Superior Buttercup

"Superior Buttercup and Delicata Squash"  8 x 10  oil
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I was going to paint a picture of a pumpkin for the DPW Challenge, but I only had a couple of squashes in the house. I did an under-painting using the Fast Matte oils, and the next day finished it up with regular oils.

The buttercup squash had a sticker that said Buttercup Superior. I tried to paint it, but not sure it shows as a label in my painting. The Delicata squash (in the front) was very challenging.

the setup

the under-painting in Fast Matte paint

I recently tried the Delicata squash and I LOVE it! It has a really nice flavor with almost a 'sweet corn' after taste. I found it is really simple to cook squash in the microwave - cut in half and seed, then put in a lightly covered dish and nuke for 4-5 minutes. My kind of cooking!

First Frost

We had our first heavy frost of the season last night. When I looked outside this morning as the sun was rising, it was beautiful with a frosty fog and the glow of the bright red leaves of my sweetgum tree.

Simplify Cute Challenge

Blue Dress Day, 8 x 10, Fastmatte Alkyd oil

I painted this for the DPW Painting, "Simplify Cute Challenge". I really simplified the scene and put her into a light blue dress. I had started this using Gamblin's Fastmatte Alkyd paints, thinking I would come back later with regular oils on top. The alkyds are on the dry side and I seem to use them thinly with a dry brush technique. It gave me a different look than I was originally going for, but as it developed, I kinda liked the brush strokes and the haunting look to the little girl. The style of this painting reminds me of another artist's work, but can't recall which one. I wanted to keep her facial features hidden. She sure doesn't look as happy as in the photo. It is easy to imagine a dark story behind my painting.

I really had difficulty getting the hand holding the bag to read correctly, but I think it finally makes sense. Below, are process shots. I had a "Yes!" brand canvas panel already toned with a thin black acrylic on my table, so I used that.

Framed

I popped my painting from yesterday into a frame and it looks really nice. It is shown beside one of the gouache studies inside the same type frame. I really like the square format.

Below these is the photo I painted from, and to the right is an older pastel called "Pear Pair". One of my favorites.

Studio Work Sunday

Alum Creek Fall, 6 x 6 , oil

I painted this in the studio from a photo I took last weekend up at Alum Creek State Park. 

Here is what the canvas looked like after I toned it with acrylics and the photo to the right:

I tried to finish the piece I started yesterday, but it was a failure. So here it is in the TRASH! Can't win them all!

Blustery Plein Air

For the last outing of the year, my group was invited to paint at the beautiful private gardens of the Schnormeier's near Gambier. We painted there last year in July, and it was very hot. Today it was high forties and blustery winds.

I.Hate.Wind.

I tried to make the best of it and enjoyed helping my friend Chris from work, as this was her first plein air outing. We painted a couple hours and then walked the grounds taking photos. I did paint, but am not happy with it so, plan on working on it tomorrow (in the calm surroundings of my studio!). I may just wipe it off and start another using some of the photos I took today.

More Gouache studies

Our plein air group decided to start painting indoors a couple weeks ago because it had turned really cold. Then this weekend, it was close to 80! Too bad they decided to paint inside after all. If I am going to paint indoors, I would rather do it at home, then to haul supplies to the art center for only 2 hours....Instead, I went for a drive both days and took lots of pictures of the change to fall in Ohio. Hopefully I can use some of these for inspiration for paintings this winter.

So I haven't painted much. I've spent a lot of time getting my studio re-organized and cleaned. I'm still playing around with gouache. I am trying out different boards and papers. Still having trouble actually applying the paint. Because it feels almost dry with it goes on, it seems hard to 'mush' around - it just kinda sticks. There is a fine line between too wet and workable...I am still not getting the look I want, but will put some more time into it.

Here are three quick ones. The first is on Canson art board in black.  I liked the feel of this. The wetness didn't affect the board much at all.

The next one is on Canson Mat Board in a nice buff color that I like quite a bit, but it has a bit of texture instead of the smoothness of the art board above. I like to tape off a frame around the painting area so that the buff color shows. This is not really finished, but I got bored with the fence and gave up on it.

And lastly, hot press watercolor paper. This was my least favorite support. I worked on it dry and it seemed to buckle quite a bit for watercolor paper. Perhaps I needed to stretch it and wet it down before starting.

Playing in the Studio

 I played in the studio for a few minutes last night. I'm on a gouache kick right now and am still learning (I would learn more if I would take more time to play). The one on the right are Hosta plants in a garden..I can kinda see it.... I think gouache works well for value and color studies.

