Hello from the road!

We are having a heck of an adventure here in East Oregon! I am posting photos on Instagram, but otherwise I've been almost completely unplugged.

I would like to remind anyone interested to enter the Daily Paintworks Monthly Contest. We have a surprisingly low number of entries this month, so your chances of winning are great! First 3 prizes are $500, $300 and $150, and the top 15 artists get a free month and "featured" status on DPW, which puts you up at the top of the page for a month.

Sparkling Water

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Pre-posted while I'm on vacation. I won't be able to ship anything (paintings or books) until I return home (at the latest) July 8th. My apologies!

This is another painting I did (from life) at Clearwater Park here in Oregon, of the Willamette River. To get to this spot I had to walk along a narrow log over cold water. I was with 2 friends and was able to convince only one of them to come with me. But Patti got a great painting out of it! So I think it was worth the risk.

Clearwater Creek 2

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Pre-posted while I'm on vacation. I won't be able to ship anything (paintings or books) until I get home (at the latest) July 8th. My apologies!

This is the second one from Clearwater Creek. I painted it from a photo I took a little earlier in the day - around 8am. You can see the shadows are longer, and there's more dark in the grasses and trees. But over-all things are darker, and I think that's because of the photo. I especially didn't get as much life/color in the creek bottom. BUT, I feel like I designed the whole thing a little better, and arranged the rocks more artfully. And there is more contrast where the sky reflects in the water.

I would probably learn a TON if I painted this one over and over about 100 more times. Like Monet and his water lillies.

Clearwater Creek

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Pre-posted while I'm on vacation. I won't be able to ship anything (books or paintings) until I am back home (at the latest) July 8th. My apologies!

This is the first of two paintings of these scene. The location is Clearwater Park in Springfield, OR. This first one was painted from life, at about 9am. I'll post the second one tomorrow.

Roses, Light and Shade

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Pre-posted while I'm on vacation. I won't be able to ship anything (paintings or books) until I get home (at the latest) July 8th. My apologies!

Recently I visited some galleries in Portland with the idea that maybe, just maybe, I might like to seek representation again at some point and sell some larger paintings. I found a couple that might work, but they were both huge! With giant walls! And also sell a lot of contemporary work. So I had this vision of giant roses on giant canvases, with unfinished edges. And came home and painted a small one for practice. And loved it! So if I can figure out how to store some large panels or canvases in my studio/house (which is a huge task!), then maybe it can happen. We'll see.

Mossy Bottom

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This is pre-posted while I'm on vacation. I won't be able to ship anything (books or paintings) until (at the latest) July 8th. My apologies!

Here's another one painted from a photo I took in California. This was at a place in the park I was in called "Little Yosemite." It had a lot of big boulders that were really fun to climb on, and also some sweet little spots like this. I took a ton of photos but most of them were too blown out in the lights. This was one of the few that worked out perfectly.

Winding Uphill

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I've decided to pre-post my remaining paintings so I don't have to interrupt my vacation so often to get on my computer. Also, I won't be able to ship anything (books or paintings) until (at the latest) July 8th. I probably won't be great about answering emails in a timely manner either. My apologies!

This is another scene from California, walking up towards an "Eagle's View" that I talked about in an earlier post. I just loved the shadows coming down the grassy slope from these trees.

Winding Road

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This is one I did from a photo reference I took in California. It's a similar scene to this one, which I did from life. I'm still getting the hang of the difference between painting from photos and from real life. Both have their challenges. But I'm a big believer in using the paintings you did in the field to inform the ones you do inside. And I didn't do that here. I'm kicking myself because in looking at the old one now I see the grass was far more golden, and that didn't come through in the photo. But I'm posting it because I'm still happy with it over-all. Which makes me realize (again) that the point is not necessarily accuracy - it's art.

Bee Butt

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One more rose (with a surprise inside!) and then some landscapes are next. I've been doing more plein air lately than usual - partly because the weather here has been so nice, and partly because I've just really gotten into it lately.

