A friend lent me this Persian vase. It really deserves more time than an Ala Prima Painting can give it, but here it is anyway. Still a pretty thing. The Magnolias seemed to fit right in. I put a floral tapestry under it and hung some behind also. I like the way the painting holds together. Hope you do too.
I have been painting a lot of figures lately. In part, this is because I participate in a figure drawing group every week. But mostly it's an outgrowth of my interest in portraits. This model is one of my favorites and most of you will recognize her. She has such a lovely back, that I had her turned away from me for this pose. I love the way the light plays on her. This is just a small study for a larger piece I plan to do. Thanks for looking.
Early every morning (almost), I drag myself from my warm bed and go walking with a friend. Sometimes I remember to bring my camera. This one particular morning this fall, the fog was just lifting off of a field behind an old barn. The sun was low and was spreading out over the field lighting up the fog. The light effects were spectacular! Oh crap. I forgot my camera. Soooo..this piece is from memory. I think I pretty much got it the way I remember though. I stood staring at that scene trying to commit it to memory as much as possible. I gave two sizes here. The bigger size is of the painting framed. The price includes the frame. If you're interested, just click on the e-mail link above. Shipping is extra. I'm happy to e-mail a picture of the piece framed as well. Thanks for looking. Have a GREAT New Year!
Although I've taken a break from daily painting in the last two weeks, I've still been busy at the easel. Here's a piece I just finished for an upcoming competition. As you can see, it's polished but lacks a lot of the spontaneity of daily pieces. I'm working on retaining the freshness of brush stroke in my larger pieces but have a ways to go. It's very easy to get too involved in detail on these larger pieces. I am happy, however, with the light here and with the color and values. My edge control was good and I like the composition.
OK. So it's not a painting. Dailypainters.com asked all its participating artists to post photos or paintings of their studios today. As I've been working on a large project for Oil Painters of America's annual juried competition, I was too engaged this morning to get into a painting of my studio. This afternoon was figure drawing, so a photo it was. Besides, I'd rather paint in it than use it as a subject. My studio is rather long and narrow - about 30 feet by 17 feet. I didn't bother turning around here, there's not much to see behind me except for some flat files and a large cabinet. I actually manage to squeeze five students in here on Wednesday mornings. It's tight, but we're a cozy bunch anyway. Hope you liked the brief tour. Thanks for stopping by.
I'm taking a brief break - actually started a few days ago, to finish my project and won't likely post again until after Christmas. Have a wonderful holiday! Susan
I had a sick day today so I decided to post one of my more finished pieces. This definitely is not a "daily painting" having taken several sittings to complete. The work is done on panel and represents some of my better work. I've had some difficulty in getting a good picture of it but this seems to be a fairly good representation. The whole painting is a bit brighter but if I brighten it on photoshop, the flowers just get too bright. Haven't figured out how to compensate there. There's more subtlety in the flowers than is shown here. Hope you enjoy it. Click above if you want to inquire about purchase.
There's nothing like hot tea on a cold day. I threw the Tiger Lily and fruit in for color. I've been having to paint a lot under warm light because I've been getting started later in the studio. Daylight fades about 3:30 here so it doesn't leave me much time for painting if I get started after 2:00 PM. I rather miss the cool light and will try to make a concerted effort to get into the studio earlier. My eyes have been acting up a bit. The cool light will certainly be more comfortable to paint in.
It's been so rainy and gloomy here in Washington, that I thought I'd bring some sunshine into my studio. So Tiger Lilies were the pick of the day. These were fun flowers to paint. I used warm incandescent light for this set up as I started late in the day and there wasn't enough natural light in my studio. I love the way the light plays on the lilies and shines through. See the detail below.
Poppies are such warm delicate flowers for such a hardy breed. I love the way they take on a glow in the light. This one has some nice thick paint in the blooms and leaves. See the detail below. It's also pretty contemporary for me. Has a nice kind of abstract feel to it. I was in an expansive mood today so I pulled out a really huge canvas and got to work. Boy am I pooped.
Angela steals the show and the light in the morning. I was striving here to capture her mood and enhance it with the light. I'm happy with the skin tones which are warm and the over all feel of the composition.
