Intermission

Intermission, 8 x 10, pastel on suede matboard

Desperate to find something interesting to paint, here is a pair of old Mother of Pearl opera glasses, I bought on eBay a couple years ago.

The Ugly Duck Painting

Here's my next attempt at a still life. I sure picked some colorful objects to paint, huh? This shows the setup and the first pass at the painting. I kinda like the painting in this stage as it seems pretty simple and to the point. But I struggled on and messed and messed with it.

Below shows the final version of the painting. Its not bad, but to me, its kinda an ugly painting - mainly because of the color palette.

I think I need to paint the inside of my setup box a different color. Perhaps a nice neutral grey?

The Ugly Duckling, 8 x 10, oil

I added some minor highlights to the tiny painting from an earlier post. Here is a better picture.

Blue Pot, 4 x6, oil

Trying to Remember How to Paint

Well, I painted this afternoon. I felt like its been forever since I painted. 
I made a 'box setup' to be able to light my still life items dramatically. I wanted to paint the inside of the box pretty dark and was looking for my acrylic paints. After hiding everything away when I put the house on the market,  I couldn't find them for awhile. Took a bunch of searching! Then I didn't have the right colors to make black, so the inside turned out a deep rust color. Here's the setup with a couple of 50 cent items from the thrift store and a little blue note pad book.
Then the next pic shows the setup box at the top, and two paintings (oil). The smaller one was just a warmup and turned out better than the second larger one (that I gave up on, its not finished). The larger one needs wiped off and sanded down better. The board was gessoed, but I must not have sanded it enough and there are alot of ridges showing.

Here's a closeup of the little 4 x 6 inch one, although it is a pretty dark painting, and there is a lot of glare.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

A lovely way to start my holiday! 

 There was a beautiful sunrise this morning. The whole sky was pink, orange and purple, with teal blue and yellow at the horizon. I was driving to work, so couldn't take a picture, but the above is the same sky from about 40 miles north of me - one of my friends had taken pics and shared these.

I went to lunch with one of my bosses today. We got a window seat, and while we were eating SANTA stopped at the window and waved! Then as we were leaving he was in the passenger seat of the police car! We asked if he got arrested and he said he had to get out of work somehow...LOL 

 

No Buyer Yet

Wouldn't you love to buy my house?

No offers yet! We had 2 busy Sunday Open Houses. There was a good prospect last Sunday who spent lots of time looking over the house, so I hope they come back and write an offer. I'm not holding my breath, as I really think it will be on the market for a couple months.

I am itching to do some painting, so I think next week over the holiday I will have to get the paints out. I doubt I'll have many showings then as they will be too preoccupied with Christmas. There is an exhibit in January which is very important to me. It needs to be 'new work' for this exhibit, so I better get busy as the hand-in date is January 4th! 

                             

Make me an offer I can't refuse! LOL

Art on Hold

I had hoped to get into the studio over the holiday weekend, but I've made a big decision early last week to put my house on the market. That meant my 5 days off involved getting the house ready. The realtor came yesterday and we got the paperwork taken care of, and she had her photographer come and take some really nice shots for the MLS listing and brochures. The listing is to be 'live' tomorrow and we have Open Houses set for the next three Sundays.

I've decided a nice ranch style condo will make me much happier than taking care of a two story house with a fairly large subdivision lawn to mow. I'd been hoping to sell before now, but with the economy tanking I waited and had planned to put it on the market in March. But now with the 1st Time Homebuyer incentives being extended til April 30th, my realtor felt that if we waited we would miss out on a large part of the market for this price range.

So, long story short..... I need to keep the house spotless which means no artwork. I am afraid if I get out the paints, it might scare off some people thinking I will stain the pristine cream colored carpet! So, I will leave you with this shot that the photographer took of the studio. Looks pretty cool - I'd hate to mess that up right now!