Texas Summer Sunset

Texas Summer Sunset
9" x 12"
oil on linen board

This is the view from the middle of the field next to my mom's house. Just over the hill is the Kerrville Highway and some motels I forget the name of. The view hasn't changed much since I was a teenager. I'm glad.

I love this painting! Not just because I am in the painting-loving-mood, I am just really excited about this one. I love that pole with all the lines and boxes and streetlights sprouting out in every direction, and the colors that just explode out of nowhere at that most magical time of the day: The Golden Hour. Rightly named. King Midas had his way with the sky and the field, and every little weed became a thing of beauty.

The first day I worked on this one was kind of a mini disaster. I didn't get everything down that I wanted and my tripod was falling apart. Yes, my lovely, new, super-fantastic tripod that I adore so very much because it shrinks down to the size of a pixie cane and weighs just a bit more than a pencil... Anyway! The next day was better, and I was thankful for the previous day's work because I was able to concentrate on what I liked best about the scene- the contrast in colors. I am wishing now that I had taken a picture of the first day's work so you could see the changes. There were changes! Not huge, luckily the infrastructure was pretty sound. Just minor things like a shadow placement here and there, but even the small changes made a big difference.

I like it so much I am going to hang on to it for consideration into the Whistle Pik show in December.

I think this is another one of those transitional paintings for me. While working on it, I felt more in control of what I was doing than I ever have been. I even scraped away some of the paint in the sky on a whim and ended up with some much needed subtle variation. I didn't freak out when some of the blue-ish green from the trees blended into the sky... I just let it be what it would be, and I like the result.

I would like to say thank you to my friend Oscar Arroyo for sparking my interest with his utterly luscious paintings of electricity poles. I love it when artists take the mundane and make it beautiful.

Oh! and this painting is on linen, not my regular canvas. I totally see why people never go back. I'm hooked. I plan on working through the last of my canvases and changing over for good. The paint behaves differently on linen. Subtle maybe, but definitely different. It just feels good.

Little update: This might be the last post I make for the next three weeks. We'll see how things go. I'm in the process of moving back to Texas, and you know how that goes...

Pip pip, cheerio- I'll be back soon!



P.S. Thank you all for leaving your comments- every blogger and artist knows the incredible value of your support!

Sigh...

Still no paintings to share...

Its been a rough painting week, so I have been seeking solace in art books. Three in particular are Alla Prima by Richard Schmid, Brushwork by Emile Gruppe, and Gruppe on Painting by Emile Gruppe.

A wealth of wisdom...

Multitasking: Completed Castle, another plein air painting, and Kreativ blogger.

Castle on Anderson Road
11" x 14"
oil on canvas
Sold

Woohoo! Finished! I fought with the fence for a while- scraped it three times. Finally I daubed some paint down and holy-pamonie! it looked like a fence. How did that happen!?

Thank you little painting elves.

Sunset Cloud Study
6" x 8"
oil on canvas board
Click here to purchase.

I got to paint outside again last night! I ended up with this high key painting of the view from the parking lot in front of the apartment. I wasn't chasing shapes this time. I sketched out the basic design first and then went with it.

And, thank you Jared Kelly for passing the Kreativ Blogger award on to me. I will happily pass it on to seven other people whose blogs I really like. Check them out- it is worth your time.

Marian Fortunati
Laurel Daniel
Liz Holm
Perry Brown
Dana Cooper
Lee Brown
Rick Nilson
Terry Miura

So that was eight... I can't count.

Sunset Storm Clouds

Sunset Storm Clouds
11" x 14"
oil on canvas

I just finished an email a friend and fellow cloud painter, Ronnie Watt, about the frustrations of painting and the wonderful advice I have been given about how to deal with it.

With this particular painting, I found Mary Anne Cary's advice most helpful. She said "...when I question it all, I have to just try to stop what's going on in my head and paint without high expectations..."

Think about it. Its brilliant! She is not saying to lower your standards, but to let the painting be what it will be- to focus on the process rather than the product. Time for a new mantra for me! (Well, time to add a new one to the pile.) But how do you sum something like that up in just a few words?

