Oar at Sunset

I finally got back to painting this week. This is another of my small crew paintings, again taken from a photo of my trip on the launch. This is a 5X7 on board.

Oklahoma City Rowers

This small (4X4) oil is painted from one of the photos I took while on the launch the other day. I will probably enter it in the Paseo small works show in January. I have also been working on some fun Christmas paintings in acrylic that I plan to give as gifts. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Bonaire beach

I am going to post a couple today. The first is loosely based on the beaches in Bonaire. I was cleaning up and saving some of my photos and maybe spent a little too long looking at the photos from Bonaire. I think I have a bad case of dive withdrawals. The only antidote is very expensive at the moment, plane tickets to the island!

Afternoon Crew

I was able to go on the launch to take photos yesterday. I managed some nice shots, although I started to lose light on the rowers too soon. The light was stunning. Almost makes me want to start rowing.

A Quad

I have been working on my large regatta painting today and did this quick 8X10 this afternoon. It is amazing how much more complicated it becomes when you add more rowers. They are still fun to do and I still have a lot to learn.

The Pull

This is the largest of my regatta series so far. It is 18X24. I decided to focus on the location of most of the action. I am still working on the painting. There are still a few things to fix, but I don't want to overwork it. It is amazing how taking a photo of the painting allows you to see the flaws.

Walking in Sunshine

I got right to work on the weekly challenge this week. I wanted to start on another regatta painting and I thought this would be a good way to warm up. I like starting a painting upside down. I forget about that sometimes. It is especially useful when the painting is very linear, like this one. I also used the technique for my regatta painting. Can't wait to finish it, I hope to show it to my critique group soon. I am really enjoying this series.

Misstroke

This is the second painting of the new regatta series. Both of these paintings are 8X10 and are oil paintings. I showed this painting to the coaches and they both noticed the technique problem caught in the painting. Maybe I should check my subjects for technique problems before I immortalize them in oil!

To the Line

I have been working on a series of regatta paintings over the past few days. I hope to complete 10-15 paintings on this subject. Today I will post the first two that are almost finished. They are in the "sitting on a shelf to decide what they need" stage. I did take a break to work on the weekly challenge, but I am going to start a new regatta painting later today. I love the reflections in these photos, not to mention the complementary colors from the water and orange boats.

Remanants

Another of the paintings that was returned from the Town and Country Show. This is an oil painting of a scene less than a mile from my house. I do a lot of driving around looking for photo ops, especially in the morning when the light is soft and luminous. I think it is easier for me to appreciate the landscape since I am new to the area. Of course, I also feel that I can appreciate, really see things better, now that I am painting again no matter where I am.

Fall Creek

This is taken from a creek near my house. I recently had this painting return from a show in downtown Oklahoma City and I will be featuring the others in my blog the next few days. They are all done from Oklahoma landscapes, usually found within a few miles from my house. They are larger oils; this one being 11X14.

Regatta

A larger painting that I recently finished. I hope to do more from regattas. I take lots of photos at Chesapeake Jr Crew regattas and there is one this weekend in Wichita. I am going to focus on the reflections and the "puddles".

Capitol City

My interpretationof this week's challenge. I have spent time today working on photography and am still trying to decide what to start on next, so I thought I would do this to help me get back into painting. I need to keep my hands in painting or I lose that muscle memory. This is on paper coated with black gesso, something I love to do. I am really trying to use these challenges as warm-ups and to learn soemthing. I do think it stretches to have someone else pick your subject matter.

Garden of the Gods

This painting is a 36 X 36 oil on canvas painting taken from a photograph from our Colorado vacation this summer. It is an absolutely magnificent place. I was able to spend most of a morning there shooting photos while Nick was biking. I am planning to paint 3 more of these canvases. This painting has a lot of texture that may not transfer to the screen.

Bama bovine

It has been too long...I started back with the weekly different strokes challenge from Karin Jurick. I enjoy cows having grown up with cows on my grandfather's farm. My cousin and I used to name and pet all the calves in the spring. Little did we know what they were doing with all the calves in the little pens.

I have also been working on the Garden of the Gods large painting and plan to post that tomorrow. It is very close to finished.

Acorn SQ

The next in my series of simple fall squares. These look really good sitting on my shelf together. I am going to take these to Tennessee for the Jr League Market. I am also making jewelry for the show, so I am very busy with demands for the show and family demands. I feel likely Gumby, pulled in many different directions. Good thing I'm flexible!

White Pumpkin

This is my interpretation of Karin Jurick's Different Strokes Challenge for the week. I am doing my small series and I was going to buy a white pumpkin today. Instead, I used her photo for inspiration. I may do the three pumpkins later. I love her interpretation. Check out the link to her blog on the side bar.

Fall Square I

This is the first of a series I am doing of small (5"x5") square paintings for a series. These are on deep canvas panels that can sit on a mantel or counter. They will be painted in oil on black gesso for more punch. They really lend themselves to the daily painting theme since they are quick sketches. I really like to have paintings sitting on my kitchen counter.

I went to a demo with Dennis Johnson, a very dynamic Oklahoma City artist, last night. He does wonderful abstractions, but I loved most what he said about painting in general; basically, paint profusely and edit deeply. I am a firm believer that in order to improve, you have to paint a lot. Some are keepers, some are not. Hopefully the more you paint, the more you keep!

