Three in a Row

February 9, 2016 4"x4" on Aquabord

Palette: Ultramarine Blue, (touch of Peacock Blue), Lemon Yellow, Permanent Yellow, B+W

Available on Daily Paint Works

Lately, I have found myself losing interest in the solitary subject. Though it makes for good practice, I feel like I'm getting a hang of using gouache (except for on claybord, which is always a challenge) and will improve more by moving my focus to quick composition. Then, there is the fact that I've painted my way through most of the objects in my house that I can physically move to my studio. Do you buy produce just for still lives? For instance, I've considered buying red apples, even though I don't enjoy them as much, for a different punch of color.

This painting was one of the more enjoyable pieces to make. The laying out and twisting back and forth of the apples, the drawing, the color choices.... It all came together without too much fuss. This black vase was one of the few things I've bought specifically to paint, and I picked it up at a favorite antique/thrift store. I love the modern shape, and was originally dead-set on painting it with a solitary lemon. While I might return to that composition, I thought three little apples all in a row would work better on the square panel. 

Gouache Sketches: Puzzles and Apples

February 4, 2016 4"x4" on Aquabord

Palette: Permanent Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Deep, Burnt Sienna + W

Available on Daily Paint Works

This mid-week has been a series of quick gouache sketches. I find that if I want to try to capture something quickly, I gravitate towards apples. There is something to their slightly-lumpy-but-still-smooth form that makes me feel more comfortable using looser brush strokes. 

February 1, 2016 ~4"x4" on Watercolor paper

Palette:B+W

February 2, 2016 5.5"x8.5" on Watercolor paper

Palette: Prussian Blue, Raw Umber, B+W

Interlocking puzzles were a subject I spent a long time with during my sophomore year of college. It was nice to revisit one of the puzzles for an evening. I still remembered the trick to parting them!

Short Time, Practice Time

The last two nights I noticed that my patience was running a little thin. The desire to paint was there, but the desire to spend 4-6 hours completing a finished painting was not. I wanted to wrap up my work day, drink a glass of wine and play scrabble with my husband! So, I decided to narrow my focus to two areas that have been causing me trouble:

January 21, 2016 5.5"x8.5" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Black & White

1. Values. I may have mentioned this in an earlier post, but I have always loved paying close attention to subtle value shifts. Translating that from my drawings and oil paintings into gouache has been the most (second most?) difficult thing about the medium. I've found I have far greater success in the application and mixing of color than in shifting values with one color. To practice with this, I decided to do a rendering of an egg. I will definitely need more practice to get things up to par, but this black and white study was a way to start working on the problem without eating my time.

January 22, 2016 6"x8" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Black & White

2. Speed & Brush Size. Over the last week of painting, I've noticed that I've introduced some of the difficulties I have in oil painting to my gouache studies. In particular, my tendency to waste time by using very small brushes. Since I wanted to wrap up quickly, I decided to limit myself to primarily using one size brush for the study and to complete it within the hour. 

I think in the future when I am wanting to limit my time for the day painting I will return to these two types of studies. It will be good to break up the time I usually spend on setting up a still life and selecting a palette, getting right to the bone of what I need to work on.

Today I feel my enthusiasm is refreshed! Also, a new package filled with Claybord and Aquabord panels has just arrived, so I am off to play paint!