Red Vase--Day 5

"Little Red Pot"

12x12

Day 5 of Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days. 

Hope I make it!

I completely turned my studio around and put the big easel into my big room. Here is the new painting area. It gives me much more room to spread out and have a good runway to back up and look.  I have to add more cool natural light because you can see from the picture how warm the lights are in there. I can also set up a still life to my right which is something I couldn't do in the sun room. In the other room the light might have been a bit more natural but I was just too crowded. You can see below how small the little sun room is where I was painting. So I 

moved it all. It was a feat but well worth it.

I have moved all my calligraphy supplies in this room so this is a nice area to do calligraphy, watercolor and work in my journals. I will have to put all that off until after the 30 day painting challenge.

Here's some calligraphy just to remind you.

Painting over an annoying painting-Day 4

So this is Day 4 or Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings and 30 days challenge.

Sometimes I see an acrylic painting in my studio that was ok at the time but basically annoys me now. This was one of those paintings so I decided to just paint right over it in oils from a still life set up. I like it much better now and it was certainly good practice to sketch right over the paintings with my oils and go for it. A little bit of the original painting is peeking through. A closer inspection shows it better.
I wish I had taken a picture of the original and I know that it is posted somewhere on this blog but I couldn't find it. It was a little village with a graffiti-like background.  I probably would paint over more of these graffiti -like paintings but several of them sold a couple of years ago. Who would'a thought???

Day 3 of Leslie Saeta 30 in 30 Challenge

"In the Blue Glass Vase"

12x12

I wanted to paint this one just with the palette knife which I think is fun to do. I might even become a palette knife painter. Washing brushes is a pain and the "odorless turps" give me a headache so it  might come to a point that I have to just put away to brush altogether and use the knife.

This was a still life that I set up in my quest to paint from life. This is a beautiful blue glass vase which is much prettier than I painted it. I will have to try it again.

On this one the background was dark and I turned it light. Not sure if that was a good idea actually. Anyway, this is painting 3.

Day 2 of Leslie Saeta Challenge

"Grungy Pear"

6x8

I just found out about Leslie Saeta's challenge to paint a painting everyday for 30 days for the month of January. I decided I would try it. I painted this very quickly last night. I enjoy just putting paint down quickly and not thinking about it too much. This is a throw-back to my "grungy" mixed media days with acrylic and I think I still am drawn to this distressed look.

"Blooming Tulips" 12 x 12 on Gesso Panel

Hey Y'all!!

I sure hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and I hope 2013 will be an artistically prosperous year

for all of you. I am starting out with fresh inspiration and a new outlook to my painting journey.

No more beating myself over the head just because my oil painting didn't meet my expectations.

Remember my little artist alter ego, Mattie Lou? She is still alive and well in me. 

But if this little girl in the picture kept it up and persevered then she is a master painter now.

I have been reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and have been intrigued by what he says about successful people. Is it talent, or hard work and practice? I am sure you know the answer to that. I am sure talent does play a part but it's hard work, and many many hours of practice---and of course a passion for the thing you are practicing.  He surmises that it takes about 10,000 hours or about 10 years to become a "master" at your craft.  I am not sure how to count my hours of painting. I have been painting in watercolor and acrylics for years but still lifes in oils are another whole thing. So I guess I have many many painting hours to go. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy the journey and realize that every painting will not be a masterpiece but it surely will help me to click off the hours of practice. Sometimes the bad painting may take a really long time because I sometimes spend hours trying to save it.  So this is my mantra for the new year: 

"The painting might be a miserable failure but 

I am just that much closer to becoming a master."

These were some beautiful red Tulips that I bought at the Fresh Market and as soon as I turned the light on them they started opening up. I didn't want them to do that but they wouldn't listen to me so this is how they were. I have been buying some pots, vases and fabric for my set ups. I know that now in my oil painting journey I need to paint strictly from life or from photos of my set up still lifes. Deciding on the objects, the composition and colors in the set up are still a huge challenge for me not to mention the painting part.

Happy New Year!

Well, here we go into another year! Goodness, they are going by fast. As I said above I usually don't make resolutions because I either break them--or forget what they were...but I do want to go into this year with a new and renewed excitement for my art journey. I want to paint for the enjoyment of painting with no expectations other than the fact that with every painting I am learning and getting better. Good or bad, agony or ecstasy, I am moving forward to becoming the best oil painter I can be. I know that it's going to take years but I am in it for the long haul. Next year if I remember, I am going to post my first painting of 2013 and my last one of 2013 and compare to see the improvement.

So, here we go... hello 2013!

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.