Messy March Paintings Drop

March 27 2016 4"x4" on Aquabord
Available on Daily Paint Works

Hello again! This is a bit of a sloppy post, but I would like to get it out of the way so that I can move forward with more posts once again. This is a conglomerate post of several others that I began, but didn't post. A little due to time, but honestly - mostly due to matters of the mind.

So- is this all I painted in March and April so far?? Honestly, no, but not too much more.  I've created one other "decent" painting, but it was for a gift I don't want to spoil accidentally. I've also done a couple more paintings outside, a couple of abstracts that really did not work, and some planning for a larger project.

March 20 & 21, 2016 8"x10" on Claybord

A piece donated for an art auction - my largest gouache piece so far.

March 10, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette:Prussian Blue, Peacock Blue, Permanent Green Deep, Chinese Orange +W

Available on Daily Paint Works

March 9, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette:Prussian Blue, Peacock Blue, Permanent Green Deep, Chinese Orange +W

Available on Daily Paint Works

After a series of still lifes, I was itching to do some abstract work while still practicing looking from life. I took a favorite blue shirt with colors like the aurora borealis, twisted it, and painted a section paying closer attention to the colors than to representing it perfectly. A fun project that needed repeated.

March 6, 2016 ~4" x 5.5" in Watercolor Sketchbook

Palette:Prussian Blue, Chinese Orange, Yellow Ochre

A few weekend, my husband and I took our first driving trip to go hiking. It was my first trip to Missouri's mountain, Tom Sauk Mountain! I thought I'd stop to paint a couple of times, but I ended up only painting once. This might be my first little plein air study! It was a beautiful view on a beautiful day.

March 5, 2016 4.25"x5.5" on Watercolor Paper

Palette:Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, B+W

March 4, 2016  4.5" x 5.5" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Flame Red, Juane Brilliant, Ultramarine Deep, W

March 1-3, 2016 6"x8" on Claybord

Palette: Peacock Blue, Flame Red, Permanent Yellow, Yellow Ochre, B+W

Vase, Mallets, and an Obscene Shade of Orange

February 20, 2016 6"x8" on Claybord

Palette: Chinese Orange, Carmine, Terre Verte, B+W

Available on Daily Paint Works

It has been awhile since I sat down to do a larger, focused painting on claybord. (As a side note, it is strange to consider 6"x8" as large after doing 4 foot paintings for awhile.) This is a little red ceramic vase with a beautiful glaze that was really tricky to capture. It drips and swirls between white, deep red, and an almost green. I've mentioned before that painting on claybord can be a frustrating experience for me, but I loved being able to pick up the paint for colored highlights in the glaze. The bright reds were created this way, and the edges formed by the action worked with the pattern in the glaze.

I used my painting from the day before as a prep-day, and did a 20 minute gouache sketch to take a little time to consider the lighting and shape of the vase.

February 19, 2016 4"x6" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Carmine B+W

February 21, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette: Flame Red, Juane Brilliant, Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine Deep, B+W

Available on Daily Paint Works

After a day of spring cleaning, I settled down to paint and wanted to paint something BRIGHT! I looked around my studio and my Art/Work book stood out as a good backdrop color to use. For the subject matter I decided to take my husbands advice, for the probably the first time ever when it comes to subject matter, and painted his drum mallets. My loose approach to them didn't work great when it came to the tight wrapping of the yarn, but I did enjoy mixing all of the colors. I think I might return to the mallets for a longer composition when I feel like doing some tight, detail work.

February 18, 2016 ~0.75"x1" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Raw umber, B+W

And I suppose I should tack on my late-night painting sketch from Thursday, as well. I worked an evening event and just wanted to practice something quick! A teeny, tiny bottle did the trick. 

Kitty Cat Toys

February 16, 2016 4"x4" on Aquabord

Palette: Ultramarine Deep, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, B+W

Available on Daily Paint Works

The aquabord I used for this little painting was originally used for the first try of my rum composition. After realizing the painting wasn't working (maybe an hour of painting), I took it to the sink and rinsed off all the excess paint. There was still a shadow of the composition, so when I returned to use it again I decided to go with a dark subject matter. It was another evening painting, and I wanted to grab something fun that I could be looser with my brushstrokes. Since I am always tripping over little mice, I decided to paint this little guy. This gray and blue mouse is among the favorites of Copper, my younger cat, so it is often quickly lost under couches, chairs, stoves, fridges, you name it!

February 17, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Available on Daily Paint Works

Okay, I admit it! I've been slacking on noting my color choices. Before, I was writing the color selection down each time after I finished a painting (or before I began the next one and put my previous paints away) but I didn't do that this past week. I can't quite remember which paints I used for this carrot cat toy... I want to say lemon yellow, terre verte, juane brilliant... or it might have been lemon yellow, prussian blue, chinese red, and juane brilliant. Ah, well, it was another fun, silly still life.

Oranges in a Swirl

January 20, 2016 6"x8" on Claybord

Palette: Yellow Orange Permanent, Yellow Permanent, Flame Red, Prussian, B+W

This painting is available at Daily Paint Works.

Last night while I was painting, I became a tad hypnotized with the dish I was using for my still life, can you tell? The glaze on the plate is full of speckles and directional dripping, wonderful to paint! I’ve included some quick-snap progress pics of the painting throughout the night below.

Unbaked Brownies & Lemon Ginger Tea

January 16, 2016 6"x8" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Carmine, Ultramarine Blue, Raw Umber, B+W

Available for bidding or purchase at Daily Paint Works

This is probably my favorite painting from the past few days. The last few Christmases my brother's girlfriend has gifted us with a set of homemade mixed jar goodies - cookies, hot cocoa, dirty rice, etc. They are always one of my favorite gifts and I try to spread them out over time. The one I chose to paint was a brownie mix in a beautiful purple glass jar (which will need to be painted with yellow flowers in the future). The very next night my husband whipped up the brownies while I was painting as a surprise, and they tasted just as good as they looked! 

January 17, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette:Juane Brilliant, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, B+W

January 18, 2016 6"x8" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Juane Brilliant, Lemon Yellow, Peacock Blue, Chinese Orange, B+W

The next two days were a challenge and I was in a bit of a tiff with my paints. It is one thing to see the subtle values on an egg, but an entirely different one to create them with gouache and my brush kept picking up pigment from the claybord rather than setting it down. 

January 18th began with another painting on claybord and a composition I have been really excited to try out. However, the paint was not working with me and the night was growing late. Eventually, I realized that I want to give this still life a strong effort was not going to accomplish that while drowsy. I grabbed some produce from the kitchen and whipped this up instead to keep to my painting-a-day schedule!

January 19, 2016 6"x8" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Lemon Yellow, Prussian Blue, Chinese Orange, B+W

Yesterday's painting will need a better photograph later on, the details of the lemon don't come across quite right from the scan even with a bit of editing. Though the lemon wedges have a similar texture to the grapefruits I've been painting, the values and little color shifts are much more subtle and needed a different approach. The shadows of the lemon are a bit more purple than the green they appear in the scan above, but the rest of the colors are pretty accurate.

Yellow and blue are my favorite color pairings, and I hope to use this palette again soon. You might even see this little dragonfly teacup paired with lemons again! While ultramarine blue mixes well with just about every color I've tried, I really love prussian blue and get the feeling I'll return to it more and more often.