"Getting Out"

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This is another one I did before I left home. My dirty secret, that I should go ahead and finally admit here, is that I am usually a few paintings ahead. So the painting you see here is not usually done the same day. Some days I have time for more than one painting, and some days I can't paint (or post) at all. I try my best to paint every single day. I beleive that keeping up the skill of painting is like keeping in shape - you've got to do it very often or you lose it. Not for good perhaps, but I think it takes that constant reminder to keep you growing.

Below are the value studies from my class here in Indian Rocks beach. It's a great class. They took me out last night to "Crabby Bills" for stone crabs. Yum!

Pear demo and workshop photo

This is my latest group of kiddos, outside the Corse Gallery & Atelier here in Jacksonville, FL. It was a fabulous place to teach, and I'll be back here next spring and fall for more - check it out on my workshop schedule (to the right). Below is one of my demos from the class (sold). Tomorrow I am off to Indian Rocks Beach for another workshop. It's a 4 hour drive, but it ends at the beach, so I'm looking forward to it. : )

"Jump In" --- SOLD

"Up and Down" --- SOLD

I completely forgot to photograph anything today at the workshop, so I am posting a painting I did before I left home. And now sleep...

Jacksonville Workshop Photos

I am in Jacksonville, FL teaching a workshop at Corse Gallery & Atelier. It is a lovely gallery/workshop space, as you can see from the photos, and another great group of students! The only downside is that we have to cram everything into 3 days. It rained all day today so I couldn't photograph my demo painting - more tomorrow. I am staying at a wonderful little b&b a short drive away, and am at this moment about to drive and find something for dinner. : )

"Before the Slaughter" - SOLD

I thought of the title for this one while I was composing it, which is unusual for me. All the innocent little peppers, and the knife looming in the corner. Makes me feel a little evil. >:) That's what happens after 3 days alone with a 3 yr old boy. With boys it's all about guns and fighting and bombs and soldiers. Must be the testosterone rubbing off on me.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning, early, for 2 workshops in Florida. I don't know when I'll be able to post next, but I'll do my best to find wifi. Hopefully you'll hear from me before then but I'll for sure be back on Halloween.

"Cooped Up" --- SOLD

I got these cool peppers in the last batch from the organic farm we get veggies from. They have oodles of personality. I love them.

My husband has been in Houston the past couple of days which leaves me a bit cooped up in the house, with a 3 yr old. I love him to death but he's driving me batty! So that's him inside the cup, in time out, and that's me, outside the cup, trying my hardest to be patient. : )


I just realized this painting, "Family Matters," was never paid for by the winning bidder (this is why I need a tracking system!). I contacted the winner and she is no longer interested. There were other bidders but because it's been longer than 60 days Ebay won't let me contact them. If you bid on this painting and would like it, please let me know. Thanks!

"Into the Light" --- SOLD

I wiped a couple of these before I switched from canvas to gessoboard. I find it's easier to keep the colors from getting muddy on this smoother surface, and that's exactly what I needed with the subtle yellows.

"Sun Bathing" --- SOLD

I was running on some back roads the other day and found a patch of these late blooming yellow flowers. I had to go back with the car and pick them because ... I couldn't figure out a way to run with them without destroying them. : )

"Orange Reflections 2" --- SOLD

This is what I talked about yesterday - the same setup with the light coming from a different direction. It's really tough getting all the values correct in orange slices, as well as the areas of subtly different saturation. But a good challenge.

I'll be out of town tomorrow. I'm taking a little break with my family. Back on Sunday.

"Two Red" & "Orange Reflections" --- SOLD

My husband and I recently switched from cable to dsl internet connection. After the switch we had some email problems, including no emails going out to my list for this blog. I think today we finally got it figured out and fixed. Please let me know if anyone sees this on my blog but didn't get an email when they should have. Thanks! And thank you all who let me know you weren't getting the emails.

Above is the last of the red flower series. This one was a quick one. It was at the end of the long day and I only had an hour, but I was really excited about the composition. I meant to post it last night but ended up going to the ARC art auction I mentioned in an earlier post and got hom too late to post.

Below is today's painting. I got these orange slices all lined up on the plate and decided to get creative with the lighting. Here the light was right in front of my setup. I did another one today as well, which I will post tomorrow, with the light from a different angle.

"Funny Farm" --- SOLD

I don't know the reason for the title - it seemed appropriate for some reason. Maybe because clowns wear polka-dots a lot and ... clowns are funny and ... flowers grow on a farm? : )

"Jekyll & Hyde" --- SOLD

I'm such a dope - I ran out of 6x6 panels. : ) So I am working my way down my big stack of 6x8's while I wait on another order from Raymar.

This was a tough one, and I'm not quite sure I nailed the light/shadow aspect of the flowers. They are sitting in a green, glass vase I got forever ago. I was sure I'd use it 50 billion times by now but this is actually the first.

