Day 25 - Artist Chick

 One reason I've done so many daily painting challenges (this is my 13th!) is because I love the new ideas that come by pushing the creative flow.. To come up with new ideas every day, there is a degree of letting go you have to do.. letting go of censoring, letting go of control.  This little idea came yesterday and while it is so simple, the imagery and story are striking to me.

another point of interest, I had no blue or green on my palette for this painting.. Its probably obvious, but it was fun painting with what is known as an analogous color scheme, meaning all of the colors are next to each other on the color wheel (yellow, orange and red)

Oh, and how do you like the funky red saddle shoes?  (I love them...)

Last bit of commentary - by day 24, I am feeling the fatigue.. designing, painting and posting every day is a challenge for sure.  The posting in particular is hard for me, but also, I know, vital. Vital to get my art out there, and vital for myself, and others who care to come here and read my blab, to get a deeper insight into why I do what I do. I am so thankful to everyone who follows along with these challenges I do and of course for all of the kind comments and likes my paintings glean.  ♥  So today, this painting celebrates the challenges and rewards of being an artist chick :) Thank you for reading ♥

"Artist Chick", oil, 8"x8", click here for purchasing details

Day 14 of the 28 in 28 - Snailberry

 It's Valentine's day and strawberries are on my mind...  heart shaped, sweet and juicy.. they are perfection in a berry.  This painting is the 3rd in my Hawking's snail series, which is about a snail trying out new and different shells.  Today, she's trying on a strawberry for size... I'm loving the luscious red and am very pleased with the 'expression' on the snail's face :) Incidentally, about reds, I have been playing with red a lot lately and have suddenly found my palette sometimes has upwards of 5 different reds on it, to achieve the perfect effect.  Alizarin crimson, cad red medium and dark, quinacridone red and rose madder are all ones I've been using for their subtle differences in transparency and hue.

As usual, when I choose a new subject to explore, even if I am completely fictionalizing things, I do some research to dig deeper to see what I can learn.  Scroll down to read a few more interesting bits...

Snailberry, oil on panel, 8"x8"
to purchase, please click here

Turns out I knew next to nothing about snails.  For instance, I had no idea about snail anatomy (how would I?)  I was amazed to find out that the shell was not just a hollow place snails could retract their outward bodies into.. indeed, the shell holds all of their organs and more.. Snails have lungs, stomachs, a liver and kidneys! Finding this out, I realize that my snail friend would have to think things through a bit before settling on a shell that would work.. but it's fun to imagine :)

Day 10 - Put Your Best Foot Forward

Every now and again a little duck wearing chucks shows up in my studio :) This guy came along today, putting his best foot forward and dancing to his own rhythm.. ♥ 

I find that doing these daily painting challenges is a way to practice putting my best foot forward.. by day 10, I start to feel the burn and the challenge gets real.  :) This guy is here to cheer us on!

Put Your Best Foot Forward, Oil on panel, 6"x6"
to purchase please click here

Day 21 of the 30 in 30 - "Time Flies"

Time really does fly... I have been doing Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 and I can't believe that we are now past the 2/3's point! So happy and thankful (feeling blessed...)  for all of the love and support I have gotten through the past 3 weeks :) Painting birds with various things that I find interesting (not necessarily bird related) has been my primary focus with this challenge.  When thinking of what to pair my bird friends with next, I was inspired to pair some with old clocks.  Amusingly, I didn't realize the obvious metaphor of 'Time Flies' until I was midway through painting this one...and then my logical brain caught up with my creative brain.. I had a genuine "Aha!" moment as I was painting along and idly trying to think of a title... Funny, is all I can say...  

Time Flies, oil, 8"x8", to purchase click here

Day 30 - Rowan and the Bug

Its the last day of the 30 in 30 and uh.... I can believe it!  Well, sort of not, but, when I look back to the first painting I did, and all the ones in between, I definitely feel like I painted for the e n t i r e month.  Of course there is a sense of relief and, pride I guess, that I am finished and I did it... But, I am always sad when the 30 in 30 ends too.  The sense of forced urgency to produce a painting every day seems to fuel creativity differently than at calmer times.  And posting everyday is a very beneficial for any artist.  I always hope to keep it up.  I will definitely try to be better about posting more often.  To be honest, I only painted 26 paintings this month.  Me getting sick and then Rowan staying home sick from school yesterday threw off my groove so, there are several lost days. 

