#15 Pears (Grisaille)

Working in oils using the Grisaille technique, which is going to take too long to finish one item. So posting the item before I glaze it.

#2

I loved the lines of this figure. The woman is so graceful, and certainly has a lovely back!

48 and 49 on the quiet side of MDI

# 48 "After Irene , Seawall" 6x6 oil on plywood panel

It feels like it has been forever since I posted a painting,( maybe it's having 3 in college, just dropped my youngest) but numbers show that I am halfway there, which is where I see my painting progression at.

What a beautiful clear blustery day to be on the quiet side of Mount Desert Island. I disciplined myself and used my grey markers to do a value thumbnail sketch - then got lost in the rich colors of the orange seaweed, violet rock shadows and blue tidepool. This of course changed as the tide went out and sun moved. I could have stayed out all day chasing colors.

# 49 "Behind the Somesville Library" oil sketch on 12x12 plywood
Before the storm, the tide came in and working 12x 12 was more challenging. It was interesting that I found the intense colors more in the middleground so had problems with a feeling of depth . I did get some photos so hope to complete this over the winter.

The next 100 Paintings Challenge - figures and portraits! #1

I participated in the first 100 PC a while ago. It was such an incredible learning experience for me and proved to be an excellent 'tutor'. My skill in using water colours certainly improved hugely! I am happy with my landscapes and still life, but have always shied away from figures and portraits.  This time I have set a very specific challenge for myself from today....to paint figures and portraits using water colours. I will be posting all my pencil sketches and of course my water colours as I go along as a way of sharing my journey of learning. I did my first one today and realised that making the commitment to the 100 paintings challenge is just what I need to do this.
I have started by using the paintings of figures and portraits of other artists as reference pictures. This is the first one:

A Champion Returns

I am pleased to announce the Brinda is rejoining the challenge today. Brinda completed her first 100 paintings earlier this year and has now found a new way to challenge herself....but I'm going to let her share that with you!

Please join me in welcoming Brinda Crishna back to the challenge!

Welcome, Brinda!

Lorrie #43 - Humanmade, Naturemade

Humanmade, Naturemade, watercolor 5 x 7 inches

Something that grabs my attention a lot is the juxtaposition between nature's forms and those that humans have contrived. These cement, hard-edged buildings were softened by huge geraniums, and between the buildings was the promise of graceful trees and a hidden garden.

Lorrie #42 - White Mountains from Benton Hot Springs

White Mountains from Benton Hot Springs, watercolor 6 x 9

Recently I calculated that by now I should be at painting #50 (it's six months since I started the challenge). So I'm trying to catch up, which is why you are seeing so many posts from me of late! (And I'll be away from the computer for a week again.)
This is a painting done while soaking in mineral hot tub in the open air--joys!!! (I also did some tinkering back at home). It was at  Benton Hot Springs, California, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range, at a campsite with a private tub. Wonderfully relaxing, gorgeous scenery ... the place is about 40 miles east of Mono Lake in the middle of nowhere -- and yet, in the middle of everywhere if you love high desert landscapes and its flora/fauna.

Kelly - Painting 66

...a quick sketch from memory in preparation for a future painting. Rick and I went canoeing a few weeks ago, but I didn't have my camera. At one point we saw two softshell turtles sunning on a log, and the scene was idyllic. I tried to memorize it, so I could record it when I got home. I didn't worry about detail when I painted, I just wanted to capture the feel of the dark river and shadows. The two turtles were so well camouflaged we almost didn't see them. Can you see them? They are on the left...

Matty starts back to school tomorrow, and summer comes to a screeching halt. This summer has been so much fun. We were hardly ever home...always outside in the woods or doing something (last week the tennis tourney in Cincinnati). I'm sad summer is coming to an end, but I want to get back in my studio and start painting again. I've done a lot of sketching of fairies and mermaids...just fun stuff. Now I need to get back to the challenge! I've fallen behind, but just a little...

Lorrie #41- Sierra Red Flower

Sierra Red Flower, watercolor sketchbook and 4x5 (blossom)

In early August, there were a host of delightful flowers in bloom along Highway 4, which crosses the Sierra Nevada mountains, Among them at about 8500 feet elevation was this, which didn't exactly match any flower described in the field guides I had. I'm sure it's something common, but the blossom was especially lovely with pale speckles on that brilliant red. I forgot to write its size: the flower was about an inch long from base to crown.

Lorrie #40 - Grazing Horses

Grazing Horses, watercolor 6 x 9 inches

This was another on-the-road watercolor sketch. Just like people often seem to do, these horses stood there while I pulled the car over and got out painting materials, but strolled away once I put brush to paper! If the picture represented what I truly saw most of the time I watched them, it would have been a pair of horse rears.

I Hit the #30 Mark! Dora Sislian Themelis

Pepper Stem #30 (c)2011 Watercolor on Lanaquarell

I am pleased to say I have made it to #30 in the 100 Paintings Challenge! I don't know why I feel so good about this, but I really do feel great. There was something about painting this latest work that made me feel some strange energy inside me. Was it the colors, the shapes I don't know, but I'm excited.

Painting from photographs for most of the latest works was not so horrible either. I'm glad I took the time to take this photo of my cut-up peppers!

