Many days gone

Here I am near the end of 2014 with nothing posted for ages.  I have been painting and I'll try to post some of those.  I just started reading Carol Martin's book on daily painting and hope that jump starts my painting/writing endeavor.  I love painting.  And I struggle with it, and have joy with it. And then I stop.  I've got to not stop.  When I stop, I miss out on the fun!  More later.

Painting 6

At the end of the Wednesday plein air class, the teacher likes us to do a 30 minute painting.  This was done in 17 minutes with a palette knife.  The subject was painter Helen's car.  I enjoyed getting the 3 values in and sculpting the car with paint.

I think this was my most successful painting yet in this challenge.  And, it was fun to do.

Painting 5 of 30

At the Wednesday painting class, I did two paintings.  The first is of a small building within a local park.

A challenge was to catch the shadow pattern before the light shifted.  I also wanted to get a visually interesting value range.

Painting 4 of 30

At the Petaluma Butter and Eggs Day parade, a ballet class was on one of the floats.  This painting is from a photo I took before the parade started. 

In keeping with my attempt to do 20 minute paintings, this was done with palette knife.  I've worked on it again after consultation with others but this is where I was when i "finished" it the first time.

Painting 3 of 30

Third painting of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

This was done from a photo taken at an outdoor concert/picnic.  Again, I tried for the gestural component.  I can see that it lacks in value differentiation.  I was trying to do 20 minute paintings and this, clearly, needed longer.

Painting 2

Oil painting of two musicians from a photo I took at a recent concert.  I was trying to get the postures and interaction of the two.

30 day challenge - Day 1

First painting:  from old photo of country children in the early part of the last century.  The challenge was to place the children in a landscape and to give them the clear appearance of coming from an earlier age.