A still life from scratch

A few days ago, I made a public comment, that I was going to devote the month of June to finishing paintings before I started any new ones. There is something about making a public statement that practically guarantees you will have to eat your words.

Not even 24 hours had passed before I was itching to start a new painting. Going back a bit, I had recently received two of my art magazines and had read a couple of interesting articles and had been inspired by some of the paintings. I really wanted to do a still life, and I wanted to do it from the beginning and do it right.

This meant playing with the objects until I found a pleasing arrangement. The above reference photo does not have the lighting I plan to use in the painting but I wanted to show what I was doing.

I plan to paint this slightly larger than life. I have been told and have read, that if you work out all your problems in a drawing it will be easier to paint. I love to paint large, but I hate to draw large, so my solution was to make a small scale drawing, roughly 8"x10" to work on proportions and the like. Once the drawing was done to my satisfaction, I had it enlarged so that I could transfer it onto my 18"x24" canvas. The canvas was treated with an additional layer of gesso, and the under painted with a mixture of yellow ochre and titanium white acrylic so that it would dry quickly. Then I could transfer the image. Once the image was on the canvas, I roughed in all the shapes with burnt sienna and am ready to set up my lights and begin painting tomorrow.

I don't feel bad or guilty about doing it this way, after all, I have done all the work myself and will still need to paint it. Although my husband occasionally refers to this method as 'paint by number' he has no concept of what is involved in mixing the paint or the challenges of getting the paint on the canvas the way you want it to look.

This is a painting I plan to take my time with. I think I have the skill set to get what I want when I am done. At some point in the future, you will find the finished painting here. But for now, future posts will continue to feature work done in the past.

I'd love to hear from you so please don't be shy.

My parent's dog

I created this painting for my step mom's birthday a few years back. It was one of my first painting of dogs. I had been visiting and had my camera with me. Mindy, which is the dog's name is very active, and it was hard to capture her as she rarely stood still. This shot, had her looking down the driveway with her mouth slightly open and her tail curled over her back. She was happy.

The challenges of painting this were numerous. A white dog is almost as much fun to paint as a black dog or black cat. And then there was all that grass and the stone path behind her. Up until that point, all my paintings had simple backgrounds. The painting was all foreground. When I was done, I was truly pleased with the result, although I think the pot of geraniums was not as good as I would have liked.

My stepmom was pleased to have the painting and hung it in the main hallway where everyone could see it when they arrived. A place of honor. I was glad that she liked it and wanted to have it.

There is a bit of a back story about the dog Mindy, however. For nearly 30 years there has always been a white American Eskimo dog at my dad's place and it has always been a female named Mindy. I don't know why they all get the same name, probably because it's easier to remember one name, but it get's confusing as well. When you remember back to a specific time, you don't know which Mindy it was that you are talking about. I don't even know at this point, how many Mindy's there have been.

In any case, this is the painting where I learned to paint a grassy lawn, and so far it has been my best looking effort in doing so. I have a few photographs of pets of friends and family, and one of these days, I may yet again paint a dog or a cat for someone. No requests, please. It's hard enough when I am trying to please only myself.

Doe a Deer. a female deer....

I started this painting nearly a year ago. It's from a photo I took at my friends farm. I was going up her long driveway when a doe crossed in front of me. Over to one side there was another doe. Both stopped to look at the car.

I stopped to look at the deer. Fortunately for me, I had the windows down in my car and the radio was off. Actually the radio doesn't work, but that's another story. I also had my camera in my backpack. Very slowly I reached over, unzipped the backpack and took the camera out. Equally slowly, I removed the lense cap, moved the viewfinder up to my face and focused. I was able to get off three or four shots before they spooked and took off across the field.

Although my husband and probably my artist friends will tell me there is a lot more I can do to improve this painting, it's done - at least for now. This is the skill level I am at, continuing to work on making the face of the doe more lifelike will result in frustration. Painting is my way of relaxing and having fun...frustration will ruin it.

I know that if I continue to paint on a regular basis, I will get better. I am out of practice. From painting nearly every day when I came home from work and every weekend, I am now painting once or twice a month, and that is up from going a few months without touching a brush. My plan for the summer is to spend more time painting.

Why the title of this post? Well, that little song kept running through my head, so I decided to give in and go with it.

Painting from life

In the early days, when I first started painting again I was painting from photographs exclusively. I still do a lot of painting from photos, but have come to realize the value in trying to paint what you actually see.

One evening at a regular painting session with a friend, she decided that we needed to paint a still life. She had gone to the store and purchased fruit and carefully set up a still life for us to paint. The pitcher and plate were chosen for their ability to reflect light and she used additional lighting to create shadows on the scene.

