Daily Painting:  Day 2

My Red Boots
8x8 Oil on canvas

Well, this one certainly took me longer than an hour!  But, I had fun.  I started with drawing a thumbnail sketch and indicating the values.  I then colored my canvas with raw sienna wash and OMS (odorless mineral spirits), then loosely sketched the image with raw sienna and a short bristle brush.  I began painting with the darkest values first.  I struggled with the black glove which had all the light on it.  I probably painted it too white.  After about 2.5-3 hours from start to finish, I had to call it a day even though it could use a lot more tweeking.  I must always remember the goal - complete a painting a day, don't focus on perfection.  I think I accomplished my goal for the day!

Okay, I'm back.  I'm really here to keep myself accountable.  I'm an artist who is struggling with finding my voice, my muse, my medium.  I always say that I have art A.D.D.  I want to try it all and I have tried just about everything (art related that is).  I have my favorites (mediums) which change sometimes from day to day.  Each medium has a different feel, a different response to my action, a different end result.  While that is great, I feel like I've not had much time to really focus in and "master" any particular medium.  Fortunately, many of the fundamentals of art carry over between mediums and because of all my past experiences, I'm confident I have a solid grasp on those.  I've decided NOW is the time to focus on mastering a medium (or 2) and discover my style, my muse, my medium.

Through the years, I've been told that I had artistic talent.  So, I thought that any time I did something art related it should be good, right?  WRONG! Talented or not, it is a gift that needs to be used, exercised and practiced.  Just like sports or music or anything, we don't show up one day and win a gold medal in the Olympics or compose and play a symphony.  No, we show up daily and practice, practice and practice more.  We have to put in the time to hone in on that "talent", that skill.

As well as not leaning on "talent" to carry me through the creative process, I also need to let go of the fact, that every time I step into my studio and pick up a brush or a pastel, I must create a masterpiece. Something that is good enough to sell or give away to a dear friend.  In the past, if the finished product didn't fit that criteria then I felt like I had wasted my time and $ on all those supplies.   NOT TRUE!  I learned from every moment of practice.  I learned what works, what doesn't work, what I want to try differently the next time.  Baby steps!  Fortunately, as we know baby steps lead to walking and then running.  A few trip ups along the way teach us even more.  Failure is the best teacher.  So, I am going to try to embrace failure.

Anyways, I hope to paint as often as possible, daily if possible.  I plan to paint small and simple so that I can complete them in a few hours a day.  This goal needs to be challenging but achievable.  I hope to post my paintings (the good, the bad and the ugly) here so you and I can see the progress.  I will post my thoughts, my experiences, my insights.  As a teacher,  I love to share my experiences so that others may learn as we are all on this journey together - sometimes we're just taking different paths.

Day 1: Fall

8x8 Oil on Canvas

About this painting:

I will tell you that I almost NEVER do still life's as I have always found them very boring.  However, I started reading a book called, "Daily Painting" by Carol Marine and I was encouraged and inspired to give them a try.  I've heard from many that painting from life is the best way to learn as we see so much more with our eyes than through a camera lens and photograph.  Since the weather is not lending itself to plein-air painting, I decided to set up a still life, so I grabbed what I could find.  This painting was a bit challenging with the metallic paper wrapped around the pot and all the flower petals but I pushed through.  It probably took me longer than I wanted but I will say that I quite enjoyed myself painting it.  Also, I will mention that I am still fairly new to oil painting but I am really liking them far better than acrylics due to the fact that they don't dry so fast.  Oils are so much more vibrant and I love how they blend and mix right on the painting.  Also, odor and clean-up is not as bad as you think.  Odorless mineral spirits make all the difference.

The road less traveled is lined with beauty

8x10 on Uart

Decided to try one larger so it took a little longer, but not much.  There is a purple underpainting - wish I kept more of it showing through.  Most likely will paint this one again!

An Inspiring Quote

"The man is a success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

Daily Painting - Day 23

An Improved Poppy
5x7 Pastel Quick Study

The sun is shining!

Daily Painting (ok, missed a few days - was on a weekend getaway for my birthday thanks to my wonderful hubby.)  Day 22:

JUST DO IT!

The Sun is Shining!
5x7 Quick Study

I painted this scene a few days ago and while I liked it, I felt it lacked a variety of color.  See below.  So back to the drawing board.  It's funny, I always felt like once I painted a specific scene, I was done, especially if I was happy with the end result.  If I didn't like the end result,  I was hesitant to do it again.  Oh, that darn fear of failure.  Or I perhaps I'm just not sure how to approach it differently.  Or, I'm frustrated.  Until, I realized "JUST DO IT!"  I have to admit, I am really enjoying painting the same scene over again.  It is fun to see how different the result are.

First attempt at sunflower scene
Its ok but I'm no't happy with limited colors

Below are examples of the scenes I have repeated.  The first image in each grouping is the first try at the scene.

What comes from experimentation

Daily Painting - Day 21

In early January, I had a request from a customer on my etsy site to paint St. Anne.  She was in no hurry so I saw this as my opportunity to try to combine my current style with the Saints in acrylic with my new found love of pastels.  I explain some of my process and my discoveries below.

St. Anne with the Blessed Virgin Mary
9x12 pastel and mixed media on Uart sanded paper

I began by exploring just what you could do on sanded paper.  Below is the underpainting using watercolor, acrylics, ink, stencils and stamps (similar to my process that I use on canvas boards)

After the initial sketches, I began to lay down large blocks of color in pastel.  I ran into a few problems.  I found that pastel does not like to stick to acrylic paint.  I worked with it as best as I could and fortunately there was not a lot of it in the underpainting.  The areas where the acrylic was used that had been watered down as in a wash seemed to work ok.

As you can see I struggled.  I put down too much pastel.  So, I set it aside and the next day, with fresh eyes, I still felt the same and decided to remove some of it.  I found a stiff brush in my studio and I gently brushed off areas I didn't like.  I also used a gummy eraser to remove some other areas. The Uart sanded paper is great for this - very sturdy and holds lots of layers of color.  Still plenty of tooth to work with.

After this removal, I decided that I like seeing some of the designs, textures and prints that I had originally created in my underpainting and decided I would try to allow them to show through and work with and around them (see St. Anne's garment - the triangle area in the center).  Also the celtic stamp that I carved and stamped is a symbol of the mother/daughter bond, certainly had the shape of a heart.  This shape made me think if the image of the sacred heart so I went with it.

I learned a lot from this and I think the final result is more than acceptable.  We will see what my possible customer has to say.  I will take what I learned from this, along with some other ideas that came my way while working on it and try some more new things.

Please feel free to comment and ask any questions you may have!

Be Like A Sunflower!

"I want to be like a sunflower so that on the darkest days I will stand tall and find the sunlight!"

Daily Painting - Day:20

Be Like a Sunflower
5x7 Quick Study

Trying something new today - Sunflowers.  May try it again.  I can see why Monet did the same scene many times.  Yes, he was painting the scene as the light changed it.  In a sense I am doing the same by changing underpainting to give the scene a warmer or cooler feel, perhaps changing the composition to see which is more effective.  These are, after all studies.  Someday I plan to go back and paint them larger incorporating what I have learned from these quick studies.