Patriotic Plums

sold.

Painting is hard. I can't tell you how often I'm halfway through and thinking, "Oh, this is going well!" And then I lose it. This one worked out, but I had 2 right before it that didn't. Ugh. I could do without the feeling that comes along with a painting de-railing.

Plumtacular

sold.

Every time I choose a title for a painting, the first thing I do is check to see if I've used that particular one before. For this is my 2,564th daily painting. And that's a lot of titles. So I was surprised to find that I hadn't used this one yet.

On a Journey

sold. (6x6in.)

I made some new friends here in Eugene recently and they gave me these plums to paint. I knew they'd be perfect in my green fish bowl. Thank you Lisa and Robert!

If you noticed a gap between this and my last post, it's because I was in Colorado, painting with my pal, Penny. The weather didn't completely cooperate, but we did get in a few nice sessions. I'll think about posting some of those paintings.

While I was there, we happened to notice a Richard Schmid retrospective happening at the same time. So we went, and met some pretty awesome artists, including Richard himself! I asked him how often he wipes a canvas and he said, "Once every..." (he paused for a bit here) "7 or 8 years." I said, "Wow! That isn't very many!" And he said, "I never start a painting unless I can see it finished in my head."

Plums Four Me

sold. (6x6in.)

More plums.

Plums to the Rescue

sold. (6x6in.)

From cherry plums to regular plums. And these guys are on a mission. A mission to save the blue bowl from certain demise. Because what you don't see is the piano falling from many floors above this idyllic scene. Fun fact: plums love drama.

In other news, my granddaughter (now 2!) and her parents are flying in from Texas today for a 10-day visit. I'm ahead with my paintings, so I'll still post, but I'll be busy, FYI.

Don't Cook Us

sold. (6x6in.)

As soon as I mentioned jam, my cherry plums got busy performing. I have a feeling they were trying to convince me of their unique abilities so that I wouldn't cook them. But alas, they went in the pot anyway.

My son and I had lots of fun making jam! Here are a few pictures. Unfortunately the only jars I had were purple, so the results weren't as pretty as they would have been in clear jars. So I probably won't paint them, as many of you suggested. But rest assured it will all be eaten!

Dance of the Cherry Plums

sold. (5x7in.)

Several people emailed me after yesterday's painting about making cherry plum jam. So I looked it up and apparently it's the easiest jam to make. And so, since I've never done it before, and because it might be fun to do with my son, tomorrow these beauties are bound for the pot. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cherry Plum Bowl

sold. (6x6in.)

We have one fruit tree on our property. It grows tiny plums that look kind of like cherries. Cherry plums, apparently. They're actually quite good, though there are far, far too many for us to eat. Mostly they just fall on the ground and make a big mess. So I thought I'd save a few to paint.

Plum Plate

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For this set of plums I decided to use bigger brush strokes and paint (sort of like) caricatures of the fruit, rather than shooting for realism. I think it turned out pretty cool-like.

Tranquil Plums

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Simple. More plums. That's it.

Marching on the Red Square

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I haven't painted plums in a long time. They called out to me at the grocery store as I was casually walking by, minding my own business. "Paint us!," they cried. And what could I do but comply with such a passionate request?!

"Plum Shy" & a contest!

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These are more plums, but ripe this time, and way yummy. I'm particularly fond of the way this one turned out.

And here's a little teaser for ya'll. Daily Paintworks is about to announce a monthly contest! Not only are we offering cash to the top 3 winners, the top 15 will be featured artists for a month! If you're interested, I'll post a link with more info and a way to enter on August 1st.

Early Plums

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This is another painting from before our vacation. So what are these little things, you ask? They can be anything you want them to be! Cherries. Tiny apples. Really early plums. You decide. Ok, they're actually really early plums (so cute!) but I get that they're kind of ambiguous. I decided to paint them anyway.

Plate of Plums

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Recently I was invited to participate in the adventures of the travelling chicken! And 2 days ago the chicken(s) arrived at my house, packaged better than any chickens in history, I imagine. I am taking my time trying to decide how to paint the main polka dot chicken, and perhaps a companion or two. I am feeling quite a bit of pressure, but hopefully I will come up with something soon.

Prune Plums

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My friend Phemie gave me these beautiful prune plums! I think she intended me to eat them, but I painted them instead, and then ate them. I painted them using a different light than I normally use. Normally I use a very strong flood bulb, but for this I used a much softer florescent daylight bulb ... you know, the spirally kind.

Plums as a Tourist Attraction

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This may not be at all apparent, but I've been trying to simplify my compositions lately. Unfortunately, it seems like I keep having to add things to make them work, and before I know it there are a lot of players in there, doing their thing. I'm always happy with them, but then after I'm done I think, "Oh yeah, I was trying to go simple!!" Doh.

Plums Stacked and Waiting

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Jacob started school today and I did 3 small paintings while he was gone!!! It was so great. Full concentration. No interruptions. Pure bliss. And yes, this is a Swedish fork - I know you were dying to ask.

Red Plums, Blue Bottle

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My husband is gone again, this time for 2 weeks! He is off to visit his birth-mother in Germany. Alas. And I am alone with my 7-yr-old again. Which, don't get me wrong, is wonderful, but as I mentioned before, it makes painting tough. Today I had just enough time to do this one.

Tiny Plums

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Thanks to all of you who weighed in on the dilemna from yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't get a definitive answer, but then, I didn't expect one.

Recently we found a tree in our backyard with tons of tiny (what we thought were) cherries hanging from it. When we picked some and at them we found they tasted much more like plums. Just tiny. Here are some in a shiny box, right before I devoured every last one!

Just Around the Corner

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I posted a while ago about the trouble of holding a viewfinder steady while you're getting the drawing down, and how one solution is to buy a clamp that holds the viewfinder in place. Well, a friend of mine, Kelsey, has found and tested one that she raves about. It's from Accurasee, and you can buy it from Amazon. Here's a picture -->