Colorful Connections

2012-01-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

Tangerine Dreams 48x48 Oil on Gallery Canvas

Each year, as some of you may know, the color industry leaders over at Pantone select a color that they think is making it's move in fashion, design, art, etc. This large square oil abstract was inspired by the "2012 Pantone Color of the Year"--Tangerine Tango. Over at Daily Paintworks they are celebrating Tangerine Tango with this week's painting challenge! FYI, for this painting, I mixed an approximation of the Tangerine Tango using Cadmium Red Light and Cadmium Yellow Light.

I was thrilled to see this "sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive" hue selected because I often include red orange in my paintings. Personally (and what's more personal in art than color?) I was less enamored the 2011 color of the year--Honeysuckle. Kind of a cool midtone pink.

I just finished up packing up all my art supplies in preparation for my Marco Island (yes it's a bit warmer there) painting workshop with Dreama Tolle Perry. I've been looking forward to this workshop for ages. I look forward to telling you all about it when I return.

For those of you thinking about workshop travel this year, I decided to mail myself in advance an insured large "flat rate" no weight limit box (less than $20) that I crammed full of supplies such as expensive paint, walnut oil, painting knives, linen panels, etc. to avoid any airport hassle--plus if you've packed up art supplies you know they how heavy they can be.

Finally, I want to give a warm winter welcome and high fives to all my many new 2012 students. Thanks so much for starting out your art year with me in the studio. It's been a pleasure meeting all of you. If you are interested in painting classes in February/March I have a few spots left (not many) but feel free to email me for more info.

The Sky's the Limit in 2012!

2012-01-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

December Sunset (can you see the jumping dolphin?)

Happy New Year! I'm not crazy about cold weather but I do think January is an amazing month to be an artist. There’s so much fresh creative energy and endless possibilities for art projects on the horizon.

Winter days also provide an ideal excuse for concentrating on a more time intensive painting, finally reading (or re-reading) that text-heavy academic tome lurking on your shelf (Itten’s The Art of Color anyone??), or organizing your workspace. Want more ideas for creative success in 2012? Check out this artist resolution list from art biz coach Alyson Stanfield. Or listen to the Blogtalk radio shows on Artists Helping Artists.

Today’s post was inspired by a this wonderful violet sunset (actual colors) photo I took last week in my own backyard. In planning my own sky painting, I’d thought I’d share a few considerations and sky painting tips:

Where's the sky cooler? Where is it warmer? In general, you’ll find that the sky is often cooler and dark at the highest point and lighter/warmer at the horizon line.
To “warm up” a cool blue sky, I sometimes tone my canvas first with warmer colors such as permanent rose, Indian yellow, etc. Won't this impact the sky color? Yep, that's the plan.
Want a more unique sky? Skip the blue altogether. I’m always drawn to paintings with yellow, green, and other “non blue” skies.
Take a few minutes to study your sky value range. As you can see in this “value study” black and white version my sky some of the “white” clouds are relatively quite dark.

Sky Value Study

Pay special attention to your edges and shapes in a sky. There may be only a few really sharply defined edges and rarely any sharply defined shapes.

Want more sky painting tips? Check out this Free Webinar: Essentials of Painting Skies Saturday, January 14. (Note: I find these have been filling quickly so be sure to "take your seat" before the class starts.)
Save the Date: Heart Art Auction, February 9
I’m also enjoying working on my heart themed painting for the 2012 Denver Heart Art fundraiser on February 9. You get more info about donating art or attending the event at Denver Heart Art.

Magical Box of Color

2011-12-27T17:18:00.000-08:00

"Sixty Four" Mixed Media Watercolor and Crayon 15 x 22

I hope everyone is enjoying a happy and creative holiday season. As the year winds down, I want to thank my many loyal students, several who have painted with me for over a year now, for sharing their art time with me. I’m looking forward to an amazing 2012 and can’t wait to see what you all paint! And I look forward to meeting many new artists in the upcoming year as I teach and venture out to more workshops.

Over the holidays I received many great art and thoughtful owl gifts (thanks everyone!) including a lovely little art book called Water, Paper, and Paint by artist Heather Jones Smith. Ms. Smith includes several interesting watermedia exercises including the one I painted today which stresses watercolor color mixing and color harmony. I call these abstract paintings “color quilts.” FYI, my paper here is a Quiller 140lb Cold Press block.

In this painting, I used Daniel Smith Quin Gold as my “mother color” meaning every color mixed included some Quin Gold. My other colors included a range of warms and cools such as lemon yellow, permanent rose, cobalt blue, crimson, thalo blue, indigo, winsor violet, etc.

The 64 Crayola box--An artist favorite since 1958.

In addition to many wonderful art books, I also received a classic 64 Crayola crayon box. Arguably one of the one of the best art bargains ever--Less than $3 at Super Target. As you may know some of the Crayola colors have changed since we were young artists in the um seventies but it’s still a magical box of waxy color. I decided to add all 64 colors to today’s exercise painting. (I particularly liked the lighter crayon on the darker watercolor washes.)

Over the holiday break I also watched a Nita Leland video where she talks about exploring the various levels of creativity—from intuitive (pure fun and child like) to genius. On a sunny but still cold winter day like today it was my goal to keep my art brain warm and fuzzy. Mission accomplished. This type of exercise, at least for me, works well as a stepping stone before I return tomorrow into some “more serious” representational oil painting. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, have a colorful week!

A Winter Demo with A Modern Oil Painting Master

2011-12-19T08:52:00.000-08:00

Quang Ho Still Life Demo in progress (detail)

I rarely post a painting that's not mine but this is worth the exception. For months I’ve been looking forward to acclaimed Denver painter Quang Ho’s six hour long still life oil painting demo this past Saturday. I hate to gush but it was truly amazing. Honestly, I’m still exhausted just from observing and absorbing. (I want to quickly note that the room was lit for painting. I didn't want to use the flash so my photos really don't do his painting justice.)

Quang begins with a "loose" washy block in of shapes

After Quang introduced the session by explaining his light and shadow approach (you can learn more about this in his Nuts and Bolts DVD), he arranged a lovely still life that included red tulips, orange persimmons, a big green glass bottle, and some light greenish white lilies. He emphasized that he's looking for variety and color flow. Watching him arrange the objects was truly a treat.

Quang's Still Life Setup

Quang started with orange/lilly area and moved on to adjacent shapes.

Briefly, for those of you interested in Quang’s painting materials:

Support: Square-ish (around 30x 34?) double primed linen mounted on gator board so he can trim this easily if he needs to. Looked like a wonderful surface to paint on.
Brushes: Both bristle (mostly filberts and egberts—long tongue like filberts) and softer mongoose brushes. He mentioned the British Rosemary brand. He cleans his brushes with Turpenoid Natural.
Palette: Relatively large glass palette (with around 20 colors). He uses a variety of brands and noted he likes LeFranc white (something I will try). Medium: Odorless Turpenoid.
He’s right handed and stands when he paints (stepping back a lot) and keeps the palette on a table in front (not to the side) of his easel as you can see below. Note this is a "classroom" easel.

Quang's Palette--lots of color!

I couldn’t begin to touch on the depth of knowledge a master painter like Quang has but I wanted to share a few random notes I made during the demo that struck a chord.

Getting to the final stages...Quang painted the table fabric last.

He learns more about painting from philosophy and science books than he does from art books.
Be sure to consider the macro: What is the big picture—the main story you are telling? What is the light doing?
On the flip side you need to be conscious of the micro: Even in a large painting each brushstroke matters. There are no repeats in nature.
Every piece is an important part to the whole. Carefully record unique and specific shapes.
Take your time. Don't rush. Mix a new color for every brush stroke.
Don’t be as concerned about having a single focal point as you are about how the eye travels through the painting.
Start with the area that you think you do the most correct and work off of that.
Painting is a series of decisions so it’s important not to freeze—Make a decision!
Focusing on value before color helps you color mix.
When painting light and shadow approach classify your shapes into light OR shadow shapes. It's one or the other.
Note light and dark (a value range) is NOT the same—for example you might have a relatively light shadow.
As the object turns from the light and shadow the color intensity is at its greatest.
Be very mindful recording the shape where the light and shadow meet.
There’s no negative space—everything counts.
Where can you merge your edges? Search and destroy...
Start with your blueprint and don’t get lost in the detail.
There’s no “mud” just bad shapes.
Light is an organism that moves as one.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the highlights from the demo. I also want to thank Quang for sharing his knowledge. One day, many years from now, I'll be telling my students about this demo. It's was like watching a magician who explains everything he's doing but in the end it's still magical.

All That Glitters

2011-12-05T12:05:00.001-08:00

Vienna Holiday-36x36-Oil on Canvas

Last week’s Daily Paintworks’ challenge was deceptively straightforward: Paint something in the style of a painter you admire. Several of my favorite painters came to mind immediately: Van Gogh, Matisse, Hopper, O’Keeffe, Dixon, Bonnard, Cezanne…

Then I was thinking about all the visual inspiration of the holiday season--jewel tones, golds, silvers, nature based imagery, as well as cultural symbols. That train of thought led me to Austrian art nouveau painter Gustav Klimt.

His vibrant colors, use of flat, dazzling patterns, unique (and sometimes controversial) figural compositions are so contemporary that I have to remind myself that Klimt died before 1920. Here’s a wonderful example of one of his gilt figures, Hope II.

For the challenge, I choose to paint an abstract and initially planned to add gold leaf which I’ve done previously in some of my abstract paintings. Instead I chose a short cut using Golden brand (I love their metallic paints) acrylic gold paint as the undertone. Not the same effect, but interesting and given gold prices, much less expensive. Then switched to oil paint for all the overall painting.

This painting is also the largest painting I’ve done for a DPW challenge, but I prefer a larger scale (this is 36x36) when I paint abstractly. In fact, on Cybermonday I bought a new Sorg easel just for larger works. It’s due on Wednesday and I can’t wait to try it! Pics and a review to come. In the meantime, I hope the holiday season brings you much creative joy and inspiration!

P.S. Quick congrats to artist Ms. Dawn Hartigan for winning my November free fine art print contest! Be looking for another contest after the holidays.

A Not So Still Life

2011-11-23T14:24:00.001-08:00

Still of the Night-Oil on Canvas-16x16

"I never wanted color to be color. I never wanted texture to be texture, or images to become shapes. I wanted them all to fuse together into a living spirit." Clyfford Still

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Last Friday marked the long-awaited opening of the Clyfford Still Museum. As some of you may know, Still was an American Abstract Expressionist whose contemporaries included Pollock, Motherwell, and DeKooning.

Clyfford Still Museum-Denver, CO

Still is also classified as a “color field” painter as many of his works contain impasto (thickly painted) bold shapes of blacks, yellows, reds, and whites. Whether you are fan of this movement or not, I think it would be hard to ignore its influence on many contemporary American artists and collectors.

When Still died in 1980 he left over 2,400 works (many of which were never seen in public) to a city willing to create a museum dedicated solely to the artist. In 2004, Denver won the bid for the museum. Like many art lovers in town, I’ve been looking forward to the museum unveiling ever since. I hope to have time this holiday week to visit the collection. In the meantime I’m posting an oil abstract that I painted in honor of such an important part of American art history taking place right in my backyard.

Finally, big congratulations to my students who were juried into some of our local fall art exhibits--One of whom won not only their first show ribbon but the Commissioner's Choice for a lovely landscape. I’m so proud! Also, there's still time to win a free fine art print (see previous posting for details)--just comment on any post to be entered until November 30. (I've only got 2 entrants so far, so your odds of winning are pretty good!)

There's No Place Like Home

2011-11-14T14:24:00.001-08:00

"Ruby Slippers" Oil on Canvas 8x10

This week's painting challenge on Daily Paintworks is (as you may have guessed) shoes. Initially, I was planning to paint my favorite black velvet pumps but I couldn't find them. Then I remembered this ruby patent leather pair. Like many "fancy shoes" they aren't super comfy. I thought it was interesting that several of the DPW challenge painters noted a strong emotional connection to their shoes.

For me it was a crystal clear memory of more than a year ago...I was in Santa Fe. After a long day of strolling Canyon Road galleries and boutiques along the Plaza, I'm at the Coyote Cafe Rooftop Bar--One of my favorite stops. Probably about to order a mango margarita and some veggie tacos. In other words, a heavenly artist day...

But I'm with friends (and some folks I don't know that well). We've been out a while and moods are turning as the weather chills. The place is packed and loud and service grinds to a halt. I'm starving, tired, and my feet are beginning to burn. Am less than thrilled with my less than practical footwear choice. And then a waiter (or perhaps another customer trying to cheer me up) catches a flash of red as I cross my tired legs and I get a "cute shoes."

And for a moment, I'm glad I didn't just throw on my scratched and faded practical Merrills. The searing pain is briefly tolerable. But a few minutes later I'm cold, fighting a headache, and trying to follow a heated discussion out about some sushi dinner reservations gone bad. And as wonderful as my day has been in one of my favorite places to visit been I find myself wishing I could click my sore heels and be magically back at home in my quiet and calming studio. Because there's simply no place like it.

Blue Pumpkin Pie?

2011-11-02T21:05:00.000-07:00

"Ghostly Gourd" 8x10 oil on panel--SOLD

Brr...The best thing about a snow day is that it’s the perfect excuse for hot chocolate and staying warm and dry in the studio. Today, I painted this blue-ish pumpkin for this week’s pumpkin themed DPW Painting Challenge. I spotted this interesting “non orange” pumpkin "alternative" at our local Pearl Street Farmer’s Market just a couple of weeks ago.

I was particularly drawn to the contradictory sage green-blue color. My favorite pie is pumpkin chiffon so I kept thinking about the color of the insides and how cool it would be if it were blue inside as well.

Speaking of snow and cold as a winter gift to myself, about a week ago, I signed up for Dreama Tolle Perry’s painting workshop in Florida in January 2012. I’ve admired Ms. Perry’s work for a long time and I’m really looking forward to it. January is often our chilliest month in Colorado so the warmer Florida Gulf will be a nice break. I’m also looking forward to meeting new artists in a different part of the country.

Anyway, if you seen Dreama’s work you know she loves an abundance of color. Her workshop supply list has a few more colors than I would normally use since I usually prefer a limited palette. So I’m trying some of the new colors well in advance.

This may seem a bit over zealous but a several years ago, I took a plein air workshop where I spent days trying to juggle a unfamiliar neon bright orange. In this pumpkin oil painting, I tried out Dreama's suggested Rembrandt Transparent Red Medium. Intense, but rendered very pleasant range of red violets, red oranges, and a really clean pink. Time for some more hot chocolate--Thanks for stopping by. Have a colorful and creative day!

To Catch a Falling Dream

2011-10-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

"Dream Big" Mixed Media on Canvas 24x24

Typically, one would not expect to get a lot of art inspiration at the podiatrist. (Unless of you course you like to paint feet.) But I was in a waiting room a few weeks ago that happened to have a large colorful Native American poster. The elaborate feathered headdress reminded me that I’d been planning to paint a dream catcher.

And then I saw Core New Art Space (a contemporary co-op gallery in Denver) was having an upcoming dream themed show. So that gave me the final push to paint a dream catcher this week. FYI, the extra texture on the painting incorporates both acrylic gel skins and "recycled" dried paint peeled off plastic palettes. Something new in the studio that I used that also helped me with this painting was an Ott full spectrum rechargeable light. The battery feature is great because it's cordless and that's always helpful in a studio.

I read that some cultures believe dream catchers help sort the good dreams from the bad. As someone with an active imagination prone to crazy dreams, vivid nightmares, and a restless night brain this is quite appealing. They say the good dreams flow down the feathers to the peaceful sleeper. (I have real dream catcher I bought in Taos but my cat kept attacking the dangling feathers. So this painting might be a more suitable replacement.)

Lone Tree Art Exhibit: November 12-December 31, 2011
I’m pleased that I had a small oil painting juried into the Lone Tree Art Show. If you’re in the area be sure to stop by the opening cocktail reception on Sat. November 12. This event usually features some beautiful regional art at great prices. P.S. There's still time to enter my contest to win a FREE print of my art (see details in previous post).

Win a Scarlet Owl Studio Print

2011-10-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Aspen Moondance-Mixed Media on Canvas-18x24

How to Win a Free Art Print
I've been wanting to run a blog contest for a while now so in honor of my new prints available on ImageKind, I'm having a special blog contest (details below) between now and November 15, 2011 for a prize of a $30 value print of your choice of my prints in the Scarlet Owl Studio gallery on ImageKind. Note that most of these original paintings have been sold or are in private collections so I'm happy to have another way to offer them to my visitors and collectors.

Also, I'll be adding more images to the print gallery throughout the month. For available prints, please visit my Prints for Sale Page or click on the black ImageKind banner on the right hand side.

New Art Supply of the Week
For all my acrylic painters out there, I wanted to share a new studio tool that I'm really enjoying and that is the Martin Universal Design Mijello Peel-Able Palette. I also use a covered palette, but I really like the roomy elliptical shape, separate mixing area, non slip rubber feet, and easy peel off cleaning. It's available at many online art stores such as Daniel Smith, Dick Blick, Cheap Joes, etc. I've recently seen the peel off palettes in gray as well which I think would be even better for mixing.

Contest Details: To enter to win simply comment on any Colorful Connections blog posting from today (October 15, 2011) until November 15, 2011. The winner will be picked randomly using random.org. No purchase is necessary. The winner will receive any Scarlet Owl Studio print of their choice of my work on ImageKind up to $30 value (winner pays shipping if outside US). I will announce the lucky winner by November 20, 2011. Thanks all and good luck!

My Favorite Watercolor Books

2011-10-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

"Fading Fast" watercolor 12x16

Taking a break from oil painting today to do a watercolor. This is a watercolor study of some large roses in the Washington Park garden from early September. These flowers were starting to get a bit worn and shaggy at the end of the season. But still a wonderful vintage-y pink lavender color none the less. It's our first really chilly day of the fall season so painting colorful flowers is always a nice way to warm up the day.