Talk about scary! This was intimidating. She is an excellent artist and painting what I see before me eliminated all my little tricks. But what can you do when faced with a challenge? Your choices are to jump in and do it or run for the hills. The latter was not really an option, after all, what was the worst that was going to happen?
I might fail. Okay, what does failing look like? A painting that doesn't reflect what I see before me? Well it could be modern art-that isn't purely representational. I think it might be wasted time, paint and a canvas...but how can any of that be wasted if I learn something. Even if I paint something I wouldn't even show the dog, Ihave have gained some experience with using brushes and playing with how the paints go together.

I have yet to ever throw away a canvas, although I have a few I probably should, but each canvas, even the bad ones are part of the experience. Now I will admit to occasionally sanding one down and covering everything under it with Gesso so that I can use it again to paint something else (those are the ones I wouldn't show the dog, and I'll show almost anything I have painted to anyone who will look!).

The point is, don't agonize over the end result. It will work or it won't, but in the process you will get better and the next time you will come closer to your goal. Like they say on the sneaker commercial - just do it! And when your non artist friends and relatives tell you what's wrong with your painting just offer them a canvas and brush and encourage them to try for themselves. If nothing else, you might gain a painting companion.

Memorial Day

Since today is Memorial Day, I thought I would show a piece that I made about 11 years ago at this time of year.

These dolls are Paulie and Molly, a patriotic pair. They are an original design. My idea was to make a doll with a shape similar to an old fashioned Coke bottle. My original intent was to make one doll, a male, representing a soda jerk, wearing the appropriate hat, one hand on his hip and the other holding a bottle of coke. I got the proportions wrong for the small Coke bottle I had so it evolved into Paulie and Molly.

I gave him a flag and a hat and decided they were watching a parade, and he was saluting the flag as it passed.

A couple of weeks after I completed them, we had our neighbors over to dinner. They fell in love with the dolls and the next day called to inquire about buying them. Paulie and Molly became part of their Fourth of July tradition for years after, until they moved away and possibly even after that.

It wasn't until after I sold them and was looking at the photos that I realized, Paulie is saluting with his left hand. I called to apologize and offer to fix the dolls so they were correct. Chuck laughed and said he hadn't noticed. But he didn't want me to fix them, they reminded him of his time in the Marines when he accidentally saluted an officer with his left hand. Either the officer didn't notice or chose to disregard it.

I created a pattern for these dolls which is still available to for sale. They were also featured with the pattern in the July 2002 issue of Soft Dolls and Animals.

In honor of Memorial Day, I salute (with my right hand) all those who serve our country with honor, in the past, in the present and in the future.

Painting on the porch

I got the third book in the Steg Larson series yesterday and am dying to read it. But I also resolved not to spend another weekend with my nose buried in a book and pick up my brushes and paint.

This relatively quick (for me) painting is the result. There is a copper fountain on my screen porch, and I love to have it running when I sit out there. It's restful.

This year I cannot run it until I make a repair to it as our newest cat who climbs everything, has torn the splash screen by sitting inside it earlier this spring.

Tomorrow, if it's a nice day, I might go outside to paint, or I might just move everything to the porch and work on one of the two or three unfinished paintings I have stashed away.

I could also do more with this painting, but I don't think I will. It has served it's purpose, getting a paint brush back in my hands again and letting me paint something relatively simple from real life, before I attempt landscape painting plein air again.

My art magazine arrived yesterday and has me itching to set up a still life in my studio. That is best saved for a rainy weekend, I think. I need sunshine in my life right now and the studio doesn't have any windows.

The Gentleman Cat

He was a fostered kitten, bottle fed from the time he was three weeks old with his four other litter mates. His foster mom thought he was the best of the litter and set out to find him a special home. She decided we were it. Have you figured out yet that we are a soft touch?

He is the gentlest cat I have ever had. He lets me hold him even when he doesn't want to be held. He has never clawed or bitten me except by accident in play, and then it was my fault. Snugs is a long haired tuxedo cat with long fluffy tail that is the pride of the household, always up and waving. He is also a very hard cat to paint. Nearly everytime I try, if I try to paint his eyes, he ends up looking mean. I loved creating this painting, because you can see that he is gentle and playful.

This fountain has served as the water bowl for all of our cats for nearly five years.

Snugs at the Fountain was one of my first paintings, and it's fairly simple as you can see. It is oil on a 16" x 20" canvas board. Painting the water turned out to be easier than I thought it would be, but the ivy leaves were a challenge. I had a lot of helpful hints on how to improve the painting from my artist friend, some of which I actually paid attention to. Not that I didn't value all of it, but sometimes it's more info than I can process all at once.