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. 

Little Brown Jug

This is a little jug that belongs to one of my daughters. When I saw it, I wanted to paint it.  I am using a borrowed camera, and I don't think the colors are as bright as they should be.  But at least I can post now.

I want to thank everyone for all the encouragement they give.  When I started posting, I never knew about the wonderful fellowship of artists who blog.  I love it!

Another apple study!

My seven-year-old grandson  commented to me the other day, "Nana, all you paint is fruit!"

He's right.  It's hard to explain to him the concept of making studies.  Anyway, I had a little trouble with glare on this photo, but I think this was the best one.

I took this outside in the morning light to photograph and disturbed lots of birds gathered in the shrubbery around the bird feeder.  We have lots of titmice, cardinals and a large Mexican jay.  He's as blue as the sky.  I noticed that there's no activity around the hummingbird feeder.  We had a little cool front come through three days ago, and I guess that was their signal to head south for the winter.

7" X 9" oil on canvas panel.

Value study Apple and Leaf

This was done in today's class.  The instructor had me buy four transparent paints--transparent brown, yellow, red and green.  I used those four colors in the value study.  All the previous value studies I've ever done were with regular paint using burnt umber.  I like the tints of color these paints provide to the value study.

So today wasn't a total loss.   (See today's prior post.)

7" X 9" oil on canvas panel

American Beauty

It's been a busy week, and I didn't get to paint much.  First, San Antonio got heavy rains from tropical storm Hermine, and our roof sprang a leak.  First time I've ever had to get a pot to put under a leaking roof. So I dealt with the roofing estimator.  Then the AC started leaking from the overflow spout and I had to get a repairman out.

Plus my daughter and son-in-law are thinking of selling their house.  Their neighbor told a friend of his at work, who wanted to come see the house even though it's not on the market yet.  So I spent two days cleaning and staging the house.  That involved throwing a lot of stuff away!

This apple is all I've had time for this week, but I'm hoping  to try again tomorrow.  I found it difficult to mix different shades of red for the apple.  And the reflected light looked green to me, but I couldn't seem to get it.  But I learn something every time I get to paint!  I like the highlight.

8" X 8" oil on canvas panel.

Blue bottle, lemons, red apple

I'm not fond of this, but since it's what I've been painting, I'm posting it.  Part of having a blog is to post my progress.

I'm painting much tighter than I'd like--the lemons and apples especially.  I used a large brush for the bottle, and then I switched to a smaller brush on the fruit.  That's when it go so tight.  Oh well, on to another canvas.


8" X 10" inch oil on canvas panel

(Click on the picture to see larger.)