For my fellow watercolor enthusiasts, I painted this on a 140 lb. Cold Press Arches Block. It's my go standard for smaller watercolor paintings. My color palette for this was primarily transparent colors which I prefer: permanent rose, opera, some quin magenta, cobalt blue, thalo blue, ultramarine blue, lemon yellow, and aureolin yellow. I used a combination of wet in wet and dry transparent layers here, which is pretty typical of most of my watercolor painting.

My Top Ten Favorite Watercolor Books
While I own dozens of watercolor books, these are the books I find myself rereading for practical tips as well as inspiration. Best of all, many of these gems are quite affordable (under $10) used on Amazon.

How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself by Nita Engle
Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines by Linda Kemp
Interpreting the Figure in Watercolor by Don Andrews
Making Watercolor Sing by Jean Dobie
Pouring Light by Jean Grastorf
Painting from the Inside Out by Betsey Dillard Stroud
Transparent Watercolor by William Condit
The Collected Best of Watercolor by Schlemm and Doherty
William Mathews: Working the West
Reflections of Nature: Paintings by Joseph Raffael (one of my all time favorite contemporary watercolor artists)

Quick welcome to my new fall students and to my loyal ongoing students my sincere thanks for sharing your painting time with me. I'm looking forward to painting this winter with all of you. For as long as I can remember, painting is a powerful antidote for colder, grayer months. For more info regarding my classes, please visit My Classes Page. Thanks for stopping by!

Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda.

2011-10-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

Oil Study of Wash Park Boathouse-8x8

Today’s post is a small plein air oil study I've been working on for the Denver Plein Art Competition. It’s a painting of the Washington Park boathouse--one of my favorite local landmarks. But truth be told, I just couldn’t finish this painting to my satisfaction on site. Nor did I finish my watercolor of the garden.

From what I can tell reading other posts, forums, and blogs the discussion regarding “finishing” of a plein air painting (particularly for a competition) is a somewhat controversial. In other words, there doesn’t seem to be definite answer for how much is acceptable to paint back in your studio. In general, the range I found for various plein air events (if it was addressed) was “none” (for quick draws or one day paint outs for example) up to 20 percent later touch up.

In this case, given the contest took place over several weeks, my goal was to finish the painting as close to 100% as I could get. Since I don’t usually paint plein air on regular basis, I admit I was rusty, and so I fell short of this goal.

So I have some thoughts in my next post about how I’ll make my next plein air competition or paint out more successful. Hopefully, these tips will help you too if you’re planning a first time plein air event.

In the meantime, I promised some additional tips about how to improve your chances for getting into juried art shows in general. My first suggestion is: Don’t wait until the last minute to submit your entry. I always back out a show due date at least a week on my calendar. Why? You might have trouble with your images, your computer, the entry website, etc. So give yourself plenty of time. For more art show tips check out this helpful article: Five Tips for Getting Into Juried Shows.

Picking Treasures for Painting Gold

2011-10-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

"Tang Horse Study" 8x8 oil

I'd rather be painting or reading so I don't watch much TV, but one show I never miss is American Pickers on History Channel. I’m guessingfellow still life painters may have the same reaction as they watch Mike andFrank brush the dust off a rusty vintage toy or funky mechanical part. And thatis: That thing would be an awesome still life subject!

I’ve been an urban antique hunter for more years than I’dlike to admit. On any given weekend if I’m not painting or teaching, you mightfind me at a resale shop, flea market, auction, estate sale, or sometimeseven a scary basement (where magically my bug and germ phobias disappear) hunting for “rustygold” still life treasures. (If you like this type of thing you might want tocheck out the book I just started reading called Killer Stuff and Tons of Money.)

Anyway, several years ago, I found this little off whiteceramic tang horse. The horse isn’t valuable (could be from Target?) butI just loved the shape. Plus, as I've mentioned before, I love painting white or off white subjectssince they are often full of color depending on the lighting.

I placed my horse figure in kitchen window with late spring backlighting, made a quick sketch, and took a few reference photos. My painting goal wasto capture the warm reflective light. If you don’t have time to paint somethingthat catches your eye, grab your camera and take a few shots.

You'll find these photos and/or sketches are handylater for reference and ideas in the studio. For example, I’d forgotten about this little horse until I browsed through my photos. Thanks for stopping by—I’ll be back with some more show entry tips in my next post! Students and friends I look forward to seeing you soon!

Easel Does It Apples

2011-09-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Sunlit Apples-8x10-oil on canvas

Yesterday, I was inspired to do a mostly knife color study from re-reading Arthur Stern's book How to See Color and Paint It, This is older but excellent oil painting book with superb exercises to help train your color vision and ability to record what you see. Not what you think you see. My very quick tips for learning to paint this way are for each shape ask yourself 4 key questions:

1. What color family is it? Note the answer is one of these 6: Red, orange, yellow, blue, green, or violet. IN other words, there's no brown, gray, beige, etc. There is a dull very dark orange however.
2. How relatively light or dark is it? I find it helpful to locate the darkest dark in your photo or set up and compare to that. A simple value range might be something like: Very light, light, medium, dark, very dark.
3. How bright or dull is it? Another way to think of this is how close is the color to your color out of the tube (which is usually at a high intensity). There are several ways to dull or "kill the brightness" of your color such as adding the color complement or my favorite: palette mud (scraped together from your mixing),
4. How warm or cool is it? Most colors will have a tendency to lean toward their neighboring color such as red-orange, blue-green, red-violet, etc. I think you may find that some of your darks are actually quite warm.

For example, are sunlit Granny Smith apples in an orange-y teak wood really just green? Another way I approach these paintings is to consider that in most sunlight scenes you'll likely (after some observation) discover a full range of color and temperature as I did painting these apples.

Also, if you paint smaller studies (under 12") I highly recommend using some kind of canvas holder. I designed this handy small canvas holder (I'm calling it the Eeezle ) based on some I've seen other painters use. So I didn't invent this but I thought it would be nice to have a midtone gray as the backdrop so this is a 16x16 square piece of 1/4 inch MDF painted flat gray.

I also chose a 16x16 since I often paint 12x12 panels. The adjustable bars (ledges) are stained and varnished oak (I guessed a hard wood would warp less). The bottom bar is actually stable and the top bar is adjustable with easy to use thumb screws in the back.

Here's the apple painting in progress with the magenta toned canvas (the same color I used for the raven in my previous post). The neon magenta is not the easiest background to paint on (ouch--my eyes!), but I love the contrast with the yellow greens and it motivates me to work quickly. Also, I've not forgotten my promise to include some "getting into art show" tips this week and so be sure to check back for those tips.
Have a great day at your easel!

Show Me the Art

2011-09-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

Fall Raven-12x12 Oil on Canvas--Available on Daily Paintworks

Today's painting is for this week's Daily Paintworks challenge which is something inspired by fall. About a week ago I was up at our local park working on my Denver Plein Air Arts Festival entry when I took several reference photos of this raven since I wasn't able to paint him from life. I'm a pretty fast painter, but not that fast!

It seems fall is also the season when there are many juried art show deadlines. As an art teacher, I'm often asked about entering shows so I thought I'd share a few tips. First, obviously, you need to find an art show. More specifically, you want to look for an art show that's a good match for you--your style, your subject matter (animals, landscapes, figure, etc), your level, etc. Here are a few ideas to get you started in your area:

Local galleries--particularly co-ops
Art organizations and clubs such as your local watercolor or plein air society
City or county art associations or councils
Art stores often have a community board with flyers, post cards, etc.announcing shows
Schools, churches, museums, community centers
Other non-profit organizations such as zoos, botanical gardens, performing arts
Also ask other artists (particularly those who know the local scene)
Local newspapers and other publications often have "Calls for the Entry"
Craigslist (Check your Community/Artist section)

You can also Google something like "My city art shows" or "My city calls for entries" etc. There are also many websites that feature art shows and deadlines around the country such as as Artshow and CAFE (Call for Entry). In the upcoming week, I'll post some more tips for entering shows, in the meantime, it's back to the easel. In the meantime, get out there and enter your art!

Spot On Color

2011-09-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

"Seeing Spots" oil on canvas 11x14

I had such a fantastic time painting the colorful pinto horse a few days ago, I decided to paint an appaloosa. I love working with patterns and textures when I paint animals. This time I chose a higher key and added more surface texture. In this case, I used a painting knife along with the brushwork. I really had to stop myself from painting more leopard pattern spots--it's rather addictive.

My color selection for this painting was a few more pigments than I typically use, but still fairly limited. Also, I'm sometimes I asked about my preference for paint brands. I've tested almost every brand over many years so on a palette like this it's not unusual that each of these is a different brand. This doesn't make replacing your colors very practical though, so you may want to pick a few favorites and stick with those.

Permalba White, Indian Yellow, Trans Red Oxide, Perm Rose, Aliz Crimson, Ultra Blue, Thalo Blue, Yellow Green and small amount of Ivory Black.

Also, quick note about black since I'm often asked about that as well. Personally, I don't usually use black but I find myself using it sometimes and in moderation when I paint animals. Like many artists, I work with ivory black as a very dark neutral blue. And I usually mix black with another pigment help warm it up such as a touch of Alizarin or Red Oxide.

I don't know about you but I always think of colorful or patterned equines such as palominos, pintos (paints), and appaloosas being featured in Native American or Western art work, but in doing some research, I came across this interesting 17th century Flemish painting by Meulen of Louis XIV riding an appaloosa. In fact, artists have been depicting spotted horses in art since the 11 century.

This image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

So my painting challenge to you today is a patterned animal--have fun and see you in the studio! For more info about my classes, please click on my class link at the top.

That Which We Already Possess

2011-09-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

"Painted Pony" 8x8 Oil on canvas-SOLD

It's great to be back. Has it really been almost two months? I didn't mean to take a such a long break but with some out of town travel, a few non art related business projects (thank you clients!), and lots of new students (thanks and welcome!), it's been hard to find easel time late in the summer but as fall approaches (along with some show deadlines) I'm ready to focus and get back to work.

During my blogging break I've had some amazing art inspiration--a long awaited trip to exotic Kauai (one of the most amazing places I've ever seen), meeting one of my long time art idols Dan McCaw and his sons in person at Gallery 1261 a few weeks ago, participating in the Denver Plein Air Arts Festival (reminding me just how challenging plein art can be), and attending Core Gallery's Black and White Show to see one of my student's first shows. If you paint you know how exciting that is--Congratulations again Grace!

I felt a bit like a groupie waiting in line after Mr. McCaw's gallery talk to have him sign his book. He could not have been more gracious. If you read my blog you know it's one of my favorite art books of all time. Well worth the out of print price on Amazon. I'm sure this isn't the first time he's written this but it felt like it to me. And I wanted to share what he wrote since I think it perfectly and eloquently captures how I also feel about teaching:

We are both on the same journey to find and value that which we already possess. Good Luck.

The only thing missing was that I would have loved to follow him (but in a non stalking way!) to his workshop at the Weekend with Masters. Maybe next year...Coincidentally last week's Artists Helping Artists talk show featured an interview with Dan McCaw and I highly recommend listening to it whether your a fan or not. All of the above events have given me a slew of painting ideas, such as a very colorful pinto horse painted on a red toned canvas.

Finally a big thanks to all my summer students and their parents. Especially those who returned to high school and universities--I miss you already but it was great sharing my summer with you and I look forward to seeing you next year! And for all my new fall students, welcome, I know it's going to be super colorful season and journey!

Inspiration Swedish Style

2011-07-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

Getting close...

About eight years. That's how long I'd been waiting (along with many other IKEA fans in Colorado). That's when I first heard buzz that an IKEA might open here. So yesterday, when I would normally be in the studio in the early morning, I found myself (along with a cast of thousands) in a cavernous parking garage waiting in line for the Grand Opening of the Denver IKEA store in a sea of cadmium yellow medium and cobalt blue.

500 seat restaurant--love the snowball lights!

Shopping Snack--Yum!

Thankfully the opening seemed well-organized and while I did win a sofa or chair, I only waited about an hour. While I've browsed the IKEA website many times, I've never visited an actual store. I was immediately struck by the massive scale--imagine an airport with towels,candles, rugs, and cool mugs. One of the staff told me the Denver store was now the largest IKEA in North America. I think it will likely take a few visits to really get a good sense of the place. Tip: Wear comfy shoes--it was also a great walking workout.

As a foodie with a Scandinavian heritage, I was particularly looking forward to the cafe and the Swedish Food Market. They did not disappoint. I had very tasty pancake with ligonberry preserves and bought some dark chocolate bars and in the market. Eventually I had get back to the studio, but I had enough time to pick up these fun Mala felt tip stamping markers. I also had my eye on this interesting paper roll holder and drawing paper that I thought would be great for casual sketching. (Both were in the kid's department where I thought the prices were super affordable.)


Colors, shapes, and textures in every direction!

I'm back in the studio painting and teaching today, but I have to admit, I've got a touch of IKEA fever so if there are days I'm not posting in the next few weeks, you'll know where to find me...Welcome to Denver, IKEA!

Painting Colorado's Most Iconic Subject

2011-07-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

"Ancient Roots" Mixed Media on Canvas 36 x 48

Now, I've not conducted an official poll but I've been a Colorado based artist for almost my entire adult life. In that time, I've conservatively assert that I've proudly attended hundreds of art shows, festivals, workshops, etc. so I feel that I'm a fairly good judge of popular and beloved subject matter.

Now you might think it would be our Rocky Mountains--in particular snowy capped peaks. Yes, I've seen many versions of mountainscapes so that's a possible landscape favorite but even more than mountains, I'm going to go out on a limb (pun intended) and say that Colorado artists have an undying passion for shimmery, quaking aspen trees. In all seasons, forms, shapes, and sizes. How can you resist a tree with patterns?

I've painting aspens before of course but it's been a while and I this time I wanted to paint on a relatively large canvas help express the scale of a towering pale forest. In this painting on stretched canvas, I used many layers of acrylics, molding paste (for bark texture) and oil pastels for line work and details (personally my favorite part).

I recently read that aspen trees grow as large stands of genetically identical trees (technically, stems) connected by a single root system. The largest known fully connected aspen is a grove in Utah nicknamed Pando. Some experts believe this aspen grove to be the heaviest organism in the world.

I really loved working on this and can't wait to paint another with I think a warmer background next time. But I may need to taking a painting break later this week for the new Ikea Grand Opening! Don't think I'm going to camp out, but I have been waiting for years for the store to arrive in Denver. I'm certain I'll be able to find an interesting and colorful studio accessory--if I can get into the parking lot. Wish me luck and in the meantime enjoy all your creative endeavors!

Summer Temptations

2011-07-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Very Warm Summer Everyone! Thanks for your patience as summer has lured me out of the studio for the past week or so. While I've been teaching (thanks again summer students for all your hard work), I've also been distracted to several summer activities that have (unfortunately) not involved painting. But I promise to be back to the easel soon.

One of my favorite places to find a colorful inspiration are farmer's markets. Here are a few photos from the South Pearl Street Farmer's Market here in Denver, Colorado. One of my favorite things to buy are the amazing High Desert Peppers (hot of course!) and the Front Range Basil Tomatoes from the MMLocal booth. I love the colors of the rainbow beets as well.

For those of you who have been patiently following my Still Life 101 tips, here's Step 3 or How to Get Your Sketch onto the Canvas after you've toned your canvas. I feel there two basic rough in options, one is a bit more "devil may care" while the other your left brain will love.

Option 1: Assuming I warmed up with a planning sketch (as described in previous post) I "just do it." I lightly sketch my subject (from careful observation) directly onto the canvas. Focus on the big shapes again using a dry brush. (I usually use a round or small filbert.) Just enough paint to see the lines on a toned canvas. I prefer a brush rather than pencil or charcoal which I find smudgy.

This next part is very important because I think the key to success for moving from your simple big shapes to painting is creating believable 3D objects. On the Compose it Grid tool I was using big, simple flat shapes—more of an outline to get started. But when I switch to the canvas I’m now adding dimension to the shapes. For example the onion that was a rough circle becomes a sphere, the stems become slender cylinders, the table top a giant cube, etc.

Tone on tone sketch in using Option 2 (lines not visible in photo)

Option 2: Left brain spoiler alert! Sometimes, it's helpful to ensure that your overall shapes and proportions are relatively accurate. Otherwise you’ll find you need to correct later while painting. This means lots of scraping, etc. which in turn breaks your rhythm. So I’d rather move objects now rather than later.

Therefore a more careful way to transfer your composition what is often called the grid transfer method. This classic method can get quite complicated (I’ve seen some artists use hundreds of transfer squares) depending on your subject, size of canvas, and level of detail. But especially for smaller paintings (under 12x16 or so), I find I only need a simple “4 box” grid. I create this by marking the half way point on each side of the canvas.

For example, for my onions on a 9x12 vertical canvas I marked 4.5 inches (top and bottom) and 6 inches on the sides. With a very light pencil line I then draw a connecting line to create 4 quadrants (in this case 4 rectangles). Next, make a corresponding grid over your planning sketch or reference photo with pen or pencil. If you have a color printer photo you may want to print out a low res black/white version to grid. Or if you used a tool like a Compose It Grid obviously the space is already divided for you.

Another benefit from locating these “north/south” and “east/west” dividing lines is you can improve your composition greatly by avoiding the placement of any strong lines or shapes directly on them. Hopefully one of those 2 methods will work for you and help get you going. If we can make that an almost ritual like habit daily painting becomes that much easier.

P.S Quick thanks to Cindy and the nice folks at Compose It Grid for the blog link on their Reviews Page. I promise I have no affiliation with them--I just really, really love these easy to use grids.

