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!

Lemon Trio

I wanted to explore painting fabric, so I laid these three lemons on a white tea towel.  The background is the dark gray of my light box.

Claire Christinel said that in a workshop she learned that she should look at values not just relative to the object, but also relative to the values in the rest of the composition.  (You can click on her name to see her blog.)  

I was thinking about that today as I was painting.  The edges of the lemons looked very dark against the white cloth.   I also thought some of the shadows of the cloth looked almost as dark as the background.

I've painted lots of lemons (there are usually always some in the refrigerator).  When I compare this painting to the others, I realized that I painted all the lemons differently, with different colors of shadows and highlights.  They all look like lemons, though.   The values are more important than the colors.  People say that all the time, but when I lined up my lemon paintings I could really see it.

Lemons and pitcher

Arrrgh!  I haven't painted in several weeks, and I can tell!  I made mud in a couple of spots in this one.

I am beginning to learn something about values.  I have a tendency never to make my darks dark enough. Then I have to go back and adjust.  I did that on the grapes here.  Since they are pale green grapes, not the dark purple ones I painted last time,  I laid down what I thought was a dark color.  But then when I started painting in the lighter body colors, they were too close in value to each other.  Lesson learned.

I just dabbed on some highlights and quit.  I have to go out of town today, so I'm posting this.  I hope to get back to a regular schedule of painting now that most of the festivities are over.

Thanks to everyone who has visited me and commented over the Christmas holidays.  It is so great to see the generous comments from some really terrific painters out there.  Thanks again!  You guys rock!

I'm saying this one is finished.

Yesterday afternoon I worked on my painting in my art class. This morning I tweaked it a little, but I think it's done.    This is my attempt to paint sort of like David  Leffel.  It's not a copy, but my interpretation, as Lorraine called it.  There's a lot more of me in this than there is of him!

I'm happy with it, though.    My little camera doesn't show the richness of the paint colors, but you can get some idea of it.  I hope some of the looseness carries over into my paintings.

I think next I'm going to paint a snowman.  I've been enjoying everyone's Christmas paintings.  Since it never snows here, I'll have to use artistic license!

Click on the painting to view larger.

12" x 16" oil on canvas

Work in Progress

Like most everyone,  I find these days very hectic.  Shopping and decorating and baking take up lots of time.  In addition, we are in the house-building phase, so I've been spending lots of time meeting with workmen and on making choices for paint colors, light fixtures, flooring, etc.

So not much time for painting this week.  I am working on a larger painting for my weekly class.  I bought a book about David Leffel, called "Oil Painting Secrets from a Master".  I find his paintings a little dark for my taste, but I do like the looseness of his brush strokes.  So I am trying to learn by painting a copy of one of the illustrations in the book.  

 This is just a corner of the canvas.  Maybe I won't get arrested.  I'm not trying to sell this or pass it off as my own.  Just trying to learn a new technique.   It's all I have to show for this week.

You Say Tomato

This one wasn't as easy as the bottles.  I liked the colors as I was painting, but at the end of the session I decided I had been too timid with the highlights and too "vigorous" with the stems and leaves.   So the next day I worked on those areas, increasing the highlights and painting over some leaves.   I like it better now, but I'm not in love with it.

I did learn something.  I used cad red and viridian green and then added titanium white to create a grayed highlight.  The green and red I also used to create some of the shadow areas on the tomatoes.

I think I probably should work on more than one painting at once, because I find that I am painting in blocks of color that become the underpainting.  Then I add more paint the next day.   It's hard for me to finish a painting in one day.  If I had two going, maybe I could alternate drying days.

8" X 8" oil on canvas panel

Thanksgiving Leftovers

As you can see, all that was left were the bottles after Thanksgiving.  My husband even asks me now if I want to keep a bottle before he throws it out.  

This painting was fun today, and I was surprised that I completed it in about an hour and a half.  I kept trying to remember to paint "shapes" not objects.   Now that I've photographed it, I can see the drawing errors, but I still like this one.   I plan to paint these again.  

8 " X 8" oil on canvas panel 

Bowl of lemons

Yea!  Something to take the place of those peppers.  I was getting really tired of them.

This painting evolved.  I started with the bowl of lemons, and I thought, I don't want to put them right in the middle of the canvas, so I moved them a little to the side.  I was liking how it was going until I stepped back and realized the painting looked too off center. But I had too much invested in those lemons to wipe it and start over!

My granddaughter came the day before Thanksgiving (that's how long ago I started this!)  and she said, "Nana it looks like it's falling out of the painting."

