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):

Paintings of the Week

This week's pastel inspired by a photograph from artist Karin Jurick's blog. I'm really happy with this one.
This is a watercolor of the same layout. I am struggling with the watercolors. Hmmm..

Pastel - Iris at Pond

SOLD - Dec 2012

Iris on the edge of a pond, with algae and reflection at the top. Did I pull it off?
Not sure if the reflection on the right side reads right..... Reference photo is below:

Pastel - Newspaper Man

This week's pastel inspired by a photograph from artist Karin Jurick's blog. Seems like I'm having much better luck creating pastels than watercolors. They are opposites in the way you approach lights and darks, and perhaps that is why the pastels seem more logical to me.

Ike Art - Pastel of Beach

More "Ike Art". Our power came back on after 24hrs, but no cable. So I sat down and did this pastel inspired by a photograph from artist Karin Jurick's blog.

Ike Art - Pastel of Peaches

The remnants of Hurricane Ike came through here yesterday. No power from 5pm on, they said it may be days before everyone's power is back. I work 3 miles from home, and luckily (??) they have power, so I came in, since obviously there is nothing to do at home.

After my power went out, I decided to try to work on this pastel with the light from the windows. I kept adding brighter colors because it looked so dull in the dim light. Looks pretty good today. Guess that is one way of getting used to actually seeing the lights and darks in your composition!

Watercolor Class - Grey Scale Study

Assignment in class was to use Lamp Black to create a grey scale study.

Frustrating Watercolors - Hen And Chicks

Grrr! Watercolors!
This is a 10-footer: looks ok from a distance, but don't look too closely!

Watercolor Sunday

A couple extreme watercolors - attempting to be more dramatic. Seem over-worked to me in person, but they look pretty good online.

Painting of the Week - Inniswood Herb Garden

Experimented with sketching with a Sharpie instead of a pencil -which means no erasing. I do like the graphic quality of the black lines. Makes it look more like an illustration. I like the right side of the painting with the tall bushes and the violet behind. I had problems under the big tree.

Pastel - Crestone Peaks, Colorado

Hard to photograph this one, it's 8" x 20". Too long for the scanner. Click pic for larger view.

Monnett Garden

Went up to Delaware to meet friend Diane to paint outside last night. We met at the Monnett Garden across from the Arts Castle. Lots of flowers. She was painting in oils and I tried my hand at pastels. These are tiny - 3x5. Although we met at 6pm, the light changed fast and it was cloudy and we had to pack up about 8pm. Dusk is coming much quicker now....

Painted Pear

This is a watercolor, painted using the pastel pear as reference. It was alot harder to paint. I think I like the pastel better.

Pair of Pastel Pears

FINALLY. Back in the groove. This was a pear from the ancient pear tree at Red Bank. I took some photos with extreme lighting. Instead of printing these out, I used the photo on the computer screen and painted with pastels. I LOVE these. Maybe I will try using the same photos but use watercolor instead.

Click on picture to view larger.

My photo:

My pastel painting:My photo:

My pastel painting:

Red Bank Boat Launch

Another frustrating evening painting. On a bright note, we were surrounded by about 30 mallard ducks (yes and a few Canada geese) who talked to us while we painted. There was also an ancient pear tree that was loaded with ripe fruit. Never saw a pear tree that large in my life. Hmmm. Guess I should have painted pears...

Use it or Lose It

Back to Stan's class last night. We met in the Galena town square and painted outside. It was hot and very humid. Not my favorite weather. I couldn't find too much in the scenery that inspired me, so I went for this view closer up. Not my best work but as they say, Use it or Lose it. Practice practice practice...

Class Week 4 - Blue Limestone Park

Last week for the Delaware Parks Plein Air class. We were at the Blue Limestone Park where the stones for the Arts Castle building were mined. A lovely park hidden away within Delaware. If you don't know its there, you'd never find it.

My pastel is the first picture below, followed by the photo of the inspiration.