Three to Get Ready

Orchard Path

Oil on panel

6 x 8

This little piece was painted last Friday morning, another one for the show at BAYArts this August.

This photo doesn't do enough justice to the juiciness of the paint application nor to the beauty of the colors.  The painting 'happened' after I spent an hour fixing another painting--which is so-so.  I guess I needed to loosen up.

Summer Vaca has started and I've hit the ground Running

                                                                Orchard Hills 6 x 8
                                                                                          oil on panel

Where to begin?  It's been so long since I've posted and there's so much to share and say.  For now I'll share a few pics of some little paintings I worked on this week.  The scenes were painted in a few different parks within the Geauga Park District.  What has been intriquing and of great importance to me lately has been negative space.  How it is used in an artwork.  I love the abstract shapes that negative space creates.

                                                                                        Orchard Hills  6 x 8
                                                                                            Oil on Panel

It was fun to mush the sky up against the trees and to paint the pinks behind the trees.

Swine Creek Park  6 x 8

Oil on Panel

This started as a demo piece, waterbased oils on panel.  I reworked it a smidge this morning (the demo was on Monday night) putting regular oils over the waterbased oils.  Which works just fine.  I also turned the painting upside down when I worked back into it.  (I revisited this idea courtesy of a friend who often paints her work upside down--she's not standing on her head, the work is upside down :) ) 

                                                                    The Rookery 6 x 8
                                                                                               Oil on panel

This is a painting from last summer that I was never felt was complete.  So, since I was turning paintings upside down, this one was flipped and worked into.  It's more intense than before, the colors and paint is getting nice and juicey.

What Looks Like a Stormy Day

At an apple orchard last Fall I took this picture with my cell phone. What I love about cell phone images is the distortion that occurs.  For the last few years I've been using cell phone pics as reference material for paintings.  Because the images are "bad photos"  there is less to be tied to when I start painting.

Stormy Day

Acrylic, Oil Pastel, water-based Oil on board.

18 x 24

For this week's lesson in Ap Studio Art each student is using their own cell phone pics as reference for a painting. For a ground we're using backing board (used in matting art work), then a gestural pencil sketch , followed by an acrylic wash to lay in general color and values.  After the wash the students can either continue with an acrylic painting or begin working on to of the acrylic in oil pastels. 

For mine I started in acrylics, began working in oil pastel, then because it seemed better to work in oils; I used water based oils along with the oil pastels. Kind

of a back and forth thing with the oils and oil pastels.

So now I've opened up the oils option to the students. The assignment is due next class, I'll post the pics soon after. They're doing great so far, it'll be interesting to see where they end up!