Tulip time!

Spring Fav      oil on canvas panel      7 x 5 inches

This was "finished" a few weeks ago
but it was too dark (still is, probably)
so I added some highlights and it brightened up.

Process below:

my small panel holder

block-in

Mixed some Yellow-Jacket nest paper (yep) with oil paint and smashed it on

It is crocus time here in SE AK, 

but tulip time lots of other places. 

Our front yard is clear of snow - finally!

Leaving again for a trip so no posts again for a bit.

I am going to take my gouache paints 

to mess around with

and little sketch easel 

that my hubby made me.

When next I post it should be about our

Salon Challenge #4!

Thanks for checking in and ... as always,

Happy painting!

Guitar Player (part 2 - fini)

Hi! I am back after a few weeks off for family visiting;

here are the rest of the progress photos

for this painting.

Wasn't sure what color her hair should be.
Then it came to me.
She's a redhead! - (my source was blond-ish).

Angel       Oil on wood panel   18 x 12 inches

I'm pleased with her hand. Now to find a vintage frame 

that will go with this work.

Thank you for viewing, 

and I wonder how many of you play guitar?

(I do not ... I tried to learn by myself when I

was a teen, but it didn't work.)

Happy Painting!

Guitar Player (part 1)

Painting a series is an interesting venture 

... adventure!

I've begun a series that started 

with this one:

The blog post about Nan is HERE;

 I finished her just about 4 years ago this month!

(I didn't say this was a fast series ...)

The post about Ann is HERE from a few days into this year.

I didn't have a photo of my own that struck my fancy for my next painting,

but I did find a Tiny Desk Concert with a guitar player that had

a simplicity that looked good so I took a couple of screen shots,

cropped them and I started composing

a painting ... 

Here are the first progress photos. 

(The guitar player may be recognizable in the photo, 

but by the time I am finished, she probably won't be 

... I don't even want her to be.)

My board is 18 x 12, as the other two paintings have been. This shot shows the photo in b&w on iPad.

Grid lines and sketch.

Darks going on (made with Ultramarine Blue + Burnt Umber).

Decided on some greens for the background.

I know the guitar is going to be light but not sure what color yet.

There will be a pause of several days here, but thank you for checking in, and stay

tuned for the final! I am anxious to see what happens.

... and, as always Happy Painting!

Salon Challenge #3 (Part 2)

My three fearless cohorts also turned out some crazy-good

figure paintings with their 2-inch brushes 

and limited palette.

Lorraine   oil on canvas   24 x 24 inches
by Timi Johnson

Hot model with a big brush  
acrylic on canvas   36 x 24 inches
by Patrick Ripp

Reds Reclining
oil on gessoed 300# watercolor paper   16 x 12 inches
by Barbara Shepherd

Challenge #3 relative sizes

Our salon group is moving onward with another challenge painting.

For Challenge #4, our parameters are:

1. Paint only your non-dominant hand/arm

2. Landscape

3. Limited Palette - 

    Dioxazine Purple

    Sap Green

    Hansa Yellow Light

    Cad Yellow Medium

    Permanent Carmine

Thank you for following along with our efforts

and stay tuned.

Happy painting!

Salon Challenge #3 (Part 1)

Painting Challenge #3

Two-inch paint brush 

Human figure

Limited Palette of 4 colors:

Azo Coral

Cadmium Red Light

Burnt Umber

Burnt Sienna

(White)

We've had a good long while to finish this painting

(about 3 months)

 and so we all decided to

reveal them at Barbara's house a few days ago.

Our reveal was so exciting!

Here are my progress shots.

Our palette!

Sketch of my subject. 

The photo I found for my painting (on one of the art blogs I follow) 

was fairly monotone to begin with; 

it felt just right for this limited palette. 

I requested and acquired permission to use the photo 

from the artist/photographer Melanie Kobayashi and this is her website:

Bag and a Beret

Her post where I found the photo is HERE 

... keep scrolling down in her blog 

to see the actual photo that I "stole".

Charcoal and alcohol to set sketch on board.

I drew what her legs might look like under the dress 
to be sure of placement of the dress, etc.

Hazy wanted to check the painting out. 
I wasn't happy with the dress looking so transparent.

Fought Against   oil on wood panel    36 x 24 inches

(There are a couple of final touches I want to make, but this is essentially finished.)

Close-up  -  the lips are Cad Red Light!

