The Metisse - WIP, almost there...

The progress photo of the Metisse as promised. Not long now- just the water and reflections and maybe a little tweaking here and there...

I was a nervous about the composition at first because the boat is pretty close to dead center. I like it right now, we'll see if I still like it when the painting is complete.

Scribbles

Another shipping box sketch. Scribbling on cardboard is fun. There is a sort of freedom in sketching on something that you know will be beaten up by USPS and then thrown away.

I am halfway there with the Metisse boat painting. I'll post a picture tomorrow. I have to wait for real light, otherwise the colors come out all jacked.

I decided to give membership with the Oil Painters of America (OPA) a shot. Membership is juried, but I'm not terribly sure how exclusive they are. I need more exposure for my work, I believe I can get some with OPA. I won't know for sure if my membership application will be accepted or not until around the 23rd of May, but I was told to go ahead and enter the 2009 Western Regional Juried Exhibition. I guess if my membership is denied, they can just chuck my entry into the show. Easy enough.

They get around 2400 applicants for that show and only accept 200. I saw last year's paintings, and they were very good. I'm a little nervous, but not really. This will be the first time I entered any juried show, so it is more of a learning experience than anything. Whatever happens, it will be fun!

The show will be in Kirkland, Washington August 6-30, so I hope to go see it whether my work is accepted or not.

OPA is also having a paint-out (painting outside, not like a shoot out or anything) in November that I hope to attend. It will be on Willow City Loop just outside of Fredericksburg, my hometown.
Oooo! How exciting! Just the thought of painting with a bunch of other oil painters gives me wonderful little chill bumps. Oh the excitement of it!

The Metisse - WIP

I was getting a painting ready to ship and got a little carried away. I couldn't help myself- the box was so perfectly clean and blank... It was just begging for a sketch. The boat is called the Metisse. I fell in love with it at the dock. It was smooth, slender and red red red!

This was another reference photo I had been avoiding for a while, but I had so much fun sketching it that I started a small painting of it.

I am enjoying working small. This one is an 8"x10". Soon I will have a mass of 6"x8" canvas boards to work on as well.

Let me tell you how much I love Gamvar (Gamblin's super awesome archival varnish). It dries to the touch relatively fast and doesn't make your head spin from the fumes... in fact, I hardly noticed a smell. Hurray for Gamvar!

Partly Cloudy

Partly Cloudy

8"x 10"
Oil on Canvas Board
Click here to purchase.

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.