Saturday, May 31, 2008

First Oil Painting


I decided today to clean up my studio/office because my mother is coming in a couple of weeks and I don't want her to see the mess. I ran across some old paintings of mine and thought I might start photographing them to try to get them in some kind of chronological order. I made a slide show of my watercolors in Adobe and it was a fun look, so I am going to try to do it with all the stuff I have done and see what happens.

No painting today, but this is the first one I did with Cheeko Douglas. She is such an inspiration. I don't believe anything could rival her passion for painting. She told me she paints 24 hrs a day, "I paint all day long and when I sleep, I dream of painting." I wish you could have seen the way her face lit up when she told me that. Anyway, she helps us a lot when we paint. She shows us how, then steps back and sets us free! Here is my effort.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Happiness on a Table


I have I think, finished. I redrew the picture with the help of the photograph. That helped me see what I wanted and narrowed my focus and eliminate the entire world, which is what I tend to do. This satisfies me more than the first one, but; I wish I had done as good a job painting the agave. Something wrong happened with the paint mixes. Oh well, it is just paper.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Trip to Nashville



My trip to Nashville in March was fun and a challenge. I worked in oils, watercolor and acrylics (I am now more intrigued). I worked in color theory in the oils and am facinated with the huge assignment of painting all the color combinations in a full spectrum pallette. I have been working on them for about 2 months now and am getting them completed. Will show some of them later.

In watercolor, I painted with Kathie George, a long time favorite teacher of mine with whom I have been taking yearly workshops with for about 9 years (we think). I am submitting my finished Koi, her design, on Ginwashi rice paper. We did a batik on that. I finished it off with a rubbing of a TJAP stamp (pronounced chop) that is used in Bali to stamp batiks using an irridescent gold oil pastel crayon. I brought the finished piece home and brightened the colors some.

To go back to the project of painting reflections on the table, I am going to redraw and repaint. I thought that what I was looking at was so different from what I was actually looking at, so I will do a redrawing and repainting. I am going to use the picture to help get a better contour drawing to get started with on paper, then trace my drawing onto watercolor paper. That should help with all the erasures. Meanwhile here is the image of what I saw (I added a few things to the setup).

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

2 point perspective drawing


Ok, I knew that I would need to redraw the table. So I started on trying to get that right from the start. I did a 2 point perspective drawing so I could show the sides of the table which I wanted to paint the darks in. I first did a one point perspective where the table was wider at the front and narrower at the back but it still looked tipped south too much. Then I tried a 2 point and realized that I needed to make the angles at the back closer to the horizon to keep it from looking as if I were standing up looking down, so I raised it. Now I realize that my angles need to be narrower to get the table to stand up more. I will play around in my sketchbook till I get the right angle of view before I am satisfied. If I do get what I like, I will post. But for now, here is the more correct version. I am waiting to hear from Cindy to see if I can post her instructions. She has answered and told me next steps.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A small task


Today while sitting on the porch with my husband, I decided to try to paint the reflections on the coffee table. I had just bought a new bowl that I was anxious to paint and it needed company, so I brought the agave to sit beside it.

I was trying to draw the table (as evidenced by the folk art rendering), when I finally got it! Drawing the negative spaces helped me to render some of the shapes. Now, I know you are thinking, HUH? Believe me, I am okay with showing my poor starts and stops, but the important thing is the learning part...I GOT IT!! Finally, but not in time to do a good enough drawing. That's ok, I will keep trying to draw these confound objects that I have trouble with.

I spoke to my art teacher (Cynthia Mask, Auburn University) today and she is going to help me paint the reflections on the table, so this is not finished, just at a point where I could take some help. She is going to help with words--via email. This is going to be fun to do. I am sending her my blog for her to get a good look at the progress so far and she will tell me what needs to happen next. Stay tuned for the next one.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Jacsha Heifetz performs

I love to hear him playing his violin while I paint along. I learned to love him from my husband, who is a giant fan of his.