Green Pot

3/31/10 "Green Pot", 10" x 10", Oil
This painting is an exercise in trying to harmonize greens and yellows.

Red Pitcher - NFS

3/30/10 "Red Pitcher", 10" x 10", Oil
Robert Genn's recent article, Birth Notice, gives an excellent rationale for putting your work out there.  It pretty much coincides with my experience about daily painting.  Let me know if you want to be "daily painting buddies!"

Pitcher with Yellow Apples

3/29/10 "Pitcher with Yellow Apples", 9" x 9", Oil
The challenge of this painting was to try out a new canvas--an inexpensive but good quality acrylic primed cotton canvas made here in the USA--I'm trying to buy US-made products when I can.  However unfortunately, the canvas has no grab at all--it is pretty non-absorbent. So I'm still looking for a good quality pre-primed canvas that has some absorbent properties, if anyone knows of any.

Yellow Apple - NFS

3/28/10 "Yellow Apple", 8" x 10", Oil
Artists who are really good at drawing can create the perfect oval of a bowl or jar in one sweep of the brush.  The rest of us resort to mirrors to see the image in reverse to determine where we have gone wrong.  I have a tendency to slant just about everything, so I have to be careful about this and by reversing the image, especially on the computer, the error is sometimes dramatic and obvious.  The oval of this bowl is not perfect, but it is better than the first one I tried!

Early Spring, Nisqually

3/27/10 "Early Spring, Nisqually", 10" x 8", Oil
Because of a back problem, my trip to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge today for a Plein Air Washington paintout was short lived. But the colors were beautiful there, very pale, and I wanted to try doing a painting from memory back in my studio.  So this is a studio painting with hopefully a plein air flavor.  I was trying to capture the feeling of the place, not any exact location.  I think painting from memory is an excellent exercise and has all sorts of possibilities for interesting experiments.

Two Pears One Apple - NFS

3/26/10 "Two Pears One Apple", 10" x 8", Oil
I have a stack of panels that have a non-absorbent gesso--the "ordering mistake" gesso.  But I thought I'd try painting on these just for the experience.  Its a little like painting on plastic--the brush pulls off paint as easily as it puts in on.  So I had to work at laying on the paint.

BTW--I've written an article on my main website blog about what I've learned so far from this daily blog.

Yellow Roses Green Apples

3/25/10 "Yellow Roses Green Apples", 16" x 12", Oil 
This painting went through many iterations related to the color/value of the table top and the color/value of the background.  This is the latest one.  If I'd had more daylight, I might have experimented more.  At one point I completely lost contrast between the table top and the background, which is in itself is not a bad thing, but both were too close in value and color to the vase, so it just didn't work.  I also used fake green apples and the color was hard to harmonize.  Have to get some more real apples!  The colors are so much better.

Reading - NFS

3/24/10 "Reading", 11" x 14" Oil
This painting was a challenge all the way around and I'll probably wake up tomorrow and look at it and want to "fix it."  But challenges are what make painting so interesting and also fun.  Yesterday I took slides of the painting as I went along and created my first video.  So if you want to see how I muddle through a painting--it is posted on the blog--and for those of you who know one of my favorite models--a clip of her music that is fabulous.