High Chroma Canyon

2011-07-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

Acrylic and Pastel on canvas-20x30

Today’s Painting:
I posted this mixed media painting (inspired by the colors and textures of the southwest landscape) a while ago in progress, but recently we completed painting. This was a collaboration with a student and while it took us a while (lots of glazing layers) we had a fantastic time. And learned a lot in the process as well. We particularly enjoyed working with the oil pastel under and over the acrylic glazes.

So the next time you’re looking for a painting project (particularly on a larger surface) consider working on a collaboration painting with fellow artist. Most likely you each have different creative strengths you can bring to the canvas.

Speaking of you next painting project, if you prefer smaller scale paintings, I’m continuing from my previous post regarding tips about how to get started on your daily painting. In this case, the oil still life.

Step 2: Tone it Down
The sooner we make our mark on the canvas the better. Toning your support also makes judging your values so much easier. Before I sketch onto my canvas, I usually tone my canvas with warm wash of acrylic paint for quick drying.

Color wise, I prefer golds, oranges, corals, pinks, or sienna. For the onions, I used Transparent Red Oxide. For a ease and speed, I use a rag, paper towel, or a big old house painting brush. If it’s acrylic, it should be dry within a few minutes.

There are times you may want tone your canvas boldly with red, violet, magenta, yellow, or even black as daily painter Karen Jurick so skillfully does. Note that if you tone with a dark color, you can use a light colored pencil for your sketch.) In the next post I’ll chat in detail about what do after you’ve toned your support.

Getting Off on the Right Start

2011-07-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

"Sweet Reds" onion oil painting on canvas 9x12

As a painting teacher, I’m often asked: What’s the best way to start a painting? I bet if you asked 10 advanced oil painters who’ve honed their craft they give slightly different answers. But as an almost daily painter, I’m always trying to make the craft of painting as easy and predictable as possible.

So I thought I’d share my "no fail" process for starting a simple oil daily still life painting, such as a 12x12 or smaller since these typically are not a huge time commitment.

By the way, I have nothing against working from my own photos references. I do this all the time, particularly when I work in watercolor. That being said, I think painting from life improves my overall observation skills and for me at least, there’s no substitute for it.

Step One: Organize your shapes.
Trust me, I’m all for an enthusiastic, fearless painting approach. I pour, splatter, smush (that's a technical term), etc. all the time as a starting point. But if you haven’t had your morning mocha (that’s me) or your drawing skills are a tad rusty, I recommend you take a few minutes to plan your still life composition OFF the canvas.

The key is to plan on same ratio as your selected canvas size. For example here’s my sketch of the baby sweet red onions on a Compose It Grid (3:4 proportions to match my 9x12 canvas choice) with a dry erase pen which wipes off easily. If your canvas is a square, plan in a square, etc. Seems obvious, but I see other artists plan in different shapes all the time.

If you don’t have a Compose it Grid (or similar tool), you can also easily trace the outline of your canvas onto a big sketchpad or make a smaller (but same ratio) sketch often called a thumbnail. For example, a 9x12 canvas thumbnail sketch could be 4.5 x 6, 2.75 x 3, etc.

Keep your sketch (and composition) relatively simple. No value or details yet, just shapes. I prefer a black marker rather than a pencil or charcoal. We don’t need any shading. Look for big positive shapes. Try a few different compositions before moving over to the canvas. Personally, I prefer a still life that takes up at least 75 percent of the canvas so keep your subjects close at hand. Remember, backgrounds, foregrounds, and shadows are shapes. This is also the time to consider a variety of vertical and horizontal layout options.

In my next post I’ll talk about the next steps such how we get the sketch on the canvas and what I always do before I sketch on the canvas to make judging values much easier. Thanks for stopping by and happy summer painting!

Millefiore: Contemporary Floral Abstract

2011-07-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

"Millefiore" Acrylic on canvas 18x 24

Today's Painting: 1000 Flowers
For this poured acrylic painting (which is basically a two part process) I used successive poured layers of Hansa Yellow, then Quin Magenta, and finally Thalo Blue (green shade). To keep the paint as fluid as possible (and easy to move around the canvas), I mix diluted fluid acrylics into old plastic cups. I then tilt the canvas with each pour. Note the Thalo will make a fairly dark line as you can see.

The acrylic pours stain the canvas leaving organic patterns of shape, color, and line. I then take some time to look at the canvas from a variety of angles before shapes start to emerge. Here, I kept seeing floral shapes and a vase so that's what I decided to work with.

The final stage is to paint directly "alla prima" into and around the shapes suggested by the poured paint. Here I used the Golden Open Acrylics working with my "double primary" palette: 2 yellows, 2 reds, 2 blues and titanium white. As I painted I kept thinking about the Italian glasswork Millefiore (e.g., 1000 flowers) and decided that I wanted to mimic that look within the flower shapes. At the end I felt the painting needed 3 key fixes:

Another small dark shape for balance (I choose a small bird silhouette)
Interesting texture. I'm not exactly sure what to call these but if you paint with acrylic you may see those skins that form around the top of your flip top tubes. Since this paint skins are flat donut shape, I thought they'd be perfect for the flower centers. And a great way to recycle dried paint!
Some "quiet areas" of color fields since pours can get very busy. Note these color fields don't have to be pale color, just less detailed.

Thanks for stopping by--as always have a colorful week!

Just Desserts

2011-07-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

Just Desserts-9x12 Acrylic on Canvas

Today's Painting
Happy July 1 everyone! This is the third painting in my trio of "sweet treat" paintings. Here, I included a cappuccino since that's usually the time I crave a sweet. Again, these were painted with Golden Open Acrylics for easier blending.

Free Style Brushes

Speaking of new acrylic painting tools, here's an interesting new line of brushes and knives from Liquitex (who also has a great new website focused on art inspiration) called Free Style. Recently a student brought a brush just made for splattering! Super cool and much bigger than an old toothbrush! Check out a short Free Style Brush demo video above.

Pouring Away
I always seem to get a lot of interest in my poured paintings and so am posting (in my student gallery above) a wonderful new example created by one of my younger students. I love pouring both watercolor and acrylics. It's one my favorite techniques to "KO" that big white canvas. Here we poured Hansa Lemon, Quin Rose, and Thalo Blue thinned down acrylics from old plastic cups--letting each pour dry for a bit in the sun between layers.

Then the student painted with similar colors and white to create a contemporary landscape. For extra detail and bling at the end we added some gold lines to emphasize the tree leaves. Thanks for stopping by and have a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Let Them Paint Cake!

2011-06-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

Buttercream Dreams--9x12--Acrylic on Canvas-SOLD

Today's Painting
Mmm...Cake. I've had some very positive feedback about my colorful red velvet cake piece that I painted earlier this year with the slower drying Golden Open Acrylic paints. This painting is part of a set for a commission. For me, if I had to pick a favorite dessert, it's probably cake so this is certainly a painless subject to research. Plus, I find it very energizing to paint graphically with bold shapes and unusual color pairings like many of the contemporary pop artists such as Wayne Thiebaud.

Colorful Connections Turns 2!
Before I forget, I wanted to quickly celebrate my 200th posting or what is basically my two year blogging anniversary. Woohoo--Very exciting--So many thanks to all my visitors, students, and followers.I can honestly say that blogging about my teaching and painting has changed my art career as I'm sure it has for many artists. So again, my sincere thanks!

Cherry Creek Arts Festival This Weekend-July 2, 3, & 4, 2011
I feel very lucky to be able to walk to one of the premium art fairs in the country each 4th of July weekend. I don't think I've ever missed a year. Each year the festival receives over 2,000 applications so as an artist it's fascinating to see the 230 artists selected. Like many artists in the Denver area, it's one of my top art goals to be in this show. Until then, I'm happy to be a spectator and speaking of food, be sure to check out the free culinary demos--it's one of my favorite breaks between art ogling.

Rosy June Weekend

2011-06-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

Ron's Roses-6x6-oil on canvas panel

Today's Painting
Last week, one of my watercolor student's who also loves painting florals brought in roses from his garden. I would have painted my own but, as I mentioned before, I do not have a viridian thumb. My roses are blooming but with lots of critters which I hope to have under control soon. Anyway, I've been wanting to do a 6x6 rose oil study for sometime so this colorful bouquet was the perfect opportunity. Thanks Ron for sharing your garden! P.S. If you love roses like I do the Denver Rose Society Annual Rose Show is Sunday, August 14 at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

All Colorado Art Show

Diane at The All Colorado Art Show--June 2011

On Saturday evening (after a very tasty meal at one of my favorite little Mexican restaurants--Chez Jose) I attended the opening reception and saw may friends and familiar faces including a few students. Here's my student Diane with her wonderful acrylic waterfall painting. For you adventurers out there, she told me this waterfall is somewhere just outside of beautiful Nederland, Colorado. Am looking forward to the juror's talk and gallery walk on Thurs. July 14. As an artist it's always a fascinating to hear first hand what a juror says about the art work he or she selected and why.

Call for Entry: Mini Masterpieces
Speaking of shows, if you are in the Denver area and you like to paint on an intimate scale (5x7 or less) check out the call for entry for Mountainside Miniatures. I went to the show last year and it's amazing what some artists can get into a small canvas. The show also offers over $1000 in cash and merchandise prizes.

The Fine Art of Travel

2011-06-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

Mixed Media-24 x 30

Recently a student who had seen one of my larger mixed media paintings asked if we could create a similar type of painting (i.e. mixed media collage) to pay homage to her trip to Italy this year. I thought this was a fantastic idea.

I've always loved bold graphic vintage travel posters (here are some examples from a poster website) so I thought we could combine the two looks onto a gallery wrap canvas. This is still a work in progress but we had so much fun creating it that I wanted to share it with everyone.

I love the idea of putting your travel memories (here we've included things like museum tickets, train tickets, a map, etc.) into a piece of art work kind of like a giant scrap book. My tip is to layout all your travel ephemera to get an idea of the size of canvas you'll need. I think bigger is better in this case to give you lots of room to work. In this painting, we also added rubber stamps of famous Italian landmarks as well as the individual names of all the cities she visited such as Rome and Venice. She also choose gorgeous warm colors that she associated with Italy--golds, plums, rusts, etc.

We used acrylic paints for quick drying and easier glazing. I also love the look and feel of waxy encaustic paintings so some of the pieces of paper have been sealed with tinted acrylic gel (such as a matte heavy gel). Here, I tinted the gel with a touch of metallic gold and some interference blue. And certainly you could cover the entire canvas surface with a tinted gel as well, which will also help seal and protect the surface.

Before I go wanted to offer a quick congrats to another student who not only got into the All Colorado Art Show with two beautiful landscapes but it's his first show as well. If you're an artist who shows you know how exciting that first show can be--so way to go Dallas!

Garden of Secrets

2011-06-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

Garden of Secrets-WC-22x30

All Colorado Art Show: June 25-August 10, 2011
I"m pleased to announce that my contemporary floral watercolor painting posted today--Garden of Secrets-- was just juried into the 28th Annual All Colorado Art Show at the Curtis Arts & Humanities Center in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The juror was Ms. Jill Desmond is a Modern and Contemporary Curatorial Assistant for the Denver Art Museum. She'll be doing a juror lecture about evolution figure painting, which should be very interesting, on Thursday, July 14, at 6:30P.

I painted this large full sheet 22 x 30 watercolor from sketches and photo references I took last summer at my nearby Washington Park, where each year they plant a wonderful garden, including these towering cana flowers. The always lively garden is one of my favorite places to paint in the city--Just be sure to watch out for the sprinklers if you've got watercolor paper!

The show opens June 25, 2011 and runs through August 10, 2011. If you are in the area, please be sure to stop by the reception on Saturday, June 25 from 5P to 7P. And a quick congrats to my student Diane for also getting into the show!

Watercolor Landscape Book
This reminds me to mention a great watercolor book that I may not have mentioned before and that is the late William Condit's Transparent Watercolor which you can usually find on used on Amazon for less than $10. Mr. Condit was an extremely talented Colorado watercolor painter and the book also features some of his watercolor mentors. Particularly if you enjoy watercolor landscapes, I think you'll love this gem.

Summer Art News

2011-06-15T15:15:00.000-07:00

Denver Summer Art Market

Summer Art Market Report
First, a huge THANKS to my many friends and students who stopped by to visit me at the Summer Art Market over the weekend. It was great to see you all and hope you enjoyed the Market. Thank you to to all my collectors who made purchases--it was wonderful to meet you and I greatly appreciate your support. I'm thrilled to report that I sold some of my favorite paintings that I've posted this year.

My niece at the SAM--already a budding artist!

Festival Packing List: Tape, Tags, Scissors, and a Tabby!

I'm a little sunburn and am missing some of my big toe (thanks to the on site EMT crew who got me back on my on my feet just in time to man my booth) but otherwise it was fantastic! Note to self and other aspiring festival artists, do not set up your tent in flip flops! I just wish I had more time and opportunity to shop around myself. I've said it before, but I think the quality and variety of the SAM is amazing. Very motivating and inspiring as an artist! I was planning on just doing this one show this year, but I had such a good time I'm now considering the Boulder Fall Show on the Pearl Street Mall. Well, better let the toe at least rest for a few days and then I'll think about that.

New DPW Gallery!
Looking for high quality daily paintings at affordable prices? I'm thrilled to announce that Daily Paintwork Auctions is live this week. Unlike eBay or Etsy, Daily Paintworks Auctions will focus only on fine art. I've sold some art in the past on eBay and Etsy but I'm looking forward to trying Daily Paintworks as my exclusive online sales outlet. Here's a link to the Scarlet Owl Studio DPW Gallery Page. My plan is to post several of my unframed "bin work" at after festival pricing in the next few weeks so be looking for those.
Summer Painting Classes
Now that the Market is over, I'm back in the studio painting and teaching so if you are looking for relaxing summer art class please email me. For more info about my classes please click on the Art Classes link at the top of the page.

Getting Ready for Market Day

2011-06-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

Summer Art Market: This Weekend!
Here I am at the Art Market a few years ago before I started blogging so I thought I'd post a preview. Several hours after this was taken I actually fainted from the dehydration (lesson learned) but I look fairly fresh here. And just seeing this photo reminds me how much fun it is to be at a festival (fainting aside). My other tip: Metal chairs get hot even in the shade. I now have a comfy red fabric director's chair.

Just 2 more days until the Denver Summer Art Market this weekend so continuing to tag, frame, inventory, etc. I just checked out the WeatherChannel app on the iPad and, I don't want to jinx it, but it's looking pretty good this year--mostly 80s. (Much better than the chilly non-stop rain last year.)

Thankfully, my booth partner has already owns tent (yay) so I don't have to worry about that. One time at a festival I arrived to set up and my rented tent was no where in sight. Many phone calls later a booth arrived--around 11P. As you can guess, hanging art (and this is when I used to use a lot of glass) on an old step ladder with a flash light on a bumpy urban side street is not an ideal circumstance.

Finally, I'm posting a Denver Summer Art Market Coupon (Booth 80) for all my BlogReaders, students, etc. for 10% off any framed artwork. (Just print this out and redeem in my booth. Note this is just for my Scarlet Owl Studio not for any other artist at the show.) You'll find Booth 80 on the corner of 2nd and Sherman Street. I look forward to seeing you at the Market! As a bonus, for any new students, I'll also apply this coupon to your first lesson (offer expires 7/1/2011).

Rhapsody in Blue

2011-06-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Today's Painting
A few weeks ago at the grocery store this iris and daffodil bouquet caught my eye. As I've mentioned before my studio cat, Dash, can merrily shred an enormous bouquet in under a minute so I tend not to buy many fresh flowers. But it had been so oddly rainy and cloudy here, that I just had to have some spring color in the studio. The vibrant violet blue/golden yellow color palette, which always reminds me of Provence, is one of my favorite floral color schemes.
Floral Painting Books

If you like painting more organic and natural floral paintings as I usually do, I recommend checking out iconic painter Charles Reid. . A well know workshop instructor and prolific author Mr. Reid has published several books (most only a few dollars used) on flower painting including: Painting Flowers in Watercolor and Flower Painting in Oil. I particularly enjoy his initial contour drawing approach to the subject matter.
Get Ready to Sharpen Your Pencils!
Speaking of drawing, I saw that this Saturday, June 4, is Drawing Day 2011. If you go to the site, you'll find lots of interesting ways to share your drawing with the world online. Finally, quick welcome to all my new May and June students. I love painting in the summer with so warm light and colorful subject matter at hand and hope you will too!

Ribbons of the Rainbow

2011-05-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

Today's Painting
He hath ribbons of an the colours i' the rainbow--Winter's Tale, Act 4, Scene 4. This acrylic and oil abstract on gallery wrap canvas was inspired quite simply (or perhaps not!) by color. I wanted to play with aligning prismatic sections in a kind of woven painting. I was also thinking about colored ladders and steps while painting this as well as peacocks! The first step was pouring and dotting some fluid acrylics and then working with those patterns in the second layer in oils.

My New Studio Logo

Did you know that owls are found on every continent except Antarctica? After an super tough decision reviewing over 100 designs (from designers from all over the world) on Logo Tournament for my new logo, I'm thrilled to debut my new Scarlet Owl Studio logo. I wanted a logo that was natural but also contemporary. And of course it had to include a bright red owl! Thanks designer "Klauts" who hails from Romania for an amazing job! And thanks to my friends and family who helped vote.

If you want to create your own art logo, my tip is to gather lots of examples online of logos you like (and those you do not) to help provide your design team with really clear visual direction.
Summer Brings Art
Like many painters I'd rather be painting than doing administrative work but if want to get your work out there, it's part of the "job." As any of you know if you have ever prepared a tent or gallery show or even a corporate trade show booth--whew, exciting but exhausting. Speaking of festivals, if you are in the Denver area for Memorial Weekend be sure to check out the Downtown Denver Arts Festival. I passed on this for the Summer Art Market, but it's a great festival with a wide variety of beautiful art and fine crafts.