On Tuesday my family is headed out for a 3 week camping adventure! Part of this (for me) will include plein air painting (and photographing). Up until this morning our plan was to head for the Olympic Peninsula, but we just found out that dogs are only allowed on 2 of the trails! So, after much discussion, we've decided to head East instead, into Eastern Oregon. There is much to explore! Anyway, an important part about this is that I won't be able to ship until we get home, which will be July 7th at the latest. I will post as often as I can and have paintings for.

Flo the Rose

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Another tip for roses: paint the glow first (if there is glow - there isn't always). I've mentioned this before, but I thought this one would be a great example. Because the yellow is the glow on this one. So I painted the yellow bits first - lighter in the middle and darker where it goes into the shadow (because that's what I saw). Then I painted all the rest, still painting the biggest chunks first.

I got some frames the other day, one each of all the colors of panel frames from the CanvasPlace.com (mentioned before). If I were to have installed them properly, I would have used my little velcro circles on each corner, but these are just temporary, so you can see the colors. They're quite sturdy and nice looking too. I highly recommend them!

Umpqua River

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This is my second painting from the Umpqua River. I basically turned around right where I was (after the first one) and painted in the other direction. That's how beautiful it all was. I used the same purple ground, and again was very happy with the result. I left my third painting with the owners of the property.

Riverside

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Last week I went to the Umpqua river with a couple of painting buddies. We had gotten permission to paint on some private property, without really seeing the whole thing first, and when we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find not only that no bush-whacking was required, but we had a private, (quiet) prime view of the river! I stood on a lovely little slice of bank to paint this, all by myself, in pure and total bliss.

On another note, I did try to get pictures of my palette to show that thing I mentioned...about the ordered palette. But I have to admit my ordering fell apart before I got too far, and therefore I abandoned my picture taking pretty quickly. (more on that soon)

On a whole other note, I painted the ground (underpainting) purple (with ultra blue and aliz crimsom, and mineral spirits) because of the dominance of green in the scene, and was quite pleased with the result.

Jane Doe's House

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This is another one from around my town (Eugene). It's past my bedtime, and my brain has already turned off, so I apologize for my lack of....

Peachy House

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One of the things that came from the "big chunks first" method of yesterday's rose was bolder color from the beginning. I thought, "It works for roses, but does it work for other things?" So I tried it with this house. And I'm really happy with the result!

In other news, Daily Paintworks has just added a forum! It's called "DPW art talk," and anyone can participate (you don't have to be a member). But you do have to be registered with DPW (free and easy as pie). I seeded the forum with categories, questions and a few of my own answers, but feel free to add your own answers, and questions too! Once it gets going I'm hoping it will turn into a great place to share all kinds of art info.

Delicate Pink

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Let me start out by saying - I love this painting. This is the one I paint for. The one that paints itself. The paint-gasm. This is it.

I was writing to my friend Lee today because she said she was inspired to paint some roses. I said, "This is what I’ve learned [about painting roses] lately – paint the biggest chunks first, totally ignoring (and painting right over) the little chunks. Paint the big chunks with big bold strokes. Squint to see just how big they are. Then after you’ve got them in, go back and paint the little things (thin petals that you see on edge, and little dark marks where things are folded under) on top of the big strokes, thick enough to cover. When you get to the edges of the rose, be loose so you get some softness (otherwise it looks like a cutout), but make some still a little sharp (variety)."

Pink Inside

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I did this one twice, and was prepared to do it many more times. The first one was sooo boring. I got done and I thought, "ok." I put it up on my shelf and thought about what to paint next. But I had this nagging feeling that the first one wasn't good enough. I thought, "I should do this over and over again all day and then pick the best one." So I did it again, with the idea that anything went, because it was one of many. That idea freed me! I loved the second one so much, I wiped the first and painted another rose (that I'll show you tomorrow).

Premrose

NFS (but check out the 2 paintings below, being relisted)

I snapped the reference photo for this one recently at the house of my friend Linda. She makes jam, chocolate sauce, and other yummy things with her roses, through her business, Premrose Edibles. I did this painting as a gift for Linda.

Also, I am relisting a couple of old paintings. It took me a while (too long) to realize they buyers hadn't paid, and by that time it was too late to offer them to the next highest bidders. Here they are:

"Convening on Blue" 6x6in. bid -->

 "Escape Door" 6x6in. bid -->