Happy Valentine's Day

We are expecting a snow/ice event later this week. This will make it difficult for floral deliveries. Therefore, mine is early and I can paint it daily as it opens and matures!

Duck Sketch

Here is yesterday's painting with the background less "stripe-y". I think this improves it. I also made the dots of the nostrils and eyes less distinct. The consequence of these changes is a more "soft-edged" painting and less predictability....

The painting process

I am reading a great book, "The Painter's Process" by William F Reese. Quoting from pg 21, "My advice to all beginning painters would be to fall in love with the process of painting and learn to make this your reward. Remember that one is never as good a painter as one thinks when a piece works, or as bad as one thinks when it doesn't. Tomorrow you'll try the same thing that proved successful today and fail, and vice versa. We all will experience humility in major doses"

The craft of painting can not be taught to us, but, it can be learned by us. The most we can expect from the greatest of teachers is direction and guidance. In other words, our teachers can only show us ways to teach ourselves, the rest is up to us. This is basically a process of self education we must go through. It will only be through endless hours of disciplined practice that we will develop the skills and sensitivity necessary. Once the craft is mastered, if indeed it ever is, there is no guarantee that we are even beginning to approach art. To be an artist is to reach a higher plane, a level of high excellence and sensitivity that must come from within."

On the days when my paintings are a bigger struggle, I am grateful that I LOVE the process of painting.

Rooting Around/ oil on canvas board/ 8 x 8/ 

Two Warm Red Paintings

Poppy Anemones/ watercolor/ 12 x 8/ $135

Another "vignette" painted with white areas left to integrate foreground and background. I like this style of painting. It gives "air" and "freedom" to the subjects.
That said, sometimes I like the finished layered look of a painting.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/sue-churchgrant/untitled/198823

Red Zinnia and Swallowtail/ watercolor/ 5 x 7.5/ $75

For example, here is another painting in very similar colors. This gives the painting a very different "feeling".

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/sue-churchgrant/red-zinnia-and-swallowtail/198824

Do-Re-Mi

Do-Re-Mi/ watercolor/ 7 x 13/ $135

 I came across some photos I had taken of a baby robin. I decided to paint three images I had as if they were musical notes. I also wanted to change the dull brown camouflage color of this little bird so I chose a triad instead.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/sue-churchgrant/do-re-mi/198820

Freehand Iris Sketch

Another watercolor vignette. Again, leaving white in the flowers allows them they to be integrated with the white of the background.


http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/sue-churchgrant/freehand-iris-sketch/198388

Superbowl Six Pack

Superbowl Six Pack/ watercolor/ 6 x 6.5/ $75

I have been studying edges and tying the foreground with the background. See if you can identify the lost edges. Some are lost by softening them and some are lost by juxtaposition of similar values. In this little painting, I also wanted to paint a vignette on a white background. To keep the pansies from being isolated, I had to plan saved white areas within them.

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/sue-churchgrant/superbowl-six-pack/198390