So I added the lemon on the table this weekend to give it balance, and today, I tweaked the painting a little more, adding more blue to the background.  So I am thoroughly tired of this one, too!

Here's what my grandchildren and I did before I started cooking...we made pilgrims and Indians out of toilet paper rolls and construction paper.   If you click on the photo you can see it better.

Beer and peppers

My husband has been asking me to paint some peppers.  So I did this one for him.  I thought a cold beer would be just the thing to go with them.

It's getting close to Thanksgiving!  I'll be doing the cooking this year, so like most everyone, I won't be having much time to paint.  I'm working on a painting right now, so maybe I'll get that finished before I have to fire up the oven!

oil on canvas

Pears and urn

This was an experiment.  I was looking at a painting yesterday that I really liked.  The artist explained that she had cut out pictures of dishes from various magazines, assembled them in an arrangement she liked and painted it.

I thought, that sounds easy!    I'd just gotten a food magazine with a picture of two pears that I liked.  I found a picture of an urn in another magazine and decided that would make a nice arrangement.  I made a sketch and started painting.

I was having a great time and was about 2/3 finished when I realized  the lighting on the urn came from one direction and the lighting on the pears came from another!   I decided it would be easier to leave the urn as is, so I changed the lighting on the pears.  I think I really prefer painting from a set up rather than from a photo, at least until I gain more experience.

I Got a New Book Today

I've been looking at painting blogs for about three years, long before I decided to take the plunge myself.   One artist whose work I admire is Elizabeth Floyd (no kin to me).  She started by posting simple studies of fruits and vegetables and over the years she has become an incredible artist.  You can see an example of one of her paintings here.

Last week she blogged about buying a new book and posted some photos from the book.  It was so beautiful,  I had to buy a copy from Amazon.  It's called "Painting the Still Life" by Olga Zaferatos.   It came today, and it's like eating a box of chocolates.  I love it!

Does anyone else have a book they love and recommend?

Apples with Leaves

I feel the same way that Lorraine Shirkus expressed it earlier this week.  I am desperate to post a painting.  I have painted and wiped this week, and nothing seems to work.

So I here's the last thing I did.  I worked and worked on this, trying to adjust the values on the apples, but I just didn't get it.  To me, they don't "read" as apples.  They are some mysterious unidentifiable fruit!  LOL!

There is, however, one leaf that I'm thinking....hmm, that isn't too bad.  Sigh.  Maybe tomorrow.

I actually painted this as a challenge from a reference photo at Studio Atlier .  You can see the challenge photo and what others have painted at this link.  Check it out.

Red Bell Peppers

I rummaged around in the refrigerator and found these bell peppers to paint. I was working on painting various values and colors in the reds.  I think I have made some progress, but I will work on this some more.

I was the first person up in my household this morning.  My body didn't know about daylight savings time. I wandered into the kitchen and made a loaf of orange-cranberry bread. It made the house smell great, and was good with our morning coffee.

Pear trio

Pears are very forgiving.  You'll never hear one say,  "That doesn't look like me".  Or, "You made my butt look too big."  Which I probably did.   Pears are just easy going and fun to paint.

8 " X 10" oil on canvas panel

Bottle of red

I love painting wine bottles.  There is so much color in the glass that isn't obvious at first glance.  I decided that it was time I tried to paint fabric, so I added that to my set up.

It's chilly today.  I poured the glass of wine back into the bottle & corked it.  We may have that along with our dinner tonight!

7" by 9" oil on canvas panel

Glass jar and wildflowers

I've been wanting to paint glass, so this morning on my walk I picked a few wildflowers still blooming merrily by the road.  I brought them home and put them in a little jar of water.  I was pleased with the glass, but not with the flowers.  I haven't figured out how to paint values in flowers yet.  I think these look amateurish.  Which I am of course, but I have high aspirations!

7" X 9 " oil on canvas panel

Teapot and Pomegranate

This painting is from my weekly class.  The instructor had me make a value study of the set up, and then in the following class, I painted over the value study.  I put a lot more time into this painting than I do when I'm painting at home.  I like the way the teapot turned out, and my little leaf!  Not too happy with the pomegranate, though.  I couldn't get its little snout right.  Next time.  

This may be my last painting that I post this week.  I'm off to Houston to help out my daughter again.  Her husband is out of town and she's a working mom.  I help get the kids off to school and help with meals and homework.  I'm taking my painting gear, and I'll retrieve my camera, left on my last trip.  I just don't know how to upload photos on her computer.   Have a good week! 

