Ideas, but you gotta get the studio ready first..

I have an idea how to approach Karin's photo of the week, but first things first. I have recently moved my studio from a large family room downstairs to a tiny room upstairs. The problem with the BIG room was that it felt like a cave. Even though I had lots of artificial light, I only had one east facing window. It just didn't give me the right 'feeling', so I moved my work area upstairs to my smallest bedroom. Its tiny at about 9' x 10', but it has a big window and just feels better. I still use the family room for my matting and framing area, but use the upstairs for the creative work.

Earlier in the week, I made my bi-yearly trek to IKEA and got the rest of the furniture I wanted to finish off the room. I love the adjustable trestle legs under the drawing table top. I also got a great deal in the "AS IS" section of IKEA. I got the aluminum wall shelves for only $1 each! DEAL. These are normally used with an additional piece of glass to make a deeper shelf, but without the glass for only a DOLLAR I thought these were just the thing to display artwork.

I took some shots of the new studio without the flash so you could feel the 'warmth' of the room. Now, if I could bear to mess up the space with art supplies.......

Happy Halloween

Different Stroke Painting of the Week - Cow

FUN! I love to paint cows.
This is the latest entry into Karin's weekly challenge.
This is pastel on velour mat board (my favorite surface),
and is about 6" x 9".

I love the folds of her chest - so surprised I pulled that off! And love her top-knot too.

Painting of the Week - Tree Houses

This is from watercolor class last night. Even though I took the photo used as reference, this turned out to be too 'cute' for me. Still struggling to get the look/style I am hoping for.Here is the reference photo taken at the Dayton's Wegerzyn Garden:

Different Strokes Painting - NYSE

Wow, Karin gave us a real tough subject to work from this week - this picture of the NYSE. I had a hard time deciding on how to tackle this challenge. Finally, I cropped a section of the photo and played with the contrast to get the view below:
I still found it to be very intimidating to even start this painting, so I tried an old trick some teachers use on reluctant students. I turned the page upside down and just tried to paint the shapes, lights, darks, without regard to if they were a guy's head, leg or a computer monitor. Still tough! My first pass, I thought was failing, so I left it to dry for a couple hours. Right before bedtime, I thought I'd look at it to see how it turned out. Mmmm, it had promise! So I added a few more strokes and called it done! It's not as vibrant as the cropped photo, but I think you can feel the anxiety and rush on the NYSE trading floor:

Plein Air Saturday - Infirmary Mound

Met the plein air group today near Granville Ohio at the Infirmary Mound park. Worked in pastel again. First shown is my work and following is the photo of the scene - then some other shots. The light changed fast today. Probably one of the last days this year to get outside to work.

Watercolor Class - Girl with Cookie Study

I took lots of great photos on Saturday at Slate Run park. This was a cropped portion of one. I painted this in class last night as a study for a future painting. I love the bucket and pump area, but overworked most of the rest of it.

Different Stroke Painting of the Week

This week's challenge from artist Karin Jurick's blog. This was a tough one. Not my best work! But its all about the process, not the product! I mirrored and manipulated her photo to get this view.

Plein Air Saturday

Got together with a group of plein air painters this morning. Here is the link to photos taken by one of the group:

Ohio Plein Air painted today at Slate Run Historic Farm

Check out the pictures at www.ohiopleinair.com

And then click on PAINTING SESSIONS And the top entry “Slate Run Historic Farm”

Here is the pastel I produced and a photo of the scene (although a slightly different view):