Colorado Storm Clouds

Colorado Storm Clouds
16" x 20"
oil on canvas
Click here to purchase.

I really enjoyed this painting! This was from another of my fabulous stash of reference photos from that glorious rainy sunset. I was trying to decide between a photo of boats in the water, but this one won out. I enjoyed the more subdued colors in this photo.

The funny thing about cloud paintings is how they look like a big fat stinking mess until right before they are finished. I learned a while back not to freak out about the pig sty on my cloudy canvases until it is all over and done with. I wiped several paintings before learning that lesson.

I am trying to concentrate on composition. I've been reading, and the almighty "they" seem to agree that the key to a good painting is a good design. Food for thought.

Another Skyscape - WIP

16" x 20"

Its been a while, but here is the start of another cloud painting.

Blue Clouds

Blue Clouds
9" x 12"
oil on linen canvas board
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I so love these panels. The linen has much more of a tooth than the cotton.

Working from a computer screen is very different from a photo or life. My clouds came out much more blue, but I like them like that. I was surprised to see the painting in natural light this morning. Lighting makes a difference.

I may use this scene again sometime and tweak the cloud colors to more grays and purples... just to see what happens.

A Break from the Heat

A Break from the Heat
6" x 8"
oil on canvas board
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Those clouds were a welcomed sight. It was so hot! I loved the cool swirling energy of the scene. It was a relief.
I truly saw something for the first time the other day- there is a warm band that usually stands between a cool color and a really intense/bright one. Does that make sense? Anyway I find myself looking for it everywhere now. I was so obsessed with it when I did this painting that I think I may have gone a little overboard with it, but I still like it. I love every painting that represents a transition in the way I see or think. It means progress.

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
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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.

Partly Cloudy

Partly Cloudy

8"x 10"
Oil on Canvas Board
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Hee-hee! I love working small. I started this painting this morning and finished about an hour ago. Talk about instant gratification! Um... well, its more instant than spending weeks on the same painting.

Two paintings ago my husband pointed at the reference photo for this painting and said "Why don't you do that one next." First thing I thought was Ick! A horizontal! I've been on a bit of a vertical kick. You may have noticed.

I sketched the clouds a couple of times and something about it just didn't feel right- until this morning.

Last night I hung the picture on my handy dandy little reference photo holder that is attached to my easel, and set a "blank" red primed canvas in place, ready to go. This morning I sketched it all out again in my little Moleskine to work on the composition, and this time I felt good about my little blue print- except it wasn't blue, it was gray and paper colored....

I also didn't scrape my pallette from the last painting like I usually do. A lot of the colors were, if not the same, very close so I could alter them easily. Having most of the colors already mixed helped. Its that whole P.A. (Plan Ahead) thing again. That has been one of the greatest lessons of my adult life so far- thank you Brad.

Remember how I was fussing a couple of posts ago about how hard painting was and I was ready for it to come easily again? Partly Cloudy basically painted itself. It was wonderful!

I made a mental shift in my personal life and was rewarded all around. Awesome. Once I realized what the problem really was, my shift came quickly and easily. Would you call it submission... release... ? Whatever the word is, it was good. It was like a great big Ahhhhh and the creativity flowed like peanut butter. Um... warm peanut butter (smooth, not chunky).

And now I have another horizontal painting under my belt- Dun-Dun-DUN!

It has been a good day.

Sunset Clouds III

Sunset Clouds III
8" x 10"
Oil on Canvas Board

Look familiar? I loved the reference photo for this one, and I have been wanting to do some smaller paintings, so here it is... again. The last one, Sunset Clouds II, was on a 16" x 20" canvas. I think clouds are so huge and dynamic that they do well on a large canvas, but it feels good to whip out a painting every once in a while.

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.

More Clouds- A Different Start

OK.

So this time I made a few sketches (in my beloved Moleskine) to try to work out some of the design kinks before plopping the paint down. It all goes back to that P.A. (Plan Ahead) thing. I really shoot myself in the foot when I don't take the time to plan a painting.

In the first thumbnail I went all out with the drawing... well, as "all out" as you can get in such a small rectangle. In the second sketch, I broke the picture down into solid chunks of lights, mediums and darks so I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed by all the variation in the clouds. I felt a lot better about the design after doing that. I was looking for some enthusiasm to start this painting off, and this really helped.

I used this second sketch as a reference when drawing the design onto the canvas- I am trying not to rely so heavily on the photo. I am hoping this will help me loosen up a bit. I hatched in the darkest "blocks" to keep some of the confusion down. I got a bit frustrated with that last painting when I realized I had filled in a light spot with dark paint, in three different areas. Prevention is the best... um... preventing thing.

A little color theory fun-- the red font on both pages of the sketchbook is the same color. Ooo!

About that last painting... I wiped it with the intention of starting over. Can't find the photo, now - last time I saw it, it was in the clutches of an 18-month-old. It'll have to wait until my next batch of reference photos comes from Kodak.

Have I ever mentioned how much I like the internet?

Just upload some pictures into my Kodak account and tell them how I want the pictures and a few days later my prints magically appear in my mailbox! Its just brilliant I tell you!