Lorrie #39 - Fremont Cottonwood

The Fremont Cottonwood, watercolor 6 x 9 inches

This stunning tree is in a residential neighborhood of Carson City, Nevada, just a block from the main street through town. A plaque identifies it as "Fremont Cottonwood, Bicentennial Tree." I'm pretty sure it's the largest deciduous tree I've seen, and it has such gnarly character. I was driving by and had to pull over and paint it, though this is only the bottom half! Not depicted here is how its densely leafed limbs (some as thick as tree trunks themselves) spread up and out, three times as wide as this picture. Note the back of the stop sign for size comparison.

Six Sunflowers- #29 Dora Sislian Themelis

Six Sunflowers - #29 (c)2011 12x16 Watercolor on Lanaquarelle

This time I painted the sunflowers from my veggie share from life, before it came time to toss them in the trash. I sketched out the composition, and tried to remember to stand rather than sit to get the angle I was looking for. Painted in 20 minute segments again, trying to keep it fresh and allow time for the paint to dry.

Lorrie #38 - Red-shirted Manikin

Red-shirted Manikin, watercolor 8 x 15 inches

When in lovely Carmel-by-the-Sea, it's usual to paint ocean scenery, but I was looking for something different. This red-shirted manikin was in a store window, right next to a bench so I could sit and paint. I did a smaller sketch in watercolor then, and did this larger version at home. Though a fun subject, now that I post it, it looks kinda creepy to me. Does it to you?  Maybe it's because I added legs, so it looks too human, whereas the display manikin had only a narrow post going up one pant leg (but that looked weird also).

#14 Training Wheels - Cheri Homaee

Trying to figure out how to do figurative painting. Plus using hardboard and really don't think I like it much.

Training Wheels -

Acrylic on Hardboard

6 x 6

Kristin #28, Aspen tree

10 x 3", watercolor and pen

Here is a quick one I did yesterday before it started raining, of one of my favorite aspen trees. It was fun to turn the notebook vertically the long way and fit the whole thing.

Lorrie #37 - Alone at Dawn

Alone at Dawn, watercolor 4 x 5 inches

Wouldn't it be neat to take paints out a dawn and capture a tranquil setting before anybody else is around? Probably so... but I didn't do that here. Just playing with colors and textures from my table at home!

Lorrie #36 - Man of Art

Man of Art, watercolor 5 x 7 inches

This gentleman was sitting quite still, lost in thought I suspect. His profile against the artwork caught my interest and I got out a travel paint set and paper ... though as fate would have it, he got up within moments of my beginning this painting. He then moved to a table right next to mine to chat with friends, so I worked even more surreptitiously. 
Does anyone else have this uncanny unluck that people you are painting leave just as you begin??

Lorrie #35 - A Lot of Latte

A Lot of Latte, watercolor 6 x 9 inches

I have been on a trip for nearly two weeks, so am a bit behind in posting. Great to see the rest of you forging ahead! I do have a couple things to put up now, and then you'll probably be seeing a run of things from the watercolor sketch book that came on the trip as well. This is a nearly empty 16-ounce glass that held a delicious latte, which I enjoyed at a cafe with a good friend (we each had our own sorts of work to do... mine happened to be painting).

# 46 and #47 Lamoine ME oil on 6x6 panel

I have discovered a wonderful group of plein air painters in my backyard! Life is very good as there are 2 emails a week with georgous locations we are invited to paint at or inside the Somesville library. I had no idea there were homes tucked away on rocky little peninsulas. My challenge is choosing a spot , so I have dropped to 6x6 panels. I have followed Kristins lead with small thumbnails , then I photograph , then paint as quick as possible before the light and tide changes.

The top one has 3 clam diggers who packed up soon after I began so I will complete this with my photo.

#13 - 3 Pears Cheri

Playing with where the light is coming from. Didn't know the difference in types of Pears. I thought these were Bartlett until my husband told me they were Comice.

6 x 6

Acrylic on Canvas

Under the Sunflowers - #28 Dora Sislian Themelis

Under the Sunflowers 11x14 Watercolor on Lanaquarelle paper

Another watercolor painting of the sunflowers from my vegetable share makes this #28. Still working from the photos I took and trying my best at my own view of how they look.

Kelly - Painting 65

In the little time I was home in July, much of my free time was spent photographing turtles along the banks of the Great Miami river for a friend who is writing a book about them. Turtles are wary little beasts and sink beneath the water at the slightest sound (making it very hard to photograph them). I decided to paint one...much easier! (I used my memory and a blurry photo as reference...)

(watercolor)

Kelly - Painting 58 - 64

Where did the month of July go? My last post was way back at the end of June! I have been painting, but only on the run because I haven't been home. These were all painted either on site or in waiting rooms and are part of an illustrated journal (8x5). It's something new I started at the beginning of June. I now carry a tiny set of paints (only 6 colors) and the journal with several water brushes in my purse at all times. ...now to go catch up and see what everyone has posted in July. I should be home for the rest of summer, so I can start posting regularly again.

(These two birds are not my design. I saw them in a tiny book of antique postcards...they are European birds. The sweet postures were so cute I had to try my version of them. I painted them in the waiting room at the BMV while Matty was taking his driver's license learner's permit test.)

#12 Cups and Saucers -Cheri

Trying my loose painting not loose enough yet, still wanted to do details. Although the flower is the really loose.