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

Orange Re-do

I started this painting a few days ago, and ended wiping it off.  I was trying too hard for too much detail on the sliced orange.    I set it aside and tried again today.  I like this version better.

After I wipe off a painting, there is still a faint image of the prior efforts.  Jennifer Bellinger once described it as a "ghost painting".   You can use that faint image as an underpainting.  It made the second attempt easier.

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

Nothing to post yet today

This morning I attempted to paint an orange that was sliced in half, but I ended up wiping it off.  I set the timer for an hour in an attempt to keep it nice and loose.  That didn't happen, and there's a reason.  I'll start at the beginning.

I have three wonderful daughters.  Now that they are grown, they all like each other and me.  (Not always the case during the teen age years.)  One of the fun things when we all get together is all four of us end up sitting on my bed, laughing and telling stories.  Sometimes I learn things that I'd rather not know about, but that's another story.

One of the things they laugh about ME is that they inherited my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  I say they didn't get it from me, because I still have all of mine.

Anyway, if I do have OCD, they all benefited from it.  I like things neat and clean.  I would move through the house picking up, putting things away, wiping and fluffing and dusting, putting the chairs back under the table, stuff like that.

Let's see, I had a point here.  Oh yes, why I wiped off my painting.  When I paint, I find if very hard to suggest things.  That's why so far my paintings are very realistic.  I don't WANT to paint like that.  But my OCD kicks in, and I find myself trying to paint  Every.  Little.  Segment.  of that sliced orange.   When the timer rang, I stepped back and looked at my painting and I didn't like it.  So I wiped it off,  and I'll try again later.

Anyway, this afternoon, I have my second class with the ladies.  I'm supposed to do a value study of an apple.  Maybe I'll post that.

Lemons and water glass

Lemons again.  I enjoyed trying to get the different planes and colors that are in the lemons.

The water glass was a new challenge.  I've tried to paint a water glass only once, and I think this is better than my first time.  My ellipse isn't great, though.  The thing I like best is the shadow of the glass.

I started this painting two days ago and was very unhappy after several hours.  Today I was tempted to just start a new painting, but I lectured myself and made me try to finish this one.  I'm glad I did;  I need the discipline!  I'd always rather start something new...a fresh canvas, a new possibility.  But I don't want to have a bunch of unfinished paintings, so I trudged on.

These were the same lemons I used in my prior painting.  When I was cleaning up today, I discovered that they were getting very soft.  Several days in the set up and hours under the light hastened their demise!  I'll have to find another subject for my next painting.

7" X 9" oil on canvas panel

Saturday Lemons

I've been working on a larger painting, so I wanted to do a small study today. This is a totally different style than the pear. Much more informal. I actually like this better than the pear.

I don't have an expensive camara, plus it's a cloudy day, so I don't think the colors are true. I think the colors in the painting are richer.

7" X 9" oil on canvas panel.

(Click on painting to view larger.)

Painted pear

This is my pear from yesterday's painting class.  I took my value study (see September 2nd post), and she had me apply color.  The right side of my pear looked flat--I was using burnt umber, yellow ochre and burnt sienna to try to make it dark.  My instructor told me to add green, and that was it.  The shadow took on dimension.

This is a very classical style of painting, not how I hope ultimately to paint.  But I hope to continue to learn lots, and I LOVE the class.  There are five ladies of approximately my age (plenty-nine I always say).  And they are fun and kind and very nice.  Just what I had hoped for.

Painting class today

My son-in-law brought home too many bananas, so I spent this morning cooking.  I made banana pudding for tonight, and a loaf of banana bread for tomorrow.

My new painting class resumes today.  It was cancelled last week because of the storm and flooding.  I will be working on completing the pear underpainting that I did last session.   Hope to have something that I can post!

Gala Apple Bowl

I keep saying I just want to learn to paint apples!  What I really mean is I think they are a fairly simple shape, so it's good practice.

I painted these apples to enter in the September challenge at Artists Helping Artists website. There are lots of interesting and varied entries for this month.   Check them out.



8" X 8" 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.

Lemon Challenge

I painted this for a painting challenge on Rookie Painter.  I've never entered a challenge before, and I was inspired by Linda Popple's entry.  It is fresh and has an abstract quality I like.

I had a hard time getting the correct values on the lemon.  It was a good exercise, though.  I think I'd like to enter another challenge.

8" X 10" oil on canvas panel
(Click on painting to view larger.)