Moose

Thank goodness paintings look better in photos!  A friend sent me this picture that I worked from.

I did not like how this one turned out at all, but in the photo it looks barely passable.  I painted it over two days because the first day it was too wet to work, and couldn't get anything to stick.  The second day, I wiped off the body three times and I still wasn't happy with it!   I believe I'm starting too juicy.  My paints from Triangle Coatings, are very creamy.  Don't know why I feel like I need to add medium.

I've never been good at animals, the  fur is hard to paint!  I find it's difficult not to look at all the 'fur' and just focus on the main light and dark areas.   And I need to remember to start with dryer paint in the beginning.

I took my son to Bozeman over the weekend, 14 hour round trip!  I brought my camera so I could take some reference photos.  But, hard to recognize a good spot when you're driving 80, and then once you see it, it's too late.

I definitely need to take time to go out on the weekends to take reference photos like I promised myself.    I just want to start with very small areas of landscape.  Just a tree or two to begin with....

basket of apples

Basket of Apples

So I have been so upset with myself because I haven't been committing to my one painting a day.  I was busy for a few days and then felt a little under the weather.  On Monday I thought I'm going to paint no matter what.  So, I ended up going for my daily hike, then planted my garden seeds, and by that tine it was already getting late in the day.  Then, before starting a new painting,  I decided to try to fix a few of my previous paintings.  A fly had landed on my wet yellow onions  painting and walked all around it making marks until it finally ended up  getting stuck in the shadow.  I spent about an hour trying to fix it and adjust the shadow until I ended up having  a complete mess and just threw it away. Argh!    Then, I thought I'll 'fix' my orange painting too.  I wanted to infuse a little more color into the orange slices and cool down the shadow.  I started by covering the whole thing with linseed, and then the colors flowed and blended a little better than trying to do it on a dry canvas like I did with the onions.  It turned out just okay, and at least I didn't make it any worse.   By that time I was already starting to get a headache, but forced myself to paint something.  I grabbed a miniature basket of miniature plastic apples and and thought I'll just go for it.  It was much too complex a painting to start the way I was feeling and I definitely wasn't in the mood.  I just rushed through it to get it done because by the end I had a full blown headache.  It looks extremely amateur, but I'm posting it anyway because I said would post everything.  I could probably go in and fix it, but I think I'll just move on.

I've decided that still life just doesn't excite me.  Soooo, why am I putting off learning to be a landscape painter when that's what I REALLY want to do?  So, my new plan is to only paint Mon - Thurs so I don't get burned out.  I'll take landscape reference photos on the weekends.  We'll see how that goes....

In the meantime found a wonderful landscape painter that I would love to emulate;  Andy Dolphin.  He has quite a few great videos on You Tube.   Here's a link to his blog;

myweekinart.blogspot.com

Yellow Onions - Painting #4

Tried yellow onions this time, and I think it was a little bit easier.  I 'kinda' like them which is unusual for me!   However, I still think I  over worked them. Wish I could learn to leave things a little more abstract because those are the paintings I really love, but I can not resist the urge to blend.   These actually looked awful until I blended the shadow and light side together quite a bit.   Blending gives me great pleasure too, so even though I like the looks of more abstract paintings, I think I won't worry about it for now and just try to develop my own technique.  Maybe I can leave them more rough looking after I'm comfortable with the whole process.  The thing that is amazing me is how each of these paintings so far have looked  just awful half way through, but once I put the background on, it all comes together and the colors turn out very close to the real thing  (and I'm only using my limited palette).  At the beginning  they look no where near close to the colors I need, but like magic, at the end the color was  remarkably close!  What  I  think I really need to learn how to do though is invest lots of variations of color at the beginning instead of trying to add my variations as I go.  Right now, I put the colors  on, blend, add some more colors,  blend....   and I think that is what makes it look overworked.   I always do the background last because then I can 'cut' down my subjects.  Makes them look more 'planted' into the paint instead of on top with too severe of an edge.  One thing I've learned, is  to put a little bit of the subject color in the cast shadows.  That way the shadows don't look so drab.   After looking again at this photo, these cast shadows still look drab.  They are too brown and should be more of a blue or purple and a little lighter.  Oh well, I'm learning....  But maybe I'll tweak it tomorrow;)

