#245 Three Pears 11/9/19

Today is Saturday, so I painted in the morning and I painted in the evening.  Tonight: three pears.  Last night Steve and Mary came over for pizza and beer.  Mary brought chopped pineapple and 5 pears.  We cut up 2 of the pears and ate them...leaving three.  I told her I was going to give the left-over pears a photo-shoot in the morning.  By mid-morning Dave had eaten one and I only had two pears.  I took pictures and sent one to Mary, telling her I was too late to get the third pear into the shoot.  So she sent me back a picture of three pears on her kitchen table.  I used that photo here - she set them up lovely!  I tried to keep all the edges "non-sharp" - I wanted to go for a painting that was completely "painterly".  I painted those pears over and over, trying to get them right.  Not sure if it's because my sketch was a bit off or what.  But finally I grew weary and called it done.  The wood table in the background is a bit dull though, I might work more on that later.

#244 Ballet Slippers Two 11/9/19

Here we have the second rendition of the ballet slippers.  I took extra photographs along the way.  I sketched them myself this time and I'm a bit happier with this result.  I tried to keep the brush strokes visible, "painterly".  These look like a child's feet though, the first one looks more like it could be an adult.  Must be my sketch was a bit "short".  I've recently been using palette paper, I tape it to the inside of a thin flat 9x12 inch plastic container.  It has a lid, so I just close it up a night and the next day, some of the paints are still just fine (the brown is not, it will dry overnight even in a closed-off environment).  When I've filled the whole paper with paint piles, I just take it out of the container, roll it up, and throw it away....then tape a new sheet down.  It's been working quite well!

The Source

My Sketch

Outlined with Raw Umber

The limited palette, so far

Raw Umber smeared/dried with a 1/2 Kleenex

Painting started

Almost done, need to finish the leg, etc.

It's finished!

#243 White Roses 11/7/19

I spend quite a bit of time perusing pinterest postings of paintings....they've got me on their radar and every day I get an email saying "here are some more things that are just like the things you are obsessed with, take a look!"  So, tonight I opened up my pinterest file called "Artist's Rendering
" and stopped on the first one that said, "wow, wouldn't it be great if you could do THIS".  The white roses won, mostly because the other ones that were speaking a bit louder required a red canvas, which I don't have prepared right now.  With a charcoal pencil I sketched the jar and some ovals that would be the flowers, that's it.  Then I used raw umber and painted over the charcoal and added more raw umber so there would be darkness underneath in certain spots....and then I wiped it down with half a Kleenex.  Should have used a paper towel, but the Kleenex box was within reach.  Am I really too lazy to walk into the next room to get a paper towel?  Apparently yes. Am I so tight that I wouldn't use the whole Kleenex?  Also yes.  The other half of the Kleenex still sits here waiting for its turn.  Might be my nose running, might be something else.  Then I painted the stems and leaves.  With green and brown still on the brush I added some Lt. Graphite and started in on the right side of the canvas, adding white as I moved to the left side of the canvas, the inside of the vase taking on different tones of the Lt. Graphite as needed.  Finally, I added the flowers, ending with the bit of yellow and A. Crimson.  Last stop, white highlights on the vase and an extra leaf that was on the outside of the vase.  I like this one, my photo here doesn't do my painting any favors (it looks a bit washed out).  I will post it on pinterest next to the original, which looks like they are not only a more proficient painter, but a more proficient photographer.

The Inspiration from Pinterest

My junior version

#242 Ballet Slippers 11/6/19

I loved my larger pointe shoe painting so much, that I started to search for more ballet related photos to paint.  I spent an hour, and found some nice ones...and since the evening was rapidly being depleted, I selected the most simple one to do tonight.  Super simple cartoon drawing, but I figured I could paint it into something more elegant.  I love the peach tones on these slippers, which must be the standard color for ballerinas since it was the rare photograph of these shoes that wasn't peachy pink.

I read somewhere that one of the famous French painters, Monet, would paint the same subject over and over, waterlilies.  So, while I like this painting, I think it could be looser, I could do better at reaching the vision in my head.  I could be like Monet and consider it a study, and paint 6 different renditions of the same thing, see where it goes.  Each week, paint the cartoon ballet slippers to gather myself but expand myself too.  This "first version" was traced.  After several days of not tracing, I look at this and think "it would be better if the lines weren't so perfect."  I should have sketched it.  That will be the gather/expand exercise on version two.

