My 3 all time favorite paintings

The little girl on the beach was done in oils.  The painting was about 24" by 36".  The sky took me all of fifteen minutes to paint.  The little girl took me three weeks.  I had to wait for layers of paint to dry.  Yellow seems to take forever.  (And I had to be careful not to mix the flesh with the cloth of the bathing suit.)  The ball took THREE days to paint.  Had to wait for colors to dry so they wouldn't bleed into one another, and it took me awhile to realize that a round object owns an oval shadow.  Makes no sense but it's true.

The oil painting of the  English Bulldog was my former dog "Cody".  I labored over this one.  I wanted to make it like you could pet him, and well I was more than please with the job I did on him, I feel like I can hear him panting!  

The lady on the bottom is a class demo in pastels.  From start to finish it took all of two hours.  The students picked out the photo I was to do, they wanted to see me struggle with doing teeth, and all the plays of light on the model's neck.  (It was from a photo of a cover girl ad.)  I truly had fun doing this portrait with about a dozen hopeful artists watching me, I know I truly helped them learn how to start, continue and finish a pastel portrait.  

I have other favorites, like the one I did of Whoopie Goldberg, the one I did of my Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier, and the one I did for the cover of the book I co-authored, but these three mean a lot to me.  

But I'm not done yet, I have a lot of artwork to do.  

I go back in the studio to work on Tuesday and Wednesday as my classes I take are then.  I take classes to keep up on things and to stay motivated because if I don't take class, laundry calls me, housework calls me, I get interrupted with phone calls, etc.  So, instead, I carve out three hours at the local Visual Art Center and take classes and that is MY time, for ME!!!  

And now you know...haha!  

More work to come.  Actually it's not work at all, it's what I live to do!

Portrait of young girl

Today in Diane Mannion's class, we did portraits.  Of course I was late.  I'm always late...but I made it to class.  Goal number one achieved!  

When I entered the class, the teacher was giving a portrait demo of a student who decided to pose.  I've done these kind of demos before so I didn't really miss anything.  What I like about Diane is she is so sharing of her knowledge.  I was taught a few different ways to approach a portrait in oils, but one thing I like about Diane is her choice of colors.  She simplifies things.  She was generous enough to give us different palette choices.  And I was looking for something new...NEW....and she came through for me.  

Class is from 9 am to noon.  I got there at 9:30, and she was giving the demo to about 10 am.  Then she brought out some sample faces from magazines.  A few struck my eye so I picked them up.  The one above being one of them.  What struck me was the lack of color, (but yet, still a hint of color), and her expression.  I liked her innocence.  

I mostly used ivory black and titanium white, but the eyes looked flat and lifeless, so I added in some ultramarine blue, and something told me I needed some more color...so I added some burnt sienna in the hair and in the sweater's turtleneck.  But it still looked dull, so I combined the burnt sienna and the ultramarine blue (which when combined can appear to be as dark as black, a beautiful black I may add.)  

I like the result.  It's not done by any margin, but for about two hours work, I'm pleased with the result.  

I may do her again, but larger and with more color, or perhaps add a ribbon in her braided hair...or show the braid more...perhaps add some blush, like an old time photo that has been tinted.  Don't know, but I do want to paint her again.  If I change it up enough, I can enter her in a show, but for right now, nope, I can't, it's too much like another artist's work, but if I change it up so it's very different from the original, fine...

Like it?  I do, that's all that matters...and I'm painting...I'm producing, and I will continue.  

One month to go...

My Dad, whom I adore, is visiting for the rest of this month of February 2013.  I am enjoying his visit!  When he leaves to go back up north where he lives, I plan on going full force with getting into my art.  I think when I read that Diane Mannion can disregard studio clutter, it hit home.  There's always an excuse, if it's not laundry, it's the phone ringing or housework, or I really need to do this or do that.  You know what?  I NEED TO DO MY ART.  I need to create.   I'm 56 years old.  When am I going to start doing what I want to do?  Housework is going to take a back seat as well as a few other things.  I NEED to follow my heart.  Too many YEARS have gone by without producing what I'm able to do. No more.  I'm so in tuned to feeling this, I already am going to art class twice a week even while my Dad is visiting.  Wish I lived closer to the art center, but I don't.  I also realized today at the mall when I was getting my hair done, that I need to walk the mall, there's plenty of benches to rest on if needed.  I need to do this for me.  Feels good...feels real good.  I'm starting to feel alive again.  This is me...no makeup.  My eyes look tired because I don't have good sleeping habits.  I haven't felt like my own person for a long, long time, far too long.  But I'm back...look out art world.  Look out.  I'm getting organized to put into shows, produce and SELL!

