Day 2 Leslie Saeta 30-30 Challenge

"Lazy Creek"

Day 2 

Leslie Saeta 30 Paintings in 30 Days

I always try my best to do this. Here is #1.

Painting #2--Pink Peonies

This is Day 4 or Leslie Saeta's 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge. Although it's Day 4 it only the 2nd painting for me.  These are Peonies set up and painted from life.

"Pink Peonies"

Autumn Walk

I just loved this photo from Paint My Photo.
This is today's painting for Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 Days. I am behind and will get even further behind since I will be out of town for several says but when I have an hour or two I love to paint from this site. This is an 8x10. Love the duckies.

Day 26 of 30-30 Challenge

This one is quite the hodgepodge but it was fun to paint. I painted it first in watercolor then went back and added acrylic to pop the colors. Then I outlined in ink with a Micron marker. 

This arrangement is just so beautiful I had to paint it. I will try to paint it with oils if it stays fresh enough for me to get back over to the studio. I am still struggling with this upper respiratory thing. Now it has decided to move up to my nose and run like a faucet.

Thanks to Kleenex with lanolin and Butt Paste.

Yes, you read that right, I put Butt Paste on my sore nose. Works like a charm!

Day 23 of 30 Day Challenge

This is an 8x8 acrylic painting. I only have acrylic here in my home studio and I have still been a bit under the weather and not really feeling like going over to the studio so this is today's painting. It is an adaptation of a pot in one of my favorite inspiration books called Container Gardens. I so wish I could grow and tend a container garden myself but I think I am just better off painting them.

This will probably be my last painting for this "30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge." I almost made it to 30 but I have to admit, the pressure to paint and post one everyday and be happy with it is certainly a "challenge"!  I need to tend to some family matters and get well from this nasty old virus thing that I have so I will return really soon hopefully ready to paint again!
Congratulations to all who are still hanging in there with the challenge!!! Keep going!!

Day 22 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

Looks like I am reverting back to my mixed media style in acrylic. Sometimes it's good to just revisit.
I don't seem to have much get up and go (paint) these last few days.  I am battling some type of chest thing with coughing. But I am not down for the count.

Day 21 of 30 Paintings Challenge

Oh man, the pressure in on now. I am determined to get to thirty. This is a crazy little 6x8 of a still life that tried so hard to work---and maybe it worked enough to post it and call it #21.  I am feeling like I am in the 4 grade again doing math homework--just get'er done! Anyway, this is a little Angus wannabe painting.

I have my favorite painters in which Angus is one as well as Trisha Adams. I will be in her workshop very soon! Ok! 21 done 9 to go!

Day 20 of 30-30 Challenge

 I am pretty much stepping out of the box here back into acrylics. I really admire and enjoy the paintings of Angus Wilson. In the fall he will be here in Jacksonville and I am looking forward to seeing how he does his paintings with acrylic.  I have seen the several YouTube videos he has but seeing him do it is person will be fun. This one is rather bold with that red and orange background. I was planning to put another color over the background but I decided to just leave it.

Below is the sketch I did with Tombo markers---same sketch that I used for yesterday's painting.

I actually have two places where I paint. At home when I get the itch to paint something I go into my little walk-in closet that's all pimped out with shelves at my fingertips and a good work surface. 

I transfered all my WSO oil colors to my other larger studio (Red Door Art Studio) in the bungalow because I am seriously thinking about changing over to all water soluble oils. (Unfortunately I have a fortune in regular oil color).  The OMS (mineral spirits) gives me a headache and the clean up is not easy for me. Here at my home studio I have used Holbien Duo oil paint for a good while now and the ease of clean up as well as the exact same consistency and results as the regular oils makes it much easier to paint--at least for me. But for now here at the Red Door annex, as my husband calls it, I have transferred all of my acrylic paint. Goodness, I had no idea I had invested in so many. That was back in my Robert Burridge days. I still love the way he paints in acrylic.

10 more paintings to go to complete the 

Leslie Saeta 30 Paintings in 30 Days.

Day 19 of 30-30 Challenge

"Bright Flowers and Pears"

6x6

Day 19! Well, as I said the other day---real life is pressing in so I have to find a way to paint something that is quick and easier and fun to do. This took about an hour to do after I laid down the transparent colors last night. I am thinking that I might work better and have more fun painting when I do it the Hedi and Dreama way. Others use this method of laying down all transparent colors first also. But for me I think it helps me to get something down on the canvas as a underpainting color map. Again, I really should have taken a picture of the underpainting but it doesn't look like too much at that point.
Here is the little Tombo marker sketch I had in my mind but I was working on a square canvas so I can to crop it.

By the way, when I work here at home in my little closet art room I use Holbein Water soluble oil color. I really am thinking about switching completely over because the OMS seems to give me a headache and I hate the cleanup and the pour-offs etc. The WSO are just as good as the regular oils and clean up with water. But I have a fortune invested in regular oils and there are a few colors that I like to use that Duo doesn't have---namely Shiva Ice Blue. I could possibly mix that color up from Duo and put it in this.

