Just Cream, Please

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#024

Actually, I drink my coffee black.  I just liked the way this chrome cream pitcher looked. :)

This painting was actually frustrating for me, and I'm still not happy with certain sections of it. I had trouble getting the "turquoise" color that I wanted. Then, I muddied it up; then, I scraped some paint off; then, I over-worked it, and finally, I repeated the steps above. I've been trying to get my daily paintings finished in 1-1 1/2 hours.  This one took almost 4!  (Including the time pacing around, looking at it across the room with one eye closed, texting with my niece, and just generally keeping distracted from the corner I was painting myself into!)

For my next trick, I'm going to do some quick 10 minute paintings of something easy!  :)

P.S. You can see from below that I didn't have the drawing right before I started painting! Lesson learned: Don't get too excited to jump into painting, and ignore your drawing. Bad drawing = bad painting!

^ The reference shot through my view finder. So far, so good.

< The bad sketch, I should've stayed at this step.

>The uncorrected drawing stayed true as I began the painting.

Red Circles, Yellow Square

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#020

Wishing everyone a new year filled with inspiration, joy, and a good healthy dose of painterly growth!

Saved Bottle, Cup, & Apple

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#019

My husband and I had a wonderful, but quick, trip to Louisiana and Texas to see our families over the weekend. After three days and 32 hours on the road, I've got to admit it feels great to be home. I think half of the "joy" is simply from being out of the truck!  

I could barely wait to get painting today, so painted the first 2 items pulled from my prop box.... plus, of course, a beautiful little apple from the frig. The lighting was coming from several directions, with the blue light on the left coming from our large window. The bottle is from the molasses I used in my holiday gingerbread men.

Roof Top View

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#016

This painting is from a photo I took in Cedar Key, Florida a while back.  If you've never been there, it would be worth stopping in if you get to that area.  It's an old fishing village, so there's always lots of cool things to paint.... fishing boats coming and going, old docks, seagulls, sunsets, horizons, and outdoor cafes. 

Today I felt like painting clouds and came across this photo.  I take a lot of pictures of clouds!  I like that they can be so dramatic, and there is absolutely no chance that they will ever be exactly the same. If I don't have time to paint another piece for tomorrow's blog, I may share a larger cloud painting that I did earlier in the year.  Stay tuned..... :)

All That's Left

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#015

Over the weekend we had a big holiday party for all of our friends in Big Canoe.  My husband is from Southwest Louisiana, and an absolutely wonderful cook... if I have to say so myself. Well actually, everyone says that. So when he puts out the "I'm cooking" message, people show up!  In droves! This time, he treated us all to his chicken and sausage gumbo with it's homemade roux, piles of fresh veggies, and his secret seasonings. So understandably, 48 chicken thighs and 8 lbs of smoked sausage later, this was literally all that was left.  

You won't hear me complaining! :)

Left:  through my view finder

Right:  the sketch

Lipton Green Tea

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#014

The idea for this painting popped in my head in the middle of the night last night .....  when I was supposed to be sleeping.  Who thinks about tea bags at 2 a.m.?!  I was actually thinking about all the possibilities when painting small, simple, everyday items.   

I tried to "stay loose" with this one, but sometimes that translates to "mud" for me.  And it happened here. Thank goodness for my new "handy dandy" large angle chisel!  :)  What a great tool!  I want to paint something now just so I can scrape the paint off of it.  Can't wait to see what kind of effects I can make with it.  I've noticed that in other artists' work, and love it. 

Thank you again, Carol, for writing a great book and sharing so much advise on tools and equipment!

Gramma's Flour Sifter

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#006

Going to the local community thrift store is one of my favorite things to do.  For some reason, this particular store has lots of antique kitchen ware. This is one of my recent finds.  I don't know if my grandmother actually had one of these, but if she didn't, she should have!   

There are colors in this painting that haven't shown up very often in my work. I changed my blue from Prussian to Ultramarine for this piece, and didn't steer clear of "pastel-ish" colors....  (I'll go on the record to say, I don't like pastel shades and I don't do pink! ...usually)  

Looking forward to painting more of my vintage kitchen finds!