Turtle Tree

I'm so excited about this new painting. The colors mellow me right out and I think it has an Oriental feel to the composition. It's called "Turtle Tree" because the turtles love to sun themselves on this low hanging tree which barely skirts the water. Since this is just the initial block-in, you can expect several more posts of the painting in progress.

"Storm Wave" is done!

"Storm Wave" 30x40" oil on canvas I worked mostly on the foreground which needed a little more defining. Added some lights on the tops of the waves and adjusted the height of part of the wave. I love the colors and wish I had a place to hang this to look at it every day. What I'll do, instead, is keep it on the easel downstairs until it gets replaced with the next work-in-progress. AND, I will enter it in a couple of juried shows and see if anyone bites. One of the shows is meant for working artists who've cut their teeth on lesser shows, but I figure I need to get my name out there and don't mind entering (and being rejected) until I do make it. It's all part of the process.

So Nice To Sign A Work

The title does not bely exactly the feelings I have when I sign a work. It's actually more like panic, haha! Like, am I sure I have no more to say with this painting? The panic usually gives way to a sense of completion but rarely is it one of glee or a state of celebration. I don't know why that is. When you finish a project, don't you immediately want to go out and celebrate? The signed piece is the "360 Bridge", 30x48" impasto oil on canvas. It was a commissioned piece and I keep wondering why he's content with the title since this bridge has been named Pennybacker Bridge. Perhaps, like me, he's used to calling it the 360 Bridge. Just like Town Lake is Town Lake and not Lady Bird Lake and MoPac is rarely referred to as Loop 1. Gotta love Austin for its ambiguity. I thought I'd include a photo of a work STILL in progress. "Storm Wave" is going slowly, but I don't mind since I'm enjoying painting large swaths of color with my palette knife and scraping off areas to reveal the color underneath. It's been nearly pure pleasure to do this one and I think I'll miss it most of all when it's done. When I sign it, I will KNOW that it's done because the canvas won't accept another bit of paint, haha! No, seriously, for some reason I just know that the next time I pick up a palette knife and work on this painting will be the last time as well. Time to move on and I can't wait to tackle the next one!

Updates on Work

I am still working on the 360 Bridge, but this week is its last in my possession. I will add one more car to the bridge because it is bugging me to have all the focus on just the two. I'll paint the sides and then it's wiring and varnishing time and off to its new home. "Pond" is in its new home. It sold at the Maranda Pleasant Gallery Holiday Art Box Show on Saturday, December 5th. "Potholes" is hanging in the juried 12 Buy 12 Show at Austin Art Space and was used in the ad in the arts section of the December issue of Austin Monthly. It's the "Cool" issue, and that was my reaction when I saw that my piece was one of only 4 used in that ad. I have started and finished another painting in the 12x12 format. It's from my hubby's hike to Devil's Hole at Inks Lake State Park. There are tons of rocks, big boulders, so I didn't make the trek this year.The water was running like crazy after some great rainstorms this past Fall, which has been a rarity the past few years. Made for some great inspirational photos for me!

360 Bridge and Pond Update

Here's the latest on the 360 Bridge. I'm nearly ready to include cars...if I decide that that is what it needs. It could also have a boat being loaded on a trailer. We shall see. I don't think I'll work on this until I get back from visiting my mom. It's good to let paintings sit and percolate without the daily viewing that mine get, sitting in the dining room. This second one is a 12x12" that I started yesterday. It's of a small body of water, like a pond, near the waterfall at Devil's Watering Hole at Inks Lake State Park. I didn't get tight and define the rocks underneath the water, even though I was gaining my inspiration for the subject from a John Singer Sargent painting of a pond with underwater rocks. The format is too small for much detail with a knife.

Potholes and 360 Bridge

A friend of mine reminded me that I've been lax in posting, so here's the latest on my work in progress, 360 Bridge, and my finished one, Potholes. We just got back from 4 days of camping, so I don't have much time to go back and find earlier versions of the bridge in its progress. But there will be plenty more, I can assure you! I was so inspired by the light on the trees at Inks Lake, that I think there will be a painting that takes precedence over the storm wave. I would have painted out there, but people all arrived at different times, so there was really no alone time. I may have to go back if I can't remember that tree well enough with the photos I took. I took them from shore and from my boat.

