12x16 oil on panel
This is the "larger piece" I mentioned doing yesterday. I seriously thought it was going to be very bad but I just kept smearing paint on and pushing myself to continue and in the end, I really like the look of it. Its colorful but balanced, the brushwork looks spontaneous and fresh and I managed to capture the mood and tell a story too.
6x6 oil on panel
$100 +12 s/h - sold
This lady was too much to resist; dressed in her trench coat seeming to melt right into Gustave Caillebotte's Rainy Day.
Austin scenes are coming! I'm mulling things over and need to go downtown on a sketch crawl. Truth be told, I feel like I have artistic ADD. I stand in my studio looking through sketches and photos and have so many I want to do, but can't focus on one thing. My time is so very short right now, which probably increases my anxiety about working and completing things. My best work is completed in one sitting. I am really pleased with a larger painting I did today, though while I was working, I thought sure it was going to be a mess and have to be scraped. That is the reward for pushing through.
6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h
This is inspired by my bat cruise last night on Lady Bird Lake downtown. Austin hosts the largest urban Mexican free-tail bat colony in North America during the summer months. This was the view looking up from our pontoon boat as the bats began their exodus from under Congress Ave. bridge.
I think I will celebrate Austin in my daily paintings. I will be your tour guide perhaps through central Texas! Stay tuned!
12x16 oil on panel
The Driskill really is a lovely old hotel. And its so very refreshing upon entering from the glaring heat outside. Its full of dark wood paneling, polished marble floors, and rather masculine, earthy colors which create an oasis of southern comfort in the midst of a bustling downtown. Every once in awhile I like to check to see if they have any special room rates...until then, I can go and sit in the lobby, walk the elegant corridors and pretend I am a cattle baron's daughter.
What am I going to do with this painting? I don't know yet. Send me an email if you are interested in it.
6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold
I've been working, but have been to lazy to post anything. I think the heat is making me pleasantly lethargic or comfortably numb. This little painting I did to try to loosen up after working on a larger painting yesterday. It reminds me of Ken Auster a lot. Must have had him on the mind!
6x6 oil on panel$100 + $12 s/h -
soldI've been thinking about NYC a lot this week as I made my plans for a September workshop with Ken Auster in the city. That should be a beautiful time to be there and Ken's work is so inspiring and fresh that I can't wait to learn from him.So - a carriage ride in Central Park today for your viewing pleasure.
6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold
I was up around 3 a.m. one night at the beach (thanks Dad!) and went outside to have a look at the moon which was a brilliant orangey-red and hanging low on the horizon. Looking to the north though I saw this hotel lit up with the glow of vapor lights.
I love night scenes. I should do more.
While I paint, my dog Macy sometimes hangs out in the studio on a pillow I have for her under my easel. Usually, though she is too busy laying on the couch in the front window watching for passersby to bark at. But today she was nearby and she was so cute and relaxed, that I quickly sketched her in on a board. Seriously, this took about 5 minutes and I am really pleased with it. Can you guess that she is a schnauzer? Best dog ever! :-)
6x6 oil on panelnfs
11x14 oil on panelThis painting will be available at Castle Gallery around July 18th. I am pretty pleased with this. I don't have much more to say about it than that. It was a great deal of fun to create.
7x5 oil on panel
nfs
This is my little girl and its so like her, that I just can't part with this painting. I've been bouncing all over the last couple of days with larger pieces of art patrons, the city and beach! I can't make up my mind what to paint while I have so much time. My daughter is in a day camp the next two weeks so hopefully I will have more to share with you all and a couple (at least) small works.
18x24 oil on canvas
purchase info to come
I worked on this over several days. I prefer to paint alla prima, but sometimes its just not possible. And once I had the figures painted, the rest was like, well, painting several small paintings. Some of them unknown and were from the gallery photos, some are from magazines, featuring some contemporary artists whom I admire. I hope if they recognize their work, they will appreciate it in the spirit it is intended.
Being an artist, I sometimes get access to those back rooms where art is stored and its a pretty neat place to visit! If you go to Austin Galleries though, there is no mystery. Its ALL out. But it could take you weeks to go through all the work. Its an amazing gallery.
8 1/2 x 6 1/2 oil on canvas paper
This is new... a quick sketch I did today to loosen up. I've actually been working on and off for three days on a larger piece and when I finished that today, I had just enough time to stretch my wings a little. Ta da!