5280 Feet of Color

2011-05-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about teaching painting is working with a wide variety of student subject matter. It really keeps my on my painted toes! A few months ago one of my students came to me with a fun and exciting painting challenge. She said let's paint the skyline of our beautiful Mile High City--Denver, Colorado. (FYI, the 13th step our Capital Building is exactly 5280 feet above sea level.)

As many of you know, I'm usually known more for my organic and nature inspired art rather than urban scenes. But Olivia is a talented artist and high energy young Denverite with a passion for color and our downtown scene. I was confident though with some careful planning and some time (this took a few weeks) we could tackle the challenge.

Let's Paint the Town (or your favorite city)

Working on a longer horizontal format can be tricky if you are not used to it. Remember to consider your composition rules about not splitting the canvas in half--vertically or horizontally when you have so many lines and geometric shapes to deal with.

It helps to review a variety of photos and angles of the city skyline including different times of day and seasons. Finally, make the painting more personal by focusing on the landmarks or city attributes that are most important to you. Here, Olivia's"must haves" were the Millennium Bridge (the white sail shape on the left), the 16th Street Clock Tower (which is always colorfully lit for the holidays), the new Four Seasons (with the spike on top) and perhaps Denver's most iconic building, Wells Fargo or "cash register building" as we call it because of it's unique cash register shape.

Consider including city elements that will help you break up the strong verticals and sharper angles. Here, Olivia balanced the buildings with the iconic aspen trees, paths, creek, and curved bridges along Speer Boulevard--the main thoroughfare that runs along downtown.

And of course, feel free to infuse your own sense of color and spacial relationships--as we kept saying to ourselves it's a painting not a city planning grid! To give the cooler buildings some extra color pop, Olivia decided to outline them in red. As many sports fans know blue and orange are also symbolic Denver colors, so Olivia worked with those as well.

Awesome job Olivia, I'm sure you'll enjoy this painting and colorful memento of the city so many artists call home for years to come. Thanks for letting me share it with all my readers! Hope you all have a great Spring week where ever you call home.

The Lights Burn Blue

2011-05-16T07:27:00.000-07:00


"Lights Burn Blue" Contemporary Abstract

Today's Painting (Title from King Richard III, Act V)
I love working in oils but there are times (getting ready for show, transporting paintings to and from a workshop, etc.) that you need a faster drying time when working. So I've been wanting to "practice" working with Open (slower drying) acrylics in an oil paint like manner, i.e. softer edges, smoother color transitions, etc. I've only used them once or twice, and while so far they don't feel to me a perfect substitute for oil paint,

Open acrylics are certainly more "blendy" than traditional heavy body acrylics. In my drier climate, they are pretty much dry to the touch by end of day with some heavier applications remaining tacky.

In this abstract painting, which is based very loosely on a western/canyony landscape, I used a relatively limited double primary (one cooerl/one warmer) palette of Golden Open Acrylics-- Thalo Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Indian Yellow Hue, Hansa Yellow, Quin Magenta and Pyrole Red. Here's a short video demo about Open Acrylics.

Reading in the Studio: The Art of Maynard Dixon
I think an interesting question to ask another artist would be what artist or painting would they buy if they "won the lottery" and could own anything. For me, I think many years ago I would have quickly said an Impressionist or Post Impressionist. (I chose Corot as one of my personal heroes in a yearbook way back). So a Degas, a Van Gogh, perhaps a Matisse.

But many years later, as a Westerner, I would probably choose a panoramic painting by Maynard Dixon. The first Maynard Dixon painting I ever saw was Open Range--one of the most amazing clouds ever painted! Last week for my birthday I received this beautiful and inspiring collection by Donald Hagerty. This book is truly a breathtaking collection if you enjoy Western landscapes and southwestern subject matter.

Thanks for stopping by and have a colorful spring week!

Life of Spice

2011-05-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Spice Girls 8x 10 oil on canvas panel

Today's Painting
I love spicy foods--sweet and savory, as well as spicy cuisines. In fact, one of my guilty pleasure foods is anything habanero flavored. I even like raw, yes raw, jalapenos particularly on my nachos so I'm always checking out the peppers in the produce aisle. Last week I set up some bright red peppers and sunny yellow lemons for one of my acrylic painting students (thanks Kelly--great choice!). I loved the warm colors and theme so much had to try the set up as well.

Supplies and Materials
I tend to be fairly frugal in the studio, but since I also tend use a lot of warm colors in my work, I recently I upgraded to some new higher quality real (not substitute or hue) Gamblin brand cadmium oil paint pigments--cad. red light, cad yellow light, etc. These paints really pack a punch and did not disappoint in this trial run. For an interesting insight on color mixing check out Robert Gamblin's video about color mixing here.
Painting Challenge: Eat your veggies!
Saw this week's Daily Paintworks Challenge is painting a vegetable from life. So am looking forward to going to our nearby Cherry Creek Farmer's Market later this week to find a particularly unique and interesting veggie model.

Teaching Note

Quick welcome back to my student's who have been traveling to exotic locales. Thanks for sharing your pics of Turkey and Italy--great to have you back in the studio! For more information about my painting and art classes this summer, please email me. Thanks, have a great Spring week!

Octopus Garden

2011-05-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Octopus Garden-22 x 30--Mixed Media/WC on paper

Featured Artwork
I'm posting a watercolor abstract today. I love working on roomy full sheet (22 x30) of watercolor paper. For my watercolor folks, this is Lana 140lb CP. My overall technique was to cover the entire sheet with shelf liner (big roll from Target). Then I cut out positive shapes into with a rolling cutter that one would use for sewing or quilting--another one of my favorite new tools.I saw a Discovery show a few weeks ago about exploring the ocean depths and that was my inspiration.

Coming Soon: New Logo!
Quick welcome and thanks to the talented designers from all over the world at Logo Tournament who are working on my new Scarlet Owl Studio logo this week. It's been really exciting to review the designs and I can already tell it's going to be hard to pick a winner. I look forward to unveiling my winning logo to everyone within the next few weeks!

Show Announcement
In Denver First Friday is show opening and gallery hopping night so be sure to get out and enjoy the nice weather and great art. Tonight is the opening of the Art Student's League of Denver Eclectic and Inclusive (Part 1) Show (May 6-June 25, 2011). The exhibition highlights a wide variety of media and creative inspiration. One of my personal favorite large mixed media pieces is in the show, Imagine. (Think it's going to be hung by the bathroom which a gallery owner once told me is "an ideal" location!)

2011 Summer Art Market (SAM): Save the DateJune 11-12 at 2nd & Grant. Over 300 artists--one of the best art festivals in the country! Paintings of all media and sizes, every subject imaginable, gorgeous ceramics, and best of all price ranges for every budget. On a personal art buying note, I can't tell you how many times I've seen very high end paintings at galleries around the country that I wished I'd bought years ago when the artist was less well known. So here's your chance to pick up that masterpiece. And be looking for my exclusive Colorful Connections Blog Readers SAM coupon!

Thanks for stopping by--have a wonderful, colorful weekend!

My New Favorite Painting Tool

2011-05-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

AM Sparrow-6x6 oil on panel

Happy May everyone! Posting another small oil painting bird painting that will be headed to the Summer Art Market in June. (I've recently added a new bird feeder to the front garden and am hoping that will attract some new models.)

I'm a big believer in taking the time upfront to work out any major compositional and layout issues in your work before the brush hits the canvas so last week, while reading Artist's Magazine, I spotted a cool tool that I just had to get. It's called the Compose It Grid--it's an easy to use plastic grid that allows you to transfer your planning sketch to your canvas.

Here's a demonstration video so you can see the Compose it Grid in action. I only used it a few times, but I already love it for still life composition. Remember the ratio needs to match your canvas size. Personally, I bought the square ratio (1:1) since it's my favorite format as well as the 8 x 10 ratio. Plus, I love that the Grid is heavy duty and will stand up to be tossed in an art tote, etc. for classes and workshops.

Quick shout out to my upcoming art festival booth partner the very talented Ms. Heather Carr--if you like wildlife paintings as well as fantasy art and illustration so be sure to stop by. Her detailed illustrations are simply amazing. Thanks Heather for all your generous help, am thrilled to be sharing a tent with you this year! Look for us in Booth 80 on the corner of 2nd and Sherman. In the meantime, have a great spring week!

Tres Peras

2011-04-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday readers! Posting a small quick oil study of three pears on a wrinkled paper bag with some high key impasto colors. Speaking of small oil studies, wanted to remind everyone if you haven't already to be sure to check out the dazzling collection of 6x6 paintings in the Randy Higbee Gallery Spring 6x6 Show.

You can find over 100 paintings that are still available including my own little watermelon painting in Randy Higbee's Facebook Photo Gallery. You can also see the many great paintings that have SOLD (which is wonderfully encouraging). Plus, be sure to check out the award winners. If you enjoy intimate representational art, particularly landscape paintings, I promise you'll like this collection. I really feel the art bar has been raised on these little paintings. I can't wait to work on the next show.

Speaking of shows, if you are in the Denver area and enjoy contemporary art be sure to stop by William Havu Gallery in the Golden Triangle District. My new abstract teacher, Homare Ikeda, has a fantastic one man show called Time is Floating.

Editorial correction: A blog follower and fellow bird aficionado (let's call him "Dad") reminded me the correct term is "Canada Goose" not "Canadian Goose" as I recently posted. (And yet it's Canadian Bacon not Canada Bacon?) Anyway, here's a link that goes into more detail about the "Branta Canadensis" and it's proper nomenclature should you want to further explore the controversy. In the meantime, back to the easel--Happy painting and see you in the studio!

Found in Translation

2011-04-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Found in Translation--24 x 24 Mixed Media Collage on Gallery Wrap Canvas

Happy Friday everyone! Another busy spring working on several different pieces this week in the studio. First, in my Abstract Class on Monday with Homare Ikeda, I worked on a relatively large (36 x 36) acrylic and oil abstract I've tentatively titled Escapade--Below is a detail.

This week, I wanted to push toward a different palette and ended up using (as you can see) some warm yellows and oranges and then balancing those with some cooler neutralized blues and grays. And while I've used many circular symbols, as I often do, I really enjoyed searching for other interesting shapes such as figures.

Yesterday turned up the jazz station and really enjoyed creating a big square collage on stretched canvas using Thai papers, vintage European postage stamps, and Jane Eyre in Chinese (which I found in a used bookstore). I'm calling this piece Found in Translation because of all the bits of different languages (there's French, Swedish, Russian, Greek, etc.) found on the envelopes and stamps.

Interestingly, in one of the envelopes, I found a torn part of an old typed letter that seems to be about a death, marriage, and some kind of immigration. I just wish I had the entire letter. Anyway, I had to use that in the piece. To apply and seal the collage materials I used a matte finish acrylic gel (in this case Liquitex brand). To all my painters out there, collage is a great way to strengthen your composition skills.

Quick note to my students, thanks for sharing all your new spring projects with me--great work this week!
Finally thank you to Sarah for your high bid on my Help Japan Challenge watercolor painting on Daily Paintworks!

Primarily Birding

2011-04-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

"Primary Sparrow" 6x6 oil on panel

Happy Weekend all! Yesterday Carol posted a wonderful color painting challenge on DPW. I decided I would try a bird study with the three primaries and white. So for this sparrow painting, I used Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Cad. Yellow Light and Permalba for my white. (This little guy was outside my kitchen window earlier this week in my thorny pyracanthus.) FYI, here's my limited primary palette which I set out roughly as a color wheel which was very helpful for mixing, as is the gray palette paper.

Oil Palette with 3 Primaries + White

I always enjoy bird watching in my own backyard, but early this morning I joined a small group of fellow bird watchers in Washington Park in Central Denver near my home in hopes of spotting something a bit more exotic. Am happy to report with the help of Candice from the Wild Bird Center of Denver, I saw my first downy woodpecker pair, a golden rumped warbler (awesome name), and what I believe is an American Wigeon (seen below). Not that I don't like mallards and Canadian geese, but was very excited to see a different water fowl by the boathouse.

My first wigeon!

Quick reminder that you can still bid on hundreds of gorgeous paintings DPW Help Japan Auction. Many paintings (including my own "Colorful Kimono" watercolor) have very reasonable starting bids with all the proceeds going to help organizations like the Red Cross. Many, many thanks to my current high bidder for your support!

The Compassed Window

2011-04-12T08:58:00.000-07:00


The Compassed Window--18 x 24

Happy Tuesday everyone! Lately, Monday has been my day to take a break from the representational painting and work on my abstracts. Really enjoyed working on this yesterday. A process I often use for this type of painting is to do a loose, washy acrylic under painting (which in theory could stand on it's own as an abstract work) with fluid Golden acrylics using a variety of cool and warm colors.

That then helps give me a further direction to work with the "over" painting in relatively thin oils, still playing with the warm and cool balance. To me the initial acrylic layers lent themselves to the feeling of looking down on maps (grids) and through windows, thus my painting title.

Are we there yet?
Often when I paint abstractly (i.e. without a strong end goal) am often faced with the when to stop or "is this done??" question. Some artists, I think Picasso was one, assert that they are finished with a work of art when it's sold. Picasso has a good point, but before it goes out to the client we still need to set our brushes down and sign our name. Which brings me back to when is a painting finished? Understanding that the answer is personal to each artist, here are just a few quick thoughts I found regarding the subject of painting completion:

Artist M.E. Baily says in his post: Isn’t that really the reason we paint? . . .to capture a spirit? A feeling? A mood? I suppose the painting is finished when we look at the painting and can feel that spirit.
Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn offers a more tactical approach with a checklist that includes a thoughtful review of your color, composition, and craftsmanship.
Artist Isle Hable suggests simply: A painting can be considered finished when no additional time spent working on it will improve it.

Finally, here's an interesting article by art critic James Elkins regarding famous "unfinished" paintings and the fascinating Google Art Project which allows you to explore paintings around the world on a macro level. As always thanks for stopping by--see you in the studio!

Primavera Robin

2011-04-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

Primavera Robin-8x8-oil on panel

Happy Sunday everyone! My quest to capture the colors of spring continues. This is the same robin I posted a few days ago after he flew up and landed on a budding spring branch by an evergreen tree. Initially, most of my photos were of the swaying branch or sky and no robin, so I was thrilled to finally capture him at rest.

Here, I really wanted to capture the sunlit warmth of the robin and the reddish buds/berries against the coolness of the blue green evergreen. I also had a great time playing with the brush edges in this because of all the different textures--branches, feathers, spiky evergreen foliage, etc.

Speaking of birds, the Daily Paintworks painting challenge this week is chickens, which as many of you know are very popular art subject. And I know art buyers seem have a fondness for farm fouls as well. I'm often asked at an art festival if I have chicken or rooster paintings. But, as a city artist, I don't have a lot of chicken photos handy, so I may use the photo Carol posted. We'll have to wait and see...

Summer Art Market News
As I've mentioned before I'll be taking many of my posted paintings to the Summer Art Market on June 11-12, 2011, so if you are in Denver be sure to stop by and say hi. FYI, in the spirit of daily deals, closer to the Art Market I'll post a very special Colorful Connection Blog Readers discount coupon for everyone so be looking for that in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

Rockin Robin

2011-04-07T20:09:00.000-07:00


Rockin Robin--6x6 oil on panel

Happy Thursday everyone! As you may know if you read my blog, birds are one of my favorite subjects to paint. But I also like to work from my own photo references so this makes painting birds a bit tricky since I'm not known for my photography skills.

Thankfully, the other evening when I was walking in the neighbor hood the spring sun was washing everything in that warm "magic hour" light that movie makers love so much. I had my little digital camera and was able to capture (not very easily I might add) of few robins for my paintings this week. I also read robins are one of the last birds you'll hear singing as the sun sets so I thought that tied in well with my title.

I also wanted to focus working with the warm and cool temperatures in my color mixtures of this painting, which reminded me of another one of my favorite oil painting books that I don't think I've mentioned before and that's the Yin Yang of Painting by Zhang--it's a bit expensive for used paperback but it's a beautiful book by a color (and value) master. You can see more examples on Zhang's website. I love his discussion of working with opposites in your painting such as dark/light, cool/warm, blurred/sharp, etc.

Wanted to wish a fond bon voyage to my many traveling friends and students this month--I look forward to seeing you back again soon! For more information about my classes please click on the class tab above or email me. Thanks for stopping by!

Real Abstractions & Global Inspirations

2011-04-05T16:07:00.000-07:00

Carol's Journey -6x6 oil on canvas

Happy Spring Tuesday! One of the truly amazing aspects about being a painter is that you can "travel" vicariously all the time. This week's challenge on Daily Paintworks features two pictures from Carol Marine's trip to Germany. As a Coloradan, I was immediately struck by how much the scenes reminded me of the landscape in our own Rocky Mountains.

It's intriguing (and often humbling) to see how different artists interpret the landscape. While you'll see some similar "academic" cropping, it's fascinating to see how each artist decided to edit individual shapes. FYI, a handy landscape cropping tool for square canvases is a Zoomfinder.

The other reason I wanted to paint this challenge was that it was my first attempt at a 6x6 landscape, which seems rather like an oxymoron. But, it's an enjoyable challenge trying to create atmospheric perspective in a relatively small square. I really have to give kudos to artists who have mastered working in this scale.

It's extremely helpful painting practice because every little shape really needs to make sense. Speaking of every shape making sense, yesterday was my first day in local contemporary artist Homare Ikeda's abstract class. If you paint abstractly, you may relate to my ongoing struggle which is that I find non-representational paintings relatively easy to dive into but, then after a few hours, I tend to lose direction, energy, and focus.

In Mr. Ikeda's class I'm looking forward to honing those skills. Here's a detailed look at some of my first layers on a 2 x 3 stretched canvas. (For now, I decided to paint in acrylic since I didn't want to transport an unwieldy wet oil painting back and forth particularly on breezy spring days.)

