Two Pears

This was another quick study I did using acrylic for the under painting and oil to finish. I am struggling to be able to match the colors though after I take a photo of the finished painting, trial and error maybe? I also noticed that the photos "skew" or stretch the painting, the upright pair in the photo is quite a bit wider than the actual painting.

Kiwi

This was just a quick study I worked on tonight. I bought a few tubes of water soluble oils a couple of days ago, and I am pleasantly surprised and how easy they are to work with and clean up. My brushes look great with just soap and water clean up.

All of the studies I have done so far have an acrylic under painting, which has worked great. I will be trying some studies with water soluble oils only with out the acrylic under painting to see how workable they are from bare canvas to completed work.

Red Potato

Well this little potato was a bit of a struggle, I like that it is more "painterly" than most of what I do. My goal this year is to skill build and loosen up and although I'm not crazy about this painting, I do see that I have started to loosen up over the last month, and that's a good thing. I might add some finishing touches tomorrow night.

Garlic, before and after

                                              Before                                                      After

I played with the color a bit and tried just laying down some paint with out pushing it around too much, and I like the results. White seems to be a hard color with all the subtle variations that it can have, but it's a skill building exercise for sure.

Garlic

I thought I would tackle a reflected image, this was fun. I will be making some changes tonight to it though. Purple garlic is much more fun to paint but I can't seem to locate any this time of year.

Apple

I washed this apple for my lunch yesterday, and thought I'd take a few minutes to render it. I was almost late for work and left this apple behind in my haste (had to go and buy one for my lunch) but I must admit my day did flow better, so I spent a few more minutes on it this morning and hopefully will remember to throw it in the lunch bag.

My Sunday Morning

I read an article this morning that is in keeping with my goal for this year, please see the link below.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Be-a-Creative-Monk---Know-Your-Priorities&id=6107778

Dragonfly

I love dragonflies, quite often they land on the bow of my kayak when I'm out on the lake or my daughter and I rescue them when they have become bogged down on the water surface. They just hang out on the bow till their wings are dry (about 10 mins) and then they continue their journey.

I have decided on days when I just can't get to a still life and all the set up, it would be in keeping with my goal to just create some of these small "artists trading cards".

Salmon River Delta - Sold

This was a painting I did this winter for a juried members show at our local gallery. Unfortunately I did not get a great photo of it before I sent it in and I was lucky enough to have it sell, so I did the best cropping and alignment job I could of the photo I had. I love this spot and have spent quite a bit of time there in my kayak, the painting also shows the valley of which I haved lived at the far end of for over twenty years.

Purple Haze - Sold

This is a painting I did in August of 2009 at a music festival, it was a silent auction gallery fundraiser. This was the first year I had participated, actually the first time I have ever painted plein air in public, which was a little nerve wracking at first. This is not my usual style, I think I was influenced a bit by the music and my surroundings.

Christmas Island Meditation

I had some extra time this morning, but not enough to paint so I thought I'd post this painting that I did last year for a member show at the local gallery:)

Gaye Adams, workshop paintings.

This weekend I spent three days with some great ladies and we painted up a storm. I learned alot from these still life paintings and hope to mindful of these lessons while I continue to push on painting from life. I was fortunate enough to have Gaye dive in and help me out on each one of these paintings (some more than others!)

Abstract # 1

I am attending a workshop this weekend and the paint list had a few new colors that I have not tried before. This is the result of having some fun and just creating......I love the new colors:)