Cooling Off

12x12 oil on panel

Guess where I am going tomorrow?? Siesta Key! I am so ready. I've been painting and framing and focused solely on gallery work... and dealing with all the other bits of life. You know... cleaning, laundry, parenting, chauffering, gardening, being the door opener for a demanding squirrel-crazy dog....
Tomorrow it all ends. Tomorrow I will be sitting on the white sands of the beach and shell hunting and visiting with my family.
I'll "e" ya from the other side of the gulf!

Touring The Met

18x14 oil on linen

So here is the same corner of the Met - painted a bit more true to life. The paintings are by Toulouse-Lautrec. A portrait and a nude before the mirror. I think I posted this on my Facebook page when it was in progress "on my easel". I really like the depth that the second figure adds to the scene.
This will be available in Vermont next month.

Two for Toulouse

14x11 oil on panel

Ask Studio 47 about this painting.

I'm not sure if others will like this as well as I do. But I needed to loosen up the other day after working on (and failing to complete) my triptych.

I get a little bored painting the gallery scenes when so many are white on white. So I converted this photo to grayscale and made up my own color scheme. I really tried to push the color and brush work. It felt really good.
I painted this corner of the Met more realistically too a week or so ago. I will post that one tomorrow. But I think I will do more paintings from black and white photos - I enjoyed my own interpretation, creating a more colorful, yet cohesive scene while I focused on values. Something I can always use practice with.

Rough Surf

11x14 oil on panel

My thoughts are turning to the beach this week. We leave in a week for our annual family trip to Siesta Key, Florida. Like many, I've been so depressed about this oil spill and worried about all our gulf coasts - from Texas to Florida. I hope that our lovely white sand beaches and manatees who swim with us in the surf are still as beautiful as ever.

I can't wait to paint and sketch on the beach. They have the best sunsets from "our house" there as well.

Special Exhibit

9x12 oil on panel

Ask Studio 47 about this painting.

The Blanton is an interesting museum. Its a beautiful space. The lower floor has a couple of large galleries often dedicated to traveling shows. They change the wall color and layout for each exhibit. This time, the walls were painted a lovely, rich brown and the rooms were very dimly lit, except for the spotlights on the prints.
I got a few sketches in here - but Anna didn't want to sit down there long. The upper galleries vary, they have the large contemporary spaces, all clean and white and some smaller galleries with more classical works and neutral wall colors.

I've been getting a lot of painting done recently. Since I moved my easel downstairs, I am more part of the family and my daughter is happy to do her thing (play) while I am nearby working. I had taken a bit of a break and had that sickening "relearning" curve for a few wasted panels, and so I VOW to paint regularly from now on. Even 15 minutes is better than nothing. I find not only does the brush flow better, but so do my creative ideas. There is a logjam of images in my mind - and so, TO WORK!

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

What fun this month's challenge was! Thanks to my neighbor, Big Sarah (we have two Sarah's nearby and, being the older, she is known as "big") for posing. Our challenge was a sheet or favorite blanket. And I immediately wanted to do a laundry scene. Sarah posed for me on a typical hot summer day in the blinding Texas sun and I got some great photos.
Below is the study I did for this challenge and as a warm up for a larger painting I did yesterday. I think I have one more in me too. What a fun setting.


Saturday's Chores - Study
6x6 oil on panel
$125 + s/h - sold


Our group is getting a little smaller. So many obligations can interefe with painting time and I am sorry to see some have to focus on other work. Hopefully they can get back to our challenge group soon. Look at the fabulous efforts put forth this month!


Pillowcase
18x18 oil on canvas
©Suzanne Berry



Waiting for Chloë
8x10 oil on hardboard
©2010 Diana Moses Botkin



Lily of the Valley with Lace Table Scarf
12x12 oil on panel
©Jeanne Illenye



Le Drape

9x12 oil on panel
©2010 Vicki Ross

Arrested by Art

16x20 oil on linen

My final version. Comments were about half and half on the floor... but I felt like it needed to be darker. It is true to my initial "wow" reaction to the scene. A very kind follower gave me the info on the painting too. It is "Black & White" by Franz Kline. Part of his decade+ long series of them... so who knows where this one falls in the line.

As a side note, I would own this piece or such like it. I love abstract art - the action paintings or the color fields. Its so expressive, duh. I think also that its is actually difficult to create and something so very far from what I do that I would rather own it, than representational works. I can DO those... I can't do this. Probably has to do with being too miserly with paint. And too much of a perfectionista.

