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",
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14 - Zahaira

Today I revisited yesterday's theme.. but focused on just the one woman... She was my favorite part of yesterday's painting (Leaving the Beach) and I just wanted to explore her some more.  I decided to use a triad color scheme of red orange - blue green - and red violet but I started it  by painting an under painting of largely complementary colors... I included pictures of the different stages of the painting below... I have done something similar to this on several other paintings... and then leave some of the underpainting showing through in the final painting.  I like the effect of this technique, and think I need to experiment more with it!  Btw... look up the meaning of the name Zahaira... (you can find it here) it just popped in my head when thinking of a title for this one... I like what it means...

Zahaira, oil on canvas, 12" x 24"
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Day 29 - Going Places

I love the geometry that happens in street scene compositions.. Especially this street scene that is somewhere in Prague... Yesterday I commented on the graffiti that seems to be everywhere in Prague.  I also noticed their amazing sidewalks and streets.  Many of the streets and sidewalks are beautifully patterned cobblestones... The architecture is outstanding also.. I can see why many people visit Prague just by wandering around on Street View.  It is rich with artwork just walking down any street, from actual statues, to friezes on buildings, to incredibly ornate architecture.  Anyway, I found this young lady, who moments before had been gazing at the mannequin in the store front.  I wanted to paint that scene, but unfortunately most of her body was obscured by the tree.  I opted for this one, just a little ways down the street.  It looks like she didn't want that dress after all...
This painting is available for auction. To place a bid, please click here.

Going Places, oil on panel, 6"x6'
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Day 19 - Lady in Blue

Good Evening... Short and sweet tonight. Today's painting is of a young metropolitan woman walking confidently through the streets of Paris, France.  Found this little scene using street view again.   Love that.  Was intrigued by this nameless woman who seems like she is off to somewhere important.  Hope her day turned out good, whenever that may have been!

Lady in Blue, oil on panel, 6"x6"
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