Day 29: Colorful Orange Pieces

Day 29 of the challenge is today. I wanted to try something different today. This is a painting of zinnias that had wonderful color and a terrible design. Now, it is "repurposed" to be the underpainting of these orange slices. I wanted the pinks to remain present. This painting then put paint on (thickly over the underpainting) and then scraped (using a knife and a clay shaper-type of tool) paint off: reapplied more thick paint and..scraped it off and around. I will look at it again tomorrow and decide what changes it needs.

You can see other d 29 paintings on Leslie Saeta's  blog page. She is planning o discussing what the challenge accomplished on "Artists Helping Artists" blogtalk radio this Thursday, Oct 2.

Day 27: Geraniums, Zinnias and Susans

Day 27 and only three days remain in the challenge. These are beautiful early fall flowers  from my yard that I painted with a friend this afternoon. Overpainted onto a different failed painting, this again forced the use of thicker, juicier paint and increased texture which is always fun.

See the other challenge paintings here.http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com

Day 26: Cantaloupe revised

If you think you have seen this painting before, you are correct. Previously, the little cantaloupe slice and plate didn't fit the size of the board well. (Check back a couple of pages and you will see what I mean). The great news is that once dry, my husband was able to cut the board so now this painting is 6 x 8 instead of  8 x 8 and "fits" better. I am going to post this for today. IOS 8 ate my password keeper and I have now tried for a couple of hours to rebuild it on a new site and let's just say, it is not going well....To keep everything secure, I am losing my mind.....
You can see the other day 23 entries here.

Day 24: Tiny Rabbit Watercolor Sketch

I am working on a new large watercolor piece and working with a great new class of painters (see below) so I didn't have time to get to work on oil today. However, inspired by yesterday's little dog that "showed up",  I decided to try a rabbit for today's challenge entry. Here are the best parts of this painting:1. the lost edges that allow the rabbit to "be" and "not be" 2. the eye and the trick to eyes is the shadow over the top of the iris that is cast by the upper lid (dark on the top, light on the lower iris and it becomes round and lifelike) and then there is the side-by-side placement of warm and cool colors ....



Here is  a link to the other day 24 entries and travel down to see the wonderful paintings completed by my "beginner" (hardly) oil painting class.

Pretty fabulous! One worked on copying a favorite painting and the other two are from personal photographs. They all make me smile!

day 23: tiny watercolor sketch

Day 23 and this is a tiny watercolor. It looks a lot looser and easier than it is. Its charm is in the many lost edges and the feeling that the little dog is "showing up". I didn't want to miss the last days of the challenge!

Day 22: Eggplants

Today, I found these eggplants broken on their stems so I decided to paint abstracted plants with these last few. This is another repainted canvas board (9 x 12) and again, I love having to apply thicker paint to "get over" the underpainting. There is more texture to this canvas, it is a source tek panel.
I still love nature's lime green and purple combinations.

Remember to check on the other day 22 paintings here

Day 21 of the challenge

This is a warmup since I haven't painted in watercolor for the past week.  I continue to experiment with the texture and colors of peaches in oil and I hope to have some of these paintings posted to complete the thirty day challenge.
As I struggle on some of these challenge days and also as I look at the postings of the other participants, I think that the challenge might be better if there was a daily commitment (perhaps a process posting to one's blog) and then a weekly post of the "best of the week's work".
Probably this would be even better if there was an opportunity to actively participate in constructive criticism of one's work....Seems that to improve, one needs to commit to "the work and paint regularly (in this case: daily)  but also to the critical evaluation of the progress.

Day 20: Cantaloupe on good-rimmed plate

This is a painting that I had mostly finished for day 19 of the thirty day challenge. I just didn't like it enough to photograph and post it. The background was too insipid... a muted green-grey and it did nothing for the beautiful freshness of the wet juicy orange fruit (which was as delicious (even after baking under the lights) as it looks).
So I added just a note of indanthrone blue to a lot of white and knifed it over the other background. This did it. For me, it makes the orange sing.

You can see the other day 20 entries here (and scroll back to see the ones you missed on day 19....)

Study Little Creamer

Study Little Creamer/ 8 x 10/  HH

I bought this little perfect creamer from e bay to paint with red fruits and I couldn't resist practicing the grapes again this week. I had painted the cosmos late last night, so they were also already available...

The 30 day special prices continue just until the end of the challenge and then the prices will return to normal...

Remember to check out the other day 18 paintings here

Day 17: Eggplants #2 Study

I have lost a lot of painting time the last couple of weeks as I tended to the overgrown weeds in my garden. These are some the the last, smaller, redder eggplants from 2014's garden. I had to paint the wonderful colors. More than halfway through the challenge.
You can buy this here and see the other challenge paintings here

Day 16: Reworked Peach Study and Study of Grapes

Low Key Peach Study (reworked) 8 x 10

I reworked the background on this to have a "less scratchy" feel.

Then, I worked on the transparency of grapes.
Here is what I tried: the side of the grape that is nearest the light source is dark. The side away from the light has warmth and most of the grapes have some solo areas.

Much better than my previous tries (one of which is under this one)
The grapes are only 5 x 7

Check out the other day 16 posts here

Day 15: Low Key Peach Study

I had the pleasure of painting with my niece and nephew today. Both are very talented. My nephew painted the planes of the pomegranates I have been struggling with: small geometric pieces of paint. I want to try this before I forget. My niece had this set up of peaches with a dark background that I tried after my rose and bottle was a complete wipe. It is getting harder to get a daily piece done....and we are only halfway there...

