Hanging Sheets

12x9 pastel on pastelbord

$250 

PURCHASE

Switching things up a little this summer and practicing with pastels. They are nice because I can set up at the kitchen table and be in the area where my daughter is playing and I can just walk away from them - coming back to them when time allows. No clean up or paint drying out, etc.

That is certainly a benefit. I'm going to be working with them more this summer with the aim of getting comfortable and confident with the medium before offering them through my galleries. I still have to figure out the framing AND the shipping. Those are definite drawbacks to the medium.

PS - I have a number of friends and a lot of art acquaintances in the Denver area and my thoughts and prayers are certainly with them all as they deal with the dreadful fires and heat.

Laundress

10x12 oil on panel

Available at Tidewater Gallery

  

Branching Out

Last week, I got to study with the fabulously talented Margaret Dyer at Wenmoh's Ranch not far from Austin. It was my first time using pastels and I learned so much. I haven't really tried other mediums before, I've been so focused on painting in oils for the last 10+ years. So this year I'm trying to allow myself some creative play and challenges. This was a great first step! I really enjoyed this workshop and working with pastels. Its gotten my creative juices flowing and helped me mentally get past the difficulties I'm having with the gallery.

We had models the first two days and the last day we worked from photos which Margaret shared. Here are my last two efforts. From her photos. I've shared more on Facebook if you want to look at "mobile uploads" on there.


Lucky for me, the workshop was only about an hour from Austin and I was able to drive back and forth each day. Margaret is a wonderful teacher and creates the most beautiful paintings. My thanks to Dena Wenmohs for a great workshop. I think everyone had a very nice time and learned a lot. I can't wait to continue to create with pastels here at home.

Wash Day II

6x6 oil on linen
$100 + s/h
PURCHASE

I love painting figures outside and on the lawn. Its time to contact a model to come pose for me again. Now that our weather is tolerable, it will be lovely to be out painting again.

Wash Day

6x6 oil on linen
$100 + s/hPURCHASE

I've been doing a few small format pieces to enter the Randy Higbee Gallery 6x6 contest this year. The gallery is associated with King of Frame, makers of nicely finished ready-made frames. Loretta Goodwin Gallery is also going to have a "tiny treasures" show this holiday season. I think its a great idea... and naturally I think small paintings are a great way to start a collection, give a meaningful gift or fill in a large collection. Everyone has room for one more!

Its been interesting going back to a very small format now. Its yet another challenge. The subject has to be simple enough to be doable on a small scale, and I find that its better if its not too subtle in color. Its been good practice in seeing and putting down color notes, and not fussing too much.

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

Holding the Line

11x14 oil on panel

Gallery info to come.

I'm really enjoying painting these scenes. Its become a favorite subject. Perhaps after having painted a few, I feel a little more free to experiment. I've painted the green grass and the blue jeans as they really appear. Now I can play with the subject a bit and like I did with this painting, paint it very high key.
Someone wrote and asked if I used a special palette on the previous scene. I didn't really intend to actually. It wasn't a conscious choice when I started, it sort of happened as I worked. One of the things I do while I'm working is to mix into the colors I've already blended on my palette. So the whole mass sort of blends and moves across my palette morphing from one set to another, but all part of the same. This probably makes no sense whatsoever.
I had an older shot of my palette so I thought I'd share that at least. You can see how my mixing moves across and keeps blending and morphing.

Clean Sheets

12x12 oil on panel
Gallery info tbd

So Wednesday I set my timer and painted this scene in 30 minutes (plus 10). I wanted it to be loose and interpretive, so I stuck with a sort of split complementary (?) color scheme. Actually - that was a happy accident. LOL
Anyway, I did a few strokes after the timer went off, but not much. I really want to get to the point where I stop tightening up everything and paint more instinctively. I made a short slideshow of the work in progress. One of these days I would like to try to get a video too - first I'll have to figure out how much time my old camera can record and then how to get it uploaded to my computer.




Happy Easter! I'm going to go see the Impressionists exhibit from the National Gallery in Houston. Have a beautiful weekend everybody.

Over the Line

14x11 oil on panel

Gusty Day

12x16 oil on panel

Available at Edward Montgomery Fine Art, Carmel next week.

This scene is from one of our Monday figure sessions (scroll down to see the study I painted that day.) I tried to finish the study today but felt constrained by having to work around what was already there. So I started a new one. I have this dreadful habit of not being able to continue work on an incomplete painting. I can't tell you how many I have sitting around the studio now. There is going to be quite a few more now too since beginning our model sessions. Like the one below. I used the same panel to paint a second study of our model in fact, knowing it is just for exercise and I won't complete it. I'm definitely an "alla prima" painter.


9x12 oil on panel - study from figure session

Saturday Chores

18x24 oil on linen

Rejected! From the American Impressionist Society. I'm a bit bummed. None of my paintings were accepted this year. I submitted some of my best work - and I have to believe that regardless of being juried into the show or not. Its just a reminder that the appreciation of art is so subjective. What moves one person might be overlooked by another.

I watched an excellent dvd on the Impressionists* over vacation and none could better understand the angst of rejection than they. While they set their own course and struggled to earn even a humble living, they still wished for acceptance by the Salon and tried again and again.

And so must we all! Be true to thine self and paint on!

* The Impressionists - The Other French Revolution

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