It may seem a bit odd paint a representational German landscape in the morning and an Asian inspired abstract in the afternoon, but for me each discipline supports the other. Plus, if you look around the globe for inspiration you''ll likely never run out of painting ideas. For example, here's a blog that offers artists the chance to "paint around the world" is The Virtual Painter where I see the April 2011 challenge location is Japan.

DAM Fine Spring Art Weekend

2011-04-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

Iris in Bloom--Abstract Watercolor (private collection)

Happy April Monday Everyone! In Denver the first weekend of the month means First Friday Art Events and Free Museum Saturday which makes for a very busy but enjoyable art weekend with gallery hopping, art supply shopping, and museum perusing.

Also, for a few months now, I've been thinking about splurging on an out of town painting workshop so Saturday morning I decided to sign up for Carol Marine's "A Painting a Day" oil painting Workshop at the Sedona Arts Center in May 2012 while I still had the chance. As many of you may know Ms. Marine's a popular teacher whose workshops sell out months in advance. The workshop may be 13 months away but I'm already looking forward to returning to beautiful Sedona area.

Saturday afternoon headed downtown to one my favorite galleries near the Denver Art Museum (DAM) 1261 Gallery where they were having a fantastic winter landscape show featuring some of my favorite painters such as Quang Ho and Dan McCaw.

At the DAM I spent the most time in the Western Art Collection. Since I love Southwestern painting, it's a joy to see the stars of New Mexican painting such as Dixon, Fechin (his color and brushwork always breathtaking), Blumenschein and the Lanford Monroe with the misty horses. There are also some stunning contemporary western landscapes on display including Post, Forsman, Aspevig, Brown, and Moore. Check out the shapes and color in this gorgeous Howard Post painting.

Howard Post Painting at the Denver Art Museum

On a side note, as I mature as a painter when I look at museum paintings I can't help but do the math of artist birth date versus when they completed the painting. Sometimes I'm relieved to see they were well advanced in their age and career. Other times I note they were younger than I am now which makes me want to really focus and produce. Either way, very motivating to visit your local museum!

Finally quick welcome to my new April students--I think it's going to be an exciting spring--See you soon in the studio!

Shell Game & Summer Market

2011-04-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

Shell Game-6x6 oil on panel

Happy April 1 everyone! I'm happy to report that it's a sunny and warm day here in Colorado. I decided to paint this 6 x6 oil study of small shells yesterday for two reasons. One is that I wanted to paint a high key subject using my new tube of Williamsburg Handmade Paint Titanium White (which after one painting I'm giving a big white thumbs up!) and the other is I wanted a very summery subject.

I also have a few quick announcements. First, for those of you in the Denver metro area, I'm thrilled to announce my participation in the Summer Art Market (SAM) on June 11-12 Weekend. So be sure to save the date. If you're looking for wonderful art at with a wide range of prices (many of them super reasonable) this is an art festival you won't want to miss. I know it's one of my favorite festivals to hunt for amazing art bargains.

Last year, my schedule did not allow me to be in the SAM so I'm really looking forward to seeing many of my friends, collectors, and students this year. Most of the paintings I've been posting all year on my blog will be at SAM for purchase. I'll be posting more updates about the SAM as we get closer.

Also, I'm putting up for bid my "Colorful Kimono" watercolor that I painted last fall on the Daily Paintworks Help Japan Challenge. I'm donating all proceeds for the sale of this painting to the Japanese Red Cross. Anyone can bid and any artist can submit paintings to the Help Japan Challenge. Thanks Daily Paintworks for hosting such a cool way to help through art.

Cipolla Rossa & Art for Japan

2011-03-28T12:47:00.000-07:00

"Cipolla Rossa" 6x6 oil on panel

Happy spring Monday everyone! Doesn't "Red Onion" sound sexy in Italian? Spurred on by my acceptance into the Randy Higbee 6 inch square show, I wanted to concentrate on a few more 6 x 6 oil studies. I love working with analogous color triad: red-orange-red-red-violet. (This is that same pesky onion I've been trying to get to sprout with no luck, and I got tired of waiting.)

Specifically, an intense red violet magenta has been one of my favorite colors since I was old enough to flip open a the big yellow Crayola 64 box. (Periwinkle and Seafoam were other favorites.) Speaking of Italy, as some of you may know, the color name comes from the town of Magenta in northern Italy and refers to the bloodshed in a battle there in the 1800s.

Also, I wanted to help share the word about Daily Paintworks Help Japan Challenge. The Daily Paintworks site (which features weekly painting challenges) currently features over 300 beautiful paintings up for bid to help such agencies as the Red Cross in Japan. They've raised almost $20,000 so far.

Finally, over the weekend I had a chance to to see the Colorado Watercolor Society 20th Annual State Exhibition which runs through April 17, 2011 at Foothills Art Center in Golden. Definitely worth a trip if you are in the area.

Sharper Colors and Show Announcement

2011-03-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! I'm posting a 8 x 10 study of a colorful cactus oil painting study--I really love the warm red violet and cool blue green color combination. I love painting nature's "defenses" such as thorns, needles, etc.

Speaking of red an green paintings, I'm thrilled to announce that just yesterday I received my acceptance into the Randy Higbee Gallery 6" Squared Exhibition and Sale. Yay! The Show starts on April 16 and runs through May 6th--if you are anywhere near Costa Mesa in beautiful Southern California be sure to stop by. I'll be posting more info about the show as I learn more. Quick thanks to the Artists Helping Artists weekly podcast-I would have likely not heard about the show otherwise.

The painting they accepted was my little watermelon oil painting study on linen (Summer Slice) that I painted from life late last summer. If you paint, you know how exciting it is to think of your painting "out and about" in the world far away from your studio.

Also going on this week, for those of you who oil paint, I saw that for the next few days Cheap Joe's has Free Shipping on Williamsburg handmade oil paints. I've heard other painters recommend these these paints and have always wanted to try them. As a typically higher key painter, I'm always look for good whites (aren't we all?) so I thought I'd try the Willamsburg Titanium While. As soon as I get it, I'll post a review.

Finally, welcome to all my new March students--am so glad you are kicking off your Spring in a creative way! And as always, a giant thank you to all my loyal ongoing students! See you soon back in the studio.

An Irish Quilt (an ode to green)

2011-03-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises."

Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish Poet and Playwright, 1600-1681

Today, I knew exactly what I wanted to paint. Combine an abstracted (and in this case imagined) landscape that celebrated a wide variety of greens in honor of St. Pat's tomorrow. As an artist I love all colors, but I'm particularly drawn to the unbelievable of variety of greens in nature--from the lightest, coolest aquas to the richest, deepest olives and emeralds. In fact, I read the human eye can discern the most variety in the color green.

I've traveled to England but never Ireland, but I had an idea of the landscape elements I wanted to evoke. Misty trees, stony fields, cliffs dropping into a cold sea, etc. In this mixed media painting (acrylic and oil pastel), I started with a very warm under painting--magentas, oranges, yellows knowing that they would later work as complements under the green final layers.

As I've mentioned before, I typically use a limited palette, meaning I use mix my greens from "from scratch" using blue and yellow pigments such as ultramarine and lemon, or thalo blue and quin gold (perhaps my all time favorite green mix), etc. but in this painting I added pure acidic Thalo Green to my palette for the extra green zing I was after. My favorite part was mixing the variety of greens--really trying to push the value range and intensity range. I had a such a good time, I may try another one tomorrow.

Plein Air Fleurs

2011-03-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring Forward everyone! I hadn't posted a watercolor painting (or a floral) in a while and I was really in the mood to post something bold, bright, and cheerful. This is a watercolor study I painted last summer plein air (fancy French art term for great outdoors) in one of the lovely Washington Park flower beds (Wash Park to us Denverites) nearby my home and studio.

The warmer weather (yay!) has got my art brain reeling. There are so many projects I want to tackle, including my annual self promise to get out and plein air--yes, I'm making it a verb. I think painting outdoors for us studio painters it's a "just do it" type of thing. I always enjoy it once I'm out there, but the thinking about it, the packing up, etc. is not nearly as enjoyable. For those of you interested in plein air, I saw they've just recently re-launched Plein Air Magazine just for outdoor painters--and it looks like a wonderful publication.

In the past I've used my very old Julian French easel since it's large enough to hold my paints, brushes, and a giant size box of tissues. (Ha--That's a plein air joke that some of you may enjoy.) Anyway I think this may be the year to retire "Julian" and look for another lighter and smaller pochade box option. So do feel free to email me if you have a pochade that you just love. My online investigation suggests that there is no one "perfect" plein air easel solution.

I want to also say what a busy, but great time I've had lately working with all my students on such a wide variety of exciting painting projects including skylines, dogs, fish, abstracts, mountain scenes, folded paper (sorry Amy!), canyons, lions, flowers, and that's just one week! As Clara Barton once said: Never Rust and I think that's a perfect art motto.

Later this week, I'm looking forward to attending an acrylic mixed media workshop and my other BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) this week is to get paintings done for the Randy Highbee Gallery 6x6 Show. On Thursday my goal is to post something GREEN of course, so I need to work on that too. In the meantime, I wish you all creative and colorful week!

Ampersands of Time

2011-03-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone! Lately, I felt it was time to push myself to do a larger, more expressive and graphic non-representational painting. So over the weekend I bought a 3 foot by 4 foot gallery wrap canvas and which lurked liked a big white wall for a few hours. For me the best way to get started is to just dive in and start making marks--working with line and mass (more sold shapes). I also used acrylic paint here so I could quickly stamp into areas, collage, etc.

Painting Detail

I always enjoy incorporating symbols, gylphs, words, letters, numbers, etc. into my art. In this piece, I wanted to include two of my favorite symbols: the ampersand and asterisk (which derives from the Latin for little star).
I read that asterisks where originally used to denote birth dates in family trees and the ampersand is an ancient symbol dating back to the first century. It represents the written Latin "et" meaning "and" as you might have guessed.

Since I was thinking about words and how they relate to art, I thought it would be fun to write a haiku (a traditional Japanese poetry form that follows the 5/7/5 syllable format) about painting abstractly. (I'm a former English major, but my poetry writing is a bit rusty, but here goes...)

Paint marks on canvas
Letters value hue collide
Whatever you have

White wall towers empty
Brushes tell a story
Colors sing in harmony

Colors swim below
Shapes emerge born of shadow
Brushes reach the sky

For those of you who paint on large surfaces you know how freeing this can be. While I think I've still got a few adjustments to make, this was one of the most enjoyable pieces I've worked on recently. Quick welcome and thanks to my new March students, as always I look forward to helping you reach your art goals while enjoying the process along the way!

Sweet Sprouts

2011-03-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Happy March everyone! I'm back from my trip to beautiful, sun-kissed central Florida (I can see why so many painters live there) and eager to get back to painting and teaching this week. Before I left, I painted this quick oil painting study of a sprouting sweet onion.

I really wanted to paint a red onion for the red-purple/yellow-green complementary color scheme but I can't get the thing to sprout no matter what I try. (Feel free to email sprouting tips!) My favorite part was painting the semi-transparent onion skin.

Speaking of spring, I think this is a great time of year to start spring cleaning in your studio--weed out old brushes (they can still be used for texture but maybe not careful details), let go of that paint tube that's so old and dry it's become a mystery color, organize paintings by subject or size, and maybe donate rarely used supplies to a local art non-profit. I don't know about you, but I feel much more productive and creative in a well-organized, well-stocked studio.

Finally, this week one of my students kindly gave me one of the Splash Watercolor Series books. If you paint in watercolor, you may already be familiar with these, but this consistently high quality series (currently their are 11 books in the series) is a marvelous resource if you work watermedia. Have a great week and happy painting!

Springy Sparrow

2011-02-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Weekend everyone! Last last April I posted a small oil painting of a sparrow from a photo that I took out my kitchen window. It was one of my personal favorite oils so I thought I'd work another one this week but work in a different color family.

Speaking of birds, I saw that it's also "Great Backyard Bird Count" this weekend. This is an annual bird watching event that allows anyone to be an ornithologist and record their local birds. Unfortunately this week, I've only had three at the feeder outside my studio this week: a sparrow, chickadee, and a house finch.

Back to my painting, for this 8 x10 oil study my "self assignment" was three fold:

Pay attention to (and accurately record) smaller shifts in color and temperature
Capture the way birds seem to melt into their background with varied brushwork
Maintain strong overall diagonal design plan

Since I tend to paint "from the gut" many days and this usually works for me, I still find having 1-3 painting goals like this really help keep me on track as evaluate the subject vs. the painting. Later today I'm headed to a near by Wild Oats for a demo about painting from your photos by local artist David Griffin which I'm looking forward to. (You have to love free demos but the pastry/coffee bar area gets me every time...)

Finally, I've added a Student Work page tab at the top where I'll be positing some of their work for inspiration and ideas. Thanks for stopping by and happy bird watching!

Red Velvet Valentine

2011-02-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Everyone! And quick happy birthday shout out to my Dad back in Michigan who has a Valentine's Birthday!

This morning I thought I'd give my new GOLDEN Open Acrylic paints a whirl and figured something sweet and red would be the perfect subject to post today. I also recently saw a Bobby Flay Throwdown on Food Network with Red Velvet Cake. (Personally, I'd prefer a less sweet pastry like a flourless dark chocolate cake but you have to love the look three layers of crimson against creamy titanium white frosting!). And let's be honest, it's hard to paint baked goods without a bit of Wayne Thiebaud pop art influence.

This was my first go at painting an entire painting with the GOLDEN Open Acrylics and they definitely have a different brush and application feel. Softer and more blendable, but in thinner applications the paint does start to skin and and set up sooner rather than later, particularly in our very arid climate.

So I don't think the Open Acrylics would really work as an oil paint substitute, at least not for me. That being said the paint has a nice smooth feel and the colors (as with all GOLDEN products) were clean and bright. I'd love to try them in a plein air situation where oils can be rather maddening. And I thought here the paint worked great for the frosting effects which I'm still playing with since it's the best part.

As an artist, I also like to think of today as a joyful celebration of RED. Depending on your cultural influences, red can symbolize a wide range of emotions and sensory experiences, such as warmth, aggression, passion, romance, blood, danger, etc. So the next time you want to communicate strong emotions in your work or need an stronger focal area consider the wealth of red pigments at your disposal. XXOO.

My Top 10 Favorite Studio Tools 2011

2011-02-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

Since its award season I thought I’d post Part 1 of My Annual Best Art Studio Tools and Helpers. Here are my Top 5 2011 “Golden Mannequin” Awards...
Best Overall Studio Helper: My iPad
My big splurge item last year. But, if you already have an iPad I probably don’t need to convince you how fabulous they are. At first I didn’t really think it would be a “must have” in the studio. Now, I use it everyday--it's always in reach of my easel.

I also enjoy listening music and podcasts such as Artists Helping Artists. Since I tended to keep my larger laptop in my office, the iPad’s also a handy time saver for checking a website for show deadlines, check out a Youtube demo, the weather, my calendar, my mail etc. It’s also great for travel (plane sketching with the art apps!). I’m certain I’ll continue to find more art and studio uses for it. All around, an A+ artist tool.

My studio mascot gray tabby Dash is also a wonderful muse and studio helper, but he's one of a kind.

Best Organizational Tool: The Wonder File!
OK, a bit embarrassing, but from the first time I saw the late night TV ad, I knew I had to have one. I have two (one red, one black) and could easily fill a third. Like a fold able scrapbook, I use it mostly for organizing those pesky reference photos into categories like: floral, horses, still lifes, abstracts, figures, landscapes, etc. As you may read in some reviews, it’s not perfect (the elastic straps kind of crunch thinner printer paper, pocket sizes a bit odd, etc.) but it works better than my loose file folders. Plus, if I need to take my reference photos with me, I can just grab it and go.

Best Storage Tool: Mayline Oak Flat Files
Many years ago I found a vintage 10 drawer Mayline oak flat file cabinet at an office liquidation center. It’s a giant oak whale and it cost more than my sofa, but I it's a must have for storage. It safely stores a ton of unwieldy materials such as full 22x30 watercolor sheets, mat board, random collage scraps, yupo paper, illustration boards, prints, large drawing pads, my art clear bags, etc. I must have over 100 items in there. The large flat top can also be used as a work surface and the drawers have handy changeable label tags. Can’t imagine where in the world I stored all these items before “Moby” came into my art life.

Best Painting Tool: Rubber Tipped Scrapers/Shapers
I’ve mentioned these tools before--I use them for both oil and acrylic painting particularly when I’m working on a firmer surfaces such as canvas board, Masonite, or illustration board. You can find these firm but flexible rubber tipped tools in a variety of shapes and sizes. They used to be hard to find but I just spotted some the other day at our local craft store near the painting knives. And of course you can order them on line. Runner up: Oil paint Sharpies for my line work--love the gold and silver!

Best Green Tool: M. Graham Non Toxic Walnut Medium
Thank you, thank you Graham for making this. As I’ve mentioned before, the more I paint the more chemical sensitive I become so I don’t tend to use much medium anyway.
But when I do, it’s nice to have this option. Runner up: I use Turpenoid Natural for all my clean up now. Pop up baby wipes are pretty nifty too.

I'll be back in a future post with the rest of my Top 5. In the meantime, have a great weekend and as always if you have any questions about art supplies, studio tips, or my classes please contact me.

The Night to the Owl

2011-02-11T16:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! I'm thrilled to report the sun is out and we're warming up! My fingers can actually type again. Thanks again to my students who braved snow, freezing temps, and bad roads to keep on painting!

I thought if I posted another bird painting this week it should be at least my favorite bird, which is of course (big shock) an owl. This is mixed media on illustration board. Artistically, owls have a wonderful shape and they can symbolize so many things--wisdom, insights, mystery, intuition, longevity, bad omens, night, and even death. (My blog post title today is from Shakespeare's Cymbeline for my fellow English majors out there.)