Day 14: Peaches and Ball Jar

Peaches and Ball Jar/ oil on board/ 8 x 10

I have a new plate with a beautiful gold rim that these peaches look fabulous on. My painting of this, however, not so much.
So, a day behind on the thirty paintings in thirty day challenge, I set about peaches and a ball jar (I have painted these before.)
I am pretty happy with this so I will add it to Leslie's page and put it for sale tomorrow.
Thanks for looking!!
Here are the other day 13 images

You can purchase this here

Day 12: Orange Slices

Here is another study piece (a noter 4 x 4). I wanted to describe the transparency of backlit slices and the wetness of the slices. This is close but I will work on it some more.

You can see the rest of the d12 entries here.

Day 11" Pomegranates Study #1

So this is a small 4 x4 study of pomegranates. I had to discard the 8 x 8 unacceptable first attempts and decided to scale back until I could get the painting to stop looking like dysmorphic apple/tomatoes.
Here are the characteristics of pomegranates that I have decided that I need to paint: multiple planes, squared sides, leathery skin that still makes a strong seer of highlights where the planes change. a fabulous, rich set of deep red-maroon colors,

This is improving and is my day 11 contribution.  See you tomorrow!!

Cheerful Plums: day 10

Cheerful Plums/ oil on board/ 5 x 7

Plums painted with a bright, almost fluorescent-feeling background. Part of the thirty day challenge for me, is to experiment and "play " with ideas: to try new things and this nun-traditional background is an example of this. I like the "glow" that is created by the junta position of these colors and truth-be-known, I am struggling with a little painting of pomegranates.

 See the other paintings posted for day 10 here.

Day 9: Roses Watercolor Sketch

I posted this today because the painting of pomegranates from yesterday was a repeated wipe.
I will retry as a smaller sketch to get the colors correct today.

Each day, I work on watercolors in the mornings and this is a sketch done during the challenge. Sort of brightens the rainy days!

Day 8: Study Oranges

Some days things seem to paint themselves. And then there are days like the past two. I wonder whether the struggle is a shift in learning. However, here are the oranges after a couple of wipes and restarts
My challenge was texture.

I won't put this one for sale yet. I need a little longer to live with it but I will post as my day 8 entry.

Day 7: Red and Green Pears

Pears are one of the first things I have students paint because of the wonderful planes each one has. This little painting broke my thirty day challenge rule of doing it quickly. This painting was wiped three time s before the background was changed twice and the pears and highlights altered.....
Lots of glare on the new, very wet dark background.

See the other day 7 challenge paintings here

Day 6: Study Purple Plums

Purple Plums/ oil on board/ 8 x 8

This is a little painting that should be titled "try, try, try again" or "three times is the charm". I wanted the "shine" and the rich melange of colors. Many of the  "highlights" are very very blue and it took me many tries to figure that out.

Hope you like this because I am certain these plums will be painted again before they are eaten!

See the other day 6 entries here. So glad that so many of you are taking advantage of my thirty day challenge special pricing!! Hope some of these will be special Christmas gifts!!

Day 5: Flower Break

This is a little demo painting that I started in my new painter class this past Wednesday. I decided to add it to the Thirty in Thirty, because it was completed as a daily painting. It will have the "30 day price". This new class is great: enthusiastic and eager to learn. Great for me, because I am excited to teach...

In this lesson, we learned about,t and then practiced using, transparent and opaque paints. We used transparent colors in the underpainting and then painted over them wet-in-wet with mostly opaque paints

See the other day 5 challenges here

Soft Peaches Study

Soft Peaches Study/ oil on board/ 8 x 10

Day 4 of the challenge.
My challenge for this painting was to capture the "softness" (and the beautiful color) of these peaches. I thought the soft fruit needed a "soft" background. This beautiful grey is a mixture of viridian, transparent oxide red and white: some areas also have a little cobalt blue added.

See the other day 4 paintings here

Eggplant Study: Day 3

Day 3 of the challenge and the first day of my new "beginning oil painters class. I love new classes: I can't wait to see the progress of the group (and sometimes, I gain some amazing painting buddies)

The challenge in this painting for me was to paint the "shine" and all the beautiful colors especially the beautiful purple against the lime green stems.


You can see all day 3 challenge paintings here

Turnips: Study

Turnip Study: oil on board/ 8 x 10

Day 2 of the 30 day challenge and another personal favorite. I love the warmth and the texture of this painting. Again, this was painted over another painting so some of the underpainting peeks through and adds to the feeling of warmth.

See everyone else's paintings here

Avacado Study

Avacado Study/ oil on gesso board/ 8 x 8 

Today is day 1 of the Thirty Paintings in Thirty Day Challenge hosted by Leslie Saeta (link). As soon as I compose this post, I will see whether I was successful in signing up last week...
To start with, on this challenge I will paint 8 x 8 or 8 x 10 (maybe 9 x 12), quick studies to keep my prices (for this month challenge only) attractive... Most of my subjects will be familiar to me (so I can complete them quickly). I practice with a slice of cantaloupe and some leks and they are part of this series..
In this painting I set three challenges (in addition to the ones above):
1. colour: bright and vibrant (you do know that I am Canadian by birth ( and correct spelling)
2. Clear depiction of ""In and out"
3. interesting design...