Rosebud in Shadow

Rosebud in Shadow

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW $50

     This little rosebud was found on the dim periphery of a photograph of several fully blown roses, but it was this small flower I chose to paint. I loved the way it seemed to emerge from the shadows with only a "baby spot" on its little bud casings (What are those called?). The dark, dark you see is pure Prussian Blue, not black. High contrast is always exciting, but must be careful with the edges.

Yellow Roses

Yellow Roses

8x10"

$160

DPW $112

Yellow Rosebuds

6x6"

$72

DPW $50

     These are supposed to be for the Challenge, Seeing Double. I think I might have not followed the directions to the letter, but it was important for me.  I wanted to paint yellow roses, one with analogous background and one with complementary background. I needed to see the effect of each approach. Here they are. I think the complementary color scheme is more striking (as would be expected), but I like the analogous treatment better. This is purely a matter of individual taste. And that is fine. There is room in the world for both.

The Yellow Challenge

Yellow Dahlias

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     This week it is the Yellow Challenge. Yellow is like other colors in that there are warm and cool versions of it. In this painting it goes from green/yellow, a little cool, to orange/yellow, a little warm. Even though the painting is based on yellow, the warm end of the palette, the green makes it a cooler painting with a warm focal point. This is an example of the 25/75% rule. 

     Yellow is such a cheerful color. You can hardly make it sad. I have at least three times the number of yellows in my studio as any other color.

Tulips Shadow Challenge

Tulips Shadow

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW $50

     This week's Challenge was to make the shadow a significant part of the composition. My problem was also to make the composition not look like I had cut the bouquet in half and just placed it carelessly on the edge of the canvas. This was a bit tricky because the composition might be working, but when you add the color, all the weight goes there, a little off balance. There are just so many considerations when making a painting. Actually, being a little off balance is not necessarily a bad thing.

Sutter Persimmon

Sutter Persimmon

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     When I find a good tree of "small scenes of nature," I usually enjoy painting two or three in a row and then feel ready to move on until another day. These persimmons are from a tree in Sutter Creek, California, another historic town in the Sierra Foothills. This time, I enjoyed trying to make the dark edge of the fruit, red, as dark as the leaf, green, so that no distinction of color shows. Then with the warm bright orange against a cool neutral negative space, I am pleased.

Persimmons

Persimmons

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     I love the genre I call "Small scenes of nature," so I go out into the orchards and climb trees or stop alongside the groves as I travel in order to photograph the beauty. So often nature provides just the color scheme you need as well as the composition. Here we have red and green. What could be better? Of course, there should also be some controlling idea for the painting, the "big idea." Sometimes the idea is not so "big." Here it simply is the light on the main persimmon and the smallest leaf casting a little shadow. Very little "big idea" but very necessary.

Flowers #7 Camellia Surprise

Camellia Surprise

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     This poor little canvas has been washed down so many times it is getting threadbare. Everything lately has been a disappointment until now. Finally I have one I like and it was easy! After working hours and hours on lousy failed paintings, suddenly I am surprised by the simplicity and ease that produced a success. You just can't figure out some things.

     This flower is from my camellia bush. (Deer don't like them much.) Last year I gave it a good pruning, and this year it is so loaded with blooms that it gave me a pleasant surprise. I really love this flower. It showed up just when I needed it.

Flowers #6 Daisies in a Corner

Daisies in a Corner

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW $50

     It seems I am under their spell. These little flower paintings are just so much fun. In this one, I used a dark blue canvas for a warm yellowish painting. I then used, very sparingly, a touch of red giving me a painting with red, yellow, and blue--the primaries. Limited palette, simple composition, shapes and values, not petals--done! Let me try that again.

Flowers #5 Daisies

Daisies

6x8"

$96

DPW $65

     These small florals are beginning to charm me. I can see why they are so popular with many artists. When I finished this one, I felt like saying, "Let me try that again!"
     I read Carol Marine's Art Byte on what daily painting means to her and found it inspiring and freeing. The artists on DPW teach me so much. Naturally, I have my favorites and really study them, examining the way they use art elements such as line, shape, color, composition, and also some odd little techniques. For example, lately I have been painting on red canvas. You can sometimes see it peeking through and I like that.

Flowers #4

Flowers #4

6x6"

$72

DPW $50

     The little flower paintings I see on DPW are delightful and inspiring. There are so many artists doing these, I was not sure I wanted to try, thinking I might not have anything fresh to offer. Of course, that is crazy thinking because we all know the creator did not worry that s/he was making pink flowers over and over again. I will just paint and try to remember that Emerson said, "These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God to-day."

Animal Close Up Challenge

Young Deer

8x8"

Oil

$128

DPW $85

     Deer come through our property all the time. (They ate all landscaping long ago.) They are such pretty creatures, so naturally, I have scores and scores of photographs. This week's Challenge was to paint an animal close up and I chose this little one.

