Left Behind 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

This painting sat for a while. I couldn't put my finger on the problem but eventially it surfaced. The original flower was pale and washed out, the bottle on the left did not reflect enough colors from the other two objects and the glass in the middle, well I am still not sure about it. There reaches a time when you take the brush away from your other hand and say "move on!".  Why the title? Ask my daughter.

Vaseline Jar? Oil on Gessoboard 6" x 6"

I found that little green jar at Goodwill. It probably isn't a collectible Vaseline but if it is, what a great deal for 99 cents!

Cafe Gambino Show

Several of my minature paintings will be on display at Cafe Gambino for the months of September and October. The opening for the show will be Sunday, September 11, 2011 from 2:00- 4:00. It is located in Metaire, La. on Veterans Hwy.
Hope to see you there.

Pair of Bottles Oil on Gessoboard 6" x 6"

Looking down on the bottles meant the sides of the bottles would not be parallel to the side of the gessoboard. I had to keep that in mind as I worked back and forth from bottle to background. Overall I like the softness of the painting. I did not get too picky with the details. 

Pair of Bottles

Yes, I have been bottle shopping. I found the brown bottle in an antique shop on the discount shelf! And the other, which contains oil to lubricate fishing reels, at a local consignment shop. What treasures!

I started with a sketch using burnt sienna. This helped me to see the shapes and shadows before committing to the color. I was happy with the negative space along the top, and the light shining on the back pear through the brown bottle, and the light shining through the front bottle. There was a pleasing movement to the whole painting.

Blue Horse 6"x6" oil on gessoboard

Well the cookie cutter horse isn't really blue- it's metal. It does catch a lot of blue from that deep blue milk of magnesia bottle. So I guess I can justify the title of  "Blue Horse". The biggest challenge with this painting for me was the jar of medium in the left corner. I almost changed the color of the lid to a light red but decided against it.  I decided that the blue-orange complement with analogous colors was enough to make it work. I am pleased with the composition on this painting.

Blue Horse - Sketch- 6"x6" charcoal

Since this painting has a bit more compostion going on than most of my small paintings, I decided to sketch it in first with charcoal on my gessoboard. Vine charcoal is very forgiving. It can be wiped out in a second with tissue paper if mistakes need correcting. I was glad I did this because the first tonal testing (bottom) proved off balanced. I admitted it reluctantly after taking a photo to post. The next tonal (top) testing seemed more pleasing.

Hexagon Mystery Box 6"x6" oil on gessoboard

Question. How does a hexagon recede in a distance. I am familiar with a 4 sided box perspective but I don't think this one follows the same rules. All the lines of one side has a vanishing point but when you see the opposite side, is it parallel to those lines or do they recede also and if so, is it to the same vanishing point. Perhaps there are three vanishing points. Who knows. I only ask because, as Roma Quartana would have said it, I had a devil of a time trying to figure that one out.

I learned a lot from this one. 1) paint more often 2) don't use burnt umber as the undertone because I had trouble covering the white areas later 3) don't put oil paint in the refrigerator to keep- no comment 4) get the perspective right before painting. Well that about does it I think.

Mandarin Tea 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

This was a fun one to do. I enjoyed painting the mandarins because there was such a variation of color from the shadow to the highlights as well as the reflection of the white cup.

Good Knight 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I was intriqued by the light going through the amber bottle.  The influence of color was more intense on the horse than how I have painted it. But I am pleased with the color mixes that I made for the shadows. I think I got that right.

"I Love You This Much" 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

I admit when my mom and I played that game, our arms would be opened much wider. But the little salt shaker ( who is missing her pepper partner) found a new love. What a pair they make!

My Favorite Veggie 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The challenge of the week:  paint my favorite veggie. I know there are two veggies in the painting but the summer squash looked so cute when I put it next to the bell pepper, I had to keep it in the still life. I like bell peppers because they add that "something special flavor" to dishes, especially red beans.

After setting up this still life, I realized I used analogous colors on the color wheel that ranged from yellow to blue-green and used the complement red-violet for the background. I used a smooth-toothed canvas which takes some time getting used to. If I were to do this painting over, I would spend more time on the value sketch before progressing with the painting.

Me- Parts anyway 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

The Self Portrait challenge. Not something I would have chosen, Lord knows but here it is. The face seems a little wide but perhaps it needed a stronger shading along the side of the face. Well finished no matter what. I learned a lot especially not to try another self-portrait!

Me- The beginnings- the value sketch

Ok, I played with this thing long enough to try to make it look like the photo. Even though it doesn't look like me, well maybe some parts do, I still had a lot of practice in placing the values... dark against light, light against dark. Always the same thought process for me.

Me -Photo

This week's challenge: self portrait. I took a zillion photos of myself holding the camera at arms length. Finally I got a few that I felt that I could work with. After chosing the final cut, I went into my photo shop and changed this photo to a black and white so that I could more easily see the subtle value changes when I began to paint. Then using the same program, I used an artist brush to soften the look. This eliminate some unnecessary details.

Lost Marbles 6" x 6" oil on gessoboard

From this week's challenge I chose to use the primary colors on the Color Wheel. The predominant color is red (pink), secondary is blue and the least amount of color used is yellow. The biggest challenge was to mix a neutral gray for the glass. The grays ranged from a warm yellow gray to a cool blue gray.

Cock-a-doodle-doo 6" x 6" Oil on canvas

This is the "chicken challenge" for the week. I changed the background to blue-violet from the original photo which had several different colors. I decided to keep the whole painting in the analogous color range with the two adjacent colors on either side of red.

What a homely little fellow.

German Landscape Challenge

Well maybe it doesn't look anymore like Germany than down the road from here. Lots to learn about landscape painting. I pulled out my book by Morgan Samuel Price to get an idea of what color scheme I wanted to use because the photo that I painted from left a lot to be desired- to me anyway. If you wish to visit the website where I am taking all these Challenges, it is http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenges. It is interesting to see the interpretations of many different artists.

Lemon Aid 6" x 6" Oil on gessoboard

This brave little lemon is trying to rescue his friends by standing on the lid cover. Lots of luck!

Tradition Continues 5" x 7" Oil on canvas

Painting over the value sketch, I tried to match the same values when mixing the colors. Where to start? I decided to first get the skin values in the light and shadow on the face. I knew it was light in value but not as light as the rim of the cup, the milk carton, and the powdered sugar on the beignets.

I am thinking about entering this painting in an exhibit at the Southeast Louisiana University President's home in Hammond. If it is accepted, it will hang there for a year and will be in a lovely catalog along with other local artwork.