Challenge Day 7: All Her Lovely Hues

"Fall Fillies" 8x10 oil on linen at Framed Image in Denver--SOLD

It was the rainbow gave thee birth, and left thee all her lovely hues.  (W. H. Davies)

I had so much fun last week painting my little horse painting (and it sold quickly) so I wanted to paint another one. This one my goal was to play with what I like to call prismatic color especially in the shadows.

I've always been attracted to paintings that use a lot of intense color but in a planned and thoughtful way. In this case, I'm trying to move the viewer's eye by color "steps" rather than value gradation.

This painting approach for me is all about color celebration and exploration. Here I've used at least seven or eight pigments plus white. This is a good time to get out that new or rarely used pigment and see how it plays with your regulars. Lately I've been seeing some "color buzz" about manganese violet and alizarin yellow--I don't have those (yet) but they would have been interesting to try in a painting like this.

This framed painting will be featured at the Framed Image Gallery's fall show in Denver through October 31. Update: Sold--thank you collector and fellow horse lover!

Challenge Day 2: The Language of Dreams

"Summer Swish" 8x10 equine oil painting SOLD

Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams. Paul Gauguin

Day 2 Goal: Capture a hot August day with a bright but limited palette

Hope everyone enjoyed a lovely sunny last August weekend like we had here.  Many thanks to all everyone who visited yesterday for painting challenge day 1! Did you see all the amazing Day 1 paintings? 

Since these will be almost daily postings I’m going to try to keep these postings short and sweet.  Plus, I need to spend as much time in the studio as possible. So today my “color” theme continues with different three pigment palette (plus white):

• Cobalt blue
• Permanent Rose
• Indian Yellow

At first I wasn’t so sure about this combo, but I grew to love it. I don’t use cobalt that often (I tend to avoid the more toxic and pricey pigments). But it's a delicate transparent blue that makes luscious violets so I can see why it's on so many oil painters' palettes. 

I was actually birding in a park a few weeks ago when I saw these pair of horses grazing on a hillside. I'm a lifelong horse lover so I’m happy to report that this piece has already been sold to a neighbor who rides. The best part of a daily challenge? You get a fresh canvas in the morning! Happy late summer painting everyone!

For all the Weekend Painting Warriors

"That's So Raven" 8x8 oil on gallery wrap canvas

 SOLD--Thank you!

In January artist Leslie Saeta (who many of you may as the host of the Artitst Helping Artists) kindly featured a 30 paintings/30 day challenge on her blog.  Artists were also encouraged to have a “theme” for their postings which added even more interest to the challenge.

I know the dedication and commitment this consistency at the easel takes so I want to offer a big kudos and congrats to artists who participated. In fact one of my favorite painters in the challenge, Lisa Daria, has painted every day for over 1,000 days!

I really wanted to join the challenge but unfortunately I was traveling away from my studio in January. However, the more I read the blog the more I wished I had found a way to participate. It's really worth checking out all 30 days when you have time--there's a huge variety of painting styles and art subject matter to be inspired by (and also purchase.)

Thankfully starting this weekend Leslie has generously extended the "challenge" by allowing artists  to post paintings on her very attractive blog on weekends. I'm very happy to have this "second chance" to share what I'm working on and in turn discover new artists who are also actively painting. If you're more of a "weekend warrior" painter (and there's nothing wrong with that!) this is also a great chance to post on a regular basis.

Thanks again to Leslie for sharing your blog and helping support the online art community. Happy painting everyone from my studio to yours.

P.S. I just had to post a raven today for Super Bowl Sunday for all my raven (bird or football) fans and Baltimore friends.

Life of Spice

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!

Slice of Summer

 "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!

Friday Sale: Horse Code

"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

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!

Yupo Nalu

Nalu, as some of you may know, means wave in Hawaiian. One of my younger students, this week painted this gorgeous frothy wave on Yupo with Golden Fluid Acrylics. We had a great time working with the wave pattern and texture with spraying both rubbing alcohol and water directly into the wet acrylics which tend to hover on the Yupo surface until dry.

We also added some freshly ground sea salt into the Quin Gold for the sandy texture beneath the wave.  For the wave colors we used Thalo Blue, Turquoise, some Quin Magenta, as well as a touch of Hansa Medium and Crimson.

It's been a joy to be back this week painting in the studio and I'll be posting 2 new pieces soon, one oil abstract figure and one acrylic abstract horse. While working, I've also been busy listening to some very inspirational and informative Blog Talk Radio shows called Artists Helping Artists.

I loved their recent interview with well-known daily painter Carol Marine about daily painting and what it's meant to her and her career. I hope I can get to one of her workshops at some point, if I can find one that's not full! But in the meantime, I really looking forward to her book 100 Small Paintings which I ordered earlier this week. Mahalo everyone & happy painting!