zippo challenge...and other stuff...

6x6 oil on panel

so here's the latest weekly challenge - this comes from michael naples (you can access his site from the list on the right)..he was so helpful and encouraging to me when i first started this journey! - he's a member of the daily painters and they are providing a challenge a week - i actually missed this one because we were on our golf trip to doral...carol marine's issued this week's challenge - single stroke painting. we're supposed to paint something - whatever we choose - and put down a stroke and leave it - this will be good for me - i tend to go back and rework things - what they call "licking" - oftentimes this is death to a painting because it can take the life right out of it...so i'm looking forward to this! - we have to go to a calling today - the second in as many days...we lost two good people this week - my friend and fellow artist, catherine burris and a wonderful educator and athlete, steve hollenbeck. so sad and such losses for the community! ... maybe tomorrow i can describe a bit more about our trip and maybe find some pics. we took some videos but i'm not sure i know how to do that - we'll see...

what a mess!!

ok - so we're home from our trip - i had to cancel my tennis match because of re-entry issues...picking up dogs, having a new garage door installed, going through mail...housework...laundry...and then - to finish off our day - i get home from errands and find that the phone, cable and internet is all down!!! - i felt like there was some sort of conspiracy going on - you know...get everyone to rely on comcast for everything and then jerk it all and you're at their mercy. that's what it feels like - nobody can get here til tomorrow - we do have electricity so maybe i can do some painting yet... i'll tell more about the trip tomorrow - i'm on my verizon chip and i can't use up too much time.

today...the blue monster!!

i haven't even taken a photo yet...davey's gotten a couple - we're having such fun - discovered last night that if you go to joe's crab shack in miami beach...and they take your name and say you have a two hour wait...you can go next door to the take away area and order and buy a bottle of wine and sit at one of the tables - no waiters..no dark atmosphere..but the same food and i felt like i was stealing something!!! -off to play the blue monster today - the last of our courses - the pros play it in two weeks and it will be great fun to watch that after having just played it@!!

taking a break...

i did a bit of painting yesterday...trying to finish my copy of mary cassatt's "breakfast in bed"...so i can varnish it and be done. i have so many half-finished and unfinished pieces up there...and...we're heading to doral in miami on saturday so i'm busy packing and organizing. taking my laptop so i can post some pictures of the gorgeous golf courses we'll be playing. not sure if i'll get to my studio anymore at all for the next week so i'll be dying to get back at it by then!

carol marine's 10 minute challenge..

this week's challenge was to do 8 ten minute paintings of any object from life. you have to use a timer and when it goes off, you're DONE! - this is great practice and i learned a lot. i used different colored papers under my pear and turned it around a bit - on the last one i used a reflective paper and i thought that was neat. the object was to really look at values and shapes and paint what you see. i used 2 6x6 panels and divided each into four areas so the whole piece is 6x12. as i mentioned earlier - you can go to daily paint works to see all the entries - last i looked there were almost 200...i've been a bit tardy in doing mine but i really wanted to get to it before the next challenge so i won't get too far behind!

whew!!!

it's almost two p.m.....and the kids all just left...we spent time scurrying around to tidy up the house before pappper gets home from saving lives...and did it ever need tidying!!! but that's what happens when you're having fun. this morning tillie, ols, joe and i all had a rousing game of rummykub....joe, who's 3 and a half, mostly played along and did what we told him to do but tillie (8) and ollie (5) are really quite good! we played and played and got down to not many tiles left to choose from and finally oliver won!! the little sh%#*t!!...we watched movies, did puzzles, played games and generally had a great time..and i'm enzausted (as my kids used to say),,so no painting today...resting and watching the IU game. back to the studio tomorrow for sure!!!

blue nude

14x11 oil on stretched canvas
this is the other painting i did yesterday..or was it wednesday?...i'm not sure it's done but i had a great time with it! - today a tennis match in indy and tonight a sleepover with 3 of my grands...what fun we will have!!!!

i couldn't stand it....

so i've been working on my bathroom redo...picking out tiles..talking to people...really getting excited! but i also HAD to get back to painting today...my studio's not done but i had to! - i did a small flower study with pallette knife and a blue nude. i posted the flower today but now i have to go and eat dinner....my hubby's been patiently waiting!!