This painting is done on 1/4" thick 9" x 12" hard panel and finished with a light varnish. The Lilies are painted thickly in the lights with generous paint. I especially like the composition here which has good strong negative shapes. I'm quite satisfied with the way that the flowers fade into the shadows.
White always presents a challenge for artists. This is true especially of flowers which have many nuances in them. In chiaroscuro painting, the emphasis is on tonal quality and not so much on color. However, the trick is to discover the color in terms of temperature change and emphasize it just enough to bring life to the shadows and make the whites stand out against each other without falling into mud.
It's been awhile since I painted in cool light. I generally use a warm incadescent light that I can dim or brighten according to the needs of the painting. But cool natural north light is always preferable. My studio sometimes makes this difficult. But today I moved things around a bit and this painting of roses in cool light emerged. I love roses, as do most people, but always find them a challenge to paint. Think I did OK here. I especially like the way the warm copper vase sets off the warm tones in the roses.
This pitcher and bowl have been hanging around my dining room for many years and I only now decided to paint them. I was aiming for a soft glowing look here and trying to pick up the color I saw reflected in the shadows. I'm quite happy with the outcome.
Orchids, despite popular belief, are quite hardy. It goes without saying that they are beautiful as well. I like painting in unusual sizes. These orchids seemed to fill the space nicely. This sort of composition always intrigues me. I like designs where the object or subjects flows off the table. I may try this again from an even more severe perspective. I somehow picture a piece like this in a niche or on a narrow wall.
Angela is my favorite model. I barely had time to dash this off today before going to my life drawing group. It served as a nice warm up. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to paint and yet drawing today at my group proved to be a challenge.
I've painted many stretches of the Discovery Trail, a long walking path that winds through the northern stretch of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. This particular scene comes from one of my daily walks on the trail. This piece is in pastel – which for many years was my primary medium. I’ve been doing mostly oils for the past year to improve and stretch. It was nice to push a little pastel color around a bit today.
This red vase is a favorite of mine. Combined with the pink Peonies, it seemed to just pop off my still life stand. I think I caught the roundness of it pretty well. I've been struggling with that lately. It has a lovely romantic feel to it and the flowers have lots of thick paint on them. I was going to paint a landscape today but that red vase kept calling to me from the shelf. I’m having a lot of fun with color these days. Sort of change from my strict tonalist approach
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Red pears are one of the loveliest things about fall. Not only are they delicious, but their jewel like colors always draw my eyes. I tried here to capture that color. I especially love the warm reddish glow on the shadow side. That color effect is so elusive. But that's what keeps me coming back to paint them again and again. The flowers here are a nice touch but they are just supporting cast for the main players. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for looking.
Emily is the granddaughter of a friend. She loves the camera. We took her to a local lavender farm last summer and I snapped a picture as she ran along the row of lavender. I think her feet never touched the ground. I did this in pastel because nothing matches the medium for intensity of color.
Because I'm traveling on family business this week, I'm unable to complete daily paintings, but I have a few images I'd like to share until the 3rd of November when I'll be painting again regularly. This painting was a commission I recently finished for a private collection. The model was a Native American who was referred by a friend. She was perfect for the job and the resulting piece is much loved by it's new owners. I live in the northwest and the scenery is common to our area where sea stacks and broad ocean views inspire all who come to see them. "Gathering the Day" was painted in careful layers with lots of glazing to bring out highlights and shadows. This work is very different from my "ala prima" pieces that I usually publish on this blog...and of course she did not cost $39.00. But both kinds of work have their pluses and my daily paintings contribute to a storehouse of experience and knowledge that translate nicely into these more polished works. When things calm down for me, I'll be starting a teaching blog where I plan to show works like this in progress and discuss my techniques for creating them. Hope you like "Gathering the Day". Comments are welcome.
By now my collectors know that Magnolias are my favorite blooms. I love to combine them in interesting ways and here I've wrapped them around a warm copper kettle. There are warm golden reflections on the flowers that may or may not show up depending on your monitor.Thanks for looking!
