I was blown away...

Today I went to the Hunt Gallery in San Antonio to see  Lorraine Shirkus'  work on display in the gallery. The show was a collection of works by 14 women artists.  Lorraine has three paintings on her own wall as you enter the gallery.  I recognized them immediately.

Words fail me.  I am in awe!    Lorraine's work is incredible.    The photos on her blog don't begin to show the richness, the depth, and the layers of color she applies to her canvas.   The woman can paint!

I told her I felt like I should come home and burn all my paintings.  LOL.

Flowers and Vase

8 inch X 8 inch oil on canvas panel

Today was fun!  I wanted to try to something that for me was different .  One of my favorite artists, Jennifer Bellinger, has written that she always pre-mixes her paints before she starts a painting.  That amazes me, because I'm clueless about what colors I want before I start.  I mean she pre-mixes everything!  I love her work though, so I thought I'd try the best I could.  

I mixed a big batch of grays and darks, and big batches of oranges and reds and corals.  Lots of variations of the colors.  I found that it was really helpful to be able to reach over and choose the color I wanted without having to try to mix it and then finding that what I mixed wasn't quite right.  That's my usual method! 

I did realize that this type of floral, with lots of layers of color, would work better if I did an underpainting first.  After that dried, I could paint over the bottom layer.  Today I had more blending together of colors than I wanted, which got a little muddy.  

Still though, I was pretty happy with the result.  I'm not putting it in the do-over pile.  (At least not yet.)  

I blended today...

I didn't intend to.  I started with big blocks of color and big strokes.  But I just couldn't mix the correct colors on my palette.  When I'd put them on the canvas they'd be too dark, too light, too bright, too dull, too wrong!  So as I made corrections, I ended up blending paint on the painting.  So much for laying down a stroke and leaving it!  

I know this is an art blog....

I think I have painter's block.  I have been home a week and until yesterday I didn't pick up a brush.

Of course I do have an excuse.  I pulled a muscle in my back on the last day of our tour, and I could hardly get out of bed for a few days.  My husband had to help pull me to a sitting position so I get up.  A heating pad and lots of Advil helped me get lots better.  But I just don't have any enthusiasm yet for painting.

I started a still life yesterday of some pears, but I eventually wiped that off.  Today I am going to my painting class, which I just love.  Maybe I can get my spark back.  So I don't have any paintings to post.  I think I'll post a few pictures from our trip.

We went to Rapid City SD, where we boarded our tour bus.  We visited Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills, Jackson WY, and into Yellowstone.  The trip was fabulous.  I'd never been to the Great Plains before.  I loved the beautiful hills and trees.

My favorite picture is the last one.  Our friend who took it called it "two geezers and a geyser".