Personally, I love working this way. The results are so impressionistic, so spontaneous and I'm generally very pleased with my results. Perhaps sketches like this come more from the gut. Maybe because I am not so serious about making it perfect. But I plan to do more of these quick studies both for the exercise and for planning larger paintings.
This was painted on a canvas-style paper - not mounted. As of this moment, I cannot decide if I will offer it for sale. Perhaps after I've lived with it, and used it to create my larger gallery painting.
acrylic on paper canvas
On this particular morning I decided to try a more complete painting of the beach. I figure if I can paint large paintings, on site, during a wedding reception, then I could paint a beach scene. Well, I think I could really, but the paint dried so darn fast! Its my normal complaint about acrylics. I was interested in trying the new ones coming out which have a longer "open" times and which can be wetted or spritzed to keep wet on the canvas even. But nothing, I think, can really compare to oil paints. The real, old fashioned ones. I've also tried the water miscible oils, but have not liked the results with those either.
acrylic on paper canvas
This guy kept hanging around. I guess he thought I was eating, not painting. This was a first attempt with some acrylics on the beach. They dried fast. Very fast.
pencil with watercolor wash
What more enjoyable pastime could there be than playing in the beautiful white sands of a gulf coast beach? This time, the white of the paper is pretty darn close to the actual sand color.
pencil with watercolor wash
This was another little sketch trying to capture the masses of people on the beach. I think it was busier this year than last. More and more people are discovering the gorgeous white sands on Siesta Key. I think its owing to it appearing in more than one "best beaches" list.
I found the watercolor made it quite easy to "suggest" people. Just a dab of the brush. But what I'm really aiming for with this kind of sketching/journaling is like what I see on the Sketchcrawl site. "They" have organized worldwide sketching days and have lots of good suggestions about materials (I need to find the right pen and book/paper) and you go solo, or with others, to just go out and observe and sketch the community around you. I have yet to join an official day for this as I've had conflicts since I learned of it. But NEXT time! Though I "crawled" during my whole vacation and have pencil sketches from home, the airport, roadside views complete with billboards, seagulls and sandcrabs, and my brother-in-law building one of his very cool sand sculptures (he took that sketch home with him.)
I think that my increased sketching and observing have made me a better artist. I carry a sketchbook everywhere now. Its just small and fits in my purse. I was always a doodler; now I don't need napkins. One less thing to float around my studio.
Back in Austin. And already missing the beach! And all the fresh produce and seafood... oh, man we ate well. If anyone is going there or lives there... I highly recommend Ophelia's - the chef there is amazing. And you can't beat sitting outside, under fans and awnings in summer, on the serene bay looking at mangrove islands.
I sketched quite a bit on the beach and in the car during drives. I bought a cheap set of acrylics to try and had some success with them. I also added some watercolor washes to some sketches. It was fun. And I thought I'd share some of those with you all since I won't yet be able to get back to my studio for "real" work.
So here is the first sketch - a pencil drawing looking south on Siesta Key towards the Point of Rocks. I liked trying to suggest the numerous people and activity on the beach.
Traveling this week and next, but I have managed to update my main website and wanted to invite everyone to visit it. So click robincheers.com and see my newest gallery paintings in a format that will be so much more easily updated and kept current.
For other artists out there - I test drove a few portfolio sites and really liked Foliosnap the best. It was so easy to upload and label images and build the galleries and other pages, all within their easy templates. No sizing images and making my own thumbnails. No coding. What a major relief.
6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h
I really just felt like doing the figure as I began this painting and then I didn't even want to add a background. Sometimes I just love messing with the skin tones and fabrics, and seeing how little I can do to capture the impression. Sometimes just a few strokes are enough and it feels so empowering when the right shape and gesture emerge. It often amazes me that its just paint, but laid down the right way, it creates something beautiful. Its so simple, but can be so complex.
6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold
I am winding down with this series. The last couple I will post were painted at the end of last week. Now I am finding less time to paint. My daughter is out of school, has the flu (joy) and we are going to be traveling shortly. Heads up... beach scenes coming.
This woman is gazing at Toulouse-Lautrec's painting La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge in the MOMA. I really admire Lautrecs work - both he and Degas - for their interesting cropping and compositions. I think I lean towards composing work in a similar way.
6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h
