Bucky says Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to check in a wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I am in Greenville having a wonderful time with the grands! I hope everyone is having a joyful Christmas season.

Hope everyone survived the end of the world yesterday. Apparently the Mayans had it wrong. This is probably really what happened!

Sending blessings to all!!!

Giving Thanks

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be taking a break until 2013--wow, that sounds like a long time! But when I get back maybe I will be an even better painter so I will have some new paintings to show. In my upcoming workshop with Alice Williams she says to bring BIG canvases like 24 x 36 or 36 x36. EEEEK!  It will be a challenge for sure but hopefully really fun too. We are doing still life as well as a clothed figure---EEEK again!

Also I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year too!
ox

Daily Painting number 80ish

Sometimes when I think something will be easy to paint it's not. But I am working on my 120 paintings. I have about 80 so far. And remember the thing was that you have to paint 120 bad paintings before you are a really good painter.  So that actually takes a lot longer than just 120 paintings because not all of them turn out bad. But believe me I have my share of bad ones. On this one the table legs gave me a fit with shadows going everywhere and lights and darks on the skinny legs and only a very thin line to paint them.  This is only an 8x8 so if it had been larger then I could have maybe had more room the shape up the legs. Good excuse anyway!  I believe that a cup of coffee is put on the table it might just topple over.

Sometimes my bad paintings are bad because the composition or photo I started with was not that good of a composition (not a good notan to begin with)--- so that will never make a good painting and you are pretty much dead in the water from the get-go.  Sometimes it a drawing issue and sometimes it's a value and color issue. If I can get all these right in the same painting it will be a good painting!

But with each painting I am learning. I have another workshop coming up December 1-3 with Alice Williams.  Her style is really loose!  I am looking forward to that.

The Buckster

One thing that has been on my painting bucket list is to paint Bucky. This was a very cute picture of him so I decided to try it. I was holding my breath the whole time because just like people, if you don't get the eyes right you are dead in the water. The wicker chairs were a booger but I think I got his eyes. He is sitting here in the porch of the Red Door Art studio looking out over the land with a big smile on his face. He thinks he is the protector of the land. I'll never tell him any different.

Here is the pic.

Be strong...

I enjoy putting together these letter collages---and I love using my new face stamps from Pam Carriker. I love face stamps. I have several of them but I am always looking for other ones. I like the ones with the interesting faces that seems to be thinking hard about something. It's always relaxing to sit down at my desk here at home and create these.

The Cummer Gardens

This is a painting of the Cummer Gardens here in Jacksonville that I started in the Connie Winters workshop. The gardens are just beautiful and I have some beautiful pictures so I wanted to attempt to paint one.   I thought this one was very difficult to paint because there is so much going on but I am happy that I painted a big one (16x20) from a photo that I took myself.

Another Crop

It started like this...just rather uninteresting and not a very good layout although

 the colors are pretty good.

Cropping with the mat board corners---always use black.

After I found a good layout I brought out some stamps to enhance.

I wanted it to be very subtle so I used the Distress ink pads.

All done.

Letter Collage 2

Yep, that means never...

oops, I left out a word.."know"..

I do that a lot when I am writing in calligraphy.

But you get the gist of it.

PS That's a Pam Carriker stamp.

Letter Collage

I enjoy sitting down and constructing these letter collages. Of course there are

more elements than just lettering but that's where it begins and it's the backbone of the

design. I use graft paper in a pad and start with a CalligraFun word or two

then start building from there. I love to use my stamps that seem

to be so neglected these days.  This is very similar in construction to my

big grid journals. It's all fun and very stress relieving for me. 

So, right now, I am very stress free!

On the easel...

I have been working on this one all day. I started this one in Connie Winter's workshop here in Jacksonville. I love the way she paints but it is so different from the way Dreama paints. I now have to decide what way I like better. Actually I like both of them so hopefully I can take aspects from each and merge them into my style. I actually thought this one was pretty hard getting the angles right--and I see in the picture that they are not right. That's hard for me but that come with drawing practice. This is a church in Charleston, SC. It is on an 18x18 panel.