White Onion - Paintng #3

White Onion - Painting #3

Not happy with this one, although it does seem to look a little better in the photo than in real.   Most paintings do, and I'm not sure why?  White is hard to paint and so are onions!  What color is white?  I was trying to think of the light side as yellowish and the shadow side as purplish.  But, I couldn't actually 'see' the white in a yellowish color so was hard to do.  I know for white, you just kind of have to choose what type of  'off' white color you'll use, and then use the compliment for the shadow side.  According to the late  Helen Van Wyk, one of my all time favorite painters, when you paint onions you;  invest in a lot of color, put it on horizontally for the most part,and then blend it vertically to give you the onion skin look.  I needed to invest a lot more color and not overwork it with my vertical strokes so much.  I think I'll paint a yellow onion tomorrow to see if I have any better luck.

Oranges - Painting #2

Oranges - Painting #2

I'm not crazy about this painting but I'm going to post them all.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  My goal is to not fuss, but just do it and try to keep it limited to under two hours.  After two hours I get tired.  The old Lana, would have wiped this off before finishing because the orange color did not look orange until I added the background.  Weird how that happens!   I am using a limited palette;  Cad Yellow Light, Alizeran Crimson, Ultra Marine Blue, and Transparent Red Oxide.  Plus Titanium White.   Color is overwhelming to me, and I think a limited palette makes it a little easier.  I use the Transparent Red Oxide to tone my board and for my drawing.

I am going to try to post one new thing I've learned after each painting.  After all, that's the reason for painting small and often.  To learn quickly.  I've learned to start with my bristle brush to lay in the color, and finish with my sable brush.  I use the sable to work the edges and add more color on top.  I'm trying to think of my start more like a 'coloring book'.  Who's afraid to color in a coloring book?  Once I get in my base colors then it's kind of fun to mess around and put in my additional colors.  Right now I'm pre mixing all my colors before I start painting.   I tweak them as I go, but I think this also simplifies and makes it easier instead of mixing each color from scratch when it's needed. 

It was hard getting started today because I was making excuses already of what I needed to do before I could settle in to paint.   I guess you can see by the date, that I already missed posting yesterday!  Not a good way to start.  But, I did do some work in my studio yesterday.  I'm working on  a large abstract.  I need something for a bare wall in my bedroom.  Abstracts are not as easy to paint as they appear to be on YouTube and I'm still not happy with it.  I'm going to re work it this weekend and if it turns out OK, I'll post.

Pear - My first painting

Pear - Painting #1

I'm so inspired by Carol Marine and her blog, that I've decided to do it my self.   Check her out if you haven't already.  Carol decided to paint one small painting a day, post it and blog about her journey.  I've been 'thinking' about this for a while now, and have decided I'm just going to DO IT!  I am going to schedule it in just like a job.  1 p.m. (or earlier)  every afternoon with my only excuse being if I am actually busy doing something else.  I am a realtor and also 'flip' houses.  But, if I'm home, I WILL be in my studio by 1:00.

I have about 70 small 4x6 masonite boards cut and gessoed and ready to go.  I plan on painting all of those before I go bigger.  Mostly still life, but then I would really like to get into landscape.  Landscape interests me the most.  I want my style to be somewhere in between realism and abstract.  So that's what I'm aiming for.

 I started painting when I was about 12, but I go through looonnng stretches of not painting at all.  Like years!  You can't learn to be a great painter unless you commit a lot of time to it.  "A masterpiece was never created by a lazy artist."  My kids are now grown, I have my own studio and I now have time to do it.  It's scary for me.   I stress over each painting!  This pear took me 3 or 4 tries and hours to do.  For some reason I avoid going to my studio.  Why?  I guess it's the fear of failure.  I can paint one good painting, and then I seem to  forget everything I've ever learned about painting with flop after flop that makes me depressed and wanting to never do another painting.

My goal is to find the 'joy' in painting again like when I was a kid.  I envy painters who paint effortlessly and joyfully without the fear of failure.  I hope to one day get to that stage because there is nothing in this life that would make me happier and feel more complete and satisfied in my life than to be a professional painter able to make a living from my paintings.

So, stay tuned for painting number two tomorrow....