Friends

Two Amish women walking home in the afternoon were the inspiration for this painting because of their quiet demeanor and the relaxed feeling they evoked. I appreciated the simplicity of the moment, and tried to create a simple painting with the shapes, colors and composition. I wish I'd used a little more paint...I wonder if the spareness of the scene affected my use of paint.

Red Hot

This posting is of an illustration I did for a cookbook....I have been working on this project for the past several weeks and have one more painting to do. Since I paint people for the most part, I have enjoyed the challenge. Everything is shape, value and color, no matter what else it is, but this has been something different and that is always good for me. I get lost in my comfort zone.. I have also got some new paintings of people to post, and next posting will be of a couple of Amish women I recently finished.

Food for Thought

The other night I decided to try something different. I thought it might help to get away from the subject matter I had been painting and do something entirely different....so I went into the house and grabbed two clementines, got some leaves out of the yard and put them on the window sill over my palette. This is the result. What I gained from that exercise is the awareness that painting is all about shapes, value, composition, color and their relationships to each other. That's it. The subject matter can be anything....or nothing at all.

Brain Excersize

I seemed to obsessed with value lately and this exercise called for some observation and analysis on my part. So often I forget that it's not about what I think I know. Shapes and value are plenty to deal with on their own. Add the color and for me at least, I can really get confused about what I think I am seeing. Keeping it simple always seems to help.....

Four Friends

This was a quick oil study. I enjoyed the figures in this picture and although I am not a landscape painter, I enjoyed the limited landscape.

I am feeling a bit stale and have decided to try some pictures that are different for me. The first is some sepia portraits, and some with a limited palette. I feel a need to study values and keep it simple. Maybe some different subject matter will also help keep it fresh. Repetition is a good thing, but I think a change can be invigorating. Any suggestions?

My Friend Fran

Fran is a good friend who agreed to pose for me one afternoon. She has a great face and lively spirited eyes. I hope that I did her justice.

The planter fasciitis has healed and my feet are allowing me to stand and paint. I just can't seem to paint sitting down (I need to move back and forth often and a chair is only in the way). Now that I'm actively painting I plan to post at least 2-3 time a week. See you soon.

Ohhh my aching feet!

This painting was my contribution to the DSFDF challenge several weeks ago. Although I enjoyed doing the painting, I wasn't thinking of posting it until now. I am at least a week behind on my painting because of an attack of "plantar fasciitis". An evil foot problem if there ever was one. So a pair of shoes seemed appropriate. I am hoping to resume painting soon. If I don't keep it up on a daily basis, it's amazing how quickly I get rusty. Sitting down to paint makes it hard to step back and squint but I may have to try it.....in any event, I hope to be painting my heart out soon. I have used the down time to order supplies and do research on the computer. But there's nothing as satisifying as the feeling of dipping my brush in a puddle of my favorite color of paint and pushing it across the canvas!