Rooster Fun!

Rooster With A Checkered Past
Gouache on Aquabord. Sold. 

Artist Note. 

This is a painting that was in a
Rooster show
almost two years ago.
Decorative and fun to do!

I have almost finished
transferring
"art stuff"
from my home studio
into my downtown studio.
One more weekend should do it.

I have been listening to old episodes
Of the Savvy Painter Podcasts.
The one on Gamblin paints
link below is very interesting
Podcast

And for those who follow
Jillian Morrow
on Shifting Light
 will enjoy this great interview
Podcast with Julian

I hope you enjoy
Savvy Painter. 
There are
Some really interesting
interviews on there.
AND
The amazing
Carol Marine is the juror.
for their upcoming competition 
information HERE

Copy of a Mancini.

Copy of a Mancini

 6x8 oil on canvas $150.\

Purchase HERE

Artist Note

Carol Marine

came up with a great

Daily Paintworks Challenge

The idea was a fabulous one...

copy a painting you admire 

and  then do a painting 

using what you learned

details HERE

BUT... after I copied this one 

I found I had no heart to do another.

How can I ever match what this 

guy does - he is brilliant!

Took me forever to do this little urchin!

I saw this piece in a traveling show at the

El Paso Art Museum. 

I took the photo on the left.

 I eye-balled the proportions 

so there are  

several areas that are not quite right.

Doesn't matter - I learned a lot.

I have followed Antonio Mancini's 

work for years.

Sargent was an admirer and has

been quoted as saying,

Mancini

 was the worlds greatest artist

The great Richard Schmid has said

 he, too, was heavily

influenced by Mancini's work.

If you are not familiar with 

his paintings here is a link.

Antonio Mancini

Balcony in Guadalajara, Mexico

Balcony in Guadalajara.

9x8 in watercolor on Yupo

study

Artist Note.

Carol Marine came up with

a neat subject for this week's

 Daily Paintworks Challenge.

I have loads of balcony photos

from all my travels. This one 

from the gorgeous old city 

of Guadalajara, in Mexico's

interior. In this area they 

all had small clothes lines,

sometimes four to a balcony.

This was 20 years ago...

I wonder if they still

hang it outside or 

if they have dryers

now their electricity has

improved.

Wild Flowers - DPW Challenge

Poppies

6x8in oil on canvas panel $135. SOLD

Artist Note.

I have been trying to do the weekly 

Daily Paintworks Challenge,

and I am a bit late with this one.

This was from the photo 

Carol Marine chose.

I decided to do poppies because they 

grow wild in Colorado 

and when I lived there 

I painted them quite a few times

Anyone can enter the challenge.

A new one starts every Sunday

so if you need inspiration

deciding what to paint then I suggest 

you give it a go.

See the other participants

HERE

Carol Marine's Masterpiece of a Book!

Zinnias and Marigolds

6x8in oil on canvas 

2012

Sold

(See at bottom for a video flip-through of 

Carol Marines new book)

This painting

is the one Carol selected to be included

 in the chapter on Subject Matter.

I share the page with Raymond Logan. 

A very accomplished painter 

and across is a full page stunner from the talented 

Kara K Bigda

The book is on sale thu  Amazon before Nov 4th for 

$14.99. Afterwards it will be $22.

I predict it will be a long time BEST SELLER!

Below is a short video of a flip-through I made giving

you the idea of how many visual treats and 

written gems of information

are amongst its pages.

click below to see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC2mG0Xod4E

Creamer and Roses plus a visit with Qiang Huang.

Creamer and Roses

6x8in oil on canvas panel $125.
to purchase click HERE

Overhead light is a favorite set-up of mine.

Artist Note

I enjoyed reading all the comments on mine 

and Lisa Graham's post about her trip out  to 

stay with me to paint after her mother's passing.

Everyone was so kind and warm hearted. it 

was food for my soul. Thank you all.

The day after Lisa left, another guest arrived.

Qiang Huang had just finished his workshop in

Cloudcroft, N.M., and had some time for an 

overnight stay with my husband and I

in Las Cruces before hopping 

on the plane the following day.

Qiang had to go back to Austin to

pick up his wife on the way to Oregon.

What a busy schedule he has!

He is lucky enough to be staying with 

Carol and David Marine for a few days before 

doing another workshop.

We enjoyed reminiscing about the two 

workshops I had organized for him and 

how Carol Marine had so generously

mentioned him on her blog after he took 

a workshop from her. She recognized his talent.

Carol Marine has helped so many artists -

including yours truly- to start online blogging 

as a way to develop an art career. 

