Farmers Market #6

Farmers Market #6

8x6in oil on canvas $125. SOLD

This is another complex market scene. It is a  lot on a small canvas.
The lady in the yellow dress really caught my eye.
For me, the enjoyment of the farmers market  was observing the
different people getting far more involved with what they were
buying than how I see them buying similar items at my local supermarket.

 Artist Note.

When I first started this I painted in only the lady in yellow. I really liked her
but discovered I lost the feeling I was after.
The painting somehow became about only her and not a colorful and
busy market scene. So I popped in the tall lady in white.
She does balance the plastic bags hanging down on the top left.
If you place your hand over the lady in white  you can see
I would have had a perfect square format with the yellow dress
and hanging bags.. But... I had started with the rectangle.
It really doesn't matter because I love painting these scenes and
solving my problems. I did do a couple of thumbnails first and it
did not show up as a problem in black and white. It was the color yellow
that attracted the eye too much and kept it there. Once I had painted her
and liked her I was scared to touch her ( I am learning!) so I moved
the color around and over to the right side using a variety of different shades.
(The shadow side of the blue boxes is not quite as saturated as shown.
 - that is a camera problem I could not solve)

Talking about solving problems...
I had an accident where I lost most of my big toenail a couple of weeks back
and when I was invited to a party I decided the band-aid did not look
too appealing in my party sandals so I painted the shape of a toe nail
in the matching color nail polish right on top of the band-aid.
Obviously this photo was taken without the pretty sandals!

It was suggested I pass on this hint on my blog.

Thank you for all the encouraging comments on my last post.
Sorry I could not get to answering them all but you made me
really great.

Magnolia Tree Nest

Magnolia Tree Nest

16x20in  oil on canvas   SOLD

The gallery told me that this painting could have sold several
times over. There is usually at least one painting with popular
appeal.  The nest is in my daughter's back yard and when I
first saw it the tree was dormant. We had no idea that it
would be so gorgeous a couple of weeks later.

Artist Note.

I thought I would share my process on this painting. It was quite difficult.
I hate anyone to think that I can produce paintings without any problems.
It is usually the middle of the painting where it becomes tough for me.
In this painting the dilemma became ...nest or flower in the focal area?
I did some sketches like I always do. Sorry the images are poor.

I decided to move the flowers so they would link to the nest.
I have never painted tulip magnolias before - especially in
a tree where it appears there are hundreds of them.
I had