Cattitude

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This was a total experiment. I took some photos of this cat last year at a friend's house but wasn't excited about them because the sun wasn't out and the ground was totally boring. But I ran across it again yesterday and thought, "what if I paint the whole thing with big juicy strokes and try to use a different color for every one?" Well, I ended up repeating some colors, as you can see, but for the most part I stuck with the experiment, and am quite pleased with the outcome.

History on Wheels

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This one was particularly hard to paint because it was made up primarily of darks - and all subtly different ones. The cool thing about that though is all the sparkles really stand out! I took the photo for this in California. I was driving through a small town with a friend and we happened upon an old car show. Maybe I should start looking around for shows like that, on purpose...

Still Runs

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New Workshop Teaser: I will be announcing a new workshop for 2014 on Tuesday, Sep 3rd at 9am (morning) CST. This one is going to be in Texas, and will be an advanced workshop, which means you have to have taken my regular workshop already. It will be May 5-9, 2014.

Also I created an email list that is just for workshop announcements. If you're already on my regular list, you don't need to be on it, because you will hear anyway! But if you aren't, and you only want to hear about upcoming workshops, please email me.

There is a whole line of these old trucks just west of town. The ghost town I mentioned a few posts ago turned out to be a disappointment, but I had my heart set on painting trucks, so I dug through my files for this one. I completely changed the sky color and am quite pleased with how it worked out.

Disorderly Roses

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This is a scene from around my town of Eugene, OR. I was taken by the disorderly rose bush by the front porch, but somehow in the painting it turned out more orderly than it really was.

Blushing Rose

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My husband went with me on my last visit to the rose garden, with his new camera. As I was walking around a woman stopped me and said, "Ma'am, when your husband is standing there looking so intently through his viewfinder at the roses, what's he looking for?" I said I didn't know. When we got home he proudly showed me all his pictures of bugs. : )

Trying to Hide

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I've been squeezing in some time at the local rose garden before the flowers check out for the season. I have a better idea now of what works and what doesn't for a painting, so I'm getting better results. That's good because what I've got'll have to last me until next spring! This rose was like butter and basically painted itself. I love it when that happens.

Thanks to everyone who signed up for my workshop in January! It's full now, with a wait list. I am using a service called bookwhen for registration, and the way the wait list works is - when someone drops out, the entire wait list is emailed and the first one to snag the spot gets it. Also, my refund policy is - if you cancel and I can fill your spot, you get everything back. But, the later you cancel, the harder it is for me to fill your spot, fyi.

Frapple Dapple

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I just announced my workshop for Oregon next year. In case you missed it, here's all the info. Don't worry, there will be more, but I am cutting back. I will only be doing 6 next year total, rather than the 12 I've been doing a year for the last 6. I'll try to get the rest announced as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, I'm diggin' dapples! This is from an old photo reference I took in Arizona. I just heard tale of a ghost town about 2 hours NE of my house with lots of oldies, so my goal for this next week is to carve out some time to go there. Road trip!

Workshop Announcement!

January 20-24, 2014 - Springfield, Oregon (Eugene's sister city) - register here, $550

City Stroll, Late Afternoon

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This is from another photo in San Francisco (so was yesterday's, fyi). I thought the light was so cool I sort of parked myself against the wall of the building and took tons of pictures, waiting for the people to be just right.

This scene had a lot of subtly different darks, and historically I've always been terrible at mixing them. When I'm mixing subtly different lights and mids I mix them close to each other on my palette to compare, but somehow that never occurred to me with darks. Doh! So I did that this time and feel I managed them a lot better. Who'da thunk!?

Morning Market

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I won't do this every time, but I'm including the reference photo for this painting before anyone asks. : ) You can see I omitted the little details, like writing on bags and the lines on the pavement. I also simplified the background somewhat. Well, I simplified everything! I've been inspired lately by Kathy Weber's people scenes, especially this one.

Colorful Stacks

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My husband got this set of colorful, little cups for me recently, complete with ceramic spoons. I guess you can't tell they're little, so I probably shouldn't have said anything ... ah well.

Chatting on the Steps

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First of all, I have a new workshop to announce. I am going to wait until Friday, August 23rd at 9PM CST. The location will be in Oregon, FYI. Check back then if you're interested. They tend to fill up fast.