I have a lot of crystal around the house that has come to me one way or another. I love the shape of this vase and always find it a challenge to paint. I used lots of paint in the blooms and feel pretty satisfied with the play of light and shadow. What do you think?
I took a little extra time to complete this one. As I was interupted yesterday to run an errand, I didn't get into the studio again until today to complete it. I really love pinks and purples and it shows here. I'm going to do this set up again sometime, but with a different approach. Again, I'm looking to capture something special in the light.
My quest for painting light continues. Here my objective was to get the paint nice and juicy without losing detail. Always a challenge for me. But I think I managed nicely. Take a look at the detail pictures below. When I look at these pictures and then compare to my work just a year ago, I can see such a difference. More painterly and definitely more interpretive of the light. There's a learning curve though. Ala prima is definitely more challenging for me than a layered approach so my layered work looks more finished. But I like this too.
I spent the day painting with a friend and these peonies were the end result. I had some fun with the vase but I especially like the airy feeling of atmosphere that this one has. This is too big to put on my scanner so it's hard to show off the thick paint on the flowers but it's so thick it stands up. Note the reflections of the peony on the table top. Yummy.
Thanks for looking!
Today I spent the day painting with my art buddy. I really enjoyed having someone to work with. Being an artist can so often be isolating.
This past week was spent on Whidbey Island at a workshop on color. While my pastel paintings are generally filled with it, I tend more toward tonalism in my oils. Perhaps because I have to mix rather than just choose color. Here I tried to incorporate some of what I learned this past week. There's lots of rich paint here and the color, although anything but flamboyant, has just the right zing. The canvas is a wrap around so there's no need to frame because the sides are painted.
September 14Th was my birthday. OK - never mind how old. The point is I was presented with these beauties upon my return from my morning walk. Actually there were a dozen of them but I didn't get to paint them until today. So what you see are the culls.
It's been awhile since I painted Hydrangeas and I found it a challenge. It surprised me, though, how difficult it was to get the plums looking as wonderful as they appeared to me. While they're not the focus, I think they came out really well. One of the painting techniques I’ve been working on during the past year is to place each stroke with care and deliberateness. This is very hard to do – especially when you come from a background of painting in careful layers with glazing and scumbling. But I think I succeeded here – at least with the plums. They have really rich color too, which, depending on your monitor may or may not be visible to you.
I made a commitment this year that each daily painting would have a purpose other than just practice and, of course, possible sale. I'd like to make each one either part of an overall lesson plan or an experiment in technique. I'll try to remember to post what my objective was when I painted the piece.
I'd love some feedback, so if you're new to my site or even if you're not, please feel free to click on the "comments" link on the blog page. Thanks for looking!
My walking buddy invited me to pick her last Dahlia. Anyway that's what she called the flower. I'm really ignorant of flower names except for the common ones so I suppose that's what it is. It fit nicely in my silver server and the red cloth really set it off. Because of the slightly rougher texture of the canvas board, I put a lot of paint on the flower.
I recently purchased a few 6” x 8” canvas boards because I liked the size. However, I find painting on them a challenge because the texture is rougher than the boards I usually prepare myself. The whole painting experience changes and detail becomes much more difficult. It has caused me to apply more paint…and three coats of lacquer! I think when I’m done with these, I’ll just cut a bunch of board to the same size and prepare them myself.
I’ve rearranged my schedule to get more painting time in the studio. I even posted a sign on the studio door with my new hours. Now if I could only get my cats to read. Anyway, I hope to be able to produce more regularly now for www.dailypainters.com.
Thanks for looking!
This little green vase is special to me - it's a private thing. But I thought its soft green color would set off the fruit and flowers here just perfectly. I do - don't you? I used generous paint on this one and I really liked the warm color in the cloth. The color may vary depending on your monitor.
Thanks for looking!
Once a week I meet with some friends to draw from a model. This week was long pose week and so I took the opportunity to do a small oil. I really enjoyed doing this piece. The light was good and Stacey never moved a muscle. I'm satisfied with the flesh tones too although the colors may or may not be off depending on your monitor. Enjoy.
