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. 

Vessels for Favorite Beverages

February 6, 2016 5.5"x8.5" on Watercolor paper

Palette:Ultramarine Blue, Carmine, B+W

February 7, 2016 5"x7" on Aquabord

Palette:Prussian Blue, Chinese Orange, Raw Umber,, B+W

Available on Daily Paint Works

February 8, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette: Permanent Yellow, Peacock Blue, Chinese Orange B+W

Available on Daily Paint Works

Onward to Month Two: Tea & Singing Bowl

January 31, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette: Lemon Yellow, Burnt Sienna, B+W

Available on Daily Paint Works

I have completed one month of daily painting! I have gotten so much delight out of being able to say "I have created 16..23...28 paintings this year!" When I sat down for my final painting of January, a little TNG mug, I opted for one of the Ampersand Claybords since it had been so long since I'd painted on them (a whopping five days), and I felt it. Painting on watercolor paper and the Ampersand Aquabord is a far more intuitive process for me, so I'll need to keep the Claybord in regular rotation if I want to improve.

This morning feels differently than the days preceding, not like a month has passed at all. I feel aware of how easily painting every day has returned to my habits, and how easy it could pass back out. I know there are '30 paintings in 30 days' challenges, and I'm glad that I didn't opt for that goal. There is something more to learn from this experience.

February 1, 2016 5"x7" on Aquabord

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

Available on Daily Paint Works

For my first painting of February, I selected a singing bowl that sits nearby my painting desk. I wanted the lavender fabric to mimic the motion the mallet would take in a trip around the bowl, to give the painting a silent echo. This is a subject matter I hope to return to once I give myself several days to complete a composition. There are many lovely details on the bowl that will take close concentration and time to capture. I did my best to give a quick idea of them here.

Lemon Slice in Tea

January 23, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

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

Available on Daily Paint Works Here

Perhaps it is because I try to limit the "pretty" things I buy myself, but when I am arranging my still lifes I almost always grab a gift to include. This cast iron teacup is part of a set my brother gave my husband and I several years ago. Some day, when I have an entire day open to me to paint, I would like to do a still life of the complete set - teapot, two cups, and two dragonfly coasters.

It helps that my brother selected my favorite shade of blue, meaning these will pop up over and over again. Since the tail of the coaster tilts up, it should remain interesting to paint from several angles. 

This little painting marks the first claybord that worked with me every step along the way! The medium was extremely forgiving of my mistakes last night, including needing to correct two spots when at the very end droplets of water fell from my paintbrush onto my cup.... ahh! 

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.

A Yellow Chair You've Probably Owned

January 15, 2016 4"x4" on Claybord

Palette:Yellow Ochre, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, a pinch of Permanent Yellow, + W

Available at Daily Paint Works

As I referenced in my initial post, I am hoping that painting daily and quickly will let me “loosen” up my painting process. This is for multiple reasons, one of which is that I am one of the artists “guilty” of drawing with paint. I am not sure if anyone has criticized me directly for it, but I am aware that my process of drawing and painting are not entirely distinct from one another.

Overall, I haven’t thought of it as too big of a problem. I love drawing! I will always love drawing. Painting, to me, is the opportunity to introduce color into my artwork. The problem comes when I use this as an excuse to take too long making each part perfect at every step along the way. Painting with gouache has made me address this fear on several occasions, particularly since I’ve trying claybord this last week. I get one or two layers into my painting and think, “This is terrible. The proportions have warped, the paint is uneven, there is no way that this will turn out at all okay!.”

But the goal of the project is to create a finished piece, even if it is a terrible piece, so I keep painting until it reaches an overall complete feeling. So far I’ve yet to think of one the paintings unredeemable when I’m done.  The problems have worked themselves, mostly, out and I feel as though I really painted it.

The chair above is one I’ve owned since high school, bought at a thrift store, is getting pretty worn down with age and love from my pets. Since I’ve had it, I have heard many people say that they or their great aunt had one just like it and a couple provide photographic evidence from decades ago! Now it is a studio chair for visitors, but let’s be honest - mainly for my pup and cats.

January 14, 2016 4"x4" on Watercolor Paper

Palette: Peacock Blue, Emerald Green, Prussion, Raw Umber, B+W