Anyway... today's painting

Rowan came home from school last week very excited to tell me that his bus passed by "this awesome VW beetle!  It would make a great painting, Mom!"  His enthusiasm and happiness about finding a painting subject for me put a healthy dose of joy in my heart. :)  So, we drove there the next day and I took a bunch of pics. I told him he had to pose for me, though, since the theme I chose for this 30 in 30 is figurative and I definitely wanted to paint this in the challenge. I thought this picture was the cutest of the bunch!

By the way, as always I will make a collage of all the paintings I created and post it here tomorrow.  Have a great night and thanks everyone for reading my blog and following me through the challenge!  From the looks of my people counter I had over 750 people read my blog this month.  Peanuts for some, but awesome for me!

Rowan and the Bug, oil on panel, 6"x6"
NFS

I haven't posted a progress pic for awhile.  If you are interested, this is the painting early on...

Day 20 - And She Was

I sometimes get reference photos from an online, royalty free photo sharing sight called Morguefile.  I try to use mostly images I take but there are those times when I need some inspiration.  When this happens I will sometimes peruse the Morguefile to see what strikes my fancy.  This image has been saved in a file I call 'Possibilities' for a few years, actually and when I came across it I knew it was time to paint it!  I love everything about it.. the perspective, the crop, the upside down text, the colors, the shadow... and of course the toes!  

The title comes from my hubby (who has been a great help during this 30 in 30, as always) who said it reminds him of the music video from the Talking Heads of the same name.  I know the song, don't know the video.. I will be checking it out though!

And She Was, oil on canvas, 20"x20"
to purchase, please click here

Day One of the September 2016 30 Paintings in 30 Days!!!

Ok... so I am more than a little excited for this 30 in 30.  For those of you who are new to my work and me as an artist, I welcome you here and hope you will visit back often during the month of September.  For those of you who have been with me for awhile, welcome back and THANK YOU for all of your support, comments, feed back and most of all your love!  

I am so ready for this challenge and have been thinking about it and planning the whole month of August.  So, as of day one, I feel pretty ready and psyched to go.  I do have a theme that I am following throughout the 30 days.  I will largely do figurative work (simply put, paintings of people/figures)  But... my goals are several.  (I am going to go artsy on y'all for a minute so, forgive me... ) I love to paint... and I love the paintings I have made in the past few years.  But, as any artist who has been at it for awhile will tell you, you are constantly developing and growing.  I am at a point in my artistic career where I am yearning for some change.  So, in painting figurative work this month, I also intend on attempting to go beyond my usual style and 'language' that I have developed to find new ways to express myself, new ways of applying paint, new color palettes to try and new techniques.  I really hope to push my knowledge and step outside my comfort zone a bit and see where it takes me.  I hope you will enjoy the work I create, as I am excited with the things I will be doing this month!  

Here is painting #1, titled "Watching the Races".  Being that this is #1, I feel it is pretty similar to work that I have created in the past. Starting out cautiously, I tried some new ideas with my colors and reallllly tried to not OVER paint this one...which is a hard thing to do.  I hope you like and please feel free to comment below.  Thanks and have a great night!

Watching the Races, Oil, 20"x20",
to purchaser please click here

It's a winner!

Just wanted to share that the final painting of my 30 days of painting challenge, "Big Reds" won third place at the Berks Art Alliance annual membership show!  Very thankful to those people who voted for me!   And I am sorry I couldn't be there to thank you in person... :( Valentine's day was a busy one for me! <3
If you'd like to see this and many other wonderful works of art by other member artists, the show runs through March 12th at the institute of the Arts, 1100 Belmont Ave., Wyomissing, PA, 19610

Big Reds, acrylic and oil on panel,
Contact the Berks Art Alliance for
purchasing information.

Day 30 (The last Day!) - Big Reds

Well, I did it, I finished the 30 in 30!  Now, to be fair, I didn't finish 30 paintings, but I was in my studio everyday painting... (oh, alright, I missed one day... that day that it snowed almost 3 feet of snow and I was helping shovel out... pass...)  But, otherwise, I was there, painting my face off... :)
Thanks so much if you came to my blog to read and follow my progress.  It means a lot that you are interested and I am grateful for everyone's comments and feedback both here and on my facebook page!  According to my flag counter, I had nearly 700 visits over the course of the month... So, thanks!

