Salon challenge #5 - Happy Together

Barbara had Patrick's painting ...

Patrick's fauvist-style plein air painting below 

was Barbara's to work on along with the songs from Patrick's birth year.

She turned this painting upside-down. 

And she kindly sent me her progress shots:

Happy Together     12 x 12 inches     oil over acrylic on canvas

The song that hit the "right note" for the painting is:

Happy Together

by The Turtles

Barbara is a photographer with a good eye for great photos. She 

has spent many hours watching birds during migration and, well, all year long.

At one point during the summer she found this pair of Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).

... and she knows how to handle a paint brush as well. 

Here are some words from Barbara 

about her painting process for this challenge. 

 "I felt the emotion of knowing these two ducks... and it was the way they looked at me and carried their heads that was the most important to get right.   And saving a red spot for his eye, because I knew I would not have a source of bright red later... Alizarin would not do.  And deciding to paint them backlit because the palette could not produce their magnificence in light.  This was a benefit of the challenge (having a limited palette), because it is so tempting to paint their brilliance and it forced me to back off on that distraction.  I think it focuses more on them as individuals ... "

We all thought this painting turned out exceptionally well!

We decided this was a challenge that was not only right-brained (creative); 

we had to left-brain it (listen and think), too.

(I think this whole thing may be puzzling to some, 

and I have tried to explain simply the process we went through for this project. 

But let me know if you are confused about our challenge #5

that I began posting about on July 29.)

On to Challenge #6! 

I will be away for a good 10 days 

to a painting workshop and visiting friends.

Keep painting! and thank you so much for checking in.

Salon Challenge #5 - Medley

So, Patrick had Timi's portrait,
"Crazy Aunt Lorraine"

which is a marvelous portrait already.

While revealing his version of the painting,

he played us a medley of the top ten songs 

from Timi's birth year.

The one that ... *ZAP* ... struck him as the

song of inspiration for what he was to do,

was

Get Together 

by The Youngbloods 

Title to be determined      12 x 12   oil on canvas

... with the lyrics:

🎶Come on people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another
Right now 🎶

Patrick is continuing to work on this painting 

and I will update this post when he finishes.

This was a very meaningful "reverberation/regeneration" 

of an already intriguing painting! 

I understand why he essentially added to the painting, 

rather than paint over a very

striking image.  It works so well with this song.

Next post will be the last of our challenge #5 paintings. 

We are already on to thinking about our Salon Challenge #6.

(Remember you have to say salon, like the Google Translate lady says it.)

Thank you for following along

and

Happy Painting!

Salon Challenge #5 - Reverb

As I mentioned last post, our salon group decided to do a limited palette again. 

We each brought two colors and picked these 4 out of a hat (l to r):

Yellow Ochre

Viridian (green)

Alizarin Crimson

Cerulean (blue)

plus

White

This pic is our colors mixed with white. Lovely!

I was excited to do this challenge, 

but at the same time, it was pretty terrifying to have Barbara's painting

to mess up, or something ...

Here is her nice painting. Pretty colors too!

The list of songs from her year of birth (I liked 6 of the top ten):

#1 Little Things Mean a Lot - Kitty Kalen

2 Wanted - Perry Como

3 Hey There - Rosemary Clooney

4 Shaboom - Crew Cuts

5 Make Love to Me - Jo Stafford

 6 Oh! My Papa! - Eddie Fisher

7 I Get So Lonely - Four Knights

8 Three Coins in a Fountain - 4 Aces

9 Secret Love - Doris Day

10  Hernando's Hideaway - Archie Bleyer

And I played them and played them, while I gazed at this painting. 

None of the songs made me think of anything particular, 

but I finally decided ...

To paint a landscape! 

I turned him face down ...

... and began to paint - sort of imagining a waterway 

going between mountains.

As we painted on our friend's painting, 

we were invited to 

"let some parts of the original painting remain" and 

"renovate, recuperate, regenerate, retaliate, or reverberate" the other painting!

This is where the name for our challenge was born - Reverb

As I began putting the water in,

... it hit me.

I turned the painting again and 

made a kind of Ophelia! That link tells you a bit 

about the famous painting by Millais,

based on Ophelia from Hamlet. 

Note this from Wikipedia: 

"The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude.^[1]"

All it needed were some flowers, 

turn him into a girl, 

water around face just before she sinks ... and woe ... drowns

and - voilà!

Secret Love - (tentative title)     oil on Masonite  12 x 15 inches

I did sign it, but I still might add something else I have been thinking about, and I will update this blog post if I do it.

Next post will explain Patrick's painting. He has a portrait of Timi's Aunt Lorraine.

Thank you so much for checking in - Happy Painting!

Salon Challenge #5 - Secret Love

Our #5 salon challenge was so ... shall we say, 

"challenging"?

Our parameters were:

1. Give up a painting that you considered finished,

and that you liked well-enough, 

not too small,

and was not varnished yet. 