 

I've always had a problem finding a good way of storing wet paintings until they got framed (or determined to be duds and thrown away...). I have some nice wall shelves in my studio for dry/framed paintings, but the wet ones were always a problem. I generally work pretty small - 8x10 or 5x7 - so figured I could come up with something to display a number of paintings together on one of my empty walls.

 

Here is a board I came up with. This is a full sheet of foamcore and the tracks are plastic molding (made for covering the edges of paneling). The molding was about $3 for 8 foot at the home store. I used clear Gorilla glue to mount them to the foamcore. The slot width of the molding is just perfect for hardboard panels. Obviously, if the paint was really thick and juicy, the slots might mess up the very bottom of the painting. It was a fun experiment for only a few bucks. I will probably make something a little more refined, but for now it works for me!

Plein Air Exhibit - A Breath of Fresh Air

I have two paintings exhibited in the Breath of Fresh Air show at High Road Gallery. I ran over with a co-worker at lunchtime to see the exhibit before the reception and award ceremony on Sunday (it gets so packed that it is hard to see the artwork at the reception!).

I had her take a picture of me beside my paintings with my cellphone camera. It took pretty good pics!

Stop by and see the exhibit Wed-Sat, 12-4pm, until October 22.

Saturday Plein Air - Franklin Park

We painted at Franklin Park today. It was a brisk 50 degrees with a breeze and overcast. Such a comfortable refreshing change!

Conservatory View, 8 x 10, oil on board

Playing with Gouache

I've been interested in the artists online who do such neat things with gouache. I finally bought a few tubes of the good stuff and a set of the cheap stuff so I could just play. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to move the paint around. I am so used to oils now.

I did the painting this evening on cold press watercolor paper. The subject was from a DPW Challenge back in April, - here is the link to my original painting in oil. I really liked that painting. This one is just ok for a first try with gouache. I'll figure it out soon enough. That is what playing in the studio is about.

Saturday Plein Air - Scioto Park

Today's location was Scioto Park near Dublin Ohio. It was so much cooler than last week! It was foggy and cool, and very comfortable to paint. I painted small today. After seeing a posting on the Gamblin Artists Color blog about using secondaries as primaries, I decided to experiment. I used Cadmium Orange, Sap Green and Ultramarine Violet, along with white and Chromatic Black. I think these colors suited the hazy cool weather.

Foggy Daybreak, 5 x 7, oil on gessoed mat board

Tragic Loss for Fellow Painter

I follow Carol Marine, the DPW (Daily Paintworks) webpage and participate in some of the weekly challenges. Yesterday, Carol lost her home and studio to the wildfires in Texas. The family escaped with only a few things, but they are safe.

As I was finishing up a piece for the DPW Rectangle Challenge and getting ready to submit to David - Carol's husband who manages the webpages - I read about the fire. I plan on submitting the artwork and donating any proceeds from the sale of my piece back to Carol and David. Here is the link to the Challenge:

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenge/BCE72D70-B1A7-44ea-884E-5882A1B9355E

The painting is new version of the painting from Saturday. Here is the comparison of the two:

And this is the piece I will be submitting to the challenge:

Kingwood Vista, 5 x 7, oil on canvas board  

$120

Saturday Plein Air - Kingwood Gardens

It was a blazing hot day today. Right now it is 99 degrees at 6pm. There was a tough group of nine who braved the heat this morning. We painted in Mansfield at the Kingwood Gardens. I painted two 5x7s. I was more interested in taking reference photos so that I could paint in the air conditioning!

Columbus Landscaping Association Garden Tour

Our group was asked to paint in the gardens on the Columbus Landscaping Associaton Garden Tour today. I chose a beautiful house in a gated community off Orange Road. What a beautiful home and wonderful landscaping! I painted two paintings while there. What a great experience!

Studio Work - Heron Pond

I worked in the studio several evenings this week. For this painting, I first used the Gamblin FastMatte Alkyd for the first layer to block in the basic shapes. The next night couple nights, I used my normal Gamblin standard oil paints. I really like the feel of working on top of the FastMatte. I am not sure it if was the dry texture of the Alkyd or just because the paint was dry. I am so used to working on a painting alla prima wet on wet. I also worked larger (11x14) then my normal plein air size of 8x10.

acrylic wash

FastMatte

regular oils

I thought I was done but the 2nd heron was distracting
and also made some other changes

"Heron Pond", 11 x 14, oil on hard board