Thistle

Marker, colored-pencil, pastel, laserprint transfer - 6 x 4 inches - NFS

Here's my submission to the Daily Paintworks Touchy-Feely Challenge, which is about "texture" this week. I started with a photo of a thistle I took, output to laser and transferred to panel so I could attack it with all sorts of color and the scraping of the X-acto knife.

Notan Challenge

 

Acrylic on Panel - 5 x 7 inches - Click Here to Bid

This weeks Daily Paintworks Challenge was the Notan Challenge. You can read all about it there.
We were assigned to do a sketch first to unite the darks into a harmonious patter, and then do a painting based on that drawing.

This is a funky little building in my neighborhood, and I've painted it before, but not from this photo.
For some reason, I sketched in the tree on the left, but left it out of the painting. I was kinda rushed. I set the timer for 20 minutes on this one, but went over by about 5 minutes.

Hidden House

Acrylic on Panel - 7 x 5 inches - Click Here to Bid

This is the home of a local farmer. I liked how overgrown the property was. There are tended gardens all around, and fields that have been cleared, but right up against he house was lots of trees and bushes.

Lilly Pond

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x 10 inches - Sold

Not Giverny, but Sonoma. The light was changing rapidly so I tried to quickly capture the spots where it was still hitting the pond before it was too late. It was quite a bit shadier by the time we packed up, but I think I managed to convey what it looked like when we arrived.

Lemon Pickup

Acrylic on Panel - 6 x 6 inches - Click Here to Bid

This truck appeared out of nowhere while I was trying to paint the house!
Actually I think I've painted the house enough so I chose to paint the truck. It also positioned my conveniently in the shade of the garage. 

Faint Hills

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches - Click Here to Bid

When we arrived to the location, it was hazy, like many mornings. I knew it would burn off if I waited a bit, but since I was already set up, I decided to try a quick sketch to capture the values of the distant hills while it was still faint.

Another "Fixer"

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches - NFS

Well, I did it again, again. It's true I did improve some things, but overall, it's just less appealing. The distant trees look see-through now, and the shapes have all become fuzzy and less interesting. I definitely got fussy with the thing and lost it. I sure hope I'm learning something by these mistakes.

A Perfectly Good Example of Not Fixing Things

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches - NFS

I spent the morning "fixing" a few paintings. Here's one I did last month, where I decided that it was too flat, as in not communicating the depth of field. So I tried to make the distant hills and trees less saturated, and made the foreground warmer. And I got rid of those pesky clouds. Result, something rather dull, and flatter.

Wow. How could I be so wrong, especially after all I've learned!

I think the original did have a few problems, but was probably more accurate in color, because it was painted on location.

Oh, it's just too painful to write anything more. Have fun comparing them as I go toss this one in the incinerator. 

Umbrellas

Acrylic on Panel - 5 x 17 inches - NFS

Back to the country for some more painting and some fireworks etc. Getting better at separating the greens and keeping it loose, but in photographing this next set, something interesting revealed itself. There was a swatch of orange on the backdrop I set these against, and when I viewed them in Photoshop before cropping, that orange really sang. Too bad I didn't manage to get any of it in the actual paintings.

I really think using an orange tone for priming the canvases would have helped me remember to get more of that tone in here.

Here's a faked version so you can see what I mean. It's not great, but it does hint at what could be.

Artist Studio Online Tour and Giveaways – A Blog Carnival

I don't really have a studio. I live in the most expensive city on Earth, so I paint in the kitchen/office/dining/living-room (and yes that's all one room). I also put away everything when I'm done, so there's really no studio. Just my pochade box on a tripod. The same setup in the home as in the field.

Marla Laubisch on the other hand has a great looking studio (pictured above) and has generously opted to share it with us along with 14 other artists. It really is an interesting tour, so check it out.

http://marlalaubisch.blogspot.com/2013/06/artist-studio-online-tour-and-giveaways.html

Marla Laubisch	Carol Schiff	Kaethe Bealer	Jo MacKenzie
Michael Chamberlain	Charleen Martin	Sally Binard	Jacklyn Karabaich
Sharon Graves	Sea Dean	Johnna Schelling	Taryn Day
Julie Ford Oliver	Sarah Sedwick	Kim Rempel	Cindy Michaud
Joanne Grant	Carmen Beecher	Cindy Williams	Cathy Engberg

Marla also has a giveaway painting for one lucky subscriber to her weekly newsletter, so get signed up and win!