#24 thru #26 "Well Rounded"

I'm claiming these 3 painting for the "300 paintings in 2019" goal, even though I didn't consider them part of that when I started them.  They were merely a "don't waste perfectly good oil paint" endeavor.  But today is January 31 and I've got a ton of stuff to do today, and I need to get to at least 25, so they're in!

I must admit, these are my favorites.  I love the jewel-tone colors and the abstract lines.  While they were relatively easy, I was very careful in my color blending and color placement....although I only used what was left on the palette from that particular day's subject.  So serendipity played a part, which makes me somewhat emotionally attached, since I sort of feel like it was more than just me painting them, a weird thought, I know.

My son Paul, who is a few months into his move to Pittsburg and enjoying his first rental that involves no roommates, said he'd be happy to hang them in his apartment.  While he likes to say things to me that are flat-out lies just because he knows what I want to hear, I'm going to ignore that history and believe that he actually likes them.  What's not to like, I say!  He actually said (and I quote, as he wrote it in a text), "It's like a geometric depiction of ones personality. The older and wiser someone gets, the more well rounded they become."

They are perched on my easel in the pic below, a lovely Christmas present from Dave, it is large enough to support one painting securely and two more that gravity is keeping in place.  Each canvas is 20x10 inches. I see them hanging on a wall vertically, not horizontally as in the pic.  I didn't sign the front, as that might force a vertical vs horizontal hanging decision.  I signed the back instead.

#23 012819 Circus Wheel

I bought this whacky wall art metal thing at Hobby Lobby....because it was going to be perfect for my treeless Christmas tree idea.  Picture if you will, this large filigree metal disc (about 2 feet in diameter) dangling horizontally from the ceiling, with a bunch of fishing line holding green ornaments in such a fashion as to appear conical, like a tree.  It's going to be fabulous!  Until I get that little idea going, I decided the metal disc had a nice abstract look about it and it would make an interesting painting if done on a large enough canvas.  My first attempt is this, a 12 inch canvas.....too small, but hey I'm learning.  It took several hours to finish....2-3 hrs.  When I finished it, I decided the background looked like there was light in the one corner.  So, I added a shadow on the opposite corner.  Then I decided the colors looked like an antique circus poster.  Hence the name: Circus Wheel.  Name #2 if this one doesn't stick is "Pachisi".  Dave thought it looked like a roulette wheel, but I'm not seeing that.

#22 Seashell #2

Did another "large" painting, as I had to match the first seashell's canvas size (8 inch square).  This shell became much more complicated, what with so many stripes and no color to speak of.  I ended up using 3-D blobs of paint and the paint eraser to get it to look right.  I painted the "shadow" a few times before I was happy with the color.  Plus, I was going to skip a horizon line, but I felt it was necessary to make the shadow look like a shadow.  The first shell was photographed from the top and this one was photographed from the side.  Last but not least, I forgot to sign the darn thing....will do that right now before I go to bed....blah, I already cleaned my paint brush....I'll sign it tomorrow.

#21 Batman Returns 012619

Batman, flopped on the floor this time.  I didn't have a heavily gesso'd canvas, but it still worked out ok with the fur.  Saturday morning paint-time.

#20 The BatCat

My son Joe brought home his cat, Batman, when he got out of the Navy.  The cat is large, as house cats go, and he is very entertaining.  He loves to pose for an appreciative audience, flopping to the floor, rolling and stretching to unreasonable lengths, like an albatross.  If there is meat cooking, he gets an uncontrollable twitch in his tail.  It sticks straight up and twitches - we call it his tail-erection.  I decided to make the cat my subject today, as I got a bit tired of inanimate stills.  He was excited that I was down on the floor trying to get photos, so he was in constant motion....hence my blurry picture.

The canvas is larger than what I've been using (the tiny 5 inch squares)...this one is 8x10 inches.  I had used it for a crazy paint pouring experiment with acrylics and WD-40.  I didn't really care for it, so I gesso'd over it with some super-thick gesso (why did I buy super-thick? It was on clearance at Hobby Lobby).  The thick nature of it means it left 3-D brush-strokes.  It worked out really well - the black on my brush (yes, I used black paint) wasn't fully oiled and it left the gullies white, which made the black fur look at bit more realistic.  Happy accident!

