Cupcake for Wayne

Cupcake for Wayne

8x8" 

Oil

$128

(Daily Paintworks beginning bid $65)

     This week we were to paint something in the style of a famous painter. It was known as the Picasso Challenge. I chose Wayne Thiebaud to imitate, one of my all time favorites. He often painted cakes, pies, ice cream cones, all lined up in a case, or singly. He is really a lot of fun, and always bright. When he signed his name he included a little heart, so I did too.

     As much as I admire him and enjoy his work (and what can be simpler than one little cupcake?), I found that I was not really able to paint in his style. It still looks very much like my own painting. I think there is a lesson in that. 

Dancing Shoes

Dancing Shoes

6x8"

Oil

$97

(Daily Paintworks Auction beginning bid $65)

     This week's Challenge was to paint your shoes, anyway you want. I chose shoes I rarely get to wear, but I really love them, high enough to be pretty and low enough to be able to walk and dance!

     The shoes are metallic gold and I set them up on a gold colored cloth. All the color was gold, gold, gold. How was I going to make a cool shadow when the shadow I saw was dark gold? I think it could have been good with a dark gold shadow, but I tried for green instead because it is the warmest cool. Then I put a little of the green in the shoes themselves to unify the canvas, and then I needed a little gold in the green shadow to balance that out.  Sometimes the simplest painting like this one takes a lot of work.

Sycamore

Sycamore

9x12"

Oil

$215

(Daily Paintworks Auction beginning bid $115)

     Landscapes! If I could learn to paint them, I would have a world of joy at my fingertips. I look around and behold the beauty of the earth. There are paintings just crying out to be done, no end of subject matter for me and my brushes. But success lies just out of reach. I continue to try because I know that if I can make it, I will be a very happy painter.

     These trees are at a park near Beale Air Force Base. I took lots of pictures there. As I said, there are paintings everywhere. I chose this one this time because it was mainly one tree, and the thing I liked about it was the light on the white trunks. I thought if I just stick to those simple parts, I might be a little further along on the road to success.  I wash down so many landscapes. I am going to keep this one.

Lioness with Cub

Lioness with Cub

18x18"

Oil

$648

(Daily Paintworks Auction beginning bid $420)

     A friend went to Africa and brought back so many wonderful pictures of wildlife and landscape. I was lucky that she shared those pictures with me since my own safari is yet to come.

     This photo shows the mother lion with her cub by the scruff and another cub (twins!) trotting alongside. To compose the painting, I had to eliminate the second twin and save him for another painting some day. I wanted this painting to be very vague in all areas except in the faces and paw. Those areas I gave detail to but left the rest of the image almost an abstraction. I also wanted the general color to be analogous with only a little spice color in the detailed sections. 

     With those goals in mind, I think it turned out, but not without two or three false starts.

Paint Your Pumpkin Challenge

The Great Pumpkin

6x8"

Oil

$96

(Daily Paintworks Auction beginning bid $65)

     I suppose the Challenge implied that the pumpkin should be a Jack O' Lantern type, but this one lives in the front yard of one of the lovely Victorian houses here in Nevada City, Ca, and because it reminded me of Linus' Great Pumpkin, I felt it was appropriate for the occasion.