A Nice Spot for Tea

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I'm back from the Plein Air Convention. And I didn't die of fear before completing my demo, so I call that a success! But really, I heard good things afterwards, so I'm happy. My secret was the wonder woman socks I wore. : ) The whole event was actually QUITE fun, and informative. My favorite presentation was by Jill Carver, a wonderful artist I know from my time in Austin.

Now back to the tulips. This is number 4 in the series, of 5. Unfortunately I will be off on another trip before the auction for this is done. So I won't be able to ship the next few paintings until I return from France on May 20th.

Scissors Lurking

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This is my third painting with these tulips. For this and the one before I used a soft florescent "daylight" bulb. I find these often work well for flowers because, unlike halogen, the light doesn't necessarily overwhelm (or shine right through) the delicate petals.

I will be demo-ing at the Plein Air Convention in San Diego next week (Wednesday at 2:20pm, for those going)! This morning I am beginning the long journey down to San Diego, stopping off to paint with a friend for a couple of days. Unfortunately this means I won't be able to ship paintings until I am back (May 1st). I apologize for the inconvenience!

Threelips

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Here's my second attempt with these flowers. I went for simplicity. And glass. Glass is always fun.

Tea and Tulips

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I went to the store with the idea of buying sunflowers. I went to two stores, but the petals were all very ... crinkly. So I bought these interesting tulips that were somewhat green on the outside (when the petals were closed). They only stayed decent looking for a couple of days, so I painted them as many times as I could. This is number one.

Yellow Plate

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There used to be a whole row of these old trucks right outside of town. I went by one morning and took a bunch of photos when the light was good. And apparently just in time - soon after they disappeared and I haven't seen them since.

Decomposition

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I found this super cool scene in Taos last year. I was walking around this little neighborhood with my friend Tia, taking pictures. She took one look at this old car and said, "This looks just like a Carol Marine painting." Yep.

Making Eyes

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This was my second attempt at asparagus and lemon. I did it a few days ago, and since it's been sitting on my shelves I can't help but see it as a squid, with lemon slices for eyes! Can you see it? Bet you can't un-see it now. At any rate, I really like this one. It was one of those rare ones that just fell off the brush.

Grill Me

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I was cutting up lemons and asparagus recently for dinner and realized they make an incredibly pretty pair. Normally we grill asparagus, but this was for a new recipe that gets wrapped in foil (with salmon!) and baked. It turned out really well.

Separate the Reds

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I've been experimenting lately with process. There are SO many different ways to go about painting. I've been using my island to ocean method for so long that I feel a little stuck with it. And I thought - if I go about things in a different way, will I get different results? And most importantly (for me right now), will I enjoy it more?

So for this one I laid in a kind of loose block-in for all the objects, moving around quite a bit, trying not to put any hard edges in until the end, when I started refining. I think this is probably a common method, but not for me.

I don't have any answers to my questions yet, but I will keep trying stuff.

Mosaic Apples

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These apples looked like jewels to me, so I exaggerated it.

Colorful Cups

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A lot of the paintings I admire have exaggerated colors. And while I love it, I find it is especially hard to achieve in my own work, as I am always so focused on getting the "right" color. So for this one I decided from the beginning that I would paint more by feel/intuition than by whatever my brain was telling me. And this is what I ended up with. I absolutely LOVE that it's so easy to experiment with these small paintings. I would say this is still the number one advantage of "daily painting" (painting small and often).

Orange and Blue Bits

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We are headed off for a few days of camping in the mountains. We've been working like crazy people and need a break!

Pink Dress

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I spotted this gal in Germany last year. She really stood out. In fact I don't think there was one guy who wasn't watching her walk down the street.

Slice Off

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I painted this as an example for this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge. I thought it would be fun and, well, challenging. The instructions say you can slice up anything, and arrange it any way you like. But no one has taken me up on it yet! Be the first one...please?

Waiting for Others

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In the photo reference for this one (from in front of the NYC downtown library), the guy was looking right at me. And when I first painted them, they ended up both looking at me. So after some deliberation I scraped off both faces and re-did them with the idea that they would be facing slightly away. It's a tiny thing - subtle, (and not easy!) but I think it makes all the difference in the world. I'm much happier with it now!