Bummer

I just looked at my last post and realize just how much I loved the initial sketching in of the storm wave. It looks nothing like that now, because I'd gotten ahead of myself and brought the values up too soon. What I have now is nearly all middle values and the process will be to slowly bring up the values so that the light looks like stormy weather is approaching. I hope I'll love it. I worked on the Potholes with my new paints and am in love with them! They're nearly all translucent which makes for some lovely layers of paint. This piece is becoming a favorite of mine, but is destined for a show at Austin Artspace, which means it will probably sell if it makes it through the jury process. People buy at those shows and 12x12 is a reasonable size for most folks. I'm learning to not get too attached to what I'm working on. I should just enjoy the process. I also have finished the painted sketch of the 360 Bridge. That is going to be one really fun painting! Can't wait! I finally had some sun today, so I got a better photo of "Vieux Lyon" and a final photo of "S. Padre Sand Dune II", since that is also finished. Hooray! My very talented brother, Ski, is thinking of creating an artist's website for me. I'm looking forward to that and hope that him hitching his wagon to my "star" will be profitable for him (and me). Enough for a good bottle of wine at least!

Updated Photos To Come

We've had rain and overcast skies for days, so it's not all that easy to get photos of what I've been working on. I think Wednesday is supposed to be nice, so I'll try again. I will just do a short update on the S. Padre Sand Dune II (30x40), since I've worked on it since this photo and consider it done. Just need to sign it and photograph it. I've started 3 new paintings since my last post: The 360 Bridge (a commissioned piece), a small (12x12) abstract painting of an area in S. Africa called the Potholes, and a huge storm wave (30x40)! They're all fun, all compelling and all exhausting to work on. I'm in my element!

What's Goin' On!

We had over a week of cloudy days and some rain, so this was the first that I've been able to photograph anything I've been working on. No great loss, I'm sure, but I like to document the changes. And have there been changes! The Lyon painting now is sporting some windows when originally I wanted to make that aspect of the buildings very understated. I'm not totally happy with them and know there's more to do to get precise on the perspective. Probably why I'm exhausted at painting studio sessions. I don't like Geometry. The S. Padre Sand Dune II is coming along. I'm being very playful with the hues of the sand and wonder if it's a little too outrageous against the more traditional colors of the foliage and sky. I'm sure it is. Enjoy anyway!

Puppies!

My sister-in-law's brother is coming to Austin this weekend to visit friends, so I invited him to drop by and check out my studio gallery and, if they have room, take a painting back home to my brother. Don't know if the latter will happen, but it's okay because I often go visit in November and can take it then. I am happy that he's coming to see my cool new space, though, and am also happy that I'm finally making good on my intention to paint his two long haired Daschunds. I think they turned out okay. I made the mistake of signing the painting instead of letting it sit a day, so had to go back today and do a red-violet glaze over all the lights so that they pop instead of looking chalky. That's the mistake of using white to lighten a color instead of just making a more intense lighter shade. The background was another issue because I had used white to lighten my yellow ochre and it looked awful and pastel-y today. I spent more time than I'd planned, putting in a few greens and browns, then scraped most of it off. Went over that with a cad red light and yellow ochre, scraped most of that off and pretty soon, I had a nice texture happening because of all the scrapings, so I did a glaze of cad red light, yellow ochre and a touch of white and feel like it can stand as a background now. [Update: the next day, the background and foreground looked too similar and lacked depth, so I worked on it again!] Having seen the error of my ways, when it comes to trying to match colors exactly to photos, I decided to mix Alizarin Crimson with a touch of black and used that where the darkest darks were...now you can see the definition in the eye area! Such a simple thing, but so effective. [NP]I am also still working on the Lyon street scene in painting studio night. It's been such a big lesson on light and reflections. And using colors that I sure wouldn't have chosen on my own for interpreting atmosphere and light. It is a lot more magical than if I'd been left to my own devices, which makes me happy and yet sad. I thought I was moving ahead, but realize that what I would have chosen to do with this subject is so much less fantastic than what my teacher has guided me with his suggestions to do. So much less.

Painting Light

I have my painting teacher to thank for this looking okay. He reminded me that what I'm trying to paint is LIGHT and not things, so painting the local color was taking me down the wrong path. The sand dune one is what I'm working on at home and again, painting the light is what I'm about.

"S. Padre Sand Dune II"

I had a wonderful party of very creative people at my house last Thursday night. The next morning I woke up with an unbearable urge to go to S. Padre. I knew that wasn't feasible, because they expect you to pay for your hotel room and food, so I started a new painting...S. Padre Sand Dune II. When we were down at Padre this summer, I took a whole range of pictures of the sand dune I stared at every day. So, rather than do the same exact composition (I just don't think that's right), I looked through all my shots and settled on another composition that pleases me and worked on blocking it in on Friday. All the lessons learned from the earlier painting will be helpful this time and maybe the painting will flow easily and much quicker than the 17 hours the first one took. At any rate, I know it will be fun.