David Marine had the skills and brains to 

help in areas beside the brush, and together

they created  Daily Paintworks

A true gift for hundreds of artists

...including myself..

Here is a link, if you one of the rare people who 

are not familiar with Carol Marine amazing art.

And ,of course...Qiang Huang (pronounced Chong Wong)

qiang huang

New Mexico Casa

New Mexico Casa

6x8in  oil on canvas panel  $100.

Day 12

From an old photo of northern New Mexico.

Artist Note.
After doing a timed, fast oil sketch yesterday
I found I needed to do it again today because
I did not have much time after work.
Using the palette knife made it easier because I
cannot get into too much detail with it.

Several years ago I was lucky enough to get into one of
Carol Marine's workshops.  The timed sketch is one of her
exercises. She divides the canvas into four areas and in each
area you paint the same object - fast! It is a liberating
experience and I highly recommend it.
These roses were timed 7 mins each. The rose gradually
opened up from the heat of the light.
Amazing what you can do when you have to.

Before and After: Fracturing

After Fracturing
8x6in oil on canvas NFS

Before Fracturing,
6x8 oil on canvas  NFS

I thought I would show two paintings I have side by side
in my little gallery area here at the Guild.
I placed them together for visitors to understand what
and how the fracturing technique changed my regular imagery.
This is in my early days in exploring the technique, but
I have kept both pieces side by side as it really helped
me keep going forward in using the color and fracturing
in a more adventurous way.
My goal was to loosen up...and this is for those of you reading
who have the same goal.
I took workshops from great artists like Dan Gerhartz...twice!
How about the loose and juicy work of Ovanis Berbarian - took
from him too. Then our marvelous artist and friend Carol Marine -
see any of her signature brushwork above? I enjoyed one with her.
How about Qiang Huang - I even organized a workshop twice
to try and get loose like him.
So I ask you... do you see any of it in the painting directly above?
Nooooo, you sure don't and why is this? I sure tried, and
would "get it" in class, but...
after a week or so back in the studio my old habits would
creep back in and after a few week I would find only ONE
thing would have stuck from the workshops.
I kept getting parts of it and next thing I knew I
would head back for the security of what I knew best,
and that was ordinary realism painted in a safe and normal way.
THEN I discovered painting with a credit card...when I had
forgotten my brushes on a paintout.
More on that breakthrough tomorrow!

Artist Note.

Three more artists have graciously given permission to show their
first fracturing attempts.

Sue wrote how she got the video when it first came out and
had many attempts before this beautiful one she shows on
her blog. She recommends a great book too so be sure to visit.
 Click on Sue Church Grant

Roxanne wrote she is a plein air painter
stuck indoors over a wicked winter so she was happy to try new
ideas in her still life work. Check what she did here
Roxanne Steed
See, Flowers for Vincent and scroll down to see the
Flowers and Fechin. Two lovely pieces.

The other artist is Jeanette Jobson who wrote that she enjoyed
playing around with the technique after watching the video
and said so on her wonderful blog called  Illustrated Life.
See the results here jeanette

This is another case of three very good artists, still enjoying
trying new techniques, and generously sharing the results
with other artists.

I thank them for mentioning the Fracturing Artbyte
It helps DailyPaintworks also and can take people over to see
the wide range of excellent tutorials available.

I hope you visit their blogs.

Sunflowers and Polka-Dots

 Sunflowers and Polka-Dots

8x6in  oil on canvas panel  SOLD

This DPW Challenge is by the fabulous artist, Carol Marine.
The Polka-Dot Challenge . I was asked if these Challenges are
competitions. No, they are held weekly to stimulate and
share work with other artists. Anyone can submit to them.
They are fun and you see some really creative ideas
and  lovely paintings.

I had set my mind to paint something yellow today
so it was easy to place sunflowers into my neat, polka- dot jar.

Artist Note.

There was a request from Maga, on today's post asking what I had learned
about becoming more comfortable with using yellows when I did
my series of lemons.

First and foremost... never use white to lighten, only to mix the highlight.
I think that had been my main problem.

I used Holbein - Naples Yellow Italian to take the acid touch out of
 Cad Yellow Light - I had three brands of CYL in my box, trying to find one I liked
Richeson - Unbleached Titanium. (fabulous for lightening warm colors)
Windsor Newton -  Indian Yellow. The only brand I like for IY.
Windsor Newton - Cad Yellow deep.
Rembrandt - Transparent Oxide Brown.  Beautiful with the Indian Yellow
to reach darker shades, keeping them transparent
and adding a bit of Naples to move into
a lighter area before adding cadmium yellow