Baaaak Bak! Chicken!

Chicken!, 4x6, gouache on Canson board

The photo used for this is a from one of Carol Marine's DPW challenges awhile back. I wanted to paint something fun. Could use more refining, but I stopped here.

First Cut - Bailing Hay

"First Cut - Bailing Hay" - 11x14, oil

This is another photo I took in the late 1980s, which I came across recently. My then-husband and his brother were bailing hay on the family farm. I was driving the tractor! They took a break and I took this shot of the hay wagon full of hay with the bright red hay-hooks sticking out and the field behind. I thought this was a really interesting shot.

I decided to try to paint this and used a larger panel than I usually use. I think it turned out really nice. I did have to use Photoshop to adjust the color a bit here. Seems like I have always had trouble (no matter the camera), getting that yellow green to read right on the computer monitor (no matter which monitor).

Below are some process shots and you can see a scanned/printed copy of the photo on the left:

almost done - now to fine-tune the details..

Gouache Studies

No lame excuses... just haven't been in the studio much lately. But most Wednesday evenings, I've been painting with a friend who wanted some help in getting back into painting again. I'm trying to come up with some simple things to paint, while giving him a mini-lecture about value, composition, etc... We paint the same thing so that he can see how I approach things.

My paintings are shown below. Neither of us were too happy with the results, but I consider these "10 foot" paintings - they look much better from 10 feet back! LOL

First, we painted from a photo of a Zippo lighter which was on the Daily Paintworks Challenge site, as a challenge from Michael Naples some time ago. 

ZIPPO! - 3.5 x 5", Gouache on Canson Illustration Board

And we still had some time, so I grabbed a red pear from the kitchen. If you squint, you can almost see the sheen on the pear. I think my Crow's feet have a direct correlation to my painting activities (squinting)!

Red Pear - 5 x 3.5", Gouache on Canson Illustration Board

Sculptor Steve Worthington had a little contest going on where you could win one of his cast mice sculptures. Head HERE to take a look!

And I am the lucky recipient of one of his new Winged Angel Mice!  He picked me for the first award, after I mentioned his contest here on my blog! Can't wait til Angel Chubby gets back from the foundry and on to his new home (me!).

http://steveworthingtonart.blogspot.com/2012/01/winged-angel-mice-are-coming-along.html

Steve Worthington   http://steveworthingtonart.blogspot.com/