Since I'm often asked about the origin of my studio name Scarlet Owl I thought this owl-themed post would be a good time to share the story. First, I probably should confess that one of my "other jobs" is a professional namer of products, brands, company, websites, etc. Have you ever eaten a Keebler Bistro Cracker? Yep, that was me. So as a "professional" brander I felt extra pressure to create an art studio name that I really loved and could live with for for a very long time.

Basically, I knew I wanted a color or pigment name and an animal (or something natural) because I love to paint nature. So the brainstorming began: Mauve Moose, Cerulean Otter, Viridian Octopus, Cobalt Leopard, etc. But, believe it or not, this was during the dot com boom and many of these names were already business names or in one case, a Canadian rock band.

Finally, I thought I had a winner: Red Hawk Studio. I thought it had a sharp, robust, westerny sound. But the more I thought about it, it just wasn't unique enough. So I moved on to other reds and other fowl, and voila, there was like a red spotlight: Scarlet Owl. And a bit unusual but not too weird (at least I hope not) and for me at least it said: Creativity and Wisdom--a ying/yang balance that I thought was perfect for my panting and teaching philosophy.

As always thanks for "giving a hoot" (sorry I couldn't resist) and stopping by. Have a great weekend and happy painting from my nest to yours!

Palomino Moon

2011-02-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

The snowfall and cold temps continue (as I think it does for many of us) so I'm starting to get a bit restless, but there are certainly worse places to be on a snowy day then in the studio enjoying my jazz station and painting ponies. As I've mentioned before, I've always loved horses and in particular colorful patterned horses such as paints, appaloosas, and palominos. Earlier this week, I had such a great time playing with layering acrylics (tube and fluid) on illustration board that I wanted to try another piece but this time with horses, rather than birds.

My original plan here was to keep the overall palette very subdued and monotone--I was going to use mostly blue and green grays with maybe a pop of warmer color. Perhaps I'll try that again. But this time best laid painting plans went out the window. I found myself continuing to intensify the colors using quin magenta, transparent red oxide, thalo blue, and even adding a hint of metallic copper. I used soft gel medium to add texture to the "cliff."

On a bit of a side color note, I came across a fun color site the other day Colorstrology which basically assigns a personal "color sign" to your birthdate. My birthday color in May is Green Tea and my color attributes are: Unusual, artistic, spiritual. Hmm, I guess most of my family and friends would agree with those. And I just realized my home office is painted a Behr color called "Green Tea"...Interesting.

Thanks again to my students braved the chilly weather to come paint this week. As always I find your company and artwork a continued inspiration. Am thinking it's time to head to the kitchen and make something super spicy. Stay warm and paint happy everyone!

Nesting Time

2011-02-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

Last Friday in Denver we were painting in the backyard, in tee shirts with high sixties temps and sunshine. Yikes. Not today. Negative nine when I woke up this morning. Not good for running errands or working out but perfect excuse for staying in, "nesting" and painting in the cozy studio.

Last night, I demonstrated a multi layered mixed media technique using acrylics (both fluid and tube), gel medium, Frisket film ( inexpensive shelf paper also works), Crescent illustration board, and my secret weapon: a plastic fork. Thanks to my very patient and willing students whose "first time" paintings also turned out great! My palette was primarily crimson, turquoise, quin gold, white, thalo blue, and black. This somewhat limited palette still provides a luscious range of saturated and neutral colors.

These creative exploration paintings may take some patience--and a lot of loud hair dryer in between layers--but I find they are absolutely worth it. Slowly, but surely, intriguing shapes emerge, symbolic themes are suggested (lots of birds for me lately...Hmm), etc. I find you have to nurture your painting along from start to finish all the while trusting your artistic self. Very different from painting an onion on a table.

For example, I rarely know what's going to happen next but it's this kind of mystery and surprise that keeps me coming back for more. Like solving an art puzzle, these type of paintings also help strengthen your design elements--colors, shapes, values, pattern. line, etc.whether you paint abstracts or representational subjects.

Quick thanks to all my visitors who helped make January 2011 my highest traffic month since I started blogging! I think it's going to be the one of the best art years I've ever. Namaste and happy nesting in your neck of the woods!

Chromatastic Camellias

2011-01-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

Matisse once advised: Seek the strongest color effect possible.. The content is of no importance.
This week one of my highest energy watercolor students Janet (who is also some 80 years young) wanted to play with one of my favorite watercolor techniques--a contour oil pastel drawing combined with saturated bold, wet in water watercolor painting. This technique works for florals, abstracts, figures, still lifes--any subject matter really.

Janet's inspiration was two pictures of mostly white camellia blossoms (one close up and some in a vase). For those of you who might think watercolor can't pack a color punch, take a look at Janet's amazing interpretation. No color fear as you can see. Don't you love shapes (notice how she varies them for interest) and her super saturated yellows, greens, oranges, and reds? I think Matisse would be proud.

For those you interested Janet used a convenient and affordable 12 color Yarka watercolors pan set, which I saw online for an amazing under $5 price at Dick Blick. I've not tried the Yarka line myself, but Janet tells me she enjoys how long they last and how bright the colors stay. Plus she doesn't have to fuss with those pesky tiny tubes and caps. Her paper here is Arches 140 RP.

Taking the evening off for some Wii bowling (yes, I'm pro level), but back in the studio tomorrow...Have a great weekend everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Love Birds

2011-01-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

For several years I've donated a heart themed painting (usually abstract) to the Denver's AIGA Heart Art Auction which will be on February 10 this year. It's a benefit for Project Angel Heart and I often incorporate heart symbols into my abstract work anyway so a fun match for me to paint.

This year I decided to combine birds with the hearts using acrylics on gallery wrapped canvas. While I have a few finishing touches--may add some touches of writing and build up some texture to help frame the heart--but overall I'm very happy with it. I really like the warm red with the cool charcoal gray. I also love balancing my representational work with my abstract work as I think each endeavor strengthens the other.

Today one of my students did an amazing painting where we first poured the very bright clean acrylics (yellow, magenta, blue) over a canvas (drying in between colors). Then she created a negative painting around the interesting poured shapes letting the poured layer show through in some spots. I just love the movement and texture the pouring creates in the under painting. This is a really exciting technique to try.

Speaking of acrylics and their versatility, this week bought two sampler set of the new GOLDEN Open Acrylics and am looking forward to trying them in the next week or so. According to the literature, these paints stay open (workable) for up to 10 times regular tube acrylics. As always, if you have any questions about my art or painting classes please contact me or visit me on Teach Street (search Scarlet Owl).

31 Art Sparks

2011-01-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

For some time now, I've wanted to display and organize unframed paintings for extra studio inspiration. Yesterday I finally added some nice clean and contemporary white floating shelves I found at The Container Store.

These shelves (which also come in black) were perfect for displaying art because they are not too deep (just a few inches) and have a little front lip to keep your unframed pieces from sliding off. Plus, they are sturdy enough to hold a few small framed pieces.

Seeing a collection of my pieces (as well some student work) gave me the idea to put together a quick list of art painting projects or painting challenges. Here are some quick ideas for the next time you wander into your art space thinking...Hmm, what the heck should I paint today? Enjoy!

1.   High key (very light) large landscape—snow, spring trees…
2.   Low key (very dark) still life—eggplants, black objects, rusty things…
3.   Still life with something inside something else (jar of marbles, etc.)
4.   Base your painting off of one key pigment that you don’t typically use on your palette
5.   Start your painting with a complementary outline for your subjects (blue line for an orange object, etc.)
6.   Paint from a photo (landscape, figure, floral, etc.) upside down
7.   Use a tool you’ve never used before for entire painting—palette knife, credit card…
8.   Paint a master copy of an artist you’re less familiar with (i.e. you’ll need to do some research, review their body of work, etc.)
9.   Pick a strong emotion—such as “Jealousy” and create an abstract painting about it
10.   Recycle (or complete) an old painting from the basement, studio closet, etc.
11.   Stretch your own unprimed canvas and leave some raw canvas showing for texture
12.   Something with stripes or another strong repetitive pattern
13.   A toy, board game, keepsake or something that evokes strong memories
14.   A multiple collection of something (stamps, coins, rocks, etc.)
15.   Something with letters, words, or numbers
16.   Add a figure to an existing painting (abstract, representational) for a new focal area
17.   Paint in order of the color wheel from red, to red orange, to orange, etc. Use every color somewhere.
18.   Mostly white subject(s) with a very dark background (or vice versa)
19.   Take a favorite painting and repaint it with a different composition
20.   Something borrowed before you return it
21.   Speed paint an abstract in 60 minutes (or less) with larges brush, no planning, etc. Just paint!
22.   Something with an interesting label or strong graphics (cereal box, etc.)
23.   Crumple, fold, mutilate large piece of heavy paper (black or white)—all those folds make for great value practice
24.   “Hide” at least 2 personal and secret visual symbols in your painting
25.   Paint something very modern in a classical style (e.g. Rembrandt paints an iPod)
26.   Something or someplace that represents the state or town you grew up in
27.   Take inspiration from one of your favorite song titles
28.   Paint a new cover for one of your favorite books (classical or contemporary)
29.   Other than art, honor another unrelated passion or hobby in your art
30.   Your favorite food or snack next to your least favorite
31.   In an artist under the gun “Iron Chef” like way have a friend or family member bring or pick out a “mystery” object or photo for you. Paint this in under an hour.

Need more art sparks? Here are a few others I found online:
About's Monthly Painting Projects
A Day Not Wasted Painting Challenge
Red Bubble Acrylic Challenges
Monthly Painting Challenge
Artists Helping Artists Monthly Challenge

Thanks as always for stopping by, please feel free to Contact Me if you have any questions about painting or my classes. Creative joy and happiness from my studio to yours!

My Favorite Art Books in the Studio

2011-01-20T13:30:00.000-08:00

As my art instruction book collection has grown over the years I find myself going back to certain books over and over particularly on a cold reading by the fire day like today. So I thought I'd post my "Island Studio Must Have Art Book List--Part One. "

Here are six of my favorite art books--in no particular preference or order. I'll post a few more in the next few weeks since I realize that I've neglected watercolor altogether here. Happy reading and painting everyone!

Oil Painting

Capturing Radiant Color in Oils by Susan Sarback

At the time I discovered this book, most of my painting classes employed traditional earthy palettes-- Umber...It's like something Scrooge would say. Thus, I felt an instant and thrilling connection to Ms. Sarback’s sunny Californian landscapes and still life paintings. I breathed an artistic sigh of relief gazing at the orange, green and turquoise shadows. Finally, I remember thinking, this is how I tend to see and how I’d personally prefer to paint. Who knew painting colored blocks with a palette knife could be both affirming and life changing?

Oil Painting

Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color and Landscape Painting Inside and Out Both by Kevin McPherson

I’m guessing if you polled most oil painters they would likely mention one or both of these books by Mr. McPherson as favorites. His books are tried and true oil painting reference books that reinforce all the basics. From his dazzling, but “no nonsense” limited palette to the wonderful landscape compositions, I never tire of re-reading these practical, working artist books. Plus, they are great teaching tools for all levels of painters.

Oil Painting

A Proven Strategy for Creating Great Art by Dan McCaw

I received this Mr. McCaw's book as a birthday gift and have loved it ever since. It's one of those books where you think now I'd be very happy for the rest of my life if I could paint like that. I'm always motivated and energized this artist's dazzling color sense, vigorous brush work, bold lighting, etc. I rarely splurge on art materials but I had a student once ask me if I thought it was worth the almost $200 out of print price on Amazon and I said yes--no hesitation.

Acrylic/Mixed Media

Celebrate Your Creative Self by Mary Todd Beam

Where to begin? First, I can’t imagine my studio (or life) without my little bottles of Golden Fluid Acrylics or Quin. Gold for that matter. I’ve seen this book referred to as a “workshop in a book” and I have to agree. I think I’ve tried just about every technique demonstrated in the book at least a few times. When I switch from representational painting to abstract work this is usually the first book I go to. Ms. Beam's process helps me get back in that world of pure creativity and exploration. I’ve also won a few awards for my paintings employing some or several of the techniques shown--so hey that's always a bonus.

Oil Painting/Still Life

The Artist’s Eye by Harriet Shorr

Ms. Shorr is a representational contemporary still-life painter and I believe a painting professor as well. Because my art brain sometimes thrives on busy and but well organized paintings her expansive “slice of life” high key paintings (reminiscent of Janet Fish who I also admire) really struck a chord. Best of all, you can usually find this colorful little book used on Amazon for just a few dollars.

Art Materials/Color Theory

Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green & Artist’s Guide to Selecting Colors by Wilcox

Yes, years later, some of this info might be outdated with so many new pigments and new manufacturer and you can’t frown upon Opera Pink in my book. But, when I first read these detailed pigment and color reference books I suspect I wasn’t the only artist who had a few major “Aha!” or even “Yikes!” moments. For example, weren’t we always a bit confused by that mysterious Cobalt “Hue” label? Let me put it this way, before I read this book, I bought Parisian French Ultramarine Blue (Extra Deep)—today I buy PB29.

Finally, speaking of painting and books, I recently came across a Toronto based oil painter named Holly Farrell recently and am crazy about her paintings of vintage books.

Rosy Winter

2011-01-19T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone--happy Wednesday! This little 8 x10 oil painting fresh off the easel was inspired by a snowy day and having "paint a floral in oils" on my studio to do list for the week. These are my roses and a few marigolds for pops of cadmium yellow. I'd like to take credit for growing them but frankly, as I think I've noted before, I'm not much of a gardener. I just love to paint flowers. Thankfully, the previous home owner had a small rose garden that continues to flourish despite my thorny inheritance.

The dark vase has an almost metallic navy glaze which was a fun challenge to capture in paint and was created by a wonderful potter in my neighborhood. I snapped this picture back in early October and put it away for a snowy, less colorful day just like today.

This painting was also inspired by watching and episode of Passport and Palette on Create TV the other day with Kevin MacPherson. If you enjoy plein air painting, or just want to get a sense of it while staying warm on your sofa, I highly recommend the program.

In this particular episode, Kevin painted a wonderful landscape study of a snowy river bank near Taos over an older canvas he'd previously employed as a palette. In the process, he let the old, scraped off colors work for him in the new painting as interesting and unexpected pops of color. I've used this "method" before, but not recently, so this morning thought it would be a perfect technique for a floral study like this one.

Hi to all my fantastic new January students--It's been great to meet you and see what you're working on and what you aspire to. I hope you will all enjoy painting for the rest of your life as I do. And many thanks to everyone who has contacted me recently about classes--I know my teaching schedule is getting very full this time of year, so I appreciate your patience and I promise we'll get you in the studio soon!

Finally, as many of you know, this is also the time of year that the blog community likes to share goals for the upcoming year. So, speaking of plein air painting, one of my 2011 art goals is to paint at least once a month outside. Can't promise I'll venture out in January, but hopefully we'll have a more temperate day before the end of the month. And if not, I will at least head out with my camera for lots of snowy landscape reference photos when I'm painting this July.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

"Eleven Eleven"

20 x 24 oil on panel

I hope everyone enjoyed a happy and creative holiday season. It was nice to take a painting break, spend time with my family, do some shopping, etc. but I'm thrilled to back in the studio painting, reading my new art books, and working with my students this week.

Before I look ahead to 2011, I want to send a sincere thanks out to all my art supporters last year including my friends and family, of course, but most of all my students. I can't believe only a year ago I did not know many of you and today I have an almost a full teaching calendar. I'm honored to work with all of you and watch you grow.

Everyday you inspire and motivate me with your variety of fun and challenging subject matter--from napping bulldogs to towering Masai warriors! But I also enjoy our exchange of art information whether it's a favorite book, new art tool, great website, etc. Students really help expand my own art knowledge well beyond the studio and so again, I thank you all!

In fact, today's painting (which is still wet and not quite done, but almost) was in part inspired by three of my talented oil students (thanks Dallas, Mike and Deb S.) who love oil painting, particularly landscapes, as much as I do. I met lots of new faces and am so excited to continue to work with you in 2011.

Speaking of landscapes, today's artist to check out (sent to me by one of my students--thanks Dallas) is contemporary British painter James Naughton. On a recent snowy day, I watched a remake of Wuthering Heights and was immediately reminded of these sweeping and haunting landscapes.

While today's "favorite art tool" comes from Ron, one of my watercolor students. I noticed while he had a wealth of very nice supplies, he tended (as we often do) to favor a particular black and red round brush for most of his work. It's a wonderful (and very reasonable) synthetic brush--the Loew Cornell Ultra Round Series 7020. I ordered and tried the #12 over the holiday season and it's a treat to paint with.

Finally, for those of you who paint small studies, you may want to try out this "Leslie and Dreama" Artist's Helping Artists special deal at King of Frame. As I've mentioned before, I love the front load floater frame for my 6x6 studies. I can't wait to meet the over dozen new students who are starting their lessons and have made painting and art a resolution for the upcoming year. See you soon in the studio!

Drawing Conclusions

2010-11-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

Recently, while demoing mixed media painting (watercolor and oil pastel), it occurred to me that I've never really used oil pastels on their own merit. At least not since I was very young. And perhaps that's why we may tend to think of oil pastels as a really fancy crayons for less sophisticated art projects. Something we might have used at an arts and crafts camp.

Clearly though in skilled hands, as some of may know first hand, oil pastels can be a beautiful and unique medium. FYI for this painting, I used a "vintage" set here by Grumbacher (who I believe no longer produces pastels) but I've also used high quality brands like Sennelier, I particularly love their gorgeous iridescent oil pastels.

Given their nice blending qualities, I found oil pastels to be a perfect choice for some quick abstract oil painting planning. Here's a helpful Oil Pastel 101 article about how oil pastels can be a convenient, affordable, colorful medium to add to our artist tool box. I found the Oil Pastel Society also has lots of interesting tips and info.