  

#19 Jan 23 Red Delicious

1/23/19 - letting a little loose today.  No paper-toweling off the excess pigment/oil today.  Visible brush strokes everywhere....sort of driving me crazy, but I'll leave it and revisit it tomorrow.

#18 Happy Orange

I had off work today, so I painted in the AM and the PM.  This is the PM, an orange, with my same happy color scheme as the pear: pink, orange and green.  This morning I did a darker version of the base for the shadow....this evening I went back (without realizing) to mixing up a brown for the shadow.  I think I need to experiment more with shadows that aren't brown.

I also read another chapter in Carol's book, this one on "placing" object in a thoughtful manner; ie once you've got your perspective, inspect it for objects that are kissing another (or an edge), pointing into a corner, lined up in a row, or hiding in a shadow, etc.... Move things around before beginning your sketch (sketch, ha). Since I've mostly only done single objects so far, I haven't had to worry with this bit.  Maybe tomorrow I'll try something with multiple items, or maybe I'll wait for February.  We'll call it a "graduation".

#17 1/21/19 Happy Pear

Day 17, if I'm going to get to 300 paintings by December 31st, I gotta keep cranking!  So far, so good....8 more in 10 days, the pace is working.  Uncle Tim did a pear on our paint day, and I really liked it, so I decided I'd try a pear.  His was much more stylish, but he is a professional after all. I like the purple, orange and lime-green, hence the name "Happy Pear".  My grandparents (Uncle Tim's parents) had two pear trees: one in the front, one in the back.  The pears were everywhere, earthy looking and rock-hard.  So, both Uncle Tim and I have experience handling pears.  Don't know if that helped here....but it brought back a memory of searching the yard for the perfect sized pear to stop-up the pan under the water-pump, to try and create a little swimming pool to play in.

#16 01/20/19 Lemon

Lots of paint left over on the palettes I saved from yesterday!  Was able to paint this lemon from just my own palette alone (since I was at my cousin's house yesterday, I didn't have the chance to use up my paint on the "Use it Up" geometric abstract.  Speaking of which, my son Paul said he would take my geometric abstracts to hang in his apartment!  I didn't even have to say "please"!  I told him they needed to be grouped, so once I had 3 complete and semi-dry they'd be his for the taking.  Back to the lemon, I left some brush-strokes alone in the upper right background area....I kind of liked the way they looked.

#15 Paint and Wine, Red Delicious 01-19-19

It is butchering weekend, relatives are in town to take part, 5 hogs for those with the know-how and inclination.  The rest hang back at my cousin's house and play games and prepare dishes for the crowd.  We had a Paint and Wine activity, which I led....with some help from my Uncle Tim; he's a retired art professor, my first art teacher.  We did food paintings, of course (like I would inflict teacups on my own family?!).....I gave the group my streamlined method so we could jump right into the painting part.  I did a red delicious apple....need to fix it a bit, I don't like the yellow thing near the bottom.  And the background looks too dry or something.  It was fun!

#14 Jan 16, 2019 Tomato

Today marks another piece of food.  I think I need more food, before I can go back to teacups...  I like the photo of this tomato because of the two slanty light reflections; they look like ninja eyes.  This is the ninja tomato.  I like the blue/blue background with the red subject; it's a good contrast.  I also studied my initials at work today (I initial things all day long).  I was trying to initial the paintings prior to this, but it never looked like my initials.  A ballpoint pen makes it easy to mindlessly initial, but a paint eraser...not so smooth.  So, I studied what it really looked like.  The "M" portion is "implied".  Hmmmm.