(We drew names for the person whose painting we got.)

2. We were given a list of the top 10 songs for the year that person was born

for inspiration while painting on our cohort's work of art. 

For instance, I was born in 1953 (gak) 

and the top song of that year was 

from the movie Moulin Rouge by Percy Faith. 

- hope you can listen on that link (Spotify) -

3. Our limited palette was:

Cerulean Blue

Viridian

Yellow Ochre

Alizarin Crimson

White

In no particular order - 

Timi had my painting, titled - The Standout,

you may remember November of 2013 when I 

began posting about this painting. (that is the link to way-back-when)

I called it Crawford Notch or something back then.

I stretched the canvas over 24" x 24" stretcher bars ages ago. 

Timi thought I may need a drink to see what she did to this painting, but

 ... I was totally fine! 

I love it!

She is not finished with this painting and will finish one of these days. It IS Moulin Rouge and Toulouse-Lautrec! She was inspired by the music and the rock cliff in the original, which became can-can dancer fluffy frocks. So cool!

Tomorrow ... or next post, I will continue revealing our challenge paintings, 

and discuss the evolution of the (teaser shown in B&W) painting at the top of this post.

Love to hear your comments!

Happy painting!

Alder, a quadriptych!

Each year our little Juneau/Douglas City Museum

holds a fundraiser ... I have prob blogged about it before,

but anyway - the theme this year, 2018, was

SEASONS

and here are the photos for the process of developing my painting,

Alder (a quadriptych or polyptych):

I know ... this is a maple leaf. My first idea.

 But maple are not endemic to southeast AK and Alder (Alnus) is!

Husband cut and cradled 6x6 inch panels

I prepared the panels,
then he cradled & attached them
into a 12x12 square that we can take apart, until the end.  

Here is the sketch for what I eventually painted.

My beginning (I really liked it this way - scratched through the paint!)

I painted with the small squares pressed together 

and then took the squares apart to paint the edges.

Almost there

Alder - through the seasons       oil on wood panels       12 x 12 inches

As I am finishing typing my blogpost on this rainy Sunday morning,

a nice big black bear (Ursus americanus)

walked past my window through our back 40 and over

to the neighbors, who have chickens!!!

But, not interested in a chicken dinner, 

he/she strolled on up thru

their back 40 and on through the neighborhood.

I hope it stays safe.

Thanks so much for viewing my art!

Sand & Lava Painting

We have been back from Hawaii for almost three weeks 

and are thinking about the Kilauea lava flows that destroyed

many structures and homes on the east side of the Big Island, that occurred after we left.

Sending strength and hope for everyone there who are affected.

I can't help but paint when I am there, and I take lots of photos 

to use as reference when we get back home, too.

 This little studio painting, just finished, brings me 

back to that beautiful, raw and rugged island.

One day we were walking on a beachside trail when we walked past this couple lounging on the sand amidst the lava and grass. I thought the scene might make a fun painting, loved the red umbrella ... so I had Matt pretend I was taking a picture of him and got the couple too :)

sketch for my composition

Sand & Lava    oil on wood panel   12 x 9 inches

My favorite part is the two heads under the umbrella with their hats. 

I also like the guy's yellow trunks.

UPDATE (9/19/2108):
I donated this painting to our local "Juneau Love Project". 
My donation contributed to the Hawaii Lava Threat Fundraiser 
because someone bid on it.
I don't know who has this painting, but I am so happy it has a home.

Thank you for checking in 

and for all you painters and creatives out there,

keep making (& purchasing) art!

Salon Challenge #4

So do you know the word widdershins? 

It means, in a counterclockwise direction, left-handed, or wrong direction. 

I am very tempted to title my painting Widdershins, but it might be confusing? 

I should take votes ...

We chose 3 parameters for our Challenge #4:

1. Limited palette:

     - Dioxazine purple

     - Sap green

     - Hansa yellow light

     - Cadmium yellow medium

     - Permanent carmine

2. Use your non-dominant hand to paint (we are all right-handers)

3. Landscape

No size limit - my neutral-toned (with gesso) board is 11 x 14 inches.

Below, my progress with the challenge. 

Charcoal sketch in ... yep, sketched with my left

Alcohol wash to set

My palette (began mixing with my left hand)

First marks were with my fingers ... yes left hand fingers!

View from Vandehey Road   Gaston, Oregon    Oil on panel    11 x 14 inches

Yep, spring was well under way in the Pacific NW when we visited in May.

Using just my left hand WAS a big challenge for me. I found myself with my brush in my right hand more often than I wanted. 

Some of us had unique methods to keep that right hand out of it; 

like duct taping fingers together ... then, because the duct tape was a pain (literally) to remove, painter's tape around the fingers. 

I wish I would have thought to just put a mitten on my hand!

It was decided that we all liked the palette, too!

Next post will be the paintings of two of my co-salon compatriot's work. 

(One of our group cannot reveal her painting due to possible use in another show.)

Thanks for checking in!