     I wanted the picture to be warm and analogous, featuring just the eyes and nose. I used only yellow ochre, burnt sienna, and prussian blue for the whole thing, along with a little red for the insides of her ears. The black eyes and nose are a mixture of prussian blue and burnt sienna. Limited palettes are sometimes not really very limiting at all.

     

Forest 5

Forest 5

7x5"

Oil

$70

DPW $50

     Persistent may be too mild a word. Stubborn probably. Anyway, I got an idea and wanted to try it, so I took the painting from a few days ago and reworked it and now I like it. To me, it is an entirely new painting, still very simple, but at least it does not put me in a bad mood to look at it like the first version did. The old colors were too somber. The emotion was not right. The forest can be "dark and deep" but it does not have to be depressing.

Toes & Tail

Toes & Tail

6x6"

Oil

$72

     I am a persistent person, but I am also literate. When the writing is on the wall, I can read it.

     I have learned why one does not see many forest interior paintings. It is because they are almost impossible to paint well!!

     I am not the one to do it. At least, not now. Maybe I will return to it one day, but for now I am looking for cute cats. Here is one of my favorites, Pablo, the fabulous.     

Forest Interior 4

Forest Interior 4

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW Auction $50

     I think these forest scenes are coming down to a color issue. I am very glad I have embarked on this project because it will force me to address some matters that could otherwise be masked by subject matter. Paint a cute cat and I might overlook that it is a mediocre painting if the cat is cute enough.

     I have color theory education. I am just having a stumbling block in making my body believe and paint what I know. I think this is so important that I am willing to paint some bad paintings in order to learn it.

Forest Interior 3

Forest Interior 3

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW Auction $50

     I am being diligent in my landscape work. I really believe in it because so much must be dealt with in each little 5x7: color theory, composition, line, shape, and even deeper meaning. If I use color to create the emotion and value to create the drama, in a way, I have a metaphor. With my beautiful forest all around me, I should never be hungry for material. (Those two little daffodils at the forest edge are for real.)

     That being said, tomorrow I am painting my sister's cat.

     

Flowers #3 Easter Challenge

Flowers #3

Easter Challenge

6x6"

$72

DPW Auction $50

     What a day I have had! Daily Painting is supposed to be every day, not all day every day. I was surprised to find these lilies in a spring bouquet I picked up at the market.  I thought, Ha! They will be just right for the Easter Challenge. They began to open and look beautiful and dramatic. But after painting them all morning, they just looked like Easter lilies, ho hum. Pretty, but ho hum. Finally I cropped to this and found something I liked. It was hiding behind a fully bloomed Easter lily.

     Happy Easter.

Forest Interior 2

Forest Interior 2

5x7"

Oil

$70

DPW Auction $50.

     I have so much to learn. Landscapes, hm. This got away from me. I was trying to limit the colors and still ended up outside my color scheme. Here is what I wanted: cool, blue-green key color, red-orange secondary color with accents of yellow and violet. It is cool, but the secondary and accent colors are a little confused. And how did cerulean blue get in there?! Incorrigible.

Flowers #2

Flowers #2

6x6"

Oil 

$72

DPW Auction $50. 

     When I saw these hot red Gerbers against the green drapery, I said, "Wow!" But when I began painting, I was in for a surprise. I thought I was seeing a dark object against a lighter background, but I was not. I put the red acetate sheet up and saw clearly that the red was a much lighter value than the green. My problem was to make the red still a "wow" without losing the value contrast and turning the red a washed-out pink. I stayed on the warm end of the palette and used yellows, not white, to lighten the red. I had to sacrifice some intensity, but the flowers still convince me that they are red.

     

Flowers #1

Flowers #1

6x6"

Oil

$72

DPW Auction $50. Click to bid.

     I want to be able to paint flowers and make them fun to look at, not boring. I have been studying and have picked up a few ideas from some of my favorite artists. I tried some here and when I began, I thought, this is not going to work, but it did! I like it fine. 

     Even though this is not really my very first painting of flowers, I am calling it #1 because I hope it will be the beginning of something.

Oak Tree

Oak Tree

6x8"

Oil

$96

(DPW Auction $65. Click to bid.)

     I live in a beautiful place, forest all around, and yet I find it difficult to find the painting in my lovely surroundings. "Can't see the forest for the trees."

     This scene is right outside my studio window and I love looking at it every day just as I do many other favorite scenes 360 degrees. (Lucky me.) I have struggled with landscapes for a long, long time, but I am stubborn. I know that if I can get the hang of it, I will have a mountain of fun. (Yes, I know, a pun.) The treasures are right in front of me. I am trying to open my eyes.