Mel's actual photo, flipped by me.

Stay tuned for my next post 

which will be photos of my salon colleagues' challenge paintings!

Thank you SO MUCH Melanie K  💕 for giving me permission to use this photo and 

for taking such fun and crazy photos for your blog. I wish you all the best!

AND

Thank you all for checking in to this crazy irregular blog!

Red Flower Pots

💘

Texture. Texture. Texture.

Say that word enough times 

and it begins to sound just ridiculous.

But - I picked out a canvas that I had gessoed long ago

and either had some thick gesso left over 

or 

a thick acrylic medium of some kind 

that I dripped and dropped on the canvas. 

It left a nice texture. 

I have oodles of "to paint" photos on my computer, 

 so I found a nice flower photo that I thought might work

on this textured canvas. 

The following are a few pics of my painting process.

For the composition, I used a photo I took at my Mom's house.  

(The flower pot b&w on the iPad shows in the photo above.)

Not sure what I had in mind when I put a greenish underpainting with 

some purple and blue smears of paint on the canvas ...

 but along with the texture, it makes a good underpainting now.

You can see the drippy texture 

under those first drawing brushstrokes. 

It doesn't look very nice at this stage.

About a third of the way done.

Red Flower Pots         oil on canvas        8 x 8 inches

The combo of reds, purples and greens are nice - quite a simple palette.

This was a really fun painting to do on a couple of cold February days. 

💗Happy Valentine's Day!💖

Thank you for viewing my blog!

Ilulissat painting

I have been painting away on this little Greenland landscape and having

fun with the quaint houses that are impossibly

placed together on the rocky hillside.

The underpainting was a warm brown tone that still peeks

through in spots on the finished piece. 

I hope the eye moves 

from the bottom left in an "S" shape, 

or maybe it is a "C" shape ... a zigzag?

- winding up to the top left.

Some of the houses mysteriously changed color :)

As you see in these progression shots, 
more and more houses were appearing.

I counted 25 or 27 buildings, or what could be buildings.

I think those are kayaks near the shore up on their racks, 
and there is some kind of antennae on almost every house.

The smooth rocks in the foreground must have been rounded by glaciers.

and

NO TREES

A reminder of what I started with:

photo by Evelyn Hannon of the travel website http://journeywoman.com/

And this is my interpretation of that photo:

Village of Ilulissat, Greenland    10 x 12 inches   oil on panel

I would like to thank Evelyn Hannon again for giving me permission
to use her wonderful photo of this sweet village in Greenland.

I think this was a good exercise.

Thank you so much for following along!

Ilulissat progress

I made the sketch seen on the previous post

 to familiarize myself with the scene of 

the village of Ilulissat, in Greenland,

and made a copy of that pencil sketch 

 so I could add some color with watercolor sticks.

Derwent "Artbar" watercolor sticks - don't think they make them anymore (?).

In the photo below, my colored sketch is to the left of the painting.

I don't know about you,

but to see the photo in black & white and do the sketches

helps me to get the painting set in my mind.

(Even then, things happen when painting that weren't planned -

sometimes good, sometimes ... oops.)

Pretty happy with this start.

Thanks for looking in - and if you are a painter doing 

the February 28 Paintings in 28 Days,

I wish you happy painting!

Painting on the easel today - gulp ...

I like to challenge myself, 
but I may have bitten off more than I can chew today ...

I saw this photo on Instagram back in July 
and told myself that I wanted to try to do my version of it in (oil) paint.

Ilulissat, Greenland - photo by Evelyn Hannon

So I actually wrote to Evelyn Hannon to ask her permission to try it. 
She graciously said yes!

Evelyn writes the website http://journeywoman.com/ and

I follow her on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/evelynhannon/.

If you have not been to her website or looked at her IG, 
please check it out. 
She takes some amazing photos and travels all over the place! 
A woman after my own heart!

Initial sketch to get my head around what to do. (approx 7 x 9 inches, pencil)

Found some 10 x 12 inch panels I had prepared sitting nearby, 
and decided this to be a perfect size. 
It would be so great to have a big studio to make some GIANT paintings, tho'
... 
like 50 x 60 inches!)

So this is what is on the easel so far. I will post again with further progress (I hope!).

Thanks for checking in!

Happy happy painting!

btw - who is out painting in the snow? 
We actually have some - I need to get out!!!!