"Shadow Boxing" --- SOLD

This is a terrible photo and I promise to replace it with a better one tomorrow (it has been replaced). I was busy all day making frames for my gallery here in Austin and completely forgot to take a picture of the painting I did for today, yesterday. So I took it inside with some impromptu lights, and there is a ton of glare. I apologize.

"Big Red" --- SOLD

I'm kinda stuck on this color scheme right now - red and turqoise. They are compliments according to the Munsell Wheel. I first read about this wheel in Harley Brown's book, "Eternal Truth's for Every Artist" (currently out of print, unfortunately). My understanding is that Munsell developed this wheel by taking sheets of color, staring at them for a while, then taking them away and staring at white. The color he saw, he put down as the first color's compliment. He did this for all the colors and came up with his wheel, which is just slightly different than the traditional color wheel. I like to think of it not as a superior wheel, just more options for color combinations. If you read about it, you'll find it gets a bit more complicated than this.

"Mopey Red" --- SOLD

My pal Randi's company, The ARC, a nonprofit helping the mentally handicapped, is having a big art auction benefit next week here in Austin at the downtown Hilton. I have dontated a few paintings and will be attending. If you live nearby please consider volunteering or attending - it's a great place to get art AND help your community! Click here to find out more.

"Gossiping" --- SOLD

I got a lot of positive responses about yesterday's proposed art tracking program! Thank you guys! Many of you had questions so my husband and I put together a FAQ about ArtTraks. We hope to begin beta testing by the end of November.

"White Roses" --- SOLD

My husband is a software engineer by trade and lately he has been creating an online application for me to track the business side of my art: in the beginning, where paintings are, what's available, what's sold, how much I made last month, last year, and then later, what my expenses are, how much I owe for taxes, etc. He's even integrating it with Blogger and Ebay so that my daily painting posts are automatically pulled in from my blog and the auction status and latest bid amount for each painting is loaded from eBay, which means very little to no data entry!

This is a big improvement from the way I was tracking this stuff in an excel spreadsheet. It's getting to be so cool actually, that we thought perhaps other people would be interested in using it too. I thought I'd put out a kind of feeler to see who else would find this useful. We are thinking we would charge a montly subscription of $9.95. So if you're reading this and you're interested in being a beta tester, please write to me so I can get a count. Thanks! Below is a screen shot of the page with my daily paintings (click to see a bigger version).

"Bell Bottoms" --- SOLD

I take full credit for the title of this one, and I have to admit I was pretty tickled with myself when I thought of it. : ) The tops of these peppers weren't anything special to look at but the bottoms were just fantastic.

I did a painting yesterday too, and took a picture of it, and was just about to post it last night when I realized ... well it just wasn't very good. And I'm thinking more and more that I just don't want to post work I'm not proud of. To make up for it here is one of my favorite, recent, "larger" paintings. I call it "Pig, Peppers and a Plate." It's 20"x20".

"Escaping Bell" --- SOLD

Bell peppers are tough because they are just slightly translucent. So the light is going to shine right through them to some extent, lightening up the shadow side more than you would get with a more opaque object ... like an apple say. And then any reflected light from their surroundings are going to lighten it up even more (if it's a light ground). Which makes the shadow side just a bit darker and a bit more gray than the lit up side ... depending somewhat on the color of the reflected light and the pepper. I think the more you paint the more you become acquainted with these little subtleties. I remember when I first started painting with oil, in college, one of my (more experienced) classmates was talking to me about a portrait. I was looking at the subject seeing flesh tones and she said "do you see that blue there on the side of the nose?" I did not see it. And I couldn't have matched it with paint to save my life! But the more I look at things from this perspective the more sensitive I am to color and value. Now I go around squinting at everything in my life, comparing values, mixing colors in my head. It's pretty great, actually. My husband says I'm obsessed but I think it's necessary. I'm just glad it comes naturally.

"Line for the Show" --- SOLD

This is why I paint. For the magical days when the magical paintings appear. : )

"Peppers on Pink"

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I've done a couple of larger paintings recently where I left the edges kind of loose and I like the effect. I had tried it before with less success. I think the color underneath has to be the right color and it can't distract too much from the rest of the painting. Yellow might not have been the best choice here, but as I always tell myself, there's always tomorrow, and every day going forward.

"Great Escape" --- SOLD

I forget sometimes to use gray to my advantage. (is it grey or gray?) If your center of interest(s) is bright and full of color, and the surrounding area is grayed down a bit, it tends to focus the eye. Which is a good thing in this case because I don't think I got the curve of the bowl just right. : )

"A Regular Day" - SOLD

I try really hard to come up with new stuff every day ... or at least a good variety. But sometimes I end up falling back into my comfort zone of old, familiar compositions. I think this is probably something most artists struggle with. Right now my life is so busy with things other than painting. I have a feeling I'll be able to branch out more when my son starts going to school and I have more time, even if it's time just sitting around thinking. You know?