#241 Black Umbrellas 10/4/19

I've had this jumbo sized canvas board sitting next to my desk for over a month now, waiting for the courage to put something on it.  Tonight was the night.  I went scouting through the internet looking for another umbrella photo.  Found several I liked and chose this one as it fit the rectangular shape of the canvas.  It went down quite fast, plus (again!) I sketched it by hand.  It was quite the limited palette, black, white, brown, blue, yellow and red.  Although now that I type out that list, heck, I could make any color with just those 6, so perhaps calling it limited is incorrect.

The woman kind of happened by surprise.  There was a reddish blob in the photo, very blurry.  As I was sketching it, I sketched the blob loosely to make it look like another person with an umbrella, with the intent they'd be heading the same direction as the main character, ie no faces.  But when I looked at the scribble, I saw an elbow, and voila - the scribble became a woman walking in the opposite direct (but with the umbrella pulled down low, to shield her face, yeah!)  She was quite in-focus at first and that didn't sit well, since she's further away (and it's a rainy foggy day).  So gingerly I took a fresh hard paint brush and blurred her out, a little at a time.  I'm not a fan of the black streaks surrounding her, now that I look at the photo.  As soon as I sign off here, I'm taking those out.  I think I also need to take out the blue near her.  Gotta go!

#240 Flowers in Vase 11/3/19

This is the, as promised, second painting done from a pinterest inspiration.  It is also done on Ampersand.  I think the Ampersand boards might work better if you don't paint alla prima.  Might have spelled that wrong...but meaning wet on wet.  The boards might work better if you let them dry at least overnight between sessions.  But my goal somewhat demands finishing the same day as the start.  Speaking of which, I'm at 240, 60 more to go with only 58 days in the year.  I'll need to double up here and there!  Daily painting will have to be literal!

I was much happier at the end of this painting than I was of the primitive bird.  Again, I sketched it myself.  Even though the colors of the flowers seem a bit muted due to mixing to easily with the background colors I still like it.  My least favorite part is the table, which looks "primitive".  The flowers though, they look impressionistic.  Tap, tap, tapped most of that on, adding more and more on the edges so the flowers would stretch out to fill the board.

#239 Main Street Snowman 11/3/19

For the past few years, the town I live in lines Main Street with an assortment of plywood snowmen during the holidays.  Each year a different assortment is there, spaced every light post or so.  The girl scouts will do one, the local businesses will do one, the churches will do one, etc.  I wasn't quite sure how you got on the list, because some were done by random residents.  This year they asked the Farmer's Market if their individual members might want to do one, and I said "sign me up!"  That's what I worked on today, and since it involved all kinds of painting I'm calling it one of the 300 for 2019.  For $20, the town will give you the plywood cut-out, already primed white, with two pre-drilled holes for mounting.  I was going to go with a raised stenciled design, and rub the top with a third color and maybe string beads around the thing, it was a vague plan.  I went to Walmart to get supplies.  While there, in the clearance section I found a Krylon "old wood" 2-part system and decided that would be good for the under-layer, make it look vintage.  And then I found some all-weather fix-it putty and decided that would likely stick well as the raised stencil design.  Walmart had the Christmas stuff out already, and I found a plaid outdoor bow and a plastic wreath....I decided to go rustic instead girly.  I was ready.  After I turned him vintage brown and got the putty stenciled it looked like I had a gingerbread cookie with sugary icing on top.  So, that's what he became, a gingerbread snowman.  I painted his face with oil paints and my friend Mary suggested that the wreath could go on his head.  He looks great, better than my vague plan was ever envisioned!  We'll see in a few weeks how he stacks up against his snowman competition.  Those girl scouts are pretty clever!