#13 Jan 15, 2019

I'm planning a Paint & Wine night this weekend with some cousins....thought apples would be the best subject.  So I went to the grocery store and bought one apple each of 5 different varieties.  When I photographed them upon my return home, I noticed that I should have been more choosy.  This one had half its stem broke off - what was I thinking?  Well, I liked the color patterns, that's all.  Some wouldn't sit up straight and I had to put little things under the bottom so they wouldn't roll to their side.  Next time, I'll pick better.  My photo of this painting doesn't look as good as the actual painting....the colors turned out a bit weird (in the photo).  But I purposefully tried to make the background lighter on the "light" side and darker on the "dark" side.

#12 Three Olives 1-12-19

I decided I need to get back to fast painting....so, something simple.  A Costco-sized jar of olives in the fridge was my inspiration today.  Three olives on a plate.  After their photo-shoot, they were left out so Dave could participate in the painting endeavor (he loves olives).  I did my regular blended background, but this time AFTER I quickly painted the olives.  I forced myself to not blend the olives to death.  Even though I hate eating olives, I kind of enjoyed painting them; they're cute.

Three friendly olives.

The painting....unblended olives, retained their friendliness.

Bonus photo, from my phone: creativity of another realm.  This family made it look like their Christmas tree punched through their roof!  I had to stop and take a photo....and had to share it somewhere!

#11 The Seashell 1-11-19

I've got lots of collections.  One small collection is some seashells that I've picked up on beach trips.  I keep them in the downstairs powder room.  Some are in a typesetter's case, some are on the top of the toilet tank.  They're all pretty small.  My favorite one is this one.  I was so happy not to paint a teacup today!  And I loved the colors so much in this shell that I broke out an 8 inch square canvas for it!  I wanted a seafoam green background, and it turned out just like I wanted (amazing), so I took a pic so I could admire it without the distraction of the shell.  I did a lot of blending to get the look of the shell colors, but what finally brought it all together were some tiny touches of raw umber (yes, I brought this tube back into the family fold tonight), maroon and orange.

Day 10 Lucky Teacup

Day 10, another teacup, not loving this one either....but it's done (because I said it's done).  I can't put my finger on what I dislike.  This teacup was a gift from my mother.  I believe she bought it at the Notre Dame University Book Store, years ago when my youngest brother was working on his masters degree there.  I think it cost a small fortune, so I am nervous every time I use it.

Day #9 Teacup

Last night I read a few more chapters in Carol's book (Daily Painting).  After the drawing perspective chapter I had a twinge of guilt over my DIY carbon paper method.  But not enough guilt to freehand today.  My excuse: I'm still getting the painting process down.  After the color mixing chapter, I decided that I would forgo using my tube of raw umber and yellow ochre today.  Only red, blue, yellow and white. It was tough.  I did the shadow under the saucer 3 times, 3 different colors, then called it quits.  This one seemed like it took forever!

Spent serious time on this one!  Missing my Raw Umber, but I must admit that I like the brown that I mixed myself.

My Nana's favorite tea cup, that she drank coffee from....and she used sugar cubes (just had a flash-back).

#8 Apple

They were calling for icy conditions forming overnight, so yesterday afternoon one of my coworkers offered to swap shifts today - I'm on the 12-830pm instead of 7-330pm, meaning I had all morning to putz.  So I painted.  The apple took 58 minutes, not including the photo which I took a few days ago (it was part of my Blue Apron order).  I noted a few things today:

• I like my lid-palettes because of the groove at the edge; it holds the tiny pour of safflower oil that I can dip into as needed without compromising the jar.
• I'm creating a "paint-by-number" style of drawing, and when I finished painting that portion, it looked similar to painting styles that I admire on pinterest, yet mine seemed unworthy and I dry-brushed the junctures to make the object look more like the photo.
• I finished the "use all the paint on the palette instead of throwing it away" painting that I've been working on since Day 1, my abstract, and I like it!  I further used up the paint on the palette today, smushed everything together on a small towel, making a brown, and simply rubbed the edges of the stretched canvas to finish it.  Very easy!

The photo

The 8-Day Abstract, a way to use up all the left-over paint on the palette.

The finished painting

The painting, almost done, thought it needed blending.

The background is in, ready to start on the subject.

