Day 21

Day 21 of the 30/30 challenge

     I found this cute vintage book at the thrift store, and could just picture the red shoes on it.  I had fun with it, and realized recently that I love painting shoes of all kinds . 

      I DO remember having my students in drawing class years ago, do contour drawings of their shoe, and sketches of their shoes in their sketchbooks, and I always had a fun time doing those drawings, too.  Do I have a 'shoe fetish' ?

Day 19

Day 19 of the 30/30 challenge

     I am really having fun with this month's challenge.   I get excited about my paintings, and have fun struggling with the next composition.  (It also gives me a perfect excuse to visit the thrift store across the street for more finds)   ha, although my husband accuses me laughingly of being a hoarder..... I am NOT.... ha...

     A close up of yesterdays bouquet... I must paint these quickly, because, being in the strong light of my set-up, the flowers open up while I am painting, and it makes it hard to get the shapes and values right.  quick is best, as a photo does little good in this situation.

Day 18

Day 18 of the 30/30 challenge

     Today's painting is my favorite subject (or one of my favorites)  Flowers...

     Trader Joe's has the best flowers, especially appreciated when spring seems so far away here in St. Louis.   I loved the color on these,  the outsides are a muted orange, but even when they were only buds I could see a brilliant red center.   Had to have 'em.

Day 2 of the 30/30 challenge. 

     

Funny, how you have to get your "sea legs" again, after not doing this for awhile... ha ha 

     Actually, I paint all the time, but have lately been doing plein air landscapes with my painting friends, or working from my photos in my studio, because it's COLD outside... anyhoo, here's todays still life, from life, as usual.

 

Juice glass with gerbera daisy Painting #55

 

   Love this little glass.  I found it in Alabama, too, at a different antique shop.  I passed up the identical one in blue.... Boy !, Now I wish I had bought that one, too..... such is life

Yellow Hat Painting #32

     I've seen this woman walking before, with her yellow hat... well, this time I stopped, and asked her for a few pictures, and she graciously obliged.  Something about that hat !

Succulent series Painting #19

Started this last night... just roughing it in, on the black canvas... Finished this morning.... now, that's dedication.. ha ha  !    Seriously, those polka-dots will drive ya nuts !

Succulent series Painting #18

 Alright, I really put in a days work today !  Can't believe after my struggle (big time) that I decided to add this complicated background fabric... go figger....

 

     B U T-- I DID learn alot from this one, I'll tell ya that !  First of all, the pink background kept mixing with my color--- Really not good.... that fought me the whole way.  Then the background was indeed a challenge....  Also, the colors of the larger plant were very distinct, and quite contrasty, so the difficulty came in added a shadow color which would look enough different, so you could distinguish the two as different areas.   Also, the light and dark of the individual leaves had to remain a bit different in the shadow areas, too !!!  MaMa Mia !!!

Succulent series... Painting #17

This one was a doo-zie !  I worked almost the whole afternoon on it, with little breaks for peanut butter.  Finished up this morning.... whew !

Succulent series Painting #15

   This one was challenging.... Not only was the plant difficult, and complex, but the elipses didn't help, either !!

Succulent Series Painting # 13

   

     I really liked all the varieties of plants I found at my neighborhood nursery... (literally in my neighborhood, I could actually walk there...)  Anyhoo, I decided to go a collection of paintings using them as my subjects.  I especially like the look of the succulents.

Succulent Painting # 12

     I love the abstract quality of these plants.  I love to see the assymmetrical-type of radial balance they exhibit.  Something great about the grey-green color for me, too.  The touch of red -the bowl- bring out the greens, polka-dots for pizzazz...

Red Shoes, again Painting #11

 

     I really get a kick out of painting these little shoes... (no pun intended)  Anyhoo, here they are on one of my granddaughter's favorite games, Pete Rabbit.... This is the first board game she's really ever played.

Painting #3

     Here's a different perspective on these little guys.  They are such fun to paint, and remind me of my darling grandbabies. 

Day Two Hundred Five

'Two Lips are better than One'

6 x 6 oil on panel
80.00 + 4.00 s + h

I found these at the Farmer's Market in Kirkwood, Mo. It opens on the first of April and offers wonderful fresh produce, plants, and now hormone-free meats and pies, too... great sign that Spring is finally HERE ! yay !

Day One Hundred-Eighty Seven

'Sunday Morning'

6 x 6 oil on panel
80.00 + 4.00 s + h

Anyone for coffee? I love the old vintage 'avocado green' cup, with it's saucer. I found it at Goodwill, I think. It was very challenging, because I had so many greens to contend with.... the main 'body' color, the two different colored stripes, and the shadow color. I hope I pulled it off. I was sure fussing a lot with it, which I want to get away from... I'm hoping my Carol Marine workshop in August will help me stop doing that !!

Day One Hundred-Twenty One

                                                             'Cherry Takeout'

6 x 6 oil on panel

40.00 + 6.00 s + h

     I started this last night, very late...  Just sketched in the shapes, and added the flat color... It was getting dark, and hard to see my exact tints and shades.  This morning the woman who is buying my table from Craiglist is coming in an hour, and I HAD to finish before I moved everything.  (We just purchased a new diningroom set, because we have a growing family and needed a bigger place to eat)  This table got moved into the toy room temporarily.  Anyway...  I think the highlights came out pretty good, and I was surprised at how much reflected light I saw when I really studied it...    I just loved this little container I found at the Container Store !  They had lots of different colors, too.!

Day One Hundred-Eight

                                           'Surrounded'

8 x 8 oil on panel

50.00 + 6.00 s + h

     I found this cute pitcher, and again, I couldn't resist.   (I don't even look for the sugar bowls, I don't know if this had one or not)  Well, I loved the color, it seems as if it's from the 1970's or earlier, and I also loved the cool squared off shape.  I thought the color would go nicely with my shiny red pink lady apples. I always ask my daughter's opinion on paintings if she's around at the time.  She wants to see more of a connection between the elements in the paintings, and I know she's right.  Tracey's a photographer and has a particularly good eye for composition, so I value her suggestions on such things....The pitcher and apples are not 2 things that would relate so much... Oh, well, I'll have to spend more time on thinking about that too !!!