#238 Primitive Bird 11/2/19

I have two more ampersand boards to paint.  The clownfish ones were such a struggle I was hesitant to attempt more with these boards, but I had already purchased them, thus must use them.  I went to my pinterest page looking for inspiration, and it was a toss-up between the primitive bird and the primitive vase of flowers.  Primitive seemed seductive.  It was already a long Saturday of running errands with Dave and I wasn't mentally good for much.  The primitive bird won.  It feels like I've been cheating recently, using ideas from other painters.  But again I sketched it myself, so I soothe my conscience with that thought.  Plus, the idea of pinterest is that somebody posts something they did, and others are supposed to show the results of their similar effort.  I heard there is a website devoted to showing "pinterest fails", someone tried the idea with miserable results.  The bird looked like something that would be fun to have in a child's room, bright colors and easy subject.  I started with all the blue things: bird and leaves.  Then I put in the branches, purple, and smeared some of the purple into the leaves.  Then I grabbed a fresh brush and mixed up some greens and another fresh brush and mixed up some oranges.  The last thing down was the reds for the wing and berries.  It is on a 6x6 inch board, and it turned out OK, I don't think anyone would expect it to show up on the pinterest failure site.  But my mental state at the end of things was just the same as the beginning.  Not the usual state of affairs after finishing a painting where I'm either disgusted or elated with the results.  I might try the primitive vase tomorrow, see if the after-effect is the same.  I'll post my painting under the "tried this?" section on pinterest.

#237 Red Umbrella 10/31/19

Not many trick-or-treaters tonight, it been raining on and off all evening, with forecasts of damaging winds.  Drat, I love answering the door with the treats!  I decided to try a picture I got from Pexels a while ago....rainy day in a city with lights being reflected on the road and a woman crossing the street with a red umbrella.  I took a few liberties in deleting part of the scene, trying to make it simple enough for the 4x4 inch canvas.  It turned out better than I thought it would, given that the deleted parts were replaced with non-descript blobs of color and a tree.  The umbrella, which I consider the focal point, somehow ended up with the top post bent at a weird angle.  I think I intended a small bend, but after I finished and looked from a distance, it's quite a distinct bend.  I should rename it "Broken but Still Usable Red Umbrella".  Again, I opted to sketch it by hand, that's three in a row, it could be a trend of things to come!  The reflections were difficult and I certainly didn't do them justice, but alas, it's a first attempt at a street scene.  I think I may attempt to paint this scene again, on a bigger canvas, to see if I can do better with some of the details.

#235 & #236 Boy at the Beach, Three Women at the Beach 10/30/19

Just back from a lovely trip to Florida, where we babysat our 15 month old grandson.  That boy is just too adorable!!!  We got home, and I was searching for something to paint....I didn't paint at all while we were down there, so I was itching to do a little something.  I settled on two little easel canvases.  A few weeks back I was at an acquaintance's house for an event, and she had a tiny easel painting in her rest room, an original from what I could tell, of 3 women in swimsuits at the beach, back sides only, so no faces and they were all wearing hats.  It was very interesting, plus it was something I could handle, given that I wouldn't have to paint a face.  I googled "3 women at beach painting" and boom, there it was....at least very similar.  Scrolled down a bit and found some kids at the beach, and this one looked like our grandson, all towheaded and whatnot.  So, these are my takes on the two subjects.  The women were fun, I see now why they are subject matter for painters, what with the curves....butts and waists in this case, and if you're not looking to paint someone specific, they can be anyone at all, as all women come in all shapes and degrees of curves.  In this particular painting I started with a red canvas, sketched it by hand (not in the mood to trace a printout tonight), then did the bathing suits, then the skin, then the hats, then the skyline/water, then the beach.  It went pretty quick and my only hindrance was that the blue used in the suits would bleed into the skin.  I wasn't quite happy with the change in skin tone to show the delineation of the arms vs back vs thighs, but the canvas was too small to worry with it, so I left it.

The boy was also sketched by hand.  The nice part about him being at the water's edge was that his feet and hands were in the water, and not visible....so no need to get a semblance of 5 fingers or toes.  And his face is shadowed, so I only added eyes (in this case eyelids).  This one is only 2 inches by 3 inches, so not much space to play with.  But the water and sky turned out fine.  I worked a bit at the beach, with the reflections of things with only a tiny veneer of water on top of the sand.