Masters Exhibit

12x12 oil on panel

Available at Loretta Goodwin Gallery

I sent this and 5 other new works to the gallery for their Fall Open House which is today. I wish I could be there. This week has been chock full - culminating with a Girl Scout campout this weekend. I'm excited that our weather is turning cooler so it will be a lovely weekend in Zilker Park.

I've added the new paintings to my Loretta Goodwin page - linked over there on the right - if you want to see all the new pieces. I find the blog easier to update with all my gallery works so people can see what's currently available. My website is a disappointment at the moment.

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

This month it was my turn to pick our challenge! I thought it would be good to paint from a grayscale photo reference - but in color. The idea is to use the black and white photo to gauge your values as you choose color. You can see that for some reason, I gravitated to the purple and green again - just like the paintings in my last two posts! I have to put those colors aside - and yesterday I consciously kept them off my palette.
This was a good exercise. If you get your values correct and have a good composition, then you can really paint any color scheme you want and the painting will work.


Summer Chores
11x14 oil on panel
©2011 Robin Cheers

Below I thought I'd show my painting next to my photo reference. You can see that I did not get dark enough on the sheet in shadow or the shadow on the ground. But overall I did pretty well.



And here are the paintings done by my brave challenge cohorts. I think most enjoyed it. :-)



Fresh Sheets
14x11 watercolor on Aquaboard
©2011 Vicki Ross



It's A Wash
8x6 oil on canvas
©2011 Ruth Andre



Fetching
10x8 oil on hardboard
©2011 Diana Moses Botkin



Untitled
8x10 oil on canvas
©2011 Sharman Owings



Thursday
16x20 oil on canvas
©2011 Suzanne Berry

Park Shade - WIP

18x18 oil on canvas

I've been struggling this week and I'm not sure I like this either. I definitely don't like the blue in the foreground. How did that get there?
When I sat this and the other one (below) aside next to another painting I did this week, there is an interesting, and previously unnoticed theme going on in my work from this past week. Check my blog tomorrow to see what I mean - and see our monthly challenge group pieces too!

Park Avenue - WIP

16x24 oil on linen - work in progress

I've been trying to paint a little larger lately. I've been working on this since last week. I've finally covered the linen now (its just a large piece taped up and not mounted yet.) I so much like to work alla prima and get the idea out at once... working larger means I can't do it all in one session. Which means the brushwork becomes a little more labored, less spontaneous; and my initial enthusiasm fades, which means I grow to hate the painting by the time I decide its done (or give up). I am going to look at this one a little longer and see what it says to me next week. Maybe its done, maybe not.

I do want to keep trying to paint some larger works though, i just need to figure out how to scale up. I think there is an art to it - to still be able to suggest and mass things in but not have the whole thing appear messy. It requires a balance of spontaneous brush work and quiet areas. And I need to figure out how to "suggest" things rather than describing everything just because the image is larger.

What's funny, is that this isn't that large! (baby steps)