Thursday, April 2, 2015

Grapefruit with Little Bottle 6"x 6"

I wanted to try painting the bottle exactly at eye level so I stacked some painting panels on a white wooden block. I love the blue color of the grapefruit rind when it is back lit.
Yesterday I signed up with DPW to sell my paintings on line.  I'll be posting some of the better ones from the last few months as well as new ones.
I put the red primroses on yesterday and it got chosen as a pick of the day which was a nice surprise.

SOLD

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Lovely Day for a Hike 6"x 8"

I've been noticing lately how the clouds stack up in layers from the horizon forward and wanted to try painting that. This is out at the end of Royal Ave in the wetlands.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Path through the Meadow 6"x 8"

I painted this last week at one of Eugene's newest public parks The South Eugene Meadows. This is the trail that leads from the parking lot into the oak savanna. Very few people are using the park yet so it's a very tranquil place to paint. I wish I had cropped it just to the right of the foreground tree.
I've been in a kind of painting doldrums lately, catching up on other stuff in my life but am feeling ready to get started back painting soon.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Coburg Hills from Priceboro Road 8"x 10"

So many things I'm working on now. I actually chose this scene because the road ended in a highway overpass but when I started doing the drawing, it just seemed like it complicated the scene. I'm also trying to figure out what would constitute "bling" in a landscape painting. So far I have sky holes, tree branches and that little straight line at the top of the horizontal plane. Also tried using a little cobalt blue and I like it.

Friday, February 27, 2015

October Vines 6"x 8"

I'm happy with this composition. I didn't see it until I simplified it quite a bit. Going to try to focus on doing that.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Perky Little Primroses 8"x 8"

Here in the northwest the dear little primroses are everywhere these days at the entryways to local businesses. These little sweeties came from Bi-Mart. They dried out twice waiting for me to get a chance to paint them. Didn't complain and cheerfully posed for me today. I'll reward them with a larger pot and a few days of rest and recuperation in the greenhouse.

SOLD

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Hazy Sunlight in the Cascades 6"x 8"

Nice to finally be back to painting but I felt a little lost today. Still experimenting with different grays, struggling to find reality in a photo.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Heading Home from the Fisher Unit 8"x 10"

We had a little break from the cloudy weather a few days ago so my dog Lulu and I went out to the wetlands to get a few pictures. Just love being out there. The geese fly over making such a ruckus with their squawking. We even heard a few bullfrogs. I hope I can get out there to do this in real life soon.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Sailboats at Orchard Point 6"x 8"

I was again starting with a gray for my color mixes but today it was ultramarine and burnt sienna. That makes a nice color but I don't think I'll do it again. Also tried using manganese violet in place of alizrin but won't do that again either.I'm glad I'm experimenting though.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Old Juniper near Bend 8"x 8"

I painted this from a photo I took in a Juniper wilderness area east of Bend. It's a wonderful, unimproved area called the Badlands.
I was trying a suggestion I read in Terry Miura's blog which was to start with a gray mixed from cad yellow, cad red and ultramarine. Mix it with white to get four graduated values, then start your color mix with the appropriate value of gray.
My gray was kind of green although I tried to make to make it less so. I'm going to continue working with this concept for a while.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Willamette Valley Grays 4.5"x 9.5"

I've been inspired by Dutch painter Roos Schuring to go outside to paint even though it's cold. I had such a good time! I meant to take my saved up gray paint along but forgot. Hopefully next time that will help me gray it down a bit more.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Thai 10"x 8"

This is my dad's cat Thai. She lives with him in memory care but had to spend a few days with us last week so I got some good photos.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Grapes and Persimmon 6"x 6"

This persimmon has been sitting around in my studio for months--maybe three. It is definitely past its prime, lumpy and shrunken. The grapes were still pretty good. I am so surprised how much orange I have to mix in. They seem more blue to me but it doesn't work on the canvas. But then I added even more to try to make them harmonize with that noisy orange persimmon.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Clustered Grapes 6"x 6"

I had a lot of difficulty trying to mix the colors for the grapes--both light and shadows.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Darling Radishes 6"x 6"

I love this. And it was so much easier to paint than what I've been doing since the drawing was much less critical. But I did learn a little from all that fooling around trying to paint white. I was always scared of Pthalo blue but now I'm using it. Also, lemon yellow, for me, is a much cleaner color than cad yellow.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

My Grandma's Egg Cup 6"x 6"

The egg is not quite that intense but maybe I should have toned it down a bit.  This studying whites has been a real challenge. I hope I try something a little easier tomorrow.

Monday, January 19, 2015

3 Little Tomatoes 6"x6"

A little frustrating. Finally got the color just right in my photo but it shows up yellower on the blog. Well, I give up. So the white is just a tad less yellow. I like the shadows of the tomato's leaves and the cup handle.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Pear in a White Study 6"x 8"

Once again a little yellower than reality. I'm trying to learn a little about mixing whites. So much harder than I would have thought.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Orange Segments 6"x6"

Whoa!! That background is soo yellow. It's really more peachy. Can't figure out how to change it, but probably another color would have been better.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Meyer Lemon on a Copper Plate 6"x6"

Well, this one was a challenge from the get go. A lemon from my own darling little tree.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Water in the Fields 6"x6"

I tried painting on gesso board today since I have a lot of them.  Sure is different from my little Raymar panels. I did this from a photo that didn't really have much color so I did a fair bit of inventing.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Lulu's Jaguar 6"x 6"

I came downstairs a couple days ago and saw one of my dog's toys standing in the lamplight. So I tried to recreate the scene in my studio today.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Old Road through the Wetlands 6"x 8"

This is my second try today for the Leslie Saeta challenge.  I don't like it as well but still think I learned a bit by experimenting.

Golden Ash Trees 6"x 8"

I signed up a little late for Leslie Saeta's 30 day challenge. I'm not expecting that I'll be able to paint every day, but I've been surprised at what a good effect it is having on me.
Didn't like my still life yesterday and wanting to get back to landscapes, printed some old photos and worked from them today. Experimenting, trying to really simplify the compositions and try new things. I like this one quite a lot.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Mussel Shells 6"x 6"

These mussels looked so beautiful after I cooked them that I've wanted to paint them for several days. But I don't think they were a good choice. Just too dark.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Dark Houses #2 6"x6"

I thought the horizontal planes in my last painting were a lot lighter than reality so I made them darker. It's kind of interesting how dreary the light gets here in winter.
Wasn't sure if I should leave that white canvas showing through but in the end I decided I liked it so left it. That white door--probably should have made it darker, but I just didn't want to.
6"x 6" sure is a fun size.

Dark Houses #1 6"x6"

I'm often quite annoyed with our dark days here in Eugene. I really like painting how light falls on objects. While waking my dog the other morning, I came upon the idea of trying to exaggerate  the lack of that light defining objects: alight grayish sky, all the verticals a dark value and then making the horizontal and tilted planes lighter.
So this was my first attempt.
I couldn't quite make myself simplify as much as I had hoped. It's kind of fun. So I tried another one.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Palm Tree in Oregon 10"x 12"


It's been kind of slow learning to use my new computer and the new Photoshop (still kind of lost). With all the commotion of the holidays, it was so great to finally get back to painting!