Daily #7 Turnips

I want to make a turnip truck joke here, but I just don't have one coming to me quick enough.  Yesterday at the Farmer's Market/Lion's Club Breakfast one of the vendors was selling turnips.  She assured me Joe would be able to add them to his chili concoctions and that they would absorb the neighboring flavors and give it a potato-ish boost.  But I bought them more because they were purple and interesting-looking and I wanted to paint them.  The leafy tops were difficult, as were the rooty hairs.  I like this one however.  Continued the new signature thing today....it's very easy!

Daily Painting January 5, 2019

Forced myself to take a 2 day break, Thursday and Friday.  Used that time to photograph future subjects.....more vegetable matter, my teacup collection, some seashells. Saturday at last! Even though yesterday was Saturday and I was not scheduled to work, and you would think the day was wide open, alas I filled it to the brim: 0700 Lion's Club breakfast (down $18), 0630-1100 set up the jewelry display in the Fire Hall with fellow-Farmers Market vendors (up $100); 1100-1200 unpacked jewelry stuff, entered the day's take on the spreadsheet and packaged up 2 sales from ebay (up another $10); went shopping with Dave for a new washer-dryer, he spent oodles of time researching the "correct" replacements, but insisted the decision was "mine" - I selected "correctly" of course (down $1600); stopped by the in-laws (Bev and Nick), Bev is tolerating her diagnosis with pancreatic cancer with the same dignity she has displayed through every unpleasant life-event she has faced in her 80+ years, I was able to take down her Christmas décor and package it up, something she just didn't have the energy for herself, God Bless this Woman; got home at 1630 and had an hour to paint, did the two peppers Joe had left-over from his latest Chili creation (he used a strip steak for the main meat in this one, it was delicious, as usual); 1800-2230 Dave and I met friends for dinner and drinks (down $88); bed at 2230, exhausted, put off the blog till this morning.  Net: down $1596, Dave says he'll have diarrhea for a week.  Even though my hobby-cash inflow helped!!!???  I think he needs daily painting more than me.

Note my new signature style: a smidge of darkness, used the back end of the paintbrush to etch my initials

Palette: lid from the take-out Hot&Sour Soup.

I think Joe said these were Serano peppers.  Ooops, no, he corrected this.  They're Fresno's.

 

Day 5 Model A Nose

Phew, 5 straight days, gonna take time off tomorrow, I can feel it.  Today, I used a portion of a photo I took at a car show last fall....totally copied an idea seen in Carol's book, front portion of some sort of Model A...maybe a T.  I thought, while about half way through, that it was terrible and was going to look like a paint-by-number painting, a total bust.  But careful smudging with paper towels came to the rescue again.  Yes, I broke some sort of cardinal oil-paint law and used black paint.  I like black.

 

Full-size pic, it's a Model A, according to Google

Day 4 Daily Painting

Today I painted, 4th straight day!  The picture of the orange slices from yesterday was my subject.  I did the background first....and once again, was disappointed before I even started on the actual subject.  My issue?  Paint brush marks that look like I let a preschooler do the background.  Too much safflower oil?  I don't know.  But hey, check out the awesome deal on the safflower oil - I found a bunch of "mediums" on the clearance shelf at Hobby Lobby...reg $8.99, sale $0.89, I spent $10 and got enough medium to keep me going till the cows come home (I'm assuming cows roam forever).  So I decided to mop up some of the extra paint with a smidge of folded paper towel.  I was so pleased I paper-toweled the entire background, and blurred the horizon line, which I also found pleasing.  Shown also in the photo is my crazy small palette, a plastic lid.  My Delaplaine oil painting instructor (shout out to Jan McIntyre-Creager) seemed perplexed by my choice of a small disposable palette.  One day, if the painting is large enough, perhaps I'll bust out and use a decent-sized palette.

The Photo - orange slices from China Garden Restaurant

The finished painting, note how the paper towel mopped up the brush strokes. I also note here that I missed some prime detail on the slices by not including little whitish indents where each section meets the rind.  Next time....

Messy brush-strokes, yuck!

The starting line-up, traced printed pic, palette, oil, small stiff brush.