When I felt that old familiar feeling of wanting to pull all my hair out because my painting looked like a big fat stinking mess, I stopped to count back from ten, and then started again with the intent of just letting this painting find its own way... so to speak. Really what I was doing was letting go of the anxiety attached to the desire for a good finished product and focused on the act of painting. I really have to concentrate to match colors. Especially grays.

Ya know, Julie Beck said basically the same thing. She said "...finish it and if you're not happy with it, do another."

There it is - Let the painting be what it will be.

I can hardly contain myself!!!

I have been stumbling through the world of art on the internet and came across a jewel! There is a lot of good stuff out there, but I would really really like you all to check out The Pochade Gallery. The gallery consists of two British painters, Carl Melegari and Antony Bridge, whose works are just exploding with color and life. And get this - they are plein air painters! Wait 'till you see their work- I love it! Makes me want to go outside more and paint.

Their styles differ, but I really like them both. They manage something I would really like to do myself, they know how to simplify the scene and still make it work.

I stumbled across a Dutch plein air painter whose work I adore as well- Rene PleinAir (that is his blog). Well worth your time- check him out. He also has that something that allows him to say a lot with very little. Just brilliant.


I don't have a picture to post at the moment... I do have another cloud painting on the easel, but have been a little obsessed with my piano. Just got it yesterday. I've been looking for one since last November. I am so excited!!! I have wanted to learn for a long time. This piano is going to do double duty- I get to learn, and my 1.5 year old will be exposed to it for a good while before he starts his lessons. Mua-ha-ha! He'll be so steeped in art and music that he will think everybody is like that! Lets rewrite the norm, shall we?

I'll post a picture of the WIP tomorrow.

A Passion for Painting Award!

Today Vicki Shuck, a fantastic artist and fellow Pacific Northwester, nominated me for the Passion for Painting Award. How fun is that! I am honored! (I have been following her blog for a while now and love her work- follow her link, its worth your time!)

The ways this works is that I name 7 things I love, which are:

1. my brilliant husband and incredible son,
2. painting inside,
3. painting outside,
4. planting things,
5. thunderstorms- especially if I get loads of reference photos so I can paint them!,
6. the Pacific Northwestern Coast with its dramatic cliff sides and windblown, distorted trees and that wonderful life-giving salty air (I need to fill my lungs with it every once in a while),
7. and spending time with my mom, sister, aunt, uncle and cousins (a.k.a the rest of my family)- I pity everyone else in the world for not having the family that I have.

Next, I have listed seven, plus one, of the many artist's blogs I follow -because I really admire their work. Check them out!

-Sandra Flood
-Karen Appleton
-Kerri Settle
-Carol Nelson
-Deborah Paris
-Jeffrey Boron
-Liz Holm
-Julie Beck

I could have easily listed another fifteen...

IF YOU ARE TAGGED, should you desire to keep this going, you are asked to name and link to 7 others whose work you admire and let them know about it, list 7 things you love and put a link to the person who tagged you.

WIP - Boat

I thought it would be fun to post the progress of this painting. I usually try to avoid so much detail, but I didn't think this boat would look like much without it.

Besides, I got a little carried away while drawing it on the canvas. It would be a shame to cover up all those wonderful little lines.

I am having a little trouble getting the color on the photo right. My camera sees all the red and tries to put a warm spin on my blue-white sky back there. Things like that really make me appreciate how spectacular human sight is. Machines are wonderful, but sometimes they just don't capture some of the subtleties in color.

My mom took me to Whistle Pik Galleries in Fredericksburg last week and there was a painting in there that just blew my mind.... Well, there were quite a few that blew my mind, but one of my all time favorites was by Robert Moore called "Essence." Wow! Let me say it again- WOW! That painting is spectacular, but the photos are nothing to the real thing hanging on the wall. I would have brought it home with me if I could.

Robert Moore, according to the salesman at the gallery, is color blind. I don't know to what degree. Oh! And he is ambidextrous and paints with a brush in each hand- both working at the same time. I paint with a brush in each hand, but one is always stationary... unless I happen to drop it.

Another fantastic artist at Whistle Pik is Cheri Christensen- her work glows! The lighting is spectacular. We were told that she will wait in a field all day long until the light or position of her subject is just right before taking her reference photo. Two of my favorites of her paintings are "Magpie on the Roof" and "Full House."

Check out the links- they are well worth a visit.