Bright Flowers in Pots

Just still painting along every day that I can. At times I feel like I am on a roller coaster...at times flying by the seat of my pants and other times chugging up a giant hill. But I love oil paint, what it does and how it moves now that I am becoming acquainted with it. My color charts have been extremely helpful. I check them all the time to see if I can find a color. If you can do some color charts then your painting will go much easier. Richard Schmid says that he still uses his (at least when he did his videos he did.

If you are interested on how I did these color charts then leave me a message and let me know. I could do a free video tutorial. They are good for acrylic and watercolor but of course I would be using oil paint. If there is enough interest then I will do it.  I am not sure how many of my blog friends and visitors are oil painters. But I bet most all of you use some sort of paint in some kind a way!

Giveaway Winner!

And the winner of the "Credit Card Flowers"

          online class giveaway is...

                         Kandilin !

   Please contact me so you can start your class!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Giveaway-Credit Card Flowers Online Class!

Hey guys,

You know what to do.  Leave me comment that you would like to win a free class and I will 

let Mr. Random.org pick a name for me tomorrow night. (Monday, Nov 5th)

Diane's Patio

I painted this one of my painting teacher, Diane's, patio when she lived in California. I painted it from her painting just for practice so I can't sell this one but I really enjoyed painting it. I know that I can more easily paint from looking at other's paintings because they have already done the editing work on it whether it was a photo or plein air. I am learning to simplify and edit my own photos but this is hard for me because I have a tendency to add way too much detail. Diane is a realist painter so I painted this in a chunkier style.

I do have to brag on my teacher here in Jacksonville. Oprah has a collection of her paintings. She's that good.

It is My Faith...

Purchase info HERE

Sometimes when a watercolor painting just doesn't work (as this one didn't) I look at it through two mat board corners and see if there might be a salvage area on the painting where I can crop. Usually I can find one. This was one such piece. So I decided to get out my Noodlers Ink and just noodle on some lettering. This lettering is my pointed pen Roman curls variation. Most of the time I use black gouache for lettering but I am getting lazy in my old age and would prefer to dip. I guess I could dip into gouache too but ---I digress...

Here are two cuties, Macaulay and Morgan...

and one more cutie:

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has a spooktacular Halloween! Sorry about the moon shot...I just thought it was really funny!

Little Antique Store in Highlands, NC

This little antique store in Highlands, NC, was just about the cutest little place I have ever seen. Oh, and the darling stuff that was in the yard. Ever since I took this picture I have wanted to paint it but I knew it would be a challenge. And it was. I can see that I have trouble with perspective so I need to keep practicing that.  I almost put in the little pig but decided to crop it.

Here are some of the darling things that were for sale there. I could just slap myself for not getting one or two of those little pigs or a rooster. I could have put them here at the studio. Well, if I ever get back them maybe I will.

Saturday Sunday Art Sale-->Prices

  These will be on sale for the weekend only. I forgot to put the prices when I posted them this morning...so this is an update. As always, Shipping is free.

"Pots of Geraniums"

This is oil on an archival panel

8x8

             $95

Here is my favorite frame from King of Frame
All you do is glue with hot glue or wood glue, etc right in the center of the frame
and it is completely ready to hand. The back is finished off
neatly with ready to hang wire.
(Frame not included)

_________________________________________________________________________

"Ethereal Flowers"

6x8 on Canvas

Here is a little more information and also how it looks in the frame. 

(Not included)

SOLD!

Have a wonderful weekend!

"Breaking Through"

I named this piece "Breaking Through" because in the photo the sun was really breaking through but sometimes God's majesty is hard to catch so I just did the best I could. A more experienced artist could have captured it I am sure.
So here is another 3rd grade picture that I think the fairy tweaked also.

