Last lecture

Finished up the last history of Impressionism lecture this evening.
Going to miss having my art buds over every week. We'll take a break
to get ready for the ArtWalk and then resume with movies about artists
perhaps!

[sent from iPhone]

No big

....breakthroughs in the past 2 days. Couldn't paint yesterday due to
an ankle injury!?! But managed to research competition deadlines with
my foot propped up on the couch. Got too late of a start tonight and
interupted with tax prep questions so very little paint to canvas.
Will try to encourage upstairs play tomorrow to get the rest of the
paperwork out of the way and clear up my time for painting.

Finding it super annoying to be making such little progress on such a
tiny painting. Just need to keep reminding myself I'm still getting
up to speed. The more I do, the faster I will become!

Feeling this one is going to be getting a shading pass and then
another pass to tweek the colors. It will actually work out better
that way since I want to build up the surface with my thick paint.

Working from the outside

...in to the focal point. Need to start overlaping and it will allow
me to work out all the color issues on the less important flowers.
Mixed a large amount of warm (tops) and cool (lower portions of
flowers) shadow color which should get me through to the finish - as
long as I can get a good chunk of painting in before the pallette
dries! Background is still super transparent, not sure I like that.
Will have to see how it plays against the solidity of the flowers.
Kind of backwards from reality, but it might look cool. If not I'll
have to remember it for something else because I really like the look...

[sent from iPhone]

Reading, recuperation, and roses!

This was mostly a recharge week for me. Read art books, had my art
buddies over to watch the history of Impressionism, painted a tiny
bit, and did battle with the mess in my studio. Finally feeling ready
to start taking on the next deadline - the ArtWalk on April 24th &
25th. Starting back in to finish all of my UFPs (unfinished
paintings) so I can have a clean slate to start applying for more
shows and competions. Hard when you have lots of orphans staring at
you!

Still working and playing!

Pretty slow going this past 5 days or so. Spent the time painting the
sides of the canal painting and finished up by finishing those final
details that were bugging me. So now it is finally finished. Thought
about sneaking a signature into the stonework but I really can't stand
to mar the picture with text. I know it is pretty standard, kind of
extra advertising in a way. Still very torn. People like to say they
own a piece by so and so. Maybe it's just a modern art museum thing
for me. Can't put anything extraneous to the picture in the picture.

Saw the most amazing show of the da Vinci notebooks. Can't wait to go
back without the Olympic crowds!

[sent from iPhone]

More of the same

Still painting edges - note to self: do this at the end of each
session next time - will save on time and will solve the paint drying
on the pallette problem. Plus be much less annoying to deal with!

[sent from iPhone]

Weekend work

Doing the gallery wrap (painting edges) and cleaning studio. Catching
up on sleep and cleaning too.

[sent from iPhone]

And Breathe

Photos taken, proposal written, CD burnt, package delivered!
(Fingers Crossed)
Taking the weekend off from any pressure - still planning on painting though.
Start planning for the next show on Monday!

Extreme Fail / Resounding Success

Well it turns out attempting to complete 5 paintings in 6 weeks was
even more impossible than I had imagined. Throw in getting sick for
two weeks offset slightly from our daughter's 2 week illness, flaky
childcare, a trip to Seattle, a long visit by the in-laws, a long visit
by my mom, a 4th birthday party, and the Olympics I'm surprised any
painting got done at all!

Yet it did and I have two paintings I'm happy to show, another two in
the works, and plenty of ideas for others. I think we'll have a very
strong concept for our proposal and a good chance at a show. I've
also got a great routine of getting into the studio daily now which
I'm planning on keeping up with, except for the late hours!

Good pictures to follow tomorrow - after the application is turned in, these are all from the cell phone with my standard wacky light setup.

Count down

One more painting evening tomorrow, hopefully a writing filled visit
to the play park as well. Then a fun filled scramble of
photographing, writing, burning a CD, printing hard copies and
delivery of exhibition application on Friday.

Looking forward to a weekend off. Although I'm still planning on
painting everyday! (But with no pressure).

Happy with the stone and shadows. Think there is just enough to
ground the lion without taking away from him. A nice stage for his
majesty.

Looking...

more and more like a painting every day. White bg will stay as I've
discovered some scratches on the paper - can't see them without paint
over them and so they will remain. I was thinking of leaving it white
to begin with so this makes for an easy decision. After I already
mocked out a bg in Photoshop of course!

Hrumph

First background pass, shadow pass to going on tomorrow night. Seems
like I don't have childcare this week so finishing the church is out
of the question and I'll be writing a good bit of the application
sitting at preschool classes and the play place at the mall - luckily
a new found favorite. At least the painting is going well, when I get
the chance to do it!

Roaw-er

Wow - this flip back and forth between pix on the iPhone really
helps. After a frustating few painting sessions when I thought I was
totally messing up and not accomplishing what I wanted to, seeing the
difference in the pix shows that the painting is working. Or at least
much better than I thought it was! Wrapping up with a good feeling
tonight. Who knows, maybe I can even wrap up the church this week.

Flow

Or lack there of... This is so not what I wanted this watercolor to be
about. It's tending so much to tightness that I'm tempted to just go
for it and start back in with the mechanical pencil. Was too timid in
the beginning to just jump in feet/brush first. Best to just let this
picture be what it wants to be and approach this subject latter in a
different style.

Close enough for jazz

Still some issues to take care of, but no major problems. It will do
for now. So the easel is tucked away and the lion is back on the
drafting table.

Bridge over troubled water

Looks like I should be able to "finish" this tomorrow. Just the
bridge and water with glaring problems. The rest can wait till after
the show application.

Discovered how to get acrylic off of carpet after one drops a brush
right through one's fingers... Spray until completely wet, which
appears to spread the paint into the carpet, but no worries - it comes
out with the water when you blot it up!

Just a bit

Of bare canvas left - but no babysitter this week. We'll see if
Grandma is up to lots of one on one with the girl... Otherwise this is
just not going to happen this week.