Challenge Day 30: Fun at the Finish

Ab Ex Chicken-Acrylic On Canvas--Collection Artist

Happy Fall everyone and congrats to all of you who participated in Leslie’s “30in30” challenge! We made it to the finish! Personally, while I wasn’t able to “paint and post” every day I did paint and post more frequently. There was no doubt that a challenge like this is motivating in the studio! 

In the past month, I’ve shared my thoughts on color and painting more spontaneously. Today’s whimsical acrylic painting is just a fun tribute to both of those topics. 

First, this was painted entirely with a wood shim. That’s right no brush, no palette knife just a good old hardware wood shim. As you can guess, a tool like this really challenges you to paint in a different way.  From a color standpoint, I wanted to emphasize the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue). I felt this would help support the more graphic illustrative look which was my intent.

Once in a while, I think it’s nice to remember why we love making art and just enjoy the process...

YUPO & Bird Painting Workshop: Sat. November 16, 2013

I’ve posted some details for my upcoming painting workshop on both my website and on the workshop page of my blog.  If you have any questions about the workshop or would like to sign up, please write to me.

Part 2: The Happy Collector

"Winter Wings" 8x8 oil on linen panel

Please click here to bid 

 Collectors are happy people. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
In my previous post I shared a few tips and views regarding buying art online. Here are a few more thoughts to help you get started --or enrich with your existing art collection.

Tiny Treasures
Small affordable paintings are a great way to start collecting particularly if you’re not ready to invest or have the room for a larger piece. For one, they’re much less expensive to frame. You can also display petite paintings without a frame on bookshelves, mini easels, or picture ledges that you can find at places like Ikea. 

Flip through any chic interior design magazine and you’ll often see attractive groupings of paintings.  You could arrange them by theme, artist, media, style, etc. For example, I have still life paintings in my kitchen, landscapes in my guest bedroom, etc. Here are some additional tips from HGTV about creating your own gallery wall.

Follow Your Favorites
Like many artists, I keep a close eye on artists whose work I greatly admire. For a more significant art investment, I also try to see the work in person if it’s practical at galleries, festivals, museums, their studio, etc.  If you follow an artist long enough I think you’ll feel pretty comfortable when the right painting comes along and if the price point makes sense. 

Peace of Mind
Be sure to read the art description carefully—check the size, media, etc.  If you’re not sure if the painting is original be sure to ask.  Also look for a fair return policy (most artists offer some kind of return or exchange).  Most artists enjoy talking about their work so feel free to write if you have questions. (Note if the artist has a gallery agreement they may refer you there for the final purchase.)

Finally, whether you’re buying art to enhance your home or as an investment, I absolutely believe you’ll be happiest in the long run if you acquire art you love and the best original art you can afford.

Spot On Color

"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.

Real Abstractions & Global Inspirations

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.

An Apple a Day?

"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!

Even Moore Inspiration

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

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!

Squeeze Me

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.

My Birthday Boy

It's been a snowy day in the studio, but that allowed me to get this quick little 8 x 10 oil painting study in of my beautiful blue gray tabby, Dash--named for fiction writer Dashiell Hammett--checking out the hedge for sparrows. It's his birthday today (he's 6) and since he's the feline studio mascot I promised him he could model today.

As many of you know, painting can be a lonely endeavor sometimes and so I wanted to honor all the animal companions of artists who keep us company.  Dash is the most vocal cat I've ever had and he particularly likes to comment on unusual weather like today. 

Speaking of gray, I have to mention how much I like the new Richeson Gray Matters palette paper--I've always used the traditional white but the gray really makes a difference for judging the lighter values. Also, today I ordered Santa Fe artist Nancy Reyner's book Acrylic Revolution and am looking forward to reading that.  Snow days are always a great excuse for some internet art book and supply shopping!


Finally, for those of you interested in my art classes, I also spent some of the day looking for affordable workshop space and hope to have an announcement soon of a workshop in Denver in addition to my private and semi-private classes.  My plan is to have a variety of workshops for oil, acrylic, and watercolor. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and have a creative week!

P.S. For those feline art lovers out there, here are some other examples of feline paintings at Daily Painter.

Good Day Sunshine

Yesterday I noticed the light levels are really beginning to get much stronger as spring approaches.  In the kitchen, I spotted the sun hitting a plate of pears and took a few snapshots for my oil painting study this morning. I was really drawn to the strong shadow patterns and organic shapes.  As I often do I painted this small 8x8 study on bright red toned canvas board--one of my favorite painting approaches. It's interesting to play with the "lost and found" red edges.     

For this study, I decided to do a quick (30 min) acrylic underpainting to help me map out where I wanted to go with my expressionistic colors. My favorite palette for working on acrylics by the way is the Richeson Lock Box palette. Sure, it could be larger and the donut-shaped inserts are rather funky, but I love the round shape (so I can mix around the color wheel). And it really does keep acrylics quite pliable for at least a few days and I live a very dry climate.  (Just wet the sponge inserts, lightly spray the palette with water and close the lid.)

Why bother with an underpainting for a small oil study? One of my new students is working on a master copy oil painting using the classic grisaille underpainting approach.  This layered classical method had me thinking more about approaching a painting in this way, which is not something I would normally do especially when I only have an hour or two to paint.  But the results can be well worth your patience, so while I've not done a traditional glazed oil painting with a lot of detail in a while and am thinking that will be my next painting.

For more information about my oil painting classes (located in Denver, Colorado) please drop me a line at the email above or visit me on Teach Street (search Scarlet Owl).