Simple Cup 3

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This is the third painting for my four in four challenge (the same four objects, four different paintings). Want to do this challenge?

Tomorrow morning I will meet my newest group of kiddos. I haven't tortured anyone in a while and I'm ready for it! Hopefully they will all forgive me by wine time - five days in a row. Boy I ask a lot, huh!?

Simple Cup 2

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This is my second composition from my four object challenge. Would you like to try it too? Well, guess what! It is now the current Daily Paintworks Challenge, which anyone can submit to and sell through, for free! So don't miss out.

Simple Cup 1

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Yesterday I painted a really simple composition with this new cup I got and some paper. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to challenge myself to come up with three more compositions using just these objects. So that was hard! But I did it and I'm glad because it was out of my comfort zone, and I think it's good to be there sometimes.

Tomorrow I start my trek to Wisconsin for my last workshop of the year. I'll post the other three cups when I can.

Tomato Run

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Here is one more painting I did with my friend Bren here. The other one was the fish painting from my last post (here's her version). We only did 2 because the rest of the time was spent exploring Oregon and working on other art projects. We had so much fun I tried to convince her to stay forever, but her husband and kids wanted her back. : (

I am now recovering from a little cold and hope to paint some before I head off to my next workshop, in Wisconsin.

Sardines and one tomato

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Sorry I haven't been posting much lately! I've been busy finishing up a long-term project, and this week I have a good friend from Maine visiting, Brenda Ferguson. Yesterday we were chatting about how we've always wanted to paint fish but are both intimidated by the prospect. We agreed that together we could make it happen. So today we went searching for fish and after one false start and 3 stores we (luckily) found these whole sardines (with sad little tails - not pictured). I won't begin to tell you how much they stunk up my studio!! But it was totally worth it.

Who's the Fairest?

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First of all, thank you all so much for the comments after yesterday's post! Second, blogger is doing something weird with my images and I just want you to know I'm trying to figure it out. If you click the bid link above you can see a more accurate image of this painting. Anyone else having this problem? I've been noticing it vaguely for a week and just tonight made sure. Lastly, if you're interested in entering this month's DPW contest, you still have a few days to do so (read more/enter)!

Fun Times

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I wanted another go at these apples and the plate. And yes, the fork too. Which reminds me of an email I got a while ago from a "fan" asking me if I had to include silverware in every painting, and daring me not to. Isn't it funny how those kinds of comments just eat away at us. I have to admit, I feel like apologizing every time I stick that fork in there. Well, it's time to stop apologizing! I like forks (and spoons and knives). They are such perfect compositional elements, to be added wherever needed. Do you have something similar eating at you? Join me in tossing out the apologies!

Three Different Apples

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When I first started painting apples I had a tendency to paint them all the same, even when they were quite different. It was easy - I saw the same general colors and hey, I had it on my brush already, so - what the heck?! I like to think I've graduated to a higher level of apple painter since I can now see (and paint) the subtle differences between them. But, to be honest, I might simply be a better apple buyer, choosing the ones specifically that are quite different. Only my Fred Meyer produce person knows the truth!

Sunshine and Lemonaide

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Summer is over, officially, and it's definitely feeling like it here in Eugene, but I'm clinging on by painting sunflowers and lemons. By the way, this is my favorite of this sunflower series. I was trying to do darker backgrounds for contrast against the light petals, but really the lighter background is my favorite.

Flower Fun

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These flowers were in my spendy bouquet, so I thought I'd give them a go (not one to waste). I think they're called spider flowers? Anyway, I wasn't quite sure how to paint them, so I did my regular - squinted and painted what I saw.

Drinking Tea in the Sun

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You can see I'm trying to get the most out of these sunflowers! But they're still holding up. Maybe next year I should grow some myself. Duh.

Sharing the Red Dress

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Here are two more of my spendy sunflowers, along with a red vase from the thrift store. I've painted the vase once before, from above. Glass depends entirely on the little subtle shifts, and most importantly, the highlights! If you over-do/exaggerate any of it, it ceases to look like glass, in my experience.

Too Sexy For My Bottle

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I had to buy a whole bouquet of other flowers just to get some sunflowers. The ones that were just sunflowers were sad and dilapidated. You can picture it, right? Me, shuffling back and forth in front of the flower section trying to make up my mind between the cheap, sad flowers and the perfect pricey ones. Arms crossed. Brow furrowed. I am so cheap. But in the end, art persevered!

Late Summer Grass

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This is my entry for this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge: Paint the Grass, which I am hosting (btw, if you have an idea or image for a future challenge, please email me). I photographed this wild clump of grass in the front yard of a fellow Eugenian recently. I am baffled by grass in general, so I thought this would be a good exercise. If you'd like to see the reference photo and join the challenge, please visit the grass challenge page. Also don't forget about the monthly DPW contest - the prizes are big!

Places Everyone!

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Don't these guys look like actors in a colorful play, just before the first act? Well, I thought so anyway.

Bottle Guardians

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I guess I'm on a bottle kick. What I really need is to run to the store to pick up some new still life subjects. All I've got are a few tomatoes. But my folks are visiting so my painting is minimal. I'll get back to it soon!

Glass on Glass and a Flower

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Last week was particularly busy in my world, and part of that included judging the first ever, monthly Daily Paintworks contest. I can't even begin to tell you how difficult it was to narrow down all the terrific art that was submitted! Here are the top 3 winners:

You can see bigger versions, and the other winners on the contest page. In case you're thinking about entering this month, the top 3 winners receive $750, $500 and $250, respectively, and the top 15 are featured artists for a month on DPW, and get that month's membership free (we actually had 19 this month because 4 of the original winners were already featured artists). Enter here.

Workshop Announcement

May 5-9, 2014 - Advanced Workshop (you have to have taken one of my workshops already) - Dickenson, TX - email Sue or call 713.851.5316 or 281.337.4147 to register.
FULL w/ wait list

This is a special place. I've taught there once before and the atmosphere was like a grown-up art camp with the most fabulous food. We were all best friends by the end. If you can make this one, I highly recommend it! It's going to fill up fast.

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...