Living in my Right Brain or Lost in Her Curls

Blue Dress

6x6 oil on panel

SOLD

I continue on my quest to draw or paint (at least) one face every day. I got lost in her curls the way I can get lost painting flower petals or books. Talk about your right brain. Artist Robert Genn writes a great newsletter twice a week -- The Painter's Key -- and the most recent was about the dreamy state artists go into while painting. Read it here. This happens to me frequently. Though it is a very happy place, at times it is unnerving to realize I've been elsewhere. Remember this?

Bosc Pears

Preaching to the Choir

12x12 oil on canvas

SOLD

In just a few short weeks I will have the good fortune to start classes with Laurel Daniel again. It will be a still life class focusing on value and temperature (thank heavens!) - none too soon - and I'm worried that I haven't painted from a still life set-up in a while. Standing in the produce section yesterday morning, these pears called to me from across the peaches, "pick 4 or 5 of us and call us preaching to the choir." What could I say? With both kids in school, I think I'm a bit giddy.

Aren't Scarves All the Rage This Year?

Tax Free Weekend

6x6 oil on panel

email for info

Truth be told, I'm more of a looker than a shopper. And so it suits me fine to tag along while others search and try on and compare and narrow down. I'm amazed by the sheer volume of products available for sale and facinated to watch people as they contemplate the goods. School shopping: check. Inspiration: check.

The Shape of Things to Come

Papa Smurf

8x8 oil on canvas

NFS

Lavagirl and her BFFs went through a Smurf phase some years back. I learned today that toys are about as fun to paint as fruit or faces. I think I'll try it again.

Playing Catch Up, As My Mother Would Say

Wigging Out

12x12 oil on canvas

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Did you ever arrive late to what you are sure is the party of the century? And you just kick yourself for dawdling and hesitating, missing out on even one minute?

That's the Different Strokes From Different Folks story. The artists who have participated from the beginning have forged true friendships and I admire (read envy... as green as the girl with the red hair above) that greatly. I hope I'm not too late - oh my gosh, it looks like fun!

This is another ancient DSFDF challenge - click here to see the original photo and submissions. Composition was a challenge - I ended up with 8 mannequins and I know even numbers are a no-no. Hmmm...

Letterman Sketch, Aux Trois Crayon

Conte crayons on paper

Reruns. Is it possible that I find even the Letterman reruns to be entertaining? Perhaps it's because I'm always drawing while watching. Yes, that's it. It actually takes me two times through the show to get it all. Makes perfect sense. I've been adding colors to my painting palette lately which I think has it's good and bad points. However, getting back to just the three used aux trois crayon is a "valuable" exercise, no pun intended. Click here for more on this traditional drawing method and my beloved Letterman sketch book.

Just Time for a Sketch: Painting in Fits and Starts

Walking the Dog

8x8 oil on canvas

Okay, granted, the week of/before school starts is probably not the best time for a mom to paint. Carpools and tryouts and shopping and such make opportunities spotty at best. Thus, I would have liked some of these edges to be a bit softer - the kind you get when working really-wet-into-really-wet. But it was basically a figure study - my goal was to work with the light and shadows. Check.

Another Woman

Pearl & Sterling Drops

6x6 oil on panel

SOLD

Here are the links I promised in the last post. Wow, that's alot of talent packed into one line. Grab a glass of iced tea and enjoy!
Milt Kobayashi, Malcolm Liepke, Linda K. Smith, Kim Roberti, Michael Carson

Little Women

Red Kimona

6x6 oil on panel

SOLD

Time to Paint but Not to Post

TTYL

6x6 oil on panel

I'm facinated by the number of uber-talented artists who paint, for lack of a better description, red-nosed women. And I'm totally bewitched by their subjects. There is Milt Kobayashi, Malcolm Liepke, Linda K. Smith, Kim Roberti, Michael Carson... sorry I don't have time right now to link their names to their websites but check back... I will. Or just 'google' them. All totally fabulous. What inspiration! So this week I'm trying my hand at a new (tiny but popular) canvas size - 6x6 - and red-nosed women.

I've gotten to paint every day... it's the photography and blog posting that hasn't bubbled up to the top of the list. We're all celebrating last night's glorious rain and Lavagirl's 13th birthday today. Her BFFs are coming for a slumber party and we've got an art project planned... hopefully I'll report success. She's such a blessing to my life. Mmwah, my darling daughter.

Pulling Your Own Weight

Venus v. Mars

2 8x8 oil on canvas

$165 - email here for info

This is another composition I've been playing with for some time - sketching, shading, generally trying to get each figure to pull his or her own weight. All part of the Must. Learn. To. Draw. effort. Each of these figures is handling the stress in a different way, throwing their weight onto one leg or the other, or transferring it to their ummm... posteriors (see #3 and #6). I understand this intellectually but describing it convincingly in paint is a great challenge for me. I don't know when I've ever had so much fun!!

You Did Mean a Portrait of the Cookies, Right?

Prijatno!
8x8 oil on canvas

NFS

I found out recently that one of my outlying twisted sisters (she’s married to a man who’s the brother of a man who is married to a twisted sister) is blogging. She lives in Houston, we don’t see each other as often as I’d like – I think the last time was by chance in the Denver airport – and I’ve always known she could cook. No, I mean really cook.

So we were trading emails and blog addresses this week - I said, wow those homemade chocolate-covered marshmallow cookies sure look good and she said, wow how about a simple portrait? And somehow, this morning early over coffee, those two worlds collided. Her blog is lovely – lots of great photos and recipes. She says she makes “an occasional foray to the utterly decadent.” Yep. Click here for a mouth-watering visit to Prijatno!

Better Late Than Never: Another DSFDF

Merrily X 4

12x12 oil on canvas

This was a DSFDF challenge in June. I was intrigued by the photo and meant to do the painting but life got in the way. How lovely it was to work on yesterday - Sharkboy, Lavagirl & Mr. Right all had prior engagements, the house was quiet, and I got to enjoy a treat I'd been saving. Just what the doctor ordered! Life is but a dream...

Different Strokes from Different Folks

I Left My Heart

16x8, oil on canvas

$165 - email here for info

This month's DSFDF challenge and my first cityscape. I eliminated 90% of the original photo and would simplify even further the next time. But it was fun and did exactly what the DSFDF is intended to do: challenge. The link to the DSFDF blog is in the blogroll over to your left - go there to see the photo and watch other artists submissions as they are posted!

Face Painting

watercolor in Moleskin

Truth be told, I haven't painted anything in the last three days I'd want to share with anybody. It happens. Thinking about Laura Frankstone last week reminded me of a beautiful project she did a few years ago where she painted 100 faces. I draw or paint at least one face everyday - even if it's just the quickest scribble. I confess, sometimes when I'm talking to someone, I am so distracted by the shapes and lines in their face that it's hard to keep track of our conversation.