5/28/19 #104 Toaster Oven

The third in the "technology series", a corner of Matt and Eva's toaster oven.  I liked the colorful reflections on the metal.  I broke a rule and used lamp black....should've mixed some black as I think the black-black parts are too black.  I'm surprised at how I can see the pan and rack in the oven.  When I was painting them I thought it would just look like a mishmash of browns and grays.  It took me about 3 hours to finish this....size is 7 by 9 inches.

5/25/19 #103 Batman on Front Porch

I've been on hiatus....trying to organize and distribute Bev's treasures that Nick has so willingly ejected from their home.  It's been somewhat consuming.  Painting has taken a back seat.  But finally today, after a successful Farmer's Market (where I sold 2 paintings!), I got back to it.  Since one of the paintings that sold was of Batman, making him my best selling subject now, I painted another of him....sitting on the front porch, glancing back at the screen door and deciding whether he was going to stay out or come in....the perpetual cat dilemma.  I got the cat down easy, the concrete down easy, the lawn down easy, but stressed and stressed some more about the two bushes, the mulch and the solar lights.  Too much detail, then not enough, the something in between, then I just had to stop.  This is it (for now):

5/12/19 #102 Pick-up End of Truck

I started with this one yesterday on a pre-painted red canvas; then, after it was traced, decided to work on the magnets first...so this one waited a day, but I cleaned my brush a few times on this canvas while painting the magnets, I seemed to have too much gray going.  And I took some pics along the way.  I like this almost as much as the first rendition of the front of this same truck, the International Harvester from the Farmer's Market.  And I like my sky on this painting, which was very organic in the making.  The sun started much too large, and when I made it smaller it turned into this sunny-side-up-egg kind of sky....reminds me of misty mornings that turn into warm days.  I had some trouble getting the rusted out parts of the truck, but oh well...

5/11/19 #94 thru #101 Eight Tiny Paintings, Refrigerator Magnets

Who says art needs to be framed?  Teeny tiny 2 inch square canvas boards were found on the Blick Art Supply website.....and adhesive magnetic strips were found on Amazon....voila, better quality magnetic canvases than what I found at Walmart.  I've been on a painting hiatus, life has been eating up all my free time, though I can't quite name what all it was that got in the way (besides work, and trying to get flowers planted, trying to get the house a bit cleaner for arriving guests, trying to finish my decoupage "Scotch and Cigars" puzzle for Father's Day....ok, so I can name it all).  But it is Mother's Day weekend, and I decided I wanted to paint.  I was going to paint the back side of the old red truck, but ended up distracted with these cute little magnet canvases.  Of these 8 little projects, Batman (of course) is still my favorite subject, although I like the Chickadee and School Bus too.

I had my stuff set up this morning at the Farmer's Market and got rid of 4 paintings!  Two were sold, two were traded.  I sold #36 and #37 - the wrapped canvas Pear sold to an adult woman, she selected it quickly so it must have spoke to her; and Batman IV, the pose with one eye squinted, sold to a young girl who really wanted #20 (the 8x10 of Batman) but her Dad said no, that it was too big....they left, then they came back and she went searching for Batman again in the stack of paintings and found a smaller version of Batman, and being the smart girl that she was told her Dad that since the other painting was too large, then this one must be just right.  He was thus obligated to purchase it for her.  Yeah!

My neighbor today at the Market was the grower of the Turnips and Radishes that I painted earlier in the year...the Radish painting I gave to my cousin Justin, but there were two Turnip paintings: a 5x5 and a magnet.  She was thrilled that I had painted them.  A few minutes later she came back said she wanted the magnet to put on her frig....so I offered to sell it or trade it, and we settled on a bag of lettuce and a bag of spinach for the magnet. 

Last week at the Market, I showed the photo on my phone of the red truck painting to the vendor who owned the truck.  She said then that she was re-doing a bathroom and hadn't yet decided how to decorate it and that she might need the truck painting.....so this week, while it wasn't quite ready to varnish, I brought it along to let her see it in the flesh....she asked how much, so I suggested a trade for two of her loaves of bread...she accepted!

So I'm over the 100 qty mark, and 2 of those were painted over....10 have found new homes.  Better than I expected!