During my hiatus on the blog, I posted from time to time on Facebook, so I’m going to update my postings here to include that material ‘for the record’. A painting buddy challenged me to post seven paintings in seven days. Here’s what I offered for Day 1:
Challenge accepted. I’ll start with one that’s different from my usual style ~ some abstracted shells done in a class at the Yellow Barn last year.
Sometimes it’s fun to challenge yourself: can you make a painting in a very limited number of strokes? Say, 15? I decided to try it the other day. I placed three shells from my beach-combing stash on a sheet of paper and attacked, carefully plotting color and placement of each stroke. At 15, I was itching to do ‘just a few more’ to beef it up ‘just a bit’, but gritted my teeth and concluded the effort. Here it is, along with a snap of the shell subject.
In keeping with the spirit of the test, I made only a few light guidelines for size and placement, before constructing the design via ‘color-shapes’.
My most recent small painting features some bright cardinals showing off among their Plain Jane pals. It was based on photos taken last year. Our feeder is empty and there are few birds to watch now. (Our neighborhood has been encouraged not to use feeders so birds won’t gather and spread a new virus among themselves.)
For the artists who are reading, this painting was an experiment in “cmyk” colors — a very limited palette of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. This group of colors is used with great success in color printing, but it’s pretty rare to see it underpinning an oil painting or water-based art.
For this attempt, I used the closest hues in my paint stash: manganese phthalo, quinacridone violet, azo yellow and ivory black. I managed to mix everything in the painting without resorting to additional colors ~~ other than the male cardinals, for which I dipped into cad red. I can’t say I enjoyed the experience or like the outcome! I’m not sure whether I’ll try it again!
#22. Birds in the Backyard. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 8″ x 10″
We have some short native tulips in our yard that thrill us every spring. One of my recent 10″ x 8″ paintings features these beauties. . .
Red Tulips. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 10″ x 8″.
Lastest funny off the easel — in my occasional effort to humanize toothbrushes! Composition is a bit too busy but . . . it is what it is.
Toothiness 2 – NO, Mama, NO! Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 8″x10″.
Continuing with my flower binge, here’s another I finished today — of some sweet white calla lilies.. I hope you like it!
#19 White Calla Lilies. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 10″ x 8″.
In writing my last post, I realized I hadn’t described our recent workshop in any detail. It was great ~~ a delightful mix of ‘7 Palettes‘ painting buddies and Kathy Stowe, another Maryland-based friend; two of my sisters (Ceci & Susan); and three other Coast-based artists — Marylyn Gibson, Sherry Carlson and Curtis Jaunsen. And of course our most excellent instructor, Marc Hanson.
Marc and Terry Miura are two of my most favorite landscape painters (not to take anything away from our outstanding MD-based artists). Painting ‘rock stars’ in my book. I’ve taken workshops with each of them and our 7Ps group sponsored a workshop with Terry not long ago. It was fun to learn that they both trained at the same school in California! Must be something in the water (or the OMG) out there!
Here are the beautiful demos that Marc did during our four day workshop. I bought ‘On Canal by Old OS Harbor’ as a memento of the wonderful experience.
My hubby and I stick our toothbrushes into a tarnished old holder in between brushings. Awhile back, I started paying attention to how they’re standing ~~ are they facing each other leaning in for a kiss? Are they turned away from each other? Is one facing away while the other looks on?
It’s been fun anthropomorphizing these humble objects. I’ve even started noticing brush positions at other folks’ homes — family, mind you, not friends!! I’ve taken photos of some of these little vignettes and even crafted some arrangements. They’re a form of truthiness — errrr toothiness, right?? Or am I just crazy?
Here’s a painting of our ancient holder and current brushes, from life . . . .
#18. Toothiness I. Oil on Arches Oil Paper. 8″ x 10″.
Before the recent workshop on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I tried to get in the groove by painting one of the places we would visit there. I call it ‘Susan’s Marsh’ because it was based on a photo my sister took in showing us potential venues. I didn’t finish it then, but did so a couple of weeks ago so I could include it in our new Maplewood Exhibit. I decided to spice it up a bit by adding a heron — it was looking a bit too tranquil without it!
This hibiscus was growing in my sister’s yard. I generally shy away from screaming colors but, hey, this one was trying SO hard I just had to snap its portrait and paint it. We may need sunglasses for this one!
Neon Hibiscus. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 20″ x 8″.
Reference Photo