This last paintings was a 3 day event and I am not sure it is actually finished. But it is mostly done.  Its one of those things... you stare at a painting too long and your eyes start to cross and you cant even see it clearly anymore.  I needed to step away tonight, before I started making bad decisions and ruined the thing.  I will go back tomorrow and see whats what.  This one is a big one, exploring further the red shoes and the striped background.  Again, thanks for following me.  I am going to really try hard to post more regularly than I usually do between challenges!  It is just so easy to slack.  But rest assured, I will be making frames for the next week or so and painting, painting, painting...!

Big Reds, acrylic and oil on panel, 18" x 24"
nfs currently

28 - Big Reds

Today's painting will be a 2 day painting.  I felt the need to go bigger again, after a series of 6x6's and a 9x12 thrown in... Today's red sneaks are on an 18"x24" panel.  After painting the 2 smaller pics of Converse all stars (or Chucks, whatever you call them) I have been wanting to go bigger than life with them.  I don't know... it's not that I worship my red Chucks or anything, but they are just fun and make me happy.  So, I wanted to share that happiness with the blog-o-sphere....
But... because of the scale of the painting, it is not finished.  I painted what we painters like to call the "under painting" in acrylic today. I will be going over it with oils tomorrow to add depth, detail and little extra magic.  Here is where I got with it as of now...

Big Reds, 18" x 24",  currently acrylic on panel... tomorrow it will be mixed media

Day 26 - Almost Twilight

Sometimes the stresses and responsibilities of life make me feel like that 80's ad proclaiming 'Calgon, take me away!'  I don't know exactly where 'away' is, but, maybe it is on a sail boat watching as the sky is beginning to change from day to peaceful twilight... I hope everyone out there reading this is having a peaceful day or night wherever you may be...

Almost Twilight, acrylic on panel, 9"x12"
to purchase, please click here

Me

Days 24 and 25 - "Cad Red" and "Vintage Thunderbird"

I just couldn't make it to my studio yesterday due to the immense amount of snow that I had to help deal with in my area of the world.  But, I made up for it today and painted 2 paintings!  The first one is in response to the last one I did, "Utrect Blue".  This one is titled "Cad. Red." Just look how that thin line of Cadmium red is screaming when it is juxtaposed next to Utrect Blue!

Cad Red, acrylic on panel, 4"x4"
to purchase, please click here

This Vintage Thunderbird is today's entry in the 30 in 30.. I was lovin how the red played off of the 2 different blues (ultramarine blue and this funky blue I have called "Utrect" blue) in my previous two little stripeys and decided to play with those colors using a representational subject...

Vintage cars are a theme I return to from time to time as I love their lines, shapes and details.  And I love painting chrome and headlights.  Go figure.  So, this experiment of painting my subjects on stripey backgrounds is proving to be a lot of fun for me.  I am loving being able to pick a finite number of colors for the background that will "talk" to the subject. 

Vintage Thunderbird, oil and acrylic on panel, 6"x6"
to purchase please click here

Day 23 - Utrect Blue

So, this is a simplistic painting for y'all today.  Lots of snow shoveling and then subsequent sitting comatose at my kitchen table eating toast and cookies.... But, I did get myself to the studio, and after spotting a 4"x4" panel, I decided to do a simple stripey based on some colors that I have been pondering for a few days.  First let me say this.  Red is not always red.  And blue can be so many different  blues.  I enjoy seeing two of the most common reds found in paint playing against each other, the reds being Alizarin Crimson and Cadmium Red medium. When strait out of the tube and isolated, you would say, yes, that is definitely red.  But when you put them next to each other in a painting, they are so very different.  Add to that a strange color from my past, Utrect Blue.  Back in college days at Tyler (20 or so years ago) on of the colors required for a painting class I took was called Utrect Blue.  It is this electric blue that I haven't been able to find in any other brand.  And in fact, Utrect doesn't even make it anymore!  Luckily I still have some and it miraculously is still good!  I've been thinking of making a painting using these 3 colors, but wasn't thinking of going so simple.  But due to time and energy constraints, I had to go pretty basic today.  So, that is the story behind this little painting!

Utrect Blue, acrylic on panel, 4" x 4"
to purchase, please click here

Day 22 - The Moose is Loose

I painted a moose today! This was my first ever moose, so, it was an interesting challenge...  4 days of roosters (I almost typed moosters... funny..) and I was ready for something new... Although I really did enjoy painting all of the roosters.  My favorite was definitely the last one.  Something about the colors and composition.  Anyway, thanks to my cousin Jean for suggesting I paint a moose with a red background.  It was a fun painting to paint and I am getting ready to do another painting all about the color red, so it was a good precursor to this project.