Getting more inspired every day.  From seeing some of my favorite Internet painters, going to classes, getting motivated by my teachers, and well, simply by painting!

I've decided I want to pursue this dream of selling art on the Internet, so I checked out the site more that I want to sell on, and I also have checked into how to ring up sales on my phone or Ipad.  Amazing the technology at my fingertips.

But first, I must produce.

Acrylics-Small

Amazing what happens when you forget your oil paints for class...and brought your acrylics in their place!  Thank goodness I had my small canvases in the car, ready to go with acrylics!  Yet still, I didn't have my normal disposable palette, but I got through the day, and finished TWO paintings!  Small paintings, but two done, regardless!

It's only three inches square, but I like the composition.  I call it "Ecuadorian home" because I took the photo in Ecuador!  Wish I could get the photo in more clear.    

"Flamingo" as I am calling it, is a five inch square black canvas I finished in about 15 minutes.  These two paintings got me motivated to start selling on the internet!  

Here are some more pictures of today's endeavors.

This was my source of inspiration!  I soon learned that a photo from an ipad shows much more light than can be produced on the BLACK canvas that this was.  LIGHT is emitted from the ipad which is what they call positive light.  Pigment is negative light.  (That's the explanation.)

I made do with the small palette set up I had.  I figured how much paint space do I need for a small painting anyway!?!

Here's a close up of the palette I used to paint the Ecuador house and the Flamingo paintings.  With acrylics, I always wet the paper towels, and spritz them with water so they don't dry out.  Luckily, I didn't even need to spritz them today.  Lots of left over paint, but that's okay.  

My teacher, Diane Mannion was starting her 29th painting of flowers (in a row, one a day for a month), yeah, she won't be painting flowers for awhile now!  I found it amazing how FAST she found the lights and did a good composition.  She is pictured helping a student.

Today's lesson was landscapes, so Diane brought in some landscapes she's done.  She does so much plein-air painting, I'm sure she had a ton to chose from!  Never disappoints.  

Next week is portraits.  Can't wait!  

The top picture is my old Tahiti...the bottom is the new.  At first glance, you'd probably like the top one better, but don't let the poor phone photo confuse you.  I know the changes, some are obvious...but most of them are barely visible due to the photo.  Diane, you will see it all on Tuesday!!!

I made it to class today!  Afternoons are so much better for me.  I'm enjoying the new class with Alberto Cruz.  I like Bob Cassell, I like how he teaches, I do good work under him, but the class is just too noisy.  Today as I sat in class, the teacher did three quick demos...which I watched him do one.  I did learn something.  (The other two demos were basics.)  What really surprised me was the noise coming from Bob's class across the hall.  One lady never shuts up!  She has avoice that is like one decibel over normal, and it carries a lot!  Alberto Cruz's class is so much quieter, because they are mostly beginners and they concentrate.  I think I will continue with Alberto, as well as Diane Mannion.

Now, I will admit the best teacher of all has to be Diane...without a doubt.  She is thoroughly gifted artist (like they all are), but she motivates.  When I leave all the classes, I want to keep painting, but right now with Dad visiting, that's impossible.

Diane just has a way of keeping me working and I like that.  I know if I can just get up early enough for Diane's class (those 9 o'clock's, come early for me), I will paint more.  My goal is to sell artwork on the web.  I just need to get in a groove.  Diane is just the person to get me set up and encouraged to keep at it.  (Where she gets her energy is beyond me....gosh, I hope she doesn't say exercise...haha!)

The picture today show the progression I did in Alberto's class.  It is a dark photograph because I forgot to take the photo while in class, so I took it when I got home in the car, and it was dark.  I didn't want to use a flash because then it has glare.

I added more color to the palms, did some shadows on the beach, it's hard to see but I worked on the sky, making it darker in the upper right hand corner, and I put some light behind the mountains on the left side.  I also made the water darker in the bottom right hand corner.  It's hard to see, but the shrub behind the palm trees, I enhanced that too.  The second mountain from the right, I made different because Alberto told me there was too much of a repetitive pattern, and once I changed it I saw it.  I also raised the water line so the mountain on the left appears to be closer.  (Love that!)  What you can't see, in this lousy photo from my phone, is there are some light clouds that are light blue in color, it really popped the sky!  the other thing is, I put some purples in the upper left hand corner.  I added more colors in the mountains too.  I thought I would finish it today, but NOPE...

Still to do?  The shoreline needs improving, I need to punch up the cloud's white area to match where the sun is coming from...which is the upper right hand corner, I mean, the shadows on the mountains are on the left, so it has to be coming from there!  And I want to put a boat or two in the water.  But I have to wait.  The oil has the dry.

See you on Tuesday morning Diane!  And yes, I'll be late.  Haha!