I had a make-up class this week, so I got to go twice.  I'm not posting that yet.  It's still a WIP.  

This painting is a daily painting.  I needed to get back into the grove again after wiping off my last painting.  I'm not crazy about this one.  It's too tight, even though I was trying for a looser effect.  On the plus side, I managed to get the ellipse on the cup!  Ellipses are another thing I struggle with--along with values, colors, brush strokes, etc.  LOL!  

Tonight I am going to a CAROL MARINE gallery showing here in San Antonio.  My daughter, who is an art teacher, and I are going together.  She and I took a class from Carol about two summers ago.  I am excited about getting to see some of her work in person and not online.  I'm taking my camera, so if I get any good pictures, I'll post them.  

This is an 8 " X 8 " oil on canvas panel. 

I painted two hours this morning and then I wiped it all off!

I read that the way to become a good painter is first to paint a lot of bad paintings.  I can put a check mark by that one today.  Tried to paint a simple mug with a pear.  It was really really ugly.  So I'm going to go bake a cake.  That's creative, isn't it?

Nestled All Snug

I thought these lemons look as if they are snuggled all down in the towel. I painted this as a companion for the painting I did about three days ago.  My friend said that she would love to have one of my paintings, so I plan to give the pair to her to hang in her kitchen.

So I've improved enough over the past six months that I've attained one goal.  I always said I'd like to paint well enough that people would like to have my paintings.    At this point, at least now I can GIVE them away!  LOL.   It makes me happy to share them.

Work in Progress

I went to my art class on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I thought I'd give you a peek at what I've been working on.  It's a 16 X 20 inch canvas, and I've spent a lot of time just covering up the canvas!  Most of it is still underpainting, but I started to develop this section a little more yesterday.  I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

I scored a bargain at Michael's today.  I found some 8 inch x 8 inch black wood frames for $8.00 each!   They have glass and a back panel with little clasps.  When I remove the glass, my canvas panels fit perfectly, and the back panel holds everything in place.  I really like the 8 inch square size, so I'm going back and buy up a bunch of these frames.   If anyone is interested, this is what the frames look like.  Sorry about the glare.

Also today, I saw that Carol Marine will have a show here in San Antonio from January 13th through the 31st at the Nueva Street Gallery.   There will be a champagne reception the evening of the 13th.  I'm excited, and I'm planning to attend.  I follow Carol's blog, but I'm eager to see her works in person!

Wine Bottles

It's dreary and rainy here today, so I had to dodge raindrops as I took this outside to take a photo.

I liked this one.  I've painted these bottles once before here, but I like this one better.  The perspective was more of a challenge.  It actually isn't quite finished.  I didn't put the words on the label because I was afraid I'd mess it up!  So when it's really dry, I'll go back and try to finish the label.  Kim Rempel painted wine bottles too, and I like how she handled the label.

Melon Slices

This is one that doesn't make me happy, but I'm not sure what's wrong.  I think that it's because I don't have enough lighter values.  Everything seems sort of mid-range.  I wasn't able to rescue it, but I didn't want to wipe it off, either.  There's a lesson in here somewhere.  Maybe in a few months I'll look at it and be able to "see".

I have been loving everyone's New Year's posts.  Carrie Waller, Crystal Cook, and Kim Rempel all posted their favorite ten paintings for 2010.  Pretty impressive, all three of them.  Carrie posted her goals for 2011--specific and written down, just as the experts say you should!

I started my blog in June 2010, and I noticed that I made 68 posts for those seven months.  That's about ten per month.  I didn't really have a goal when I started, other than a vague one that I wanted to learn to paint.  I've realized how much these studies have helped me improve, so I'm setting a goal of painting four times a week.  That would be over 200 paintings in 2011.  Kind of scares me to put it in writing!