watercolors

Orchid

Work in progress
Orchid
Oil on Canvas
11x14

I just realized I never posted the finished painting in oil. So here it is...
I really have to take some better photos of my work. The background looks a mess in this. Maybe after it's varnished.

Twilight Pond

Oil on Canvas
16x14

Remembering the beauty of nature

I was listening to Jake Shimabukuro on the radio today talk about his composing Bohemian Rhapsody for the ukulele. I related to what he was saying as an artist. He said although Bohemian Rhapsody is a very complex song and a ukulele is a "simple" instument he felt like we all have a similar experience with the song and can hear the full orchestra in our head even when it's not there. That he only had to play a few select chords and we the listeners would fill in what was missing, and it would sound right.
I think the same is true for painters. I admire the painter that can distill something down to it's essence and paint only what is necessary to remind the viewer of what nature has already done so perfectly.

Watercolor Sketch

This is a watercolor sketch of an oil I am working on from a still life set up.

Walnuts and books

Work in progress


Haven't posted in a WHILE...a lot of things happened since my last post. Lost all our money thanks to one Bernard Madoff, my daughter dropped out of school and reclaimed her room, my paints went back to their home under the stairs, and I went to work with my husband. Now...we are back on our feet, my daughter is back at college in Montreal, and I have since gotten my paints out again. Things are good. Above is an oil on canvas. Not such good photo!

Oil is to Acrylic as Snowboarding is to Skiing

I have been painting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So far everything I've done I'm chalking up to a learning experience. It's so hard to stay motivated when you feel like you suck. I finished the painting of the river bend and totally messed it up when I applied the color. I did learn a lot. ( I'm guessing you can't use stand oil and Liquin in the same painting. Is that true?) I tried doing the river bend painting again this time without the underpainting. I ended up scraping most of it down and turning it into a bad abstract. Next I tried painting en plein air. My drawing was off, but I went with it. I did learn something about transparent and opaque paint in that one. I guess I'm also learning that I have to try all these things and see for myself what does and doesn't work to believe it. Along the way, I was thinking that painting in oil is a lot like snowboarding. Why bother snowboarding when I already know how to ski?