making progress...but who can tell!

so here's what i'm contending with!!! MY SPACE IS SUCH A DISASTER!! (didn't mean to do caps but thought it was fitting)...i've spent hours and hours on my project - first of all i went through my reference books to figure out which ones i have to have and can't part with...the rest i'm giving to the new senior center. i'm also going through maybe 20 years of three art magazines, culling the articles i need to keep and then the rest will go to the center. i've gotten all my paints on that one table...watercolors, acrylic and oils...the boxes of pastels are in a closet in another room, along with frames and stretcher bars. i've spent hours going through my reference photos, trying to throw some away but it's hard for me. i will get there!! - my friend lillian suggested i do a painting of the mess. i couldn't figure out how to encorporate the whole room and then i thought i might just throw some stuff together and take a few pics and think on it...we'll see...as i look at this photo i can see it needs to be a little better designed. i also want to do carol marine's latest challenge but i have to do one or two more good days of work before i'll allow myself back to the easel. you can see last week's challenge at www.dailypaintworks.com ...i think there were 80 entries last time i looked. this challenge is for us to do 8 ten-minute paintings of one single object. should be fun! ok - onward and upward!! and my nubby is so happy for his pack!! great game and now we can get ready for golf!

bummer...

ever have a day when nothing turned out the way you wanted it ?? that's the way things have been going in my studio lately. i totally reworked the nude i had on the easel and you know what they say..."it's never done til it's over-done"....well i over did it...and all i can do at this point is trash it! - i also discovered, while searching for something for what seemed like hours on end, that i have serious organizational work to do up there. every workshop i've ever taken...every video i've watched...every book i've read...all have one thing in common - an organized work space! - and anyone who's ever been in my house can attest to the general clutter! - i love to have interesting things around me - mementos, gifts from children and friends, antique shop finds, you name it. my studio is a disaster. i have a zillion refence books on watercolor, pastel, oil, mixed media, etc... i'm always cutting out things for reference, saving bits of this and that in case i ever get into collage...every issue of all the art magazines i've ever taken is up there..shoved in cubbies, piled in stacks..i'm not even going to try and count the tubes of paint...and i just ordered more, of course!! so the bottom line is this: i'm going to take a few days and really "work in my studio" in stead of the way i usually "work in my studio"...i'll report on my progress! and wish me luck!

carol marine's challange..

i think i'm finally finished with the first carol marine painting challenge (http://www.carolmarine.blogspot.com/). it's a rear view of a vintage chrysler imperial and i think we actually owned one when i was growing up! i wiped my first one and then reworked my second attempt and i'm thinking i need to move on. there are a ton of entries..and there's no prize - it's just a chance to respond to a weekly challenge and i'm psyched for it!!! i also did a little figure study which i'll post tomorrow...meanwhile!!!!......our hoosiers won again!!!!! - and we weren't there!!! - the roads were so bad we were not allowed to travel to bloomington, according to the state police...so rats..but yeah!@!!!!!

3 color cloud study

big sky 6x6 oil on panel
today we had the threat of a big ice storm hanging over our heads so i went out to my car to get ready for tennis and i saw that my car was totally iced over and i almost killed myself on the way out there!! you know when your feet fly out from under you and you fall or nearly fall on your bodoon?? i am so agile for a 65 year old so i caught myself and thanked my guardian angel and promptly went in to call and cancel tennis!....had the day unexpectedly to myself so i plunged into my art!! - so today i wanted to do a cloud study. i have some panels that i gessoed earlier so this has lots of texture in it. maybe too much, as i look at it, maybe not.. but a good chance to practice...i also wanted to work with a limited palette so this was done with just ultramarine blue, cad red medium and lemon yellow. titanium white, also of course. you can make all the colors you need with just the three primaries. i intend to try lots of different combos of the primaries...maybe cobalt blue, light red and yellow ochre, maybe cad red light, cad yellow light and ultra or cobalt or maybe even cerulean blue...i love the combo of hansa yellow and quinacidrone red...very good for sunsets but i've never done a whole painting with just those two plus blue...lots to look forward to!!!!