TOMORROW - Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge paintings!!

Black & White

16x20 oil on linen

Ok - Ben (hubby) came in and said this looked like the guy was under arrest. So, I am not sure this is the best pose. But I loved the art ...

Let me back up (sorry, its late). I took my daughter to the Blanton Museum of Art today downtown - its part of UT. Nice building, fairly recently built. They have an exhibit of Matisse prints right now. The painting depicted above, part of their permanent collection, I cannot find on the Blanton website. In fact, I am really annoyed that they have so little of their collection online.
So, if you can identify the art, let me know. Else I will go down again next week and get the details on it.



Anna enjoys abstract expressionist work. It is her favorite to create and to look at (and she is quite talented, if I do say so myself. Isn't she wonderful?). We didn't spend long in the Matisse exhibit, but went upstairs to the American and Contemporary galleries where she did a little sketching. I sketched a bit in the Matisse exhibit. And have a painting to share with you from that tomorrow.

We had a lovely day and I came home with some good ideas. And I remembered to use more paint and to loosen up. But... back to the painting I created... does it look like he is ready to have his rights read? Should I have made the floor dark as it is in real life?

Baristas

12x9 oil on panel

When I thought about the idea of complements yesterday I decided that I didn't want to paint from a photo and be guided by "reality." I needed to change things up a bit and try to loosen up. I find that when I've had a break from painting, I have a relearning curve and it takes a couple of wasted panels to get things worked out. I have vowed to paint daily now... whether its full blown or working on something large in sections, or just a small sketch. I've relocated my painting supplies to my kitchen eating area now and can work there more easily while my daughter plays... though my light isn't as good.
Anyway - I decided to play with complements again and wanted something very warm for this scene. So I first mixed a big dark puddle of ultramarine and cad red and then began to blend (gray) with yellow ochre. I mostly stuck to those, but did add in a little sap so maybe this is a tertiary? combination. Hmm... where is my color wheel?
Oh, I also painted from a b&w image on my laptop... forcing me to be very aware of the correct values, but leaving color choices totally up to me. As long as the values are correct, the painting should read well.
I think I will like this one better framed... maybe in a nice pale gold. It will probably be included in my Vermont show pieces.

Just as a note, you should check out Margaret Dyer's blog. She is an incredible pastelist. Makes me want to work in the medium. She is in France teaching now and her posts about her trip are fascinating.

Day Glo

6x6 oil on panel
sold

This was also sent to Castle Gallery a couple of weeks ago and it sold during their opening reception. I just now realized that its very much about complements. I know I am drawn to things that are 1. very strongly lit; 2. colorful; and 3. interesting perspectives... but I didn't notice this was very much about complements; something that we played with in our monthly challenge last month. I know some of the others continued to play with a limited palette using complements since that exercise. I am thinking of using a limited palette maybe for this summer. As I travel, it will be good perhaps to have less to carry and less to fuss over when I want to get a quick sketch at the beach.

The work of Kevin Weckbach comes to mind when I think of someone using a limited palette and complements really well. His work is wonderfully fresh, loose and unique. Check him out.

Last of the Lettuce

6x8 oil on panel

Ask Castle Gallery about this painting.

I totally forgot about this painting! I did a couple of new things to send off for a summer show opening in Indiana earlier in the month. This was one. These are a couple of ladies working at Boggy Creek Farm cutting some of the last of the red leaf lettuce. I bought some that day. Along with fresh beets and a couple of other things. No one here likes beets except for me. They were yummy. The contrast of that brilliant purpley-red and bright spring green in this scene was too good to pass up.

Western Wear

8x10 oil on panel

Here is a companion piece I did this week to go along with a similar scene which is at Russell Collection in Austin. They had a customer who wanted 2 small paintings with horses, but no people in them. Hopefully this and my other piece will fit the bill.

This was our first week of summer vacation here. My daughter and I have had several play dates with friends and have been swimming. Its getting quite warm here in Central Texas. I haven't managed to paint much. I hope that when things settle into more of a routine I can work. I did take my french easel and palette downstairs to the kitchen so I can work in there and be more accessible to her.

This week I ordered a lot of frames to prepare for the show in Vermont at the end of July. I am trying very hard to be super organized and not wait until the last possible moment to get the work shipped. I will begin posting the paintings I've been working so hard on these last few months soon. Facebook friends have had some sneak peeks at what has been on my easel, but I didn't get around to posting images on my blog. Its been a little too quiet here. Not for much longer!