Lyon is started

S. Padre Sand Dune is in a new home as of yesterday, so last night it was good to start a new painting that I already am enamoured of. It's from my daughter's visit to Lyon, France last summer. The photo has been calling to me all this time and finally I feel ready to do this painting. It's only 24x30", which is a nice relief from the big pieces I've been lugging up and down the stairs. I'm not terribly fond of the canvas, though. It's a gallery wrap, but the edges are rounded so a palette knife goes off into nothingness instead of hitting the curved edge which leaves a bit of white along the edges. Learned my lesson and won't use this canvas with palette knives again. I like how the blocking in is shaping up. It's my plan to keep doing paintings with a long block in time so that I don't get hung up on details (hard to do with a palette knife anyway). I have just finished reading "Julie and Julia" and saw the movie last week. My husband and I typically go to our favorite little French bistro for our anniversary, so my life lately is tinged with French, buttered with Francais, bubbling with the feeling of champagne in my anticipation of this painting and more paintings to come. Au Revoir, Constance

The Sand Dune is Done!

"S. Padre Sand Dune" 2009 oil on canvas 30x40 I've enjoyed every second of this painting. Maybe it's because I chose a composition of something that I enjoyed looking at for an entire week and it reminds me of the lovely time I had there. I do think that good paintings come from that enjoyment. I think one can become more immersed in work that is compelling and the Muse tends to stick around longer when one is having a good time.

How I Miss The Beach!

This painting is a nice reminder of our time at the beach. The beach is on the Gulf of Mexico side of the island, which means that it faces east. Most of the time, my chair was facing the water, but if I wanted sun on my face in the late afternoon, I'd turn my chair around and this would be my view. Well, nearly. I need to work on the grasses, which are just blocked in right now, and warm up the beach a little more from where I toned it down Tuesday night. It's a lovely dance, keeping all the tones and values in relation to one another.

2nd Night

I knew the sky color was wrong and shouldn't have left it, but working on it last night was a lesson on getting things right. I grayed it up quite a bit and now it looks like a more natural atmospheric sky for the beach. I also grayed up the shadows and beach, adding warms where the sun hits it the most. It was a magical night of palette knifing, with most of it spent mixing piles of paint!

Loving the Blocking In

I started a new painting last night of a sand dune I watched all week long at S. Padre. In the late afternoon, the sun was low enough to make some great shadows and entice me into thinking I could paint them. I spent almost 3 hours last night at studio painting session, blocking it in. Not finished with the block in, but it already has a nice feel to it. And I love that it's another big canvas, 30x40", which works so well for using a palette knife. I've got a friend wanting to commission a really big painting of the Pennybacker Bridge. The subject matter sounds like fun; I just don't know what size to go for. My idea of big may not be his idea, so there will be some sorting out of the format and size. He's not been known to stay anywhere more than a couple of years, so a really large painting becomes a bit of an albatross when you have to pack it and haul it wherever you go. Which had me thinking that I might suggest doing it as a triptych so it's 1)easier to move and 2) can be hung seperately in different spaces if he moves to a place with smaller wall space. That would just be more challenging for me to do three complete paintings that can stand on their own. I might need another easel to keep all the works together. This is sure sounding like fun!!!

Getting Behinder and Behinder

June seems to be a month of catching up, but I got a little painting done in there. I had a nice three days to concentrate on the Hibiscus and then had to let it sit. Am still not convinced that I like the background; wish I had Photoshop so I could see what it looks like with a very out of focus background. I think that has to be my next art related purchase. I have been working on West Cave Preserve, during my studio sessions at Noel Robbins' studio, and I believe that I'm done! I don't even think that I'll compare it to earlier versions for fear that I'll second guess myself on bringing in all the warm tones that I did last night. I just feel the light better now that it's warmer.

Yeah, Yeah, I Know

I was sitting in the hot tub today, squinting at the trees in my yard and way across the street, and knew that the problem with my background is that I've not gotten it light enough. But, since I tend to work in layers, dark to light, maybe that was my intent more than three weeks ago when I last painted on it. I should make notes.

West Cave Preserve

This is slowly getting the depth of field that I wanted. The main thing that inspired me to do this painting was the light, so I have to work at getting the light on the ground brighter and lighter. I think the contrast is okay elsewhere, but am willing to work as slowly as I have to to really see what's going on with the composition.