I don't have to drop off film and wait for a week before the prints are ready. Remember the days when you couldn't just print the good pictures?

I love modern technology.

WIP - Clouds - and something of an Epiphany

Ya know how some paintings just seem to come easy? Just fly onto the canvas with little or no effort at all? Well, this isn't one of them. This one is a battlefield. Explosions and wounded all over the place. Bullets wizzing by your ears. There is shrapnel lodged in the doors of my kitchen cabinets.

Today I scraped off several large mounds of paint and am in the process of redefining some shapes... Someday this painting will come together. And someday soon, I hope, painting will come easier again.

I find myself searching for some meaning in in all this struggle. Does it mean I am coming onto a breakthrough of some sort? Does it mean I need to readjust some way of thinking that isn't quite working? Why am I searching for meaning in something that happens all the time? I know it is a cycle, but... sigh.

Reminds me of my toddler. I can usually tell when he is about to conquer some immense developmental milestone because he goes downhill for a little while. Not physically, but emotionally- upset most of the time, doesn't seem to know what he wants, easily frustrated, has trouble sleeping, etc. Its like he is fighting his way up a slimed, muddy hill covered in briars, and no one can help him get to the top. But when he makes his breakthrough everything is just hunky-dorey. Life is good.

That is totally how I feel with my artwork right now... like the last three or four have been really difficult. And I see a very labored look in them. I am so ready for a breakthrough of my own.

Hmmmm.... Ya know...

I have been looking at my recent paintings while typing this and I noticed that my brushwork has been getting progressively tighter and more controlled. All the while I have been goggling over other artists whose work is loose and much more impressionistic. No wonder I feel cramped. It could be that I am not feeling satisfied with staring at a photograph for days on end and need to spend more time outdoors painting the real thing.

Writing is good.

I am going ot have myself a little think on this, and I just might wipe this painting and start over... or just scrape off the larger globs of paint and reapply fresh paint with a larger brush and no glasses!

WIP - Clouds...

As promised.... the WIP photo. Having a bit of trouble with that pinky-orange in the upper left, but I think there was a smidge of blue (tucked around the side of my yellow) that was mucking up the purity of my mixed color.

I knew it was there... I didn't think it would have much of an effect. It did. Just enough to be irritating.

Good thing I can paint over paint! I might let a bit of this slightly muddy orange remain and act like some of the deeper parts of the cloud... We'll see how it goes.

Sunset Clouds II

Sunset Clouds II
16" x 20"
Oil on Stretched Canvas
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Finished.
This is painting #3 in my Cloud series. I like it.

I realize it is not a very original title, but I figure the painting has enough personality to make up for a simple name. I really like the way this one turned out. I think the larger canvas suits a skyscape. Ooo! imagine a huge huge painting of clouds. Mmmmmm.... like a 5 foot x 6 foot canvas all painted red and waiting to be smothered in stormy sunset clouds. That sounds like fun!


Woohoo! My reference photos came in! I am spastically excited. AND!!! My shipment of canvases came in. Could there be any bigger inspiration to paint?

WIP - Clouds

More clouds from my super fantastic photo session day in Western Colorado. This one is bigger than the other two. 16"x20".

I was a little intimidated at the thought, but now I don't know why. Painting clouds is basically just blocking in bits of color, and it doesn't seem to matter if the minute structures are off. As long as the basic nature of the cloud is adhered to, the finished product still looks like a cloud.

This is the closest I have come to really abstract painting so far.

More Clouds

Sunset Clouds
8" x 10"
oil on canvas board
Click here to purchase.

Painting number 2 in my Cloud series. I started and finished this one last night after Soren the Destroyer went to bed. I was amazed at how fast it went.

This photo came from my favorite painting spot in Western Colorado, same spot the photo for Anticipation came from. I'm pretty sure it was the same evening.

Ooo! if you get a chance, check out Sandra Flood's artwork. Amazing artist! And she is self taught! She is my hero. Her work is full of life, mystery, and spontaneity. I love it. She has work in Austin, Texas at the Wally Workman Gallery. I so want to see some of her paintings in real life- I'll have to stop by when I'm in Texas next. Here is a link to an interview she did with an online art magazine- good read.

Oh- I just saw that Carol Marine, another of my favorites, has work in the same gallery! I definitely need to go there.

Fast Clouds

Anticipation

8" x 10"
oil on canvas board

I started this painting last night and my husband said that he was thinking I should do this one as well. It was meant to be.

I took this photo at my favorite painting spot in Western Colorado's high desert. The sun was setting and this.. just.. phenomenal storm was blowing in. I took like fifty shots of billowing pink, and orange, and purple clouds. They were churning and swallowing themselves, only grow larger --expanding in every direction at once. Oh!- the energy of it! WOW!

My favorite part of a thunderstorm is that vibrating crackle that is so thick, you can almost feel it pulsing through the air and exciting every atom. Ooo! My skin tingles just thinking about it.

That was a wonderful day. So productive. I managed to successfully capture a skyscape while painting on location. Those sunset drenched storm clouds were, to me, like a fireworks display celebrating my accomplishment. It felt good.