Clouds

I go back and forth when I look at this painting.
What am I supposed to look at? 

Is it a painting of a sunset or sunrise? a painting of a sun kissed landscape? skyscape of clouds? Is it okay that it's kind of all three? 

I want to keep looking at it, so I think it's okay.

My Weekly-ish Challenge was "Clouds." That seemed easy enough... until it wasn't.  Clouds? I live in the trees!  I don't really see whole clouds! I looked and didn't have any good reference photos for clouds. Nothing on any of the free reference photo sites intrigued me. Then I remembered that I had an ancient painting book...

You can tell by the price tag! Woolworths... $2.95!  It's from 1985, and it's still good!

I picked one of the lessons, started there, then went off on my own. 

*** Note to self... if using the word "ancient"  when referring to 1985, remember that you got married that year... pick another word!

Click Clouds if you'd like to purchase this little painting.

Linda's Farmyard Memories

I want to be in this scene.

It's easy for me to imagine sitting on the back porch swing... watching the chickens peck around... feeling the breeze,.. noticing the windmill turning faster... wondering whether that thunderhead will bring rain or just move along.

It feels like a back-home memory ought to feel.

What a pleasure it was to get to paint this one.

My blog friend Wendy of  Pieceful Thoughts posted a photo of one of my paintings alongside one of her beautiful quilts.  From that, her blog friend (and my new blog friend) Linda of Texas Quilt Gal contacted me about doing a painting for her.

It took me about zero seconds to fall in love with the story her image was telling me.

Before beginning, I asked Linda many questions. Her answers would give me a feel for what was important in this photo and what would be important for her to see in the painting.

Here are a few snips of some of her answers:

... photo taken in the late 1950s, showing the view the windmill..., the chicken house (there are chickens at the bottom of the photo), and the old barn... taken from the back of the house...

... thunderheads were my favorite subject with my Brownie camera... still one of my favorite subjects...

... the coop, the chickens, the tree, the clothes line, the windmill, and yes, the thunderheads - all...  meaningful and part of the picture in my head. 

The chickens were dear to me but they weren’t very smart, and Mom and I almost always had to shoo them into shelter before a storm or they’d just get soaked.

Yes to the blue sky AND the billowing storm clouds, if possible....  white billowing clouds but darker underneath, the thunderheads that develop quickly in Oklahoma...

Haha on the chickens - yes most were white, but my big Plymouth Rock rooster (Rooney) was my pet who actually followed me around. We had a couple of Rhode Island Reds and what Mom and Granny called a "black banty hen"...

I hope I captured most of the important parts of the scene.  If you look closely even Rooney the Plymouth Rock rooster, a Rhode Island Red chicken, a little black Bantam hen, and a few white chickens made it onto the canvas! (Linda's not the only one who has an infatuation with chickens! 😉)

Enjoy a little 40 second video of the process. (And, yes. I did totally screw up the tree and have to wipe it out and try again.)

Thanks to Linda for trusting me to put her memories on canvas.

Thanks to this 40 year old book with a pretty great cloud painting lesson.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

Sunrise Ablaze

Sara's inspiration image for this month's Inspiration Collaboration was the most gorgeous and fire-y sunrise. I snuck on over to her blog post and found that she'd taken a photo of the sunrise from her kitchen window on 25 different mornings.  Each photo was exactly the same... and completely different at the same time. I noticed that one of those photos took this view a little lower and showed a small cottage in the trees. I did a little cut and paste to put those two images together.

Next I did a rough painting that would act as my guide through the collage process. Then I made designed papers that would eventually make up the sky. I had some brown designed papers left over from the previous project. And, I realized later that I would also need to make some with greens for the foreground. Finally it was time to snip... glue... study... snip... glue... rearrange... snip.. glue... turn... snip glue... look again... snip... glue... squint... snip... glue... snip... glue...

If you're wondering, yes... I did stress a lot over it looking like the house was on fire instead of the sun rising behind the house.  I made a few changes to push the fire further back.  In the end, I embraced the issue by giving the piece a fire-y title.

I committed to do three of these collages before I would let myself decide whether I loved the process or whether it was fun but not something I'd do again.  

Here are some things I decided, learned, and discovered:

• Using the Gelli plate to create the designed collage papers is very freeing and expressive.
• The process requires lots of stuff out and leaves the art studio a huge mess.
• I like having a plan for what I'm going to work on then creating a palette of the colors that will be a part of that piece rather than just randomly making papers. 
• I'm challenged to think through the value of each colored snip of paper needed to show form and shape.
• Mistakes can be glued over or painted over.
• The final product is just going to be kind of funky and wonky... and that's not a bad thing.
• Yes. I will do some collage again.
• No. I don't think it will become my main art love.  I'm not throwing out the oil paints and brushes.