Second, I took the photo for this in San Francisco at the top of a hill, in front of a big building ... with steps. Not sure I can give you any more info than that.

Third, several people asked for the photo reference from yesterday's painting, so here it is.

Parked in Green

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My friend Raymond Logan recently said to me, "The landscape (and photography) serves you, you do not serve the landscape." I've been told this before, but it finally sunk in this time (thanks, Raymond!), and I changed the scene from what I saw in the photo. Actually it was a pretty boring photo, so I am positively thrilled with how it turned out!

We are home from Texas and I am rarin' to paint tomorrow. Can't wait to experiment with more photos!

Shady Green

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Right before I left Eugene (for Texas, where I am now) I spent an afternoon wandering around my town looking for some simple scenes to paint. This was the very first thing I found - this cool, old green car sitting half in the shade. I love dapples, especially on green.

So far in Texas I have seen my oldest stepdaughter successfully married off, gotten thoroughly sunburned at Schlitterbahn (our favorite waterpark), visited family, and almost but not quite melted in the heat. Pretty much what I expected.

Things Have Come Between Us

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This title was meant to be. It and the painting came together so perfectly I actually did a little happy dance right there in my studio. It doesn't happen every time, but I sure do love it when it does.

I hate to paint and run, but my family and I are off tomorrow to see my oldest step-daughter get married! We'll stay in Texas for a week after, and I'm leaving my painting gear behind. The good news is - I did several extra paintings today so I could still post periodically, and well, I really like them, so stay tuned.

Who Fits This Cork?

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I have a large collection of bottles, and have been intending to do more paintings of them for a while. I also have a lot of plates, and wanted to share something I recently bought at IKEA that makes my collection much easier to manage and access. The little metal dividers (on the bottom shelf) expand and contract to the exact size you need. I have 2 of them right in a row, so each one has like 7 prongs, one on each side. So rather than juggling a huge pile of plates every time I need a certain color, and then trying to re-order them by size (because that way I can see them all), I jut slide them right into their place! Cool, huh?!

Drifting Through Time

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It was incredibly difficult to draw this composition onto my panel from what I saw through my viewfinder. Among the difficulties were the leaning bottles. See how the tops of the bottles all lean out a little? That happens when you have a birds-eye vantage point like this one. Imagine the center of the earth as the vanishing point. All the bottle bottoms point there. The opposite happens when you're in a city and looking up at tall buildings.

San Fran Corner

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Real quick (because it's late and I'm headin' to bed) ... this is a corner in San Francisco that had awesome light when I photographed it, and I added aprons and a cap to my Cafe Press store. : )

"Walk the Doggie" & TSHIRTS!

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This is from an image I took in San Francisco. I loved the slightly pidgeon-toed walk and the cute, red doggie vest.

Cafe Press came through for me! Pictured right are my son and I modeling the two designs I received yesterday (both adult sizes). The first read "carol's kids kan paint! (but we kan't spell)" & the 2nd is easier to see, "eat. sleep. paint." The first is actually my idea, and the second is from Wendy Grimes - thanks, Wendy!!

I put my designs on a few tshirts (and other things), but if you find one they offer that isn't in my store, it can be easily added, just let me know. MY CAFE PRESS STORE.

FYI - The prices are all cost - I'm not making a profit from this.

Complimentary Rose

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At first I thought maybe the photos of roses in subdued light were better, but now that I've painted both I think they each have their own, particular merits. This one was in shade, so the lighting is subtle. I love the soft edges and slowly shifting colors.

In Your Face Rose

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A lot of the roses I've painted so far are fairly flat, but I loved this one for it's three-dimensionality. Woah - my spelling corrector didn't like that word (or "woah")! And is it "corrector" ... or "correcter"? Google seems to accept both of them. What is this world coming to that we rely on programs to the point we don't know how to spell anymore!

Bad Day at the Office

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This one was a total experiment. I was feeling sorry for myself because I had a bad day (before I ever started painting) and so I decided to just do whatever I felt like, screw the outcome. I really liked this rose because it was back-lit and had that cool orange glow-y thing going on, but I couldn't decide on a composition. I landed on a kind of weird crop with a "white" rose to the left. I felt like the little bits of purple in the "white" added a kind a of balance to the yellow...

Daily Paintworks launched the monthly DPW Contest last night! More details...