In these quick (less than 30 minutes) paintings I approached the overall work much as I would paint with a brush in oil or acrylics: I begin loosely (which means only left handed drawing for me) with broad, gestural lines to help define spaces and larger shapes. As I begin to layer in strokes of color, layering along the way, I focused on mind my primary painting composition goal: Variety.

While these are not refined works, I have to give a big multi-hued thumbs up for oil pastels. (In fact, I think it's that "fancy crayon" feeling that makes them kind of a comfort media.). So next time you are looking for a fresh perspective, try a new medium or revisit one you gave up on long ago. You might just discover a new BFF or rekindle a long lost love! Enjoy!

Portrait of Moi (the Artist)

2010-11-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

I haven't done a self portrait in at least several years since I was assigned one in an oil figure class, one 2010 goal was to paint a self-portrait. So far, I've yet to tackle this but I've been at least thinking about it.

Today, I'm cheating a bit with this post as this "portrait' of yours truly painted by a fellow artist Terrey, who I shared a workshop with several years ago. She created this with Sharpie, yupo (one of my favorite surfaces) and watercolor. I've always loved paintings of artists at work and so I'm thrilled that Terrey captured me hard at work.

If you paint or draw, I think painting a something that you'll find both enjoyable and challenging. Here's a short article I found called 6 Reasons to Paint a Self Portrait.

If you are in the Denver area, I wanted to give a quick shout out for First Friday Art Walks. These fun, informal walks are a great way to spend a Friday night out with family or friends. While the Santa Fe Arts District is probably the best known art walk in Denver there are more "intimate" neighborhood art walks such as Old South Pearl Street. I'm happy to say I have a few small paintings (as well as some of my friends and students) hanging at the always lively and bohemian Stella's Coffehaus so be sure to stop by if you are in the area.

Also, although I'm proud to say I've been in shows since I was a teen, receptions never get old so I'm greatly
ooking forward to the Littleton Own An Original Show opening reception tomorrow night. Congratulations to my fellow artists in the show, I look forward to seeing you there!

Lismore Lillies

2010-11-15T15:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone! As I've mentioned before, I love sketching quickly and freely with a contour line using a fine tip Sharpie (or other waterproof black felt tip pen) on watercolor paper (cold or hot press, I think, works best). Then adding bold washes using a limited palette such as Winsor Blue (Thalo), Permanent Rose, and Lemon Yellow. Here's a more detailed view:

You can find some relatively affordable seasonal bouquets that a really quite nice nowadays at your local grocery store. I was drawn to the purple/red/oranges of the lilies, daisies, and carnations (as well as their varied shapes and sizes) balanced with dark warm greens of the leaves and cooler blue green eucalyptus. Plus, I find it really uplifting to paint bright, colorful flowers on some of these gloomier autumn days.

To add more pattern to the painting, I chose my clear Lismore pattern Waterford vase which has a big chip in the rim. Which brings me to why I don't paint more florals. Because my handsome gray tabby Dashiell boldly attacks any type of botanical matter. It's really only his bad habit. Since he's an otherwise excellent studio muse, I find I have to paint fresh flowers very quickly. Otherwise, it only seems to take an instant before all the flowers are shredded and the vase is rolling away on the floor...Anyway, I still enjoyed working on a watercolor that has so many colors and shape varieties.

It's a cool, dreary Monday here so before I get back to painting, I also need to start my big pot of Alton Brown's lentil soup--if you like lentil soup I highly recommend it. As always, if you have any painting questions, would like a quick online critique, or want info about my classes, please email me. Enjoy the rest of your week! P.S. Mom if you're reading this, I'm saving this one for you! :)

Juicy Trio

2010-11-13T15:55:00.000-08:00

Happy fall Saturday everyone! First, thanks again to the Denver Art Club who invited me to demo this morning. It was an honor to meet all of you and I had a wonderful time sharing some watercolor tips. For those of you who've tried to paint and talk at the same time you know that can be a bit tricky, especially after a grande Starbucks mocha, but I hope I did OK. Thank you again for the warm welcome!

Earlier this week, inspired by the Van Gogh master copy, I decided to paint a quick, relatively high key, impasto oil study of three green sunlit apples. (If you take a lot of photos like I try to, but don't necessarily find the perfect painting subjects, try adjusting the value key considerably up or down, you may be much happier with the result.)

On another note, I just received my my first "front load" frames from King of Frame and am very pleased with the quality and value. I love the warm antiqued black finish with the metallic liner. (FYI, I could not easily locate the "front load" frames on the website but just asked for them on the phone.) I can see why so many artists use them--they're the perfect match for the 6 by 6 oil on panel paintings.

Finally, for all my fellow Colorado artists, did you see this online ranking of Who collects art? If someone had asked me I probably would have guessed New York, L.A. or maybe San Francisco. But am thrilled to see Denver was the top market, followed by the Springs/Pueblo, with Portland, San Francisco, and Atlanta rounding out the top 5. Now, the study doesn't include a lot of details, but as an artist I think it's great to see any good art news about your town. So on that positive note, I'm heading back to studio. Enjoy your weekend and happy painting!

Ode to the Original Daily Painter

2010-11-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

In the last 70 days of his life, it's believed Vincent Van Gogh painted every day, despite his declining mental and physical condition. Thanks to my talented painting mother/daughter duo Anita and Amber for bringing me this wonderful painting inspiration this week. Van Gogh painted this Mulberry Tree near St. Remy in the fall of 1889, less than a year before his death in the summer of 1890.

As I've mentioned before, master copies (even loose interpretations) are a tried and true learning tool for learn new painting techniques. I promise they will also give you a new appreciate for their work, color sense, and vision.

This painting was no exception. Following in Vincent's brush steps, so to speak, I was constantly reminded to change the direction of my brush strokes and keep my thick, impasto oil colors clean and high energy at every turn. I also took note his use of signature dark lines and mastery of complementary colors. Every time I take the time to examine a Van Gogh at length, I can't help but feel he's left them behind as some kind of urgent yet timeless message to all the painters who dare follow him.

Before painting, I considered some of the 19th century pigments (many of course now considered fugitive or poisonous or both) Vincent would have had on his little wooden palette such as emerald or Paris green, lamp black, yellow ochre, lead white, chrome yellow, Prussian blue, etc.

For color history geeks like me, here's an interesting article regarding master painter palettes. For this little 9 x 12 oil study (the original is approx. 21 x 25), I chose a more contemporary palette of Ultramarine, Thalo Blue, Burnt Sienna, Indian Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Cad. Red Light, and Permalba White--which I thought was a fantastic autumn palette. I also used relatively small brushes to help imitate the undulating texture.

Thanks again to all my students (and Vincent!) who continue to inspire me with their work! See you in the studio!

Celebrating Denver Arts Week!

2010-11-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

The best time about this year in Denver is that the arts are thriving and events are everywhere! First, am happy to report that I had 2 small oil paintings accepted into the 45th Annual Own an Original Show in Littleton judged this year by landscape painter Susie Hyer. It's always an enjoyable show at the Littleton Museum Fine Arts Gallery and usually features a great mix of media and subject matter from local fine artists. The show runs from November 19 through January 16. (Quick shout out to my neighbor Mark for letting me borrow his much nicer camera for the entry photos.)

Second, I'm doing a demo, which is always flattering and exciting, for the Denver Art Club up in the Highlands Neighborhood next Saturday. While I'm still deciding exactly what to do, I'm leaning toward a large (full sheet of CP Lana here) nature inspired watercolor like the canna flower garden painting I've been working on this week. As I've mentioned in the past, natural subjects in watercolor are one of my all time favorite painting challenges.

I'm also honored be a part of the 7th Annual Art for Love Art Auction Fundraiser tonight in downtown Denver. I think buying art, which is often quite affordable at these events, is a wonderful way to support a local non profit in your area this time of year.

Finally, am looking forward to checking out a variety of events that take place this week in association with Denver Arts Week, I'm grateful to work and live a metro area that supports our creative business culture. As always if you have questions or would like more information about my classes please visit me on TeachStreet (just click on button on right) or email me. Have a great art filled weekend!

Autumn (in Progress)

2010-10-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday! Keep telling myself that autumn is a favorite time for many artists and I'm doing my best to embrace the changes and let summer go, but it's never easy...Here's an autumn inspired abstract in progress that's almost done, but not quite. I thought a longer, tall format would be a challenge...

I also created "living" stamps from the leaves in my yard which often end up looking like colorful, layered flora fossils. Another busy week, getting a show submission ready and meeting some great new fall students. Don't want to jinx the show entry so I'll let you know later if I get in.

One of the best aspects about teaching and being an online artist is that I'm always discovering new painters that I would have likely never found on my own. For those of you who enjoy unusual landscapes, one of my students who hails from the South lent me a gorgeous book called Marsh Mission that features dramatic, colorful marsh and bayou paintings by artist Rhea Gary.

If you're like me, I'm always looking for art related TV shows. So I was thrilled (not an exaggeration) to discover that our Denver cable now has the Create TV Channel. It's kind of a "best of" art, cooking, crafts, travel, etc. PBS channel that we now have in Denver. I'm really looking forward to watching Passport & Palette which starts in a few weeks.

Questions about painting? Please feel free to email me. Also, in November, I'm offering just for fun a FREE short (and friendly) critique for anyone who would like to send me a painting. Thanks and enjoy the rest of your day!

Three Pair

2010-10-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday everyone! In preparation for some upcoming fall shows, I'm working on some small oil paintings this week such as this 8x10 colorful study of pears. I really wanted do paint something with a bold light and shadow separation. In my kitchen I have a large wooden bowl on my counter under one of my windows and the light patterns are always interesting. Here, you can see some of the window pane shadow falling on the pears. I was particularly drawn to the unexpected silver of turquoise reflected light behind the pear on the right.

The title of this piece is a nod to one of my greatest passions outside the art world: Poker. This time every year, I watch every hand of the WSOP Main Event coverage each Tuesday night on ESPN. I'm not sure if it's my Scandinavian heritage or growing up in the snowbound Midwest (euchre anyone??), but I've always loved playing cards. If I had unlimited funds my days would probably become an amalgam of poker and paint (which for those of you who know poker lingo is also a good thing). In the meantime though better get back to reality and the studio.

I hope to have some info soon on shows, demos, and other events so stayed tuned. Thanks for stopping by--I'm off to the tables.

Late Bloomer

2010-10-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Fall Friday everyone! Before I forget a quick thanks again to my students who endured my month long master suite renovation. Particularly shaky moments like tub no. 1 not fitting, running out of paint (Mythic brand Misty Windowpane FYI), and the brief but nonetheless troubling power outage. Anyway, I'm happy to say it's over now. (If I get brave enough, I'll post the makeover but the "before" is rather scary. Maybe closer to Halloween!)

When someone asks me about the benefits of painting with watercolor, for me I say it's the most relaxing and zen like media, despite it's willful tendencies. Add flowers as a subject matter and it's one of my favorite, go to art recipes. Not only is each species of flower unique, but flowers naturally embody a wealth of design elements such repetition, gradation, dominance, etc. And of course floral subjects are the perfect excuse to use some of those really intense pigments. As much as I love red obviously, pink roses from almost silver pale to deep magenta are my favorite so that's what I decided to paint this week and also in honor of October.

For more fall paintings, visit the October painting challenge on the Artists Helping Artists Blog. I sent my community garden green tomato painting post from yesterday. Thanks again Leslie and Dreama for hosting this! Your weekly Blog Talk Radio show helps keep me motivated in the studio every week. I'm really looking forward to the Kevin MacPherson interview next week. Have a great weekend everyone, happy fall painting!

Go Green! Go White!

2010-10-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Busy week, but I've had a great time painting this oil study of late season green tomatoes that I spotted in a community garden last weekend up in Golden, Colorado in honor of my beloved MSU Spartans who had a fantastic game on Saturday. I'm not exactly a huge football fan but I will always love all things Spartan. (Sorry Wolverine friends and family--maybe next time!)

On a sports related color note, I also attended a wonderful high school back in Michigan, but we had very challenging team colors: Brown and Gold. Wait it gets worse. It was always in plaid. Yes, plaid. Now there are some lovely tartans out there--this is not one of them. It simply doesn't look good on anyone especially as a tennis skirt or swimsuit. Not slimming, trust me. So I was quick to embrace the emerald green and white we wore so proudly each day especially in fall along the beautiful banks of the Red Cedar River.

Well enough collegiate nostalgia, better back to the studio. First, a very proud shout out to my acrylic painting students Lisa and Andy. Both were accepted into this week's Gone to the Dogs fundraising show at the Knoll Gallery. Awesome job ladies! I can't wait to see your pieces at the opening on Friday.

My other inspiration for working on this piece was taking Jonathan Aller's new online painting course. While I'm typically a looser more impressionistic painter, I learned several valuable tips, particularly to slow way down when I paint. I truly believe painting is at least 50 percent observation followed by accurate recording. . As always if you are interested in classes, a workshop, or friendly art critique please drop me a line--I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by and go Spartans!

Kimono Thursday

2010-09-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Taking a brief break from my daily apples to post this fun Japanese kimono watercolor I painted in this week's Monday group class. I was inspired to paint a colorful kimono with a dark background for a variety of reasons.

First, at the gym a few weeks ago (note this is my excuse for watching daytime TV) I saw an interview on Oprah about the "secret world" of the geisha. I was surprised to hear that a high quality formal kimono can exceed $20,000. So I started thinking a kimono would be a fun painting subject. A few days later I was reading about was reading about the Japanese design concept of notan which involves the interplay of dark and light shapes or what we likely think of as the relationship of positive and negative space.

For reference for this watercolor/Sharpie piece, I used a vintage Japanese print that I found online and then gave it my own "over the top"color flair using a full spectrum of hues.. I wanted a nice matte black background so I simply used black acrylic paint rather than watercolor. The support is Arches 140lb CP paper.

Thanks for stopping by--please feel free to drop me a note or comment if you have any painting questions or would like more info about my watercolor, oil, or acrylic painting classes. Domo arigato!

Bite of Red: Apple #2

2010-09-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

6x6

Oil on panel

Here's apple study #2. A bitten red delicious as you can see. I read there are more than 50 varieties of this type of apple. I'll be honest, I'm a Macintosh gal from way back, but the red delicious still makes a nice shiny, angular model with lovely cool and warm reds. And it's flesh is a really interesting almost white-yellow-green before it begins it's golden rusty oxidation.

My favorite apple painting story, which I think I'm remembering correctly, was one that the late Helen VanWyk (the wonderful PBS oil painter from many years ago) would share about her mentor. Ms. VanWyk's books are some of the first oil painting books I purchased years ago and they remain some of my favorites.

I'm likely paraphrasing here, but it has always stuck with me. As a young painter, Helen was tasked with a painting a bowl of apples and not until every single apple could be identified individually could she move on. In other words, painting is really observing carefully and recording accurately--which is really for me what these little live studies are really about each day.

Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to running up to our local Cherry Creek Farmer's Market before teaching my first class to find some more inspirational apple/model options. Quick thanks this week to all my home studio students who are graciously putting up some remodel noise along with me--the end is near! In the meantime, I greatly appreciate your patience and sympathy.

An Apple a Day?

2010-09-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

"Darker at the Core"

8 x 8 oil on linen panel

Price posted when dry! :)

As many of you know, I typically tend toward overall high key paintings, but ever since I painted an almost black plum last week I've been thinking about balancing darker colors. Here, for the background and foreground I've mixed what I like to call "bright black" meaning a very dark value comprised of saturated relatively darker pigments like Thalo Blue, French Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin, Cad Red Light, etc.

Also I had not painted a knife painting a while, so I wanted to work with that as well. For added sparks of color and interest, I also toned the linen canvas panel with a thin but bright wash of Golden Acrylic Pyrrole Red. I noticed on another painter's blog a beautiful series of 31 daily plum paintings which I found very inspiring so perhaps I'll do the same with apples. Not only are apples an appropriate daily subject for September, I think they will be an extra challenge. We see apples almost everyday and there are many fine paintings of them so how do we make them more intriguing on canvas? We'll have to wait and see...

In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful, sunny fall weekend. See you in the studio!

Hot off the Presses!

2010-09-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

Colorful Connections by Studio Favorites | Make Your Own Book

Today I've got a short but exciting post. I finally had some extra time this week and finished my little art portfolio book on Blurb. The book is a collection of my favorite paintings (many of which I've posted here) from the past decade or so.

As many of you know, it's both odd and exciting to review a collection of your creative efforts "living" all in one place. It's also a bit like having that "one woman show" I've always dreamed but on paper. I can't wait to receive it in the mail in the next few days.

What's great about Blurb is that it's so relatively affordable that I can always make some small changes and/or additions after I see the book. But I also like the idea that moving forward in my art life, I'll be working toward filling the pages of the sequel! I did make the books (which are a little longer than the preview above) available for purchase if anyone wants one--they are about $20 on Blurb with the "fancier" paper.

Quick reminder that I have space available for the rest of September and October for our Monday open studio painting group at the Curtice Street Studio in downtown Littleton so please email me if you are interested in joining us. All levels and painting media welcome!

Even Moore Inspiration

2010-09-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

Normally, I'd be posting a painting. But last week, I finally had a chance to check off one of my "summer art must dos" that was a visit to the Henry Moore sculpture exhibit at our Denver Botanic Gardens and I just had to post a couple of pics from my visit.

This unique art exhibit (which runs through January 2011) includes 20 bronze and marble sculptures at both the downtown Denver and suburban Chatfield locations. As an artist, I'm always considering proportion and scale, so it was fascinating to experience three dimensional creations that tower over 10 feet tall and weigh more than a ton particularly outside a more conventional museum setting.