Glass bottles

In this study, I wanted to try to capture the translucence of glass.  When I finished, I decided that the thing I like best is the shadow of the glass carafe.  Isn't that funny how we like one little part of a painting?

If you want to see glass beautifully done, check out Carrie Waller's award-winning work here  or here:   Her watercolor work is breathtaking.  

7" X 9" 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!

I'm back, but I left my camera in Houston!

Everyone has been so kind.   My grandson is well and back in school.  I've been painting, but I left my camera there.  I haven't figured out how to use my daughter's camera here.  So I will keep visiting your blogs and commenting, but I don't know when I'll be able to post paintings for a while yet.

No new posts this week

I'm in Houston helping out with a sick little boy.  My daughter called me for help yesterday.  Her husband is out of town, she works and has missed two days of work staying home with her son.  He's been running a fever for five days, and has had two trips to the doctor.  It's a virus and just has to run its course.  So I'm here for the rest of the week without acesss to my own computer.  I did bring my paints, but don't know if I'll have time for painting.

Some good news:  the long-awaited construction on our new house began this week. The bulldozers are in there getting the lot levelled and ready to pour the foundation.  Yea!

Mango In and Mango Out

I guess I'm destined to be known as The-Lady-Who-Paints-Fruit.  I can't seem to paint anything else and have it come out looking right.

I worked and worked on that bowl.  There was lovely reflected light from the mango inside the bowl, but I just couldn't capture it.  And I'm not mentioning my ellipse.  Oh, I guess I just did.  

I envy those people who can paint something in an hour and then post it!

7" X 9 " oil on canvas panel

What color is an eggplant?

These are Japanese eggplants I got at the local supermarket.  In Texas the premier supermarket is H.E.B.  They are local, and they have the freshest, most beautiful produce!

I set up these on a white ground, and I put a piece of yellow paper on the left, out of the painting.  The yellow reflected in the shadow of the eggplants.  There were lots of purples and magentas visible, but I was surprised to see turquoise in one of the planes of the top one.

I'm not pleased with the stems and leaves.  I still haven't figured out how to paint a leaf.  But I kinda like the eggplants.

My blogging friend Jean Townsend posted a link today to Jeff Mahoney's website.  He wrote about the doubts and frustrations that plague painters.  It is so disappointing to want to paint something and then not have it come out right.  His post is so right on and worth reading!  I want to thank Jean for finding it and pointing it out!

8" X 10" oil on canvas panel

Comfort apples

Painting a portrait put me out of my comfort level.  So today I went back to apples!  I love the shapes and smells and colors of them.  Painting this little study put me in a good mood.

7" X 9" oil on canvas panel

Portrait workshop with William Kalwick

Yesterday I attended a workshop in portrait painting at the Coppini Institute.   This is my study of the model.  At the end of the day, I was feeling discouraged, but later I looked at it and I can see some positive things.  I drew the sketch with everything in the right place.   And you can tell it's a girl!  I can "see" things I couldn't see before--like the reflected light under her chin and under her ear.   I'm not happy with the eyes, but  I know that I can learn to do better.  So all in all it was a good day.

Bill is a wonderful teacher.  He broke up portrait painting into manageable steps,  "just like painting an apple", he said.   That made me happy!

He did a thirty minute demo for us.  First he did a sketch using burn sienna and viridian green.

Then he laid in the darkest darks in the painting.  This helps you establish a value scale.

He lays in what he calls the "local color",  the main colors of the skin.  He stressed adding shapes, not painting a face.

Then he adds the lights of the skin and connects the values together with darker lights.   This is his painting when he was about half way through.

This was his finished study.  It was amazing that he could do this in thirty minutes!

He broke up our classes into twenty minutes intervals to give the model a break.  We all worked on the same task together.  For example, the first 20 minutes he had us make our sketches.  That was all we were supposed to work on.   He would go around and offer suggestions and corrections to each individual student.   The next session, we worked on laying in the darks, and so on.  That way we all stayed more or less together, and he could discuss what we were supposed to be doing, how to do it, etc.
I really liked his teaching method, and I think the whole class agreed.

His website is www.kalwick.com.

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.

Citrus Spill

I liked the way these lemons and clementines spilled across the table when I was arranging my set up.  They just fell into position without my having to do much rearranging.

I enjoyed painting on a larger canvas for a change.  I have painted this pitcher before, and I can see that my painting has improved.   Below is my first version, painted in June.

 Still miles to go, though.

12" X 16" oil on canvas