Hefner Sails

I saw a story in the Saturday paper about a race at Lake Hefner this weekend with an accompanying photograph. I drove by Saturday night and saw the boats and was sparked to paint sails, an unlikely subject in Oklahoma. I am beginning to learn that there is not an unlikely subject that can not be found in Oklahoma. (Now that's an unwieldy sentence!) This little loose painting is done with oils on watercolor paper with a black gesso ground. I love doing quick sketches on black gesso; it makes for instant drama.

Waiting for the Bus

Karin Jurick's weekly photo challenge was a figure photograph today. Check out the challenge at http://differentstrokesfromdifferentfolks.blogspot.com/
Outside of my current comfort zone, although I have done my share of portraits in the past. I also tried to challenge myself to limit my strokes. Difficult because I wanted to put a lot of the beautiful highlights from the photo into the painting. I will continue to work on this aspect of my painting going forward. Always striving...

God's Garden View

I am working on a large painting from Garden of the Gods, but this is a small one of the panorama, a very quick, loose painting on a 5"X7" panel in oil.

Fall Flowers

I have decided that I will also post photographs on my blog, even if they have just been manipulated by photoshop. I took some photos of the beautiful sunflowers on my way to the Fine Arts Institute yesterday. This morning I played around with them briefly. I have so many projects in various stages of completion. Hopefully, I will be finishing up some of them soon. I am going to post again today with my painting of the day.

Spring Barn

I have finished the painting that I did for my brother. We spent a lot of time exploring and playing in old barns as children and I am drawn to their colors and textures. This is an oil, 12 X 36, on canvas.
I am working on the really large oil painting and several mixed media pieces. I want to continue to paint one small oil painting each day in addition to the other work I am doing.

Beach Strokes

Karin Jurick, an artist that I greatly admire, has posted a weekly challenge on her new web site Different Strokes From Different Folks. This is my interpretation of that photo. I love looking at Karin's and Carole Marine's work. I am looking forward to seeing the other paintings every week.
I started a very large painting and finished a barn painting for my brother, which I will post tomorrow.

Bonaire pier

I did quite a bit of work yesterday, but the work was too wet to move! This is a 5X7 on birch panel (which I love working on) but I used so much paint on the small canvas that I was afraid to move it to my photo panel in the garage. It was still so wet this morning that I made a mess that I will now have to fix.
Today is the first day of my critique and studio time at the Fine Arts Institute in Edmond. I am looking forward to painting most of the day and seeing what other people have been working on.

Cloudscape

I have a lot of photographs of clouds. Where we moved from in Virginia, cloudscapes were hard to come by. If you wanted to see clouds from a distance, you needed to go to the ocean. I do love the ocean, but there is something special about the way the clouds look in the mid-west. There is a sense of distance that you just don't get in the east. Sunrises on the Atlantic are spectacular, but sunsets (and sunrises for that matter) in Oklahoma

are very stunning. This is a 5 X 7 oil painting on birch panel.

Pastel Coneflower Transfer

I did another acrylic transfer from a photograph. This time I covered the transfer with a clear gesso and added a loose pastel punch over the top. I love being able to use all of the media I have spent a lifetime learning.

Looking West

I have been busy all morning with matting and framing pieces for the Paseo Photo Fest. This is a mixed media piece that I sent to the framers last week.

It is one of my recent favorites. I reworked a piece of collaged watercolor with acrylic and oil. It has a lot of depth because of the paper applied to the watercolor paper. I love experimenting.

Zinnia

Another quick floral, this one from a set-up with a flower from my garden. It is on an 8 X10 canvas board that I primed with black gesso.

I am doing a lot of work with the acrylic gel medium, but those are a several day process. I will hopefully have something to post with those next week.

I found out that two of my photographs were accepted into the 2008 Photo Fest on Paseo. I was hoping to have a mixed media to submit into that, but I will next time!

Coneflower Transfers

This is something I have been thinking of doing for a long time. I love photography and painting and I want to merge the two. This is a photograph that a friend gave me when we were brainstorming this idea and I told her I would try acrylic image transfer and let her know how it worked. I think it worked great!

I used acrylic gel medium to make the image transfer. I them applied it to a watercolor "scrap" from long ago with more gel medium and added acrylic paint over the top. I love the way it turned out. It has a lot of depth.

I have several other transfers in progress and will post a few more over the coming weeks. It does take some time and forethought for this process, but I love experimenting!

Barrett's view

This is an 8X24 oil on canvas painting of the view out our friends' window in Colorado. How would you like to wake up to that every day? I thought it was really difficult to take a bad photograph in Colorado. What a beautiful place...I could wake up there every day.

Angelique

Another floral, 5X5 oil on canvas, even looser than before. I went to the Impressionist exhibit at the Kimball in Ft. Worth about a week ago. First of all, what a wonderful exhibit, but one quote really stuck with me. It was from Renoir who said that he "let my brain rest when I paint flowers...I establish the tones. I study the values carefully without worrying about losing the picture."

That is what I am trying to do with my florals. Always striving...that could be my motto:)

First Day Jitters

One of my goals for the fall was to start a blog, so I decided no time like the present. My goal is to post one painting a day (or at least 4 X/wk). We'll see how it goes. The girls are back in school and I was back in the studio all day yesterday. This is a small (4X4) oil painting to loosen up and get the juices flowing. I love photography as well as painting and have been doing a lot more photography this summer than painting. Now it is time to use those photos.