As many of you may know, Moore was a highly-acclaimed British sculpture born in the late 1800s and known for his large scale curvilinear abstracted works some figural, some less so. To me the massive sculptures seemed completely at peace even along side the most delicate flora. I think Mr. Moore would have been quite pleased with the setting. Above you can see one of my favorites--a wonderful turquoise sculpture rising out of the lily ponds like a stretching water beast of some sort.

I also love circles and spirals so another one of my Moore favorites was this "Figure 8" shaped dark bronze piece that created a wonderful organic frame for a more formal area. While I didn't have time to sketch, I did take many photos and am planning to integrate many of the shapes into a future abstract work. Simply by taking photos of the sculptures, I was reminded of just how much we can learn from art forms outside our creative comfort zones.

Before I go, quick welcome and thanks to some new students: Kathleen, Monique, and John. I've enjoyed working with all of you and look forward to more fall painting projects. For class info, please write to me, click on the class link on the upper right, or search for Scarlet Owl in TeachStreet. Thanks for checking in an and have a wonderfully creative week!

Vampire's Delight

2010-09-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

12 x 12 oil on panel

SOLD

Happy September everyone! Is it me or does time just seem to fly this time of year? I also find it's a time of year when I tend to start a lot of different painting projects, which is exciting, but it also means that it's taking me longer to complete any one piece. (That was excuse no. 1 for those of you keeping track).

Painting excuse no. 2? For those of you who've done any home renovation you know how time consuming and distracting that can be. Exciting, but distracting so that's one of my excuses for not posting more in the past week. But bathroom reno means there's a new heated whirlpool bathtub in my future to help soothe the aches and pains of hours at the easel, so I know it will be worth it!

This is also the time of year when I start to prepare for my annual winter panic. To help the transition go more smoothly, I try to concentrate on things that I do enjoy about this season and one of those, as I've mentioned before is cooking. Particularly I love making soup and I always use a ton of garlic when I do. So I'm posting this oil painting study of garlic that I did a while back. It's one of my favorite "food" paintings.

I've got 2 quick tips today. For my fellow oil painters who want a less toxic medium you might want to try M.Graham Walnut Alkyd medium. I tried it today for about an hour and so far, so good, which for me means no headache or itchy eyes.

For my watermedia painters/pet parents, I'm always looking for "pet proof" water container (pigments can be very toxic) and after looking around the house I realized I could use large dishwasher tab containers. (I rinsed them thoroughly before using.) Not only are they roomy, but most importantly, the lid clicks firmly shut so I don't have to worry about monitoring my water bucket ever time I turn around. Right Mr.Dash??

As always, if you have any questions about my work or classes, please drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you. Have a wonderful and colorful week!

Scandalous Daisies

2010-08-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

First quick "Happy Birthday" shout out to my younger brother, Bryan this week! This quick watercolor sketch was inspired by my re-read this week of Charles Reid's Painting Flowers in Watercolor as well as some "Denver daisies" (a cheerful flower that had a bit of controversy here in Denver, thus my title!) given to me by my student, Louise. Thanks again Louise!

As an artist it's always a personal luxury to paint just for you. Whether it's your most beloved colors, a favorite subject, most comfortable method, etc. In this painting, I wanted to honor my the beginnings of my "art career" many moons ago in a small town in Michigan. Where, while still underage, I was hired "illegally" as the official illustrator/calligrapher for at our library (the matriarch librarian told me to lie on the application when she saw my sketchbook and so I did.)

After class, I spent many wonderful hours in the library basement getting paid to draw brochures, posters, calendars, etc. in pen and ink. The only down side was endless hours shaking and cleaning out those super fine Rapidiograph pens--those of you who've used them know what I mean...Which makes using a super fine Sharpie as I've done here all the more enjoyable!

Finally, warm welcome and thanks to my three new artist students this week--Mike, Shelley, and Stacey! It was great to meet all you and I look forward to lots of great fall painting. Quick reminder, if you are looking for a casual, creative open studio class on Mondays, we've still got space in September/October for watercolor, acrylic, or oil--Beginners are always welcome!

Passport to Pink

2010-08-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

"Passport to Pink"

24 x 24

Mixed Media Collage on Panel

Price: $495 Framed

Hope everyone is enjoying a great summer weekend. I'm getting ready this morning to drop off my very rosy mixed media collage to Core New Art Space (a great contemporary co-op gallery located in the Art District on Santa Fe here in Denver) for their PINK show which starts on September 9 where a portion of the proceeds will go our local Susan G. Komen For the Cure chapter. Inspired by passports and travel, this particular piece includes old text (both Western & Eastern), stamps (both postage and painted), and words in French and English.

Core New Art Space holds a special place in my heart because it was one of my first major sales and I've also won an award there as well. So if you are in the Denver metro area, and especially if you like pink and want to support a wonderful non-profit please be sure to check out the show. I'm really looking forward myself to seeing how other artists interpret the pink theme.

This week I've also been working on a larger piece (about 3ft x 4ft) on an older stretched canvas I came across at a local tag sale. As much as I love painting small daily studies, working on a more expansive scale can be very rewarding and has really inspired me to continue paint some larger pieces in late summer/early fall. So be looking for those...

Finally, quick kudos to all my ongoing students this season for all your hard work! I do have a few slots open for fall students so please drop me a note if you want to join the Monday painting group in Littleton or take a private/semi-private session in Denver. My fall class special is 20% discount for any new students who sign up for a minimum of 4 sessions.

Sunflower Power

2010-08-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

"Sunflower Power"

Transparent Watercolor on Arches 140 CP

12 x 12

Is it really Friday already? While I paint mostly in oils now, particularly since I joined the daily painting movement, I still like to splatter colors, layer rich glazes, and "wipe out" out interesting shapes. Push pull, push pull...And it's also a glorious way to wind down from a busy week.

Last weekend, I was reading several watercolor books including artists Jane Hofstetter's excellent 7 Keys to Great Painting. One of her 7 keys is "Pattern" so I was really pushing myself during this painting to focus first and foremost on the BIG light and dark patterns (letting your midtones find their own way). I think this is especially important with complex florals and/or nature scenes.

This reminds me of one of my favorite studio tips (which originated from one of my favorite watercolor teachers--Ms. Jackie McFarland) and those are red colored glasses. You can also use a sheet of red acetate of course, but red glasses are usually easy to find online and any style will do. Anyway, pop on a pair and you can instantly see and compare your values.

Finally, thanks to my eBay painting collector for your purchase! Here's this week's eBay painting--an 8x8 original oil Daily Painting of a pear. I'll be donating one of my larger mixed media collage pieces (which I'll post soon) to the Core New Art Space "PINK" show in Denver where a portion of the proceeds will go to the local Susan G. Komen Foundation. The show runs September 9-26, 2010.

Slice of Summer

2010-08-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

"Summer Slice"

8x8 Oil on Linen Panel

Price: $40 + $5 shipping

Hi All, first, I thought it was time for a refresh of my blog look and feel and while I personally like a dark rich look, I know they can be hard on the eyes so I'm trying out a lighter template.

I don't know about you, but it's about this time of year I start to get a little (a lot actually) panicky about summer's end lurking around the corner. With that in mind, I was looking around this morning for something to paint that would be a little "slice of summer" and the seedless baby watermelon seemed an obvious subject fit. Also, the watermelon is a great example of natures brilliant hue combination of a red/green complement that can be so exciting to paint.

As a foodie, I also think it's kind of cool that watermelons seem to be one of those polarizing foods/flavors that people seem to really like or dislike. For example, I love watermelon but cantaloupe or honeydew, while beautiful to look at, not so much with the flavor for me.

Also had a great time while painting today listening to all the helpful "studio secrets" on the Artists Helping Artists BlogTalkRadio show. It was interesting to discover that a few of my own "studio must haves" such as walnut oil and/or Murphy's Oil Soap for brush cleaning, bungee cord for paper towel roll on easel, the small canvas holder (which I blogged about recently), were other painters' favorites as well. But there were many new tips/tricks that I look forward to researching further such as "photo cubes" for taking pics of my art.

Quick note, we have extra space available in our Monday Open Studio Class from 10A to 2P in downtown Littleton so please let me know if you'd like to join or pass the word along to a fellow artist--oil, acrylic, and watercolor all welcome since our focus is color!

Clementine, Darling?

2010-08-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

"Clementine, Darling?"

6x6 oil on linen panel

Price: $60 + shipping

After teaching a morning oil class (great job Bob!), I was in the grocery store looking around the produce section for some daily painting inspiration (and healthy snacks!) when I spotted a big bag of Florida clementines. The warm orange hue was so vibrant and juicy I had to get them as models.

This was also my first painting on my new RayMar linen museum quality panels and they are a really lovely painting surface--a little tooth but not too much. To use a cooking term, I'll say the panels were al dente! In this particular case, I toned the canvas first with a nice rich quin gold.

For fellow painters, my tip today is next time you want to lighten an area, try the "friendly neighbor" --a lighter hue on the color wheel before using our "go to" white, so yellow-green for a green subject, red-violet for a dark violet subject, etc. You may even want to take white off your palette altogether for a while as an experiment in maintaining bolder, cleaner colors.

For more information about my work or classes, please feel free to email me anytime or visit me on TeachStreet. Thank you!

Friday Sale: Horse Code

2010-08-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

"Horse Code"

8x8 oil on panel equine abstract painting

SOLD

Thanks again to the Artists Helping Artists for their fantastic blog tips show yesterday. Based on Leslie and Dreama's helpful comments, starting today in my blog, I'm going to try to have at least Friday as a featured Daily Painting sale day for all my blog readers.Also, starting this week I'll be selling a few of my older (but still good!) Daily Paintings on eBay all starting at under $50.

Finally, welcome to all my new summer students this week and next, I look forward to painting some masterpieces with all you! Have a great weekend!

French Lipstick

2010-08-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday everyone, as always thanks for stopping by! For my quick 6 x 6 Daily Painting this morning, I wanted to paint a reflective object. So I choose this lipstick tube (which also had a funky tapered shape) with shiny black and golden surfaces. As a painter, I'm always interested to see how other artists render different (and sometimes challenging) textures and surfaces such as glass, metal, fur, leather, wood, etc.

That being said, even though I have a more "painterly" approach, my goal is still to accurately record the shape, value, and color. The key, I find, is to have faith and confidence that by doing this you will achieve a happy result in the end.

Today's Studio Tip: The more thickly I paint in oils (which I'm really beginning to enjoy in these little paintings) the more I use my handy and affordable Kemper wipe out tool to help with correcting areas that get a bit too heavy. I think this tool was designed originally for ceramics, but it works great canvas and Masonite panels.

Speaking of supplies, like many oil painters, I love to paint on linen but it can be expensive and hard to find. So am really looking forward to receiving my new linen panels from RayMarArt. I've noticed that they are the "panel of choice" for many daily painters and conveniently are available in the 6 x 6 "daily" size.

Looking for texture painting examples? I can't help but admire contemporary Colorado realism painters Daniel Sprick and Scott Fraser for their amazing mastery of textures and reflections. For more interesting examples of textures, visit the Daily Painters site and type in the search box terms like gold, silver, glass, etc.

And since it's Thursday, I'm also looking forward to listening later to the Artist Helping Artists show where artists Leslie and Dreama (and often a guest) share helpful information and tips. Next week's show "Studio Secrets" sounds particularly intriguing--I can't wait!

OK, back to the studio for some more practice...have a great day!

Little Green Apple Holder

2010-08-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

On Daily Painter Carol Marine's website she generously and openly shares a lot of info in her FAQ section that I don't always see artists willing to share--particularly what I call the mechanics of painting. Type of brush, panel, easel, paint, lighting issues, etc. For those of us who paint frequently, it's these kind of tips that can really make a difference.

For those of you who paint on small canvases (such as the 6x6 or 8x8 sizes that are now so commonly seen for Daily Painters) you'll likely understand that I was particularly interested to see how she, er, wrangled them. Online I've seen a variety of methods for handling these little gems (which tend to be unstable on big wooden easel), but thankfully she shared an example of her little panel holder which you can order through her site. Basically it's a square with top and then a wedge piece that you can slide in from the bottom to hold the panel in place.

I was going to order the one from her site but I realized I had lots of extra Masonite in the garage to first give it a try on my own. I spray painted mine a flat black because I thought it would be helpful to have that value judgment as well. A dark gray would work well too I think, but I happened to have a nice flat black spray on hand.

What I really love about this "method" is that the panel holder acts as seamless frame so you can easily brush off the sides and edges of the canvas panel and not have your brush stroke interrupted. Anyway, here you can see my 30 minute "quick paint" test of half a Granny Smith apple where I'm playing with primary colors around the yellow-green apple. (I was also testing out a new Liquitex flat synthetic brush which was, for me, a bit too soft and floppy for oil, so I'll just save it for acrylic.) A big thumbs up though on the panel holder, though, so again my thanks to Ms. Marine for sharing.

Speaking of thumbs up, earlier today I watched the documentary Art of the Steal, about the controversy surrounding the incredible Barnes Foundation, an unsurpassed collection of post-impressionistic paintings, many iconic, now worth billions. If you're interested in art history and the politics of art, I highly recommend it. The award-winning film raises compelling questions about private collections, museums, and the role art plays in our overall society, as well as our economy.

To all my students, I look forward to seeing you in the studio this week! In the meantime, enjoy your easel time!

Yesterday's Apple & Blurbing

2010-07-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday everyone! I've spent almost all day working on my new art book from Blurb--a site where you can create your own book of text, photos, imagery whatever you. I noticed several other artists were using Blurb on the web and I so I've had creating a book on my art "to do" list for a while now.

It's also been insightful and emotional to sift through almost a decade of folders of past paintings--some hits, some misses. Some I barely remember. And of course, I'm already mourning a few pieces that I just can't find an image for and have long lost the buyer's name (note to self!). I'm pleased to say that many of the paintings were sold years ago though so a quick thanks to all my collectors over the years for your support!

There's something very cathartic about bringing all your art together in one place. Though trying to decide what to put on the cover is much tougher than I thought it would be. Abstract? Landscape? Animal? I don't think I'll able to choose just one.

While I'm creating the book (working title Colorful Connections, of course) mostly for myself and family, I plan to have a link where you can purchase the book if you like through Blurb.

When I ordered Carol Marine's Blurb book last week, in addition to looking forward to seeing 100 of her beautiful, jewel-like daily oil paintings, I was eager to see the quality. And I was very pleased given the reasonable price for a 4-color 100 page book. Blurb also has a Blurb bookstore where you can search for other artists or art topics such as daily painting. Another attractive daily painting book I spotted Clair Hartmann's Yesterday's Paintings--isn't that a fantastic cover??

I also spent just a few minutes this morning checking out an oil painting instructional DVD I ordered from another busy Daily Painter and Teacher, Hall Groat II. He has a wide variety of DVDs, but as a foodie and a painter, I couldn't resist Painting Desserts DVD. Though I may need to pick up a few "pastry models" at my favorite French bakery (Trompeau if you are ever in the Denver area) in order to practice tomorrow. OK. Better get back to my book.

Bon soir everyone and thanks for stopping by.

Squeeze Me

2010-07-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

Aren't lemons great? They have a sunny hue and an interesting boxy but tapered shape. I particularly enjoy painting lemons very high key with lots of white mixed with violets, oranges, yellows, and greens. The more I read other artists blogs or read artist interviews, the more I feel compelled and inspired to practice my small "daily" oil painting studies from life. So a quick thanks to all the other daily painters out there.

Here, my goal was to play with a "yellow shape" on top of a yellow background (in this case a yellow file folder). Tomorrow, I might try a plum on a purple or violet background and possibly have some more dramatic lighting so I can play with the light and shadow more.

Speaking of light and shadow, last Friday, I went to see Quang Ho's very interesting slide presentation and talk in Greenwood Village. And while Quang is certainly well known, I was pleasantly surprised to see a standing room only turnout for an artist presentation. Quang was the judge for this year's All Colorado Art Show which runs through August 6 at the Curtis Arts Center. FYI, best of show went to a lively, colorful oil still life (reminiscent of one of my all time personal favorites Janet Fish) by artist Sharon Holsapple.

Finally, my title today is also a nod to my favorite "in the studio" music band, Squeeze, the brilliant (IMHO) British pop band. The guys are touring the US this summer and I was beyond thrilled to see them over the weekend in both Aspen and Denver (yes, I saw the same band in less than 24 hours.) And I'm not ashamed to say I wish I was in Vegas tonight to see them again.

Those of you who paint and listen to music know how uplifting, comforting, and entertaining audio inspiration can be in an otherwise lonely studio. So thanks and cheers Chris & Glenn for helping me out in the studio for so many years! I'll be the first in line to buy your Spot the Difference CD next Tuesday.

The Trip to Bountiful

2010-07-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

Usually, I tell my students that you can't go too wrong if you keep things simple while painting. And normally, I try to adhere to my own advice but once in a while I don't get that message. This multi-layered oil painting on panel took me a few weeks from start to finish. It contains a kitchen sink of techniques--some new and some tried and true.

Just a few include painting the first layer with Golden Acrylics an old gift card (Victoria Secret BTW for those of you who like details) and scraping the paint over the gessoed Masonite board (18 x 18). (This idea came from an online demo I saw a while ago of an artist creating an entire painting with plastic cards as brushes.)

I also built up additional texture with a thick gesso using a variety of tools such as palette knife, stamping, and some stencils. Lately, I've been really drawn to waxy encaustic paintings and so I glazed some of the shapes back with milky opaque colors. This piece started out as a purely abstract color study demo for one of my abstract students with reds and golds. When a figure and face began to emerge I decided to work with that imagery. I added the dream catcher at the bottom just for "good luck" and because I love circles.

Quick thanks to all my students who continue to work hard and paint during the summer--I know it's a season with many other temptations. I love seeing each week what you are working on from dogs to pheasants, from florals to seascapes to aspens. Speaking of aspens, this weekend I'm off to Aspen and can't wait to take some photos up there. Have a great weekend everyone!