Buick

I painted this while at St. Louis Museum of Transportation yesterday, with a group of plein air painters.
     This annual event is fun and challenging. I worked on this in the studio for awhile to try to get all those details of this wonderful car just right... a pleasure to paint this.

Day 24

Day 24 of the 30/30 challenge

  I got behind with posting here, NOT with painting, however.... ha ha 

     It is actually the 25th today, but yesterday was SO busy, I didn't get my painting on the blog....

     Here is the one for yesterday... It took awhile to paint it, too... ha

 

Day 20

Day 20 of the 30/30 challenge

     I really should try to get my compositions a little simpler so I can finish this challenge, but for some reason, I am unable to do that. 

     This Hall pitcher is a vintage one, like from the 50s, maybe.  I used to share a booth at the Eureka antique mall with my sis, and I still have a few things from that era, plus, I developed a love for all things vintage like this, and have to buy them...... even if I have to rationalize a bit better now.

     I loved the shape of this pitcher, plus the color.  The glass is an old one that my grand daughters love to drink their water out of.....

Dolly with mary janes #115

     This is an old school doll.  She's similar to one my sister had ( I wasn't big on dolls back in the day)  Anyway, I rescued her from the basement at an estate sale a month ago.  She looked pretty ragged, with a filthy dress (homemade, which I love) and grimey skin.   I cleaned her up ( that part was fun, cause I kinda talked to her the whole time, ha !)  and decided to paint her... Very big challenge to get her right and still keep a sort of looseness to the painting...   Well, I think it turned out, even though it got a bit more complicated that I had thought.... maybe I need to think ahead before I get into this kind of detail... Oh well, she's finished and maybe I'll do something simpler today... especially since it's Superbowl Sunday !!!

Mary Janes for baby painting #84

 

     This sweet pair of Mary Janes was given to me by my dear sister, when she found them at one of her thriftstore 'haunts'....  We used to have antique booths together, you see, and some habits die hard.  I loved the pink on the insides of them, plus just the general look and feel of baby shoes, so they were a natural for paintings.   I really do love painting them, and the red patent leather ones, too !! ha ha

Donkey Party shoes?? painting # 82

  SOLD

      My sis and I used to have booths at the antique mall right outside of St. Louis, and we had lots of fun buying, selling, painting furniture, and working together in this little business venture.   We have since given that up... (in the hopes of having more time to paint) but, I still have a few items from my accumulation.  I used to love to buy that old vintage stuff !  Well, this is a box from the old 'pin the tail on the donkey' game that we used to play at parties when I was little, back in the day.   Thought it would make a good accompaniment for these classic red patent leather mary janes.   Brings back memories of my daughter and grand-daughters tiny feet, too.

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

Vintage chalk horse Painting #54

  

 I found this horse sculpture at a cute antique shop in Alabama, while on vacation with my family.   My sister and her hubby go with us, and the guys love to play new golf courses, while sis and I NEVER are at a loss at keeping ourselves occupied !!! (Two retired art teachers..... that pretty much means 'trouble' ) ha

Little Mary Janes Painting #53

    My sis found these, and gave them to me to paint.   They are one of my favorite subjects to paint.  This time they are a little 6 x 6...

Naptime, circa 1950 Painting #36

 

     I set this up before I left for Arkansas, about a week ago.  Yesterday, I was anxious to go and get my eye surgery, and wanting something to occupy a few hours.  I started this, no drawing at all, just began with my brush, locating areas of extreme light and dark, and letting the image just emerge.   I started to see a shoe there, ( these are very old, and worn, from an antique sale... ) and I just kept refining.  It was kinda fun, no hassle or pressure.   The little quilt is one I made for my granddaughter for her baby dolls, out of left over fabric from a baby quilt I recently completed.     All in all, I like the results, because they truly are looser than my usual paintings.  Since these could have actually been 'baby boomer ' shoes, I named it "Naptime, circa 1950", with the help of my daughter...

Day One Hundred-Seventy Eight

'First Saddle Oxfords'

8 x 8 oil on panel
100.00 + 4.00 s + h

Do any of you out there remember wearing these? They were very popular when I was in school. We had ones called 'Spaldings', and mine were brown and white... They were also a bit of a challenge to paint... especially the laces... serves me right, I used to make my students draw shoes with laces as a sketchbook assignment !

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 !!!

Day One Hundred-Two

                                     'Cream of the Crop'

6 x 8 oil on panel

40.00 + 6.00 s + h

     I love these colors together.  The little cream pitcher was an antique find while on vacation in Alabama.  It just seems I can't pass up a cute cream pitcher... go figure... I guess it's the shape, and the asymmetrical aspect of it that gets to me.  Well, this one had the color going for it too !  And I don't even drink cream in my coffee !