Plein Air #19

Painting in Brooklyn again today...
I used my Vasari landscape mixes, but I wish I hadn't, as the greens are perfect for some things but were too dull for today.

I didn't want to focus on color but on composition...specifically circular composition.
6x8 oil on panel



Well, it's said that it takes 100 paintings to get a good one, 81 more to go. :D

Daya had lots of fun too.

More Brooklyn Plein Air

I learned today that people are not allowed to sit on the grass in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens... unless you are painting!! Isn't that awesome?

I am now 18 PA paintings in, learning as I go. My copy of Edgar Payne's Composition of Outdoor Painting just arrived and i can't wait to read it.

I did 3 things differently today:
*left black off my palette
*did a quick charcoal sketch before painting
*attempted the pigment soup approach

This is a split complementary palette, Alizarin crimson, cadmium green, maganese violet plus white and Torrit Grey (as the mother color)

So much to learn!

6x8 Oil on Panel

Duchess

My friend commissioned this painting for her daughter's birthday. She wanted to give a gift with special meaning rather than the typical stuff.

8x10
oil on panel



I need to have April Art goals- here they are:
1) finish the grisaille for Twilight
2)study up on plein air painting and practice! I just got my copy of Edgar Payne's "Composition of Outdoor Painting", which is like the plein air bible. And I also got a sketchbook to keep a plein air journal- something I wish i did from the start. I wish I had noted down the palettes I used for different paintings- some I remember some i do not. But I put everything in to date, and will keep more detailed records going forward.
3) start that wedding painting that needs to be done before Memorial day

Spring

Yesterday I had a bad headache all day, but went out painting in Central Park anyhow.
Here are the highlights:

Paintings done: 2
Hours the weather was perfect: 24
Kids peeing on the tree I stood under: 1
Hott guys who came over to watch: 1
People who asked "Is that acrylic?": 3
People who tried to touch the painting: 1

9x12 oil on panel


I took a break between paintings and went to the Met. If you go in the downstairs entrance, they will not let you put a camera tripod in the coat check. It is considered a "sensitive" item.

The guards in the main entrance upstairs agreed that was a little wacky.



I am not happy with my plein air painting, but I can't pinpoint why not. It might be an issue of style. It isn't magical, and I want it to be magical. So I am reading a few good books, and practicing as much as I can and looking at different artists' work. I would dearly love to take a workshop but don't know if I can manage that with time - it is a lot to ask my friend to watch my daughter for multiple days at a time, and I will most probably be going to London again this year for work. So I'll just do the best I can with what i have.

The park was so pretty.












Because it is Spring, and coloring eggs is fun, Daya and I made Easter bread. :)



**************
I just realized i forgot to post these from last week!
Poor neglected blog...

6x8 oil on panel

These three were painted with the Zorn palette- cadmium red light, yellow ochre, French ultramarine, ivory black, titanium white





I did this purple tree while Daya ran around in the grass. She likes it so I gave it to her. :)

Little Yellow Rose

Here is a little yellow rose, took an hour and a half.

6x8 oil on panel

Cactus Monday: Serpentine Edition

These cacti are on the third floor of the Museum of Natural History. :)



I don't remember what this thing is except that it's really big.

Still Life with Matcha

I have been doing a master copy of Bouguereau's Twilight with my friend Nancy on WetCanvas.

But I had to take a break from the tight rendering, so here is a little still life with matcha. Matcha is the Japanese green tea powder that is used in tea ceremony. It is prepared using a tea whisk in a bowl, and is whisked to make a froth on top.

6x8 oil on panel, took about an hour.

Yellow Rose

Well, it's March and that means a new art goal. Anatomy Month was pretty short lived but at least I did something with it.

I have to finish a commission this month, so that's my goal. :)

Tonight I played around with my pan pastels some more. I much prefer using them on paper than pastel board. I need to practice. A lot. Ultimately this will really help with my oil painting, specifically in color and laying down a brush stroke then leaving it alone. Pastels, IMHO, are more difficult to work with than oils.

9x12 pastel on Canson paper

Pastel Portrait in Oils

I had little globs of leftover paint from three paintings in the freezer. That's hard to make a unified and harmonious palette with, so I didn't even bother trying.

Here is a little portrait of some of my pan pastels. :)

8x10 oil on canvas

Wake Up and Smell the....

When Daya wakes up before me now, she quietly plays in her room until I get up.

Except on Saturday morning, she came and woke me up to tell me something in her room smelled really bad, like garbage.

You can't go back to sleep after your child says something like that, so of course I got up to investigate. I smelled nothing, so went back to bed.

later that morning:
Daya; Mommy, my room smelled really bad like garbage.
Me; Does it still smell bad?
Daya: No...
Me: Did you fart?
Daya: (thinking) Oh, yeah...
Me; Do you think that's what smelled bad?
Daya; (the lightbulb visibly goes off in her mind) Oh, YEAH!!

Pastel Sunset

This is a thank-you gift for my co-worker's fiancee. She was apprenticed to a famous painter in Korea, and a book was made of his work. She gave me a copy.

8x10 pastel on pastel board (I got to play with my pan pastels!)

Stop Cruelty to Oily Rags!

Cactus Monday: Funky Trees Edition

I found a supercool cactus today! HCM Cactuteers!!



And how can you not love these trees?



Daya loves this bug the very best on the Bug Carousel.

A Coincidence Story

This morning on the train a woman got on with three kids. One of them was a toddler in a stroller who yelled for 20 minutes straight. (So much for my early morning nap) But anyhow that's why I noticed them in particular.

This evening on the way home I was zoned out as usual, when after a few stops I heard a child starting to wail. I thought, this again? (So much for my evening meditation) I looked up and it was the exact same family!

Kinda freaky!

Some Snow and a Cactus

How about that, it's Cactus Monday after all today!
I went out painting in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens again. I was so frozen after standing in the snow that I just had to go to the desert room and paint a cactus! I stayed until they kicked me out to close up. :)

Both are 9x12 Oil on Panel





HCM!

Magic Shoes

Another little 6x8 oil painting! :)



I do not believe I properly introduced my brand new Belly River pochade box by Alla Prima Pochade.

It arrived last week. I LOVE it! Of course I will always love my beautiful 9x12 box too. But this one is tiny enough to take anywhere!







And...isn't this just CUTE?? I got a little clippy book light. It's like my little pet paint box... :)

Kuan Yin

Not too sure what happened to hands this week...I'm stuck to oil paint.
This one didn't come out too well. The light on my painting was bad...couldn't see what I was doing. I'm thinking about rigging a book lamp on my pochade box.

6x8 oil on panel

Red Pear

Well, it's not a hand. But it is my smallest ever and fastest ever oil painting!
6x8 on panel, only took one hour!

Another Hand

I started this oil study Friday and just finished tonight. Enough is enough- I could work on it a lot more- but I don't want to.

The refernce is from the WetCanvas image library. Special thanks to WC user DraigAthar.

8x10
Oil on Canvas



stay tuned for more hands next week!

More Hands

This has been an odd week, and I'm honestly not sure where it went. All day yesterday I thought it was Tuesday- I would have placed money on it.

Tonight are a few more hands, from Burne Hogarth. I have to say I'm suprised at all the notes I've gotten indicating you don't think copies of hand drawings are boring, but then again you are all fabulous so there should be no suprise.

I fully admit I am not in a tight technical drawing mood, even if my pencil is really sharp. But getting good at anything requires discipline, and if I don't practice I won't improve.

I like graphite just fine, and firmly believe that drawing is absolutely essential to creating visual art, but I really miss my oils. This weekend, or maybe tomorrow night, I will do a hand painting.