Day 18 of 30-30

This was an interesting process to this little 6x6 painting. As I try to set up simple still lifes I try to make it pleasing to my eye but then I also need to remember a few of the rules of composition--namely the rule of thirds. I think that this one didn't quite fall into the correct area for the rule of thirds. I will surely paint this darling Fiesta Ware cup and saucer again and try to slip it into a more successful still life.

I saw an excellent "Artbyte" by Patty Mollica that is very helpful.  I highly recommend the Artbytes which are extremely helpful tutorials from wonderful painters in the Daily PaintWorks site.

Day 17 of 30-30

Just when I think I am sailing along in my daily painting, here comes a simple still life that

throws me for a loop. I guess I didn't realize how hard it would be to capture the white bowl, which is a new purchase from the antique store. White is tricky for me because it's not white really. I think I need to paint this set up again and see if it gets easier to paint. Not only is it hard to paint white it's hard to get the shape right. This was on a black background and I pretty much licked it to death--except at the top. I like to keep a little of the black showing. There's always tomorrow.

Day 16 of 30-30

Leslie Saeta 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge

This is day 16 of my everyday journey of painting from life.

Whew!  I had to make the decision that I had to paint these daily painter faster. I haven't cooked my sweet hubbie much of a meal in 2 weeks and the clothes have piled up (again!) so I had to paint my daily paintings faster. So how to do that? Go smaller I guess. Sometimes it takes me just as long for a smaller one. Luckily this one only took about 2 hours so I am done for today. I decided to paint 6x8 and start from a black gessoed background which is something I enjoy doing. I have several black small canvases ready to go. 

These sunflowers were in a clear antique vase but it just wasn't happening so I changed the vase.

It worked ok.

Day 14 of the 30-30 Challenge

Day 14 of 30-30 Leslie Saeta Challenge

16x20

This is the last of the orange daisies!

You are probably so tired of these daisies. I bought some Sunflowers at Publix last night. 

We'll see how it goes with them. 

Day 13 of 30-30 Challenge

Day 12 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

This blue pitcher always makes a painting pretty. It's not the easiest to paint with all the designs but it's one of my favorite things to put into a painting. It was only $8 at the antique store. 

This is a 9x12 on a canvas.

Click on the Vocaroo Link below to hear me talk about this painting.


Audio recording software >>

Spots of Color Day 11

Day 11 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days by Leslie Saeta

I am really looking forward to taking Trisha Adam's workshop here in Jacksonville next month. I love how she uses color. This is a painting inspired from one of her paintings that I painted last night after studying her paintings and trying to figure out her technique.  So glad I will be able to learn from her soon!

Day 10 of 30-30 Challenge

More Tulips 12 x 12 on Gesso Panel

As you see I really changed this one, leaving out the window and pumping up the colors.
I started this painting with a dark brown, almost back gessoed background. I am just trying all the different ways to start a painting. There and MANY ways to start a painting. That's the confusing part. Which "start" will I stick with? I don't know yet.

But I decided to help it out in Photoshop before I painted it so below is the image I painted from.

Apparently I 'blued" everything in the painting but I guess while I was painting my inner muse choose blue. I am trying to paint with my instinctive artistic gut so this is how it turned out.

I added the picture below to show where I put the "to die for" window panels. They will live there very nicely. Just need to put a picture over them. As you see I paint from my iPad. 

Day 9 of Leslie Saeta Challenge

It's Day 9 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days from Leslie Saeta's blog.

Whew! And it's only day 9!

 I set this still life up in my studio with my new vintage window panels that I bought at the antique store around the corner. I had been eyeing them from quite some time. They were to die for but I quickly found out how hard they were to paint. Luckily they found just the right spot in the studio to live in.

"Tulips and the Window" 8x8 on Panel

Below is the picture I took. The limes didn't make it into the painting and neither did the shadow on the vase. It just didn't look right so I took artistic license and left it out. I actually hand painted the striped canvas cloth on the table. I am still trying to set up a really good still life that I am passionate about painting.

And just look at this sunrise this morning! 

 This picture doesn't even come close

to doing it justice.

God paints everyday so of course He is The Master Painter! 

Maybe I will try to paint it myself.

Orange Tulips--Day 8 of 30-30 Challenge

These beautiful daisies were fun to paint and with each still life I think I am improving in my quest to paint from life. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think I should paint these flowers one more time before they die maybe with a lighter background. I am watching Hedi Moran videos and I think she is one of the best teachers out there. I love the way she paints. I watch her then go try to do it and mine just doesn't do it like hers. She sometimes uses a little cheap .99 brush. I think there is magic in that little cheap brush.
I did use all transparent colors as a underpainting like she does---and this is how it looked. Maybe I should have left it. I think I might like it better.