Life's a Bowl of Cherries and a Cookie Jar

I started this a year ago and didn't get very far. Looking at it again I thought it might also qualify for "The Color of White Challenge."  So I decided to try to finish it.  I'm still at the "does it need anything else" stage. I will look at it for a while before I decide if it's finished. I spent a little more time on this one than the last one. It's done in watercolor pencil on watercolor paper. (8" x 8")

Daily Paintworks Challenge?

Oil Pastel - 6 x 6

Watercolor Pencil

I thought I would try to enter the most recent DailyPaintworks' Challenge, "The Color of White" with this watercolor pencil/oil pastel, but I'm not sure I am going to. I started out in watercolor pencils, but messed up my shadow. (I did'nt really have good lighting on this set up.) So I decided to try Belinda Del Pesco's advice and try to rescue it with another medium over it; I chose oil pastels. I had trouble with the perspective on the lip of the pitcher and the perspective on the place mat. I can usually tell if the perspective is off on other people's paintings, but darned if I can do it by looking at my own work. I even tried the mirror trick. The placemat had fruit on it with three dimensional shading, but if I copied that it looked like real fruit around the pitcher not under it. I'm not going to do that again. So thanks to Carol Flatt for mentioning the DailyPaintworks Challenge in her blog. It looks like it's going to be fun to enter and /or to follow.

Art Therapy

Flamingo and Friend--Oil Pastel, Art Card Size

I used an acrylic glaze with gloss medium and cobalt blue on watercolor paper. Then went over the drawing with oil pastel. It's not very detailed because I don't file my pastels down to points and the watercolor paper was kind of bumpy. I really like the feel of oil pastels, but I have trouble getting them to do what I want.

This was done just for therapy. One of my cats is not acting right--waiting for results from vet. My other son who lives near us just informed me he and his girlfriend are thinking of moving to Florida too. We can't move--we have 38 years of stuff to clean out of the house. If my husband would retire now, it would still take us two or three years to clean out the house and fix it up. My sister doesn't want us to move either--her children are all in other States.

Also, my internet and phone went out at about 6:00 yesterday and the discount service we have apparently doesn't work on weekends. They just got it fixed. Now my scanner is not letting me save to my picture file the way I usually do and the blog is not uploading my picture. (This kind of cancelled out the therapy value.) I guess blogspot also made some changes I have to figure out . The older I get the harder it is to make changes. It could be worse--I could be living in northern Japan. Those poor people. I should count my blessings. 

Update

I just spent two or three days trying to reorganize my art supplies so I could be more efficient at finding what I need to paint and to be able to see what supplies I actually have already. I also started a trial subscription to ArtistsNetworkTV and have been watching some of the art instruction videos, but I have only until May to watch as many as I can unless I extend my subscription. I'll decide after I watch some more. I was particularly impressed with John Lidzey's watercolor demonstration so much so that I ordered a book about mixing colors that he coauthored. Can't wait for it to get here. I got a late start on watching the videos because my husband and I went to Florida two weeks ago to see our new granddaughter who is about one month old. I should have waited to subscribe until we got back, but I thought the special trial offer through North Light might not last too long. Also, after the holidays, I spent some time cleaning out a space in the attic so I could move a chest of drawers from the back room (where I paint) up to attic and replace it with my husbands old desk that has been sitting in our dining room for a year or so since his mother sold her house. The plan is to set up the old computer which still has photos on it that I need to download and to use the old printer/scanner for artwork duties. It seems to take forever to actually realize the plans I visualize in my head. I need to work faster.

Our New Granddaughter

Christmas Card 2010

This is the painting I used for my Christmas cards this year. It's from a photo that I took in February of 2010 after we had about two feet of snow. This is across the street from where my sister lives. I also used this to enter a contest in Watercolor Artist magazine's "Try This at Home" workshop. I have'nt gotten any replies about my entry yet. It would be nice to win something, but I imagine the competition is pretty stiff.

Where did the time go?

Photo at Phipps

Old Sketch at Phipps

I can't believe it's been over two months since I posted on this blog. I guess I've been busy with other things; cleaning up my yard before winter set in, trying to clean my house (losing battle), and getting ready for another trip to Florida for my daughter-in-law's baby shower. That was in the middle of November. It took me a while to recover from that trip--not as young as I used to be. Then there was Thanksgiving (I didn't have to cook much, thank goodness my sister-in-law Dottie has the dinner), and then a wedding at the end of November. After that, my niece from Chicago came to visit my sister and we spent a lot of time running around shopping and visiting. Another excuse for not painting was because I got a little discouraged after the Carnegie Painted show. I wasn't real happy with my painting in acrylic. However, the wedding we went to had the reception at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh and we got to meander around the conservatory before the reception. I think I got some inspiration back. If you live near Pittsburgh or are going to be in town for a visit, I heartily recommend a trip there. It is really beautiful. The winter/Christmas show is there now. It would also be a great place to go for the day and sit and sketch or take pictures for later use. I had been there years ago, but hadn't gone recently. As a matter of fact, I had done a sketch there with a class when I was about seventeen (about f f f f f fifty years ago!). I remember sitting there sketching and a young professionally dressed woman passed by and looked at my sketch and commented that it was good. I wonder who she was. I thought I still had the sketch and went up in the attic to look for it and actually found it. I am attaching a photo of it. It was done on newsprint and is quite yellowed and the graphite is somewhat faded, but you can still see most of what I drew. I am also attaching a photo of one of the rooms at the Phipps. They have some cute things for kids to see and do. They have a room with model trains too--all sizes.

Carnegie Painted 2010

Intersection - Stoplight Colors, 10" x 20"

I got the painting of Carnegie done for the "Carnegie Painted" show. I wasn't real happy with it, but I didn't have anything else to enter. My son Tim said I should start now and paint several of Carnegie over the next year so I would have a choice and I could pick the best one or two for next year. (I usually wait till the month before the show to start painting something.) I used a lot of sap green on this one and I think the painting looks too green. Maybe that's one of the reasons I didn't win a prize again this year and maybe I should paint larger. Most of the other paintings in the show were larger. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I don't know what medium I should be working in. Maybe I should stick to watercolor? I thought acrylic would work out better than it did. Also, I thought it would get done faster than it did. It takes me too long to do a painting. The wife of a local artist once told me that I would get faster. I guess that is a good reason to keep painting regularly. She also told me to take some workshops. There are several classes at Southarts this fall that I would like to take, but I really need to be cleaning and painting walls instead of pictures before it gets cold and I can't open windows. I didn't get as much done this summer as I had planned. Where did the time go?

Carnegie Painted for 2010 - Work in Progress

Left Side

Right Side

Part of Unfinished Acrylic 10 x 20"

Not only have I been busy painting and trying to decide if this was worth finishing to enter in the Carnegie Painted Show, but I've been running around trying to find a frame to fit this size. Not so easy. If I had known of the limited choices available, I would have found the frame before I started the painting (or gotten one made).The one I found is dark green. I think the painting has too much green in it as it is, but for some reason the dark green frame makes the colors pop. I have to finish this by Saturday.

Two More Carnegie Painted

Backyards off Center Avenue

Big Tree on Alice Street

These pastels were done for Carnegie Painted in 2006. I just found a CD that had some photos on it that were on my old computer which is not connected yet. I had planned to have it up and running in my spare room with most of my art supplies, but it's been too hot to work up there. I actually prefer my old printer - it had more options suitable for helping me with my artwork and the color of the printouts was more accurate. I did finally get an air conditoner up there, but haven't had a chance to get it all organized yet.