Our peonies were blooming last week so I clipped a few. They were very droopy from the rain so I propped them up with some branchlets from our Japanese maple. Painting flowers with lots of little petals is always daunting! I always like the containers better than the flowers!
I did a study of some of my African violets yesterday, using a ‘split primary’ color palette (warm and cool red, yellow and blue tube colors + white). I found it virtually impossible to capture the near neon magenta of the flowers, but did my best with what I had, rather than digging for another tube color.
I’m currently taking a class on mixed media and was intrigued when teacher Susan Hostetler mentioned “mock frescoes”, made by painting gouache into still-damp spackle or joint compound slathered onto cardboard or other heavy substrate. I decided to try it. My first attempt was a simplistic sugar bowl sitting on our kitchen table. My quick contour was misshapen, so I touched it up with some water-soluble pencils, moistening the marks to blend them into the gouache.
I then plopped down a seashell (interesting shape though dull colors) and tried again. I was happier with that one, though disappointed when a little flake popped out sometime later. Maybe a fixative would deter this type of defect — will have to research it. . . .
Sometimes it’s fun to challenge yourself: can you make a painting in a very limited number of strokes? Say, 15? I decided to try it the other day. I placed three shells from my beach-combing stash on a sheet of paper and attacked, carefully plotting color and placement of each stroke. At 15, I was itching to do ‘just a few more’ to beef it up ‘just a bit’, but gritted my teeth and concluded the effort. Here it is, along with a snap of the shell subject.
In keeping with the spirit of the test, I made only a few light guidelines for size and placement, before constructing the design via ‘color-shapes’.
We’ve got a beautiful fluffy pink smoke bush in our front yard. It’s only a few years old but it’s grown huge. Its color is very interesting. Not ‘PINK pink’, but something fairly indescribable. I can show you better with my brush than with my words. I also give you a few photos below to get a sense of what I was looking at when I painted this one live.
One of my collectors has bought three of the veggie watercolors I painted last year as a consequence of a workshop with Wendy Artin. And she wants a fourth so she can group them in her kitchen. What to do? A pretty cauliflower was in our fridge so this is how I spent my evening in front of the TV. . . .
I made a few mistakes since I was painting it direct — without a pencil sketch, as Wendy had taught. So I resorted to a bit of gouache so I wouldn’t have to start over!!
One of my grandsons and I harvested some flag irises from the garden on Sunday to decorate our Mother’s Day table. I decided to paint those from life for my Monday painting. I didn’t like the outcome – especially the background, which was pretty awful, so I tweaked it later in the day — and then tweaked it again today!! I’m including the first and second ‘drafts’, which illustrate my changes in scale as I reworked the thing.
#9 Flag Irises. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 8″x10″.
#9 Irises from the Garden. Oil on Primed Arches Oil Paper. 8×10
Initial Composition
Here’s yesterday’s painting, along with its reference. I feel like I’m on a marathon and am ALREADY huffing and puffing!!
Potomac River at Shepherdstown WV – #4. Oil on Paper. 8″x10″.
Potomac River at Shepherdstown WV .
We flew to California for Christmas this year and, as usual, I occupied myself at the airports and in-air by some iPad doodling. Thought it would be fun to share some of those from this and earlier flights with you.
I squeezed in a few iPad paintings over the Christmas holiday. My favorite is this sketch of son Sam and grandson Max relaxing over a new book. I shared on Facebook & will add again below the little scribble I did of Max’s lego creation made from a complex (5 bag) set on Christmas Day. He only called for adult help once or twice in the multi-hour endeavor. Way to go, Max!
Sam & Max Reading. Original iPad Painting. 2017
Max’s Christmas Production. Original iPad painting. 2017.