30 in 30, #15 – Winter Cheer

Winter Cheer, 6"x6", oil on board, $100

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Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem or saying a prayer. —Anne Morrow Lindbergh

 I am just fascinated by the sun streaming through the window onto whatever I put up on the sill. The little bowl of mums is still beautiful and I decided to see what magic the sunshine would work.

oil sketch; darks

middle values

30 in 30, #19 – Up the Road

Up the Road, 6"x6", oil on panel

Well, it is a challenge to get a painting done when you are on vacation, especially when you are staying in a condo with friends and doing lots of other things. After sightseeing all day yesterday, we stayed close to home today. The guys wanted to watch football this afternoon, so I took the chance to paint a scene from our drive yesterday. Yes, the grass was really that shade of green; our winter rains and this week's warm weather turned the world chartreuse. IPhone photo did something weird to the sky color though.

I talked Leslie into painting with me, and she painted her first oil painting, using a size 4 filbert brush and a rigger. We improvised: her palette was a couple of paper plates, and her canvas was taped to a cardboard.

Leslie did a great job! Here is her painting; it is of the same corner of the Demetria Estate Winery patio that I did a sketch of yesterday.

Demetria Corner by Leslie Fagan, 5"x5", oil on canvas

30 in 30, #13 – End of the Season

End of the Season, 6"x6",  oil on panel

“The sunflower is mine, in a way.”

― Vincent van Gogh

This sunflower was at Earthbound Organic Farm in Carmel Valley, California last November. It was pretty bedraggled, but caught my attention. Sunflowers are fun to paint; their colors and sheer size demand our attention. Hasn't every oil painter painted a sunflower at least once?

I painted this on a black-gessoed panel. I enjoy using a black panel now and then — it really makes me pay attention. The shadows were fun to paint on this; I'm especially pleased with the petals in shadow at the bottom.

I want to give a shout-out to Karen at K. Rike Gallery. She and her husband make these wonderful panel holders that were designed by Carol and David Marine. I had a problem with mine, and she made it good immediately. Fabulous customer service, and a wonderful product as well.
 

oil sketch

put the lights in first when painting on black;
you can see the leaf that I wiped out later

30 in 30, #12 – Prince Eugène

Prince Eugène, 6"x6", oil on panel

Let me introduce you to my all-time favorite rose. This is Eugène de Beauharnais, an old China/Bourbon rose, bred in France in 1838, and named for Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Josephine and stepson of Emperor Napoleon. It is fairly small, grows in a large pot, and has deep red-magenta blooms with the most incredible fragrance. The blooms don't last when cut, darn, but it blooms most of the year and there is almost always a bloom for me to admire and smell when I walk by. I don't know why it is not more widely grown, especially here in a mild climate where it fits so well into our smaller yards and patios.

I've never attempted to paint Eugène, but since this is my challenge month, I thought I'd try. This particular bloom had three centers, with hundreds (maybe) of petals. Way too much to put on a small painting, but I think I got the gist of it. 

Here's my reference photo, and a couple of progress shots. I really enjoy seeing other artists' process, so have been trying to include a few shots of mine.

Eugène de Beauharnais, China/Bourbon, 1838

sketch and blocking in darks

main shapes; trying to get the values clear while not losing the hues. 
Or getting the hues while not losing the values?

30 in 30, #11 – Lit by the Sun

Lit by the Sun, 5"x5", oil on panel

Mere change is not growth. Growth is the synthesis of change and continuity, and where there is no continuity there is no growth. — C.S. Lewis

Isn't this a great quote? Somewhat applicable to those of us who are suddenly painting every day...

I've enjoyed watching my bunch of freesias slowly open. They are incredibly graceful. I had put the vase on the living room mantel to replace the Christmas garlands, but brought it into the kitchen this morning to see what it would look like with the sun shining through the window. I shot some photos, and one of them had the sunlit blooms highlighted against a dark background. That inspired me to try this very different version of freesias. Their transparency is challenging to paint, but still so lovely.

I so appreciate the wonderful comments; you are so encouraging!
 

30 in 30, #10 – Promise of Spring

Promise of Spring, 12"x6", oil on gessoed 3/4" cradled hardboard.

"If I see freesias anywhere, I will be very disappointed." -- Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada

Just the opposite for me. I adore freesias. The hardy bulbs are sending up their leaves now, in all the odd places in our yard where I've stuck them over the years. I look forward to the blooms and once in a while I can get a whiff of fragrance while walking through the yard. Glimpse of heaven!

These freesias are from Trader Joe's, and are sadly not as fragrant as the home-grown kind. But they are so graceful and elegant (and inexpensive and available), and remind me that spring will come. (And that reminds me to put the brush/laptop down and go finish pruning the roses.) I may come back and do a bit more work on this one.

graphite sketch on panel

A simple task for January

About a year ago, I started to paint with some seriousness. I've painted for many years off and on, mostly off, but put off "serious study" until I could finish my career and had the time to really work at it. I had a great year learning a new medium, finding courage to join classes, workshops, paint outside, and start to consider myself an artist.

A pivotal time for me was taking a workshop last summer with Leslie Saeta, an artist from South Pasadena who uses a palette knife exclusively. I learned a lot from Leslie, and have enjoyed the ripples that still occur from going to her workshop. Leslie has issued a challenge for artists, to paint 30 paintings in 30 days in January. Sounds like a good way to start 2013. There are over 200 artists joining this challenge - if we're painting so much, how are we going to look at the other paintings?

I decided it was time to track my progress on a blog - so here I am. There's still a lot of family and friend stuff going on, so painting time may be at a premium for a while, but I'm determined take a stab at it.

The collages above and below are of a few of the paintings I did in 2012.