Summer Projects

The porch is almost done

My husband's little side project

Jessica's farm produce - canned

Busy, busy summer.  I have two 18x24 paintings almost done.  They're at the stage where I need to do some final tweaking - you know, the scariest part.  The make or break part.  We're having a special guest for dinner tonight.  My son's girlfriends's mother from China.  So there's no time to paint.  

I thought you might like to see what's been going on around here for the last two weeks.  My husband has been working on finishing the back porch.  You can see some of the boards yet to be put up on the decking.  The powder room is all torn up and will be remodeled.  It's a bathroom that's 80 years old and SO needs it.  And my daughter decided to get into canning.  She works in the garden at the farm one day a week and brings home tons of vegetables.  

Hopefully, things will calm down a little soon.  Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

July Respite

July Respite

Oil on Linen

12x12

It's that time of year again.  My husband goes on his annual fishing trip with 15 other guys (including his brothers, my brother and son) up in Rainy Lake, Minnesota.  They've been doing this for years.  It's also the time of year when my schedule is completely free, up for grabs, whatever.  Last night I craved a Big Mac.  Haven't had one of those in ages, ha!  And I rented The Lovely Bones.  Great movie, by the way!

In between painting sessions, my daughter and I are planning pedicures and maybe a Mystic Tan (fake spray tan).  It's that time of year when leisure is an art in itself.  I hope you have time for some self-indulgent leisure this summer.  We need time to do whatever strikes our fancy!

Chimes

Chimes

Oil on Linen

24x24

This painting has been keeping me company at my easel for the last two weeks.  I listen to music while painting and if there are others around, I close the french doors to my studio.  I love painting in my own little world.  In fact, I need to be alone when I paint and find it difficult to concentrate when there are others around.  But that's just me.

When my kids were young,  I didn't have the luxury of solitude while painting.  Even if they were at school, I always answered the phone.  What if it were the school nurse or something else popped up concerning the kids?  Now that they're adults (and my son no longer lives at home), I have the peace required to create.  I envy other people who can multi-task.  Some people can write, read or paint no matter what is going on around them.  

Are you one of those people or do you need solitude?

Footprints

A few months ago, my brother was over and showed me this photo on his iPhone. He told me it was a painting by a fantastic new artist, and wasn't it cool? I looked at it and agreed. Now there was something different in the abstract art world. Almost like a Pollack painting.

He laughed when I said that. It's the panel from your french easel! That's where I lay my wet brushes as I'm painting. I never noticed it before. But in a different context it looks completely different. It makes me wonder if we create art without even knowing it!

Following the Muse

I'm getting ready for a big lifestyle change. Over the next months and coming year, my husband and I will be preparing to move out to the country on 200 acres of property. I can't go into the details, since that would involve privacy issues concerning other family members, but ... there's no way I can continue this blog without mentioning it.

After all, I'm a landscape painter. So I'm thrilled that I'll finally be in touch with daily reference material. Open skies and land. Yes!
Here's a little gravel road leading in to where we'll be living. Is that sunlight shining on dust? Or maybe a woods faerie?
The deer decided they should run for cover after staring at us for a full two minutes. I need to be quicker with the camera.

So I imagine that I'll be posting my paintings as they come off the easel from now on. But you'll also be hearing about painting walls and all kinds of projects that come with getting an old house ready for sale. Our target is to move next year. But there are so many projects to get ready in the meantime!

Silver Springs Sunset - Final Painting

This painting is finally done after two weeks of working on it. The trees and reflections in the water are painted with transparent paints. The sky and reflections of the sky are opaque paints. In the above image, the trees are glazed with various shades of hansa yellow, olive green, sienna, sap green and shale.
In the above image here, I went back over the trees (after the initial glazing dried) and further defined the tree masses and reflections with thicker transparent paint - the same colors as above. But I also painted the darkest shadows with thin paint. The tree edges are also glazed in a warmer color than the sky - brown pink, hansa yellow and a touch of alizarin crimson.
Finally I added more glazes and made a few more adjustments to the background trees and water. This post is just a general overview of how I work. It's taken me quite a while to feel comfortable with this process, but I feel the time spent was well worth the effort.

Moving Right Along

Last week I showed the start of this painting done with a transparent underpainting. I wiped out the lights with a Viva paper towel. Since then, I've added a thin layer of indiathrone blue/white mixed with liquin. After that dried, I added a thin layer of naples yellow/white.
Here's yet another thin layer of brown pink/hansa yellow/white scumbled in various places on the painting. I'm building the layers of opaque paint in the sky and water first before I begin to touch the trees and reflections.
The above painting is a 12x12 study. It's almost finished, but not quite. There still needs to be some additional layers in the sky and water. But I thought I'd try to work on the study first, since it's more comfortable for me to work out the kinks on a smaller scale before moving larger to the 24x24.