Original Mixed Media Collage on 9"x 12" Canvas Board

[GIFT]

Fanciful Spring Landscape

This one makes me think I'm walking straight into a scene where there might be some unicorns grazing just on the other side of that rise.

I painted this for my weekly painting challenge.  The theme was "Spring Landscape."  Why do I never paint spring landscapes?  I did some counting and a little math. I've done a little over a hundred paintings that could fit into the category of landscape.  I discovered that I have not treated my seasons equally!   

This is what I found:

Summer: 50%

Autumn:  45%

Winter:    10%

Spring:     5%

What?  How did that happen?  I need to keep my camera handy in the coming months and take some pretty spring landscape reference photos.

Thanks to Thanks to Paint with Shiba for a great YouTube tutorial. 

Oil Painting on 11"x 14" Wrapped Canvas.

If you'd like to purchase this painting, click Fanciful Spring Landscape.

Under the Billowing Clouds

Sometimes I really miss having an art teacher. I want to keep learning new ways to be a better painter. Although not the same as having my favorite art teacher / friend close by, YouTube can be a good substitute. Before YouTube, however, there were these fabulous how-to-paint books.  I've collected a few of them from flea markets and eBay over the years.

Can you see the price tag in the top right corner?
Woolworth $2.95. 

I flipped through the pages of this one looking for a lesson on painting some nice fluffy, happy, summer clouds. 

I decided to follow the paint recipes presented as as exactly as I could.  This painting used only 2 blues, 2 yellows, black, white, and a brown (for the house).

French ultramarine, cerulean, lemon yellow, Naples yellow, ivory black, titanium white, burnt umber.

The biggest lesson for me with this one was that lemon yellow + ivory black make the loveliest greens.  Who knew!!

Here's a look at the painting before I found "happy" in the clouds.  They were pretty angry looking for a while.

The Inspiration Image of Sara's beautiful stormy clouds on this month's Inspiration Collaboration is what sent me on the search for a lesson on painting clouds.

Oil Painting on Wrapped Canvas, 12"x 16"

If you'd like to purchase this painting, click Under Billowing Clouds.

Homestead Cabin

I've been thinking about style lately. I think painting style is like writing voice.  There's something recognizable or familiar about a writer's words or an artist's paintings.  I think it's why we say, "I love her work." 

I've been thinking about my style.  What is it that makes my paintings look like... my paintings? I don't want everything I do to look the same, but do I really want to change that much? Hmmm... I have purposefully done some things differently lately...
      ..... Time Out...
Full disclosure... I think I know where this began... Recently I had someone I really didn't know well say, "Your art is all so smooth. It's good. But I like paintings with lots of texture, that use more paint."  Uuhhhh... what's the correct response to that? "Thank you," or "I'll try to do better," or to just smile and nod?

Maybe she was simply making conversation. Maybe she was trying to help me. Maybe she was just rude. Whatever the reason, I have been thinking a lot about my style lately.

My two painting buddies and I decided to give ourselves an art lesson.  We took a (very old) Walter Foster painting book on Clouds and decided to follow the steps and color guides exactly.
Shouldn't they have all turned out the same??
Well, no they did not.

Jolene has that fabulous light on her hills!
Julie has those gorgeous billowing clouds!
Look at the differences in mood!
I am NOT saying that any one is better or worse; I'm just fascinated by the different styles.
As I was being intentional about varying my style (softening edges, giving texture), I was unintentionally returning to my comfortable style (colors, shapes). 
Right now I am intrigued by style. I'm actually (kind of) grateful that someone gave me reason to consider my style.
I love Jolene's.
I love Julie's.
I love mine too.

Oil Painting on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvas.
[SOLD]

Sunset on the Cape

I want to give a big thank you to Kim from Kim's Daily Paintings for hosting this painting challenge.  It's fun to see the variety of styles that can come from the same original image.  Click over and have a look!                                             I love flipping through blogs, but I'm very choosy about which ones I follow.  I love blogs that feel "real." When I find one I enjoy, I like to go all the way back to the beginning and read it from beginning to present. That's how I ended up finding Kim's blog and this challenge. I'm glad I did.

I've been thinking about the quote, "Comparison is the thief of joy," by Theodore Roosevelt. When I decided I was finished with this painting, I loved it.  My eyes went to the sun then traveled all around the canvas. I loved the sweep of the clouds, the reflections in the water, the splashes of color... it made me smile... I was proud.

Then... I took photographs, uploaded them onto my computer, and clicked over to submit my piece to the challenge.

That's when it happened... I scrolled through all the others... they were really good.. and... I lost confidence... didn't submit.

But, I know better!  I spend every day encouraging my students to have pride in their work and in its individual voice or style.

So... yes... I do love it.  And... yes... I do love the others too.  And, yes... I will add mine to the rest.

Original Oil Painting - 16"x 16"