Here's one more drawing that I can't even remember doing but I am impressed with the line confidence. I wonder if I traced? But it's on that cheap paper that is dense so I don't know how I could have traced it. Anyway. I have another drawing of Deputy Dog that is similar but I couldn't get it down to photograph it because I am sure it would crumble and tear.

Who was this dog? Top Dog maybe? I remember I love my cartoons.

Little Cottage

"Little Cottage" was a bear to paint because of all the lines that had to be straight in the door and all the details.  What I am mainly trying to do in my painting pursuit is to simplify the photograph and don't give too much detailed information. This one was just really complicated with a whole lot going on. I had such high hopes for this one but it's not a failure by any means because every painting I do gets me a little closer to being a confident oil painter.
I actually didn't mean to post this today---it was suppose to be for tomorrow but it's ok. Tomorrow I will show you the painting that I tried to fix with some success and another one of my grammar school art pieces.

Little Pumpkin Girl

Have you ever finished an art piece (or painting in my case), took a picture of it, posted it on blogger and realized that it just didn't look right? Well, that is what happened to my painting that I was going to post for today. I think I can work on it just a little bit and post it after a retouch, In the meantime, this pic is just to cute not to post. I love her outfit. My daughter, Macaulay, dresses her co cute.
Have a great day!

I am hearing voices...

"In a Mason Jar"
8x8

             $65

There is this little voice in my head that keeps saying..."just paint it...just paint it...paint it the way you would paint it..."

This is the thing that I think happens...and I heard this from watching videos of Helen Van Wyk, and this is what she says. She says that no matter how hard we try to paint like someone else, if you paint enough you will paint like you. That's what I want to do. I want to study with wonderful people but I want to get where I paint like me. Learning to paint takes years and I am only a few months into the oil painting although I have painted in acrylics and watercolor for years.  I love to paint and always have since I was a little girl. I remember taking an art class in the 3rd grade after school with Miss Long, a wonderful artist, and we would create art with pastels. Every week when we could come back to art class a painting fairy would have tweaked our piece just a little bit but enough to see that it had turned into a really nice little work of art. Miss Long never admitted that she was the fairy..but I still have my suspicions.

Here is one of those pastel pieces of art I created in the 3rd grade.

I will show you another one I did that the fairy tweaked tomorrow. No matter what you think about the "fairy" doing that, it was good for me because I was proud of what I had created and liked it. I felt like an artist even way back then.

Debate Doodlin'

Always love an opportunity to doodle. I should do it more. My fingernails would be much nicer.

Lesson 8-Dan Edmondson

I am still moving through Dan Edmonson's online class. I have been looking forward to this one because I really like this still life. I made the design in the vase with a Kemper Wipeout tool.
This is on a 12 x 12  panel.

Sending Light

I am home from Greenville and enjoyed seeing my little sweeties so much. Right after my daughter's husband left fro his trip the internet went out and couldn't be fixed because the fix-it guy was out of town. They have complicated wireless in their house so a call to Apple probably wouldn't do it. So we went all week without internet. We were both experiencing internet withdrawal DTs.

Thank goodness for iPhones! 

Anyway, I thought these flowers were very fall- like and I love to 

write with this pointed pen curly hand.

I am, still on a Dreama high so I am looking forward to getting back to my painting.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall weekend!

Birthday Girl

I am up in Greenville, SC celebrating with little cutie pie, Morgan, for her first birthday. She is enjoying that strawberry cupcake which was, by the way, DE-LI-CIOUS! I will be here all week and with the kids it's hard to try and drum up my painting mojo so I just don't attempt while I am being Nana. The trees are turning so maybe I can get some photographs that might turn into paintings though.

Hope you all have a good week. The weather is so nice up here---beautiful, breezy, fall sunny days. My favorite time of year.

Dreama Day 3

I hated tp leave early yesterday because I would have had another painting to post. Here they are tweaked a bit and photographed in natural light. 

The workshop was so fun---except that I felt horrible and had to go outside and have terrible coughing fits. Terrible time to be sick.