The Moose is Loose, oil and acrylic on panel, 6" x 6"
To purchase, please click here

Day 14 - My Red Chucks

I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday... With family, and framing and an art opening, I just ran out of time!  But I had a great time painting this one.. As the title implies, these are my own personal pair of Chucks... I love them and want to get several more pairs in different colors.  This, I think is one of the most appealing things about them!  All of the colors!  Anyway, this probably isn't my last painting of Chucks... I think I have a problem... :)

To talk shop a little bit, I painted this one with both acrylic and oil.  I started it with acrylic, painting the striped design in the background. (did this because it dries super fast)  I opted for neutral black, gray and white with just a bit of red and yellow ochre. I love that palette and love how it allows the red shoes to pop.

My Red Chucks, oil and acrylic on panel, 9" x 12"
to purchase, please click here

Day 8 of the 30 in 30 - Blue Roof

Life never stops, even if you have to paint a painting every day..... So, after helping to hang the new gallery show this morning and going to finalize plans on an upcoming solo exhibition I am having, I had just over 1 hour to complete a painting before having to get my son from the bus and take my daughter to work!  But, I got it done....
Today's image was found on Morguefile, the royalty free image site.  I was struck by the rich contrasts and strange colors.  I am including the original image here so you can see how sometimes I push the colors to be more of my liking. This one is very fauve, in my opinion!
If you would like to purchase this painting, please visit my Daily Paint works page here.

Thanks for looking!

Blue Roof, oil on panel, 6" x 6", click here to purchase

Day 3 - Biker on Penn Street

Whew... I got this one done by the skin of my teeth.  And in reality, I still probably have some tweaking to do on it.  I could lie and say I don't know what I was thinking when I chose to do a 16" x 20" painting today.  But, I do know.  I really like painting big, and yesterday's 6"x6" was frustrating using such small brushes... Plus, I need to learn how to paint bigger, faster...
Anyway, another experiment.  I painted on a gold ground today (not metallic, but yellow-gold), which was a first for me.  This was a picture I took the same day I took the reference pic for day 2's picture. Was sitting at a traffic light and there was this biker guy waiting for the light also.  Snapped the pic and off we went in opposite directions... I liked the challenge of the image because there was soooo much red in the picture.  I wanted to paint it with all that red, and still make it engaging... Hopefully it is!

Biker on Penn St., oil, 16" x 20",  to purchase this painting, please click here

For You

Sometimes as an artist I am inspired in unexpected places.  This painting came from such an experience.  One of my all time favorite things to do in life (although time does not always allow) is read to my kids at bed time.  Currently, I am deep into the "Little House on the Prairie" series with my son.  He is loving it and I am reliving the books because I read them to my daughter years ago.  A few weeks ago, I came to the end of a chapter and there was just a beautiful passage about 'Pa' playing his fiddle in the evening and a Nightingale singing back to his playing.  Laura drifted off into blissful sleep listening to the two of them talking back and forth to each other.  It was so eloquently written.. such a beautiful and inspiring image... I immediately knew I had to respond to the emotions I was feeling just reading those words with some artwork of my own... a painting.  So, while this is not a picture of 'Pa'.. and it definitely is NOT on the prairies of wild North America.... This is what I came up with!   I ended up in Paris... with an older gent... with a nightingale on his head... I also had to put that young lady in red bicycling by in the background... She seems to be showing up in many of my paintings... :)    Anyway... I am loving this new direction my art is taking me.  I attribute the new work somewhat to my research into vintage posters, as they 'tell a story' in their own way.... This new painting, I hope, tells a story also... whatever story you want it to tell....
It will be available, framed (with a solid wood frame hand crafted by yours truly) in the upcoming Art Plus Gallery show which opens Friday, May 8th.

For You, oil on panel, 18" x 24",
contact me for pricing on this painting

Day 25 - The Red Beach

Sometimes you think something is going to be simple and it turns out to be elusive and unexpectedly difficult.  Today's painting turned into one of those times.  I was initially drawn to the image I found on Morguefiles because of it's strong S composition and pretty pastel colors contrasting with the red beach.  It didn't seem as though there was a whole lot going on in the water area and I thought I could  easily solve the problems of painting the reflecting sky, sea foam and the red sand showing through in some areas.  Well... lets just say, I struggled with this one today.  However, after careful observation... I think I resolved the problems I was having and am pleased with the final results.  This painting is available for auction on my Daily Paintworks site.  If you are interested in bidding, please click here.

Red Beach, oil on panel, 6"x6'
To place  bid, please click here