Primary Companions

 

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If you like movies about artists, a friend of mine sent me this page with a long list of them. I personally have only seen a few, but plan to check out more now that I've seen this. Enjoy!

Getting Busy Again

 

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I guess the title of this one has more to do with how I'm feeling about this composition rather than anything else. I'm trying to stay simple, but this one got busy. Probably too busy for a little 6x6, but ... I did it anyway.

Pick Your Spot

 

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I've been in a real flow with painting lately. For me a FLOW is when 1. the ideas come easily, 2. painting is fun and I lose all track of time, 3. I (mostly) like the results. And so because it's been good for a while, I've been preparing myself for the inevitable EBB. 

The EBB is when 1. ideas are nonexistent, 2. when I force myself to paint anyway, the process is painful and/or boring, 3. I hate almost everything, even old paintings I liked before.

I find the more I am prepared for it, and the less I resist, the easier it is to get through. Because the ebb is an important part of the process. I liken it to sleep. We have to sleep or we die. As creatives, we cannot create constantly - our fields must lie fallow for a portion of the time. As my good friend Bren said, "Honor the Ebb."

So what do I do during an ebb? I try to keep one foot in the studio (because I never know when the ebb will end and, and I want to be close when it does), but otherwise allow myself to go in whatever direction is calling. Like going for walks, pickleball, crafting, woodworking, etc.

Silly story: my husband calls it "Ed and Flo." So when I'm not painting much I'm, "hanging out with Ed."

Missing the Mark

 

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I just finished a book called, "The Lost Notebook of Édouard Manet." Just to be clear, it is fiction (based on facts about the artist's life), but I found it interesting. He is dying of syphilis at the end, and he laments a lot about that and the women he can no longer be with, but there are some pretty insightful things about painting and art too. I plan to read it again so I can write down my favorite lines.

Fashion Show

 

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When I am attempting to title a piece, I like to just sit and look at it for a while and see if something comes to me. The first thing that came to mind with this one was models on a runway. Right? Don't you see it?

Where's Number Five?

 

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My parents had 4 kids. That was just a fact of life for me growing up. But now I see that 4 is pretty big number, kid-wise. So I asked them one day - how did you do it? And my dad said, "Well, it was mostly a matter of just making sure you were all still around, on a regular basis. A lot of counting. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. Yep, they're all still alive."

The Quad Squad

 

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And now for some simple reflections. Not that reflections are simple to paint. At all. But I dug the challenge of it.

Two paintings

 

Click Here to Bid (LEFT) - OIL - 6x6in. - "Grandma's Bowl"

Click Here to Bid (RIGHT) - OIL - 7x5in. - "The Green Bottle"

Every once in a while I keep a painting of my own. These have been in my collection for years. But lately I've done a bit of reshuffling of art on the walls, and am ready to part with these two.

Gather the Chickens

 

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This is a slightly larger one I did a few weeks ago. I really felt these were my strongest lemon slices yet. So strong they are starting a revolution. Beginning with the chickens.

Time to Run

 

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I have a lot of bottles in my still life shelves, but these two have been bullying my props lately. They promised they would be nice to the apples, but you see what's happening here. Sigh.

No Worries, It's Handled

 

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My hubs came up with the title for this one - "No Worries, It's Handled." He was pretty happy with himself, and I am too. Thanks, babe.

Feeling Blue

 

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I'm kind of in love with reflections. They are a challenge to paint, but I realized recently that if I don't have something challenging to paint then I get bored and don't enjoy it. You know how if you're doing something and you lose all track of time, how wonderful that is? That was me, painting this.

Come Along with Me

 

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I completely forgot to post this one when I was doing all the orange slice paintings. 

Also I did this larger one (to the right, 12x12in.), though I'm not ready to sell it yet. I did it from a photo, because the sun just won't sit still for me, and it takes way too long to paint something like this. So I took photos in a slice of sunlight in my dining room, and I think I'll do it again because I really LOVE the light and shadow.

I submitted it to this month's Daily Paintworks Challenge: Sunshine. Check it out - as of now there are 45 submissions, and they are all wonderful!

The Missing Saucer

 

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Someone asked a while back if I would occasionally show a photo of my setup - what I'm painting, IRL. So here's this one, as best as I could manage, looking down into my shadowbox. I painted it from life, not from the photo.

And since I was taking photos, I decided to also show you a trick I've learned. If you've read my book or watched any of my tutorials, you know I generally start with a ground, draw my composition with burnt umber, and then wipe it a bit with a paper towel so that only the ghost of the drawing remains. Well, I realized one day that I could dip a brush in OMS (Gamsol), scrub that onto my panel where my lightest lights live, and then squeegee* that off, thus removing most of the brown, but only where I scrubbed. This does a few things for me:

1. Gives me something akin to a value study (even more so if I then paint in some darks with the drawing color, which I didn't do this time).

2. Allows me to further adjust shapes, which I sometimes need because the drawing line can sometimes get fat and weird...

3. Removes even more of the brown paint so that  "delicate" or "vulnerable" colors (like yellow or other light colors) go down without mixing with the brown and getting muddy.

NOTE: When I dip into the OMS, I then wipe most of it off onto a paper towel except just a little bit. Otherwise it drips down my panel when I go to scrub it in.

*The squeegee in the picture is the Princeton Catalyst Wedge, Shape 6. But there are other kinds.

Check out my Instagram page for process photos of the whole painting.

Symphony of Glass

 

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I found the first bottle (left) and the tall, blue vase at a cool junk store in town. Everything in there is just a jumble of stuff and you have to hunt for the treasures. I love it.

Together Forever

 

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Here's a simple one with some of my favorite subjects. Someone wrote to me once and suggested I "upgrade" to fancy things, like pewter spoons and fine china. No thanks. I actually prefer this kind of simple stuff. For painting and for my own use. Fancy has never appealed to me.

Blimey

 

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I just figured out why this one seems big to me now that I look at it again, even though it's on a small panel. These are key lime (small) slices, small plates, and a small cup. All smaller than normal, but you wouldn't know unless you painted it. Haha.

Resting Between

 

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I'm really tickled with this one, I won't lie. When I set it up I thought - oh this could turn out really cool, or really awful. And then I thought - screw it, I'm just going to have fun trying. And I got lucky.

Complements

 

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This is my attempt to go a little simpler with a composition. I often keep adding things because it's not working yet, and this time I decided to stick with just these things and not stop moving them around until they worked. It still took a while to compose, but it was simpler to paint.

Bending Blue

 

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - OIL - -starts at $100)

Someone asked me recently what size brushes I use for these small paintings, and I realized it's a question I haven't gotten in a while. So in case you're interested, I typically use several bright, (this is a short flat) synthetic brushes - either Silver Bristlon or Rosemary Ivory. Since sizes vary, I'll say the smallest is about 1/4 inch wide, then 1/2 in., and the biggest (most often used) is about 3/4 - 1 in.