Fun Times

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I wanted another go at these apples and the plate. And yes, the fork too. Which reminds me of an email I got a while ago from a "fan" asking me if I had to include silverware in every painting, and daring me not to. Isn't it funny how those kinds of comments just eat away at us. I have to admit, I feel like apologizing every time I stick that fork in there. Well, it's time to stop apologizing! I like forks (and spoons and knives). They are such perfect compositional elements, to be added wherever needed. Do you have something similar eating at you? Join me in tossing out the apologies!

Three Different Apples

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When I first started painting apples I had a tendency to paint them all the same, even when they were quite different. It was easy - I saw the same general colors and hey, I had it on my brush already, so - what the heck?! I like to think I've graduated to a higher level of apple painter since I can now see (and paint) the subtle differences between them. But, to be honest, I might simply be a better apple buyer, choosing the ones specifically that are quite different. Only my Fred Meyer produce person knows the truth!

Sunshine and Lemonaide

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Summer is over, officially, and it's definitely feeling like it here in Eugene, but I'm clinging on by painting sunflowers and lemons. By the way, this is my favorite of this sunflower series. I was trying to do darker backgrounds for contrast against the light petals, but really the lighter background is my favorite.

Flower Fun

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These flowers were in my spendy bouquet, so I thought I'd give them a go (not one to waste). I think they're called spider flowers? Anyway, I wasn't quite sure how to paint them, so I did my regular - squinted and painted what I saw.

Drinking Tea in the Sun

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You can see I'm trying to get the most out of these sunflowers! But they're still holding up. Maybe next year I should grow some myself. Duh.

Sharing the Red Dress

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Here are two more of my spendy sunflowers, along with a red vase from the thrift store. I've painted the vase once before, from above. Glass depends entirely on the little subtle shifts, and most importantly, the highlights! If you over-do/exaggerate any of it, it ceases to look like glass, in my experience.

Late Summer Grass

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This is my entry for this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge: Paint the Grass, which I am hosting (btw, if you have an idea or image for a future challenge, please email me). I photographed this wild clump of grass in the front yard of a fellow Eugenian recently. I am baffled by grass in general, so I thought this would be a good exercise. If you'd like to see the reference photo and join the challenge, please visit the grass challenge page. Also don't forget about the monthly DPW contest - the prizes are big!

Places Everyone!

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Don't these guys look like actors in a colorful play, just before the first act? Well, I thought so anyway.

Bottle Guardians

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I guess I'm on a bottle kick. What I really need is to run to the store to pick up some new still life subjects. All I've got are a few tomatoes. But my folks are visiting so my painting is minimal. I'll get back to it soon!

Glass on Glass and a Flower

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Last week was particularly busy in my world, and part of that included judging the first ever, monthly Daily Paintworks contest. I can't even begin to tell you how difficult it was to narrow down all the terrific art that was submitted! Here are the top 3 winners:

You can see bigger versions, and the other winners on the contest page. In case you're thinking about entering this month, the top 3 winners receive $750, $500 and $250, respectively, and the top 15 are featured artists for a month on DPW, and get that month's membership free (we actually had 19 this month because 4 of the original winners were already featured artists). Enter here.

Cattitude

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This was a total experiment. I took some photos of this cat last year at a friend's house but wasn't excited about them because the sun wasn't out and the ground was totally boring. But I ran across it again yesterday and thought, "what if I paint the whole thing with big juicy strokes and try to use a different color for every one?" Well, I ended up repeating some colors, as you can see, but for the most part I stuck with the experiment, and am quite pleased with the outcome.

History on Wheels

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This one was particularly hard to paint because it was made up primarily of darks - and all subtly different ones. The cool thing about that though is all the sparkles really stand out! I took the photo for this in California. I was driving through a small town with a friend and we happened upon an old car show. Maybe I should start looking around for shows like that, on purpose...

Trying to Hide

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I've been squeezing in some time at the local rose garden before the flowers check out for the season. I have a better idea now of what works and what doesn't for a painting, so I'm getting better results. That's good because what I've got'll have to last me until next spring! This rose was like butter and basically painted itself. I love it when that happens.

Thanks to everyone who signed up for my workshop in January! It's full now, with a wait list. I am using a service called bookwhen for registration, and the way the wait list works is - when someone drops out, the entire wait list is emailed and the first one to snag the spot gets it. Also, my refund policy is - if you cancel and I can fill your spot, you get everything back. But, the later you cancel, the harder it is for me to fill your spot, fyi.

Frapple Dapple

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I just announced my workshop for Oregon next year. In case you missed it, here's all the info. Don't worry, there will be more, but I am cutting back. I will only be doing 6 next year total, rather than the 12 I've been doing a year for the last 6. I'll try to get the rest announced as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, I'm diggin' dapples! This is from an old photo reference I took in Arizona. I just heard tale of a ghost town about 2 hours NE of my house with lots of oldies, so my goal for this next week is to carve out some time to go there. Road trip!

City Stroll, Late Afternoon

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This is from another photo in San Francisco (so was yesterday's, fyi). I thought the light was so cool I sort of parked myself against the wall of the building and took tons of pictures, waiting for the people to be just right.

This scene had a lot of subtly different darks, and historically I've always been terrible at mixing them. When I'm mixing subtly different lights and mids I mix them close to each other on my palette to compare, but somehow that never occurred to me with darks. Doh! So I did that this time and feel I managed them a lot better. Who'da thunk!?

Morning Market

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I won't do this every time, but I'm including the reference photo for this painting before anyone asks. : ) You can see I omitted the little details, like writing on bags and the lines on the pavement. I also simplified the background somewhat. Well, I simplified everything! I've been inspired lately by Kathy Weber's people scenes, especially this one.

Colorful Stacks

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My husband got this set of colorful, little cups for me recently, complete with ceramic spoons. I guess you can't tell they're little, so I probably shouldn't have said anything ... ah well.

Chatting on the Steps

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First of all, I have a new workshop to announce. I am going to wait until Friday, August 23rd at 9PM CST. The location will be in Oregon, FYI. Check back then if you're interested. They tend to fill up fast.

Second, I took the photo for this in San Francisco at the top of a hill, in front of a big building ... with steps. Not sure I can give you any more info than that.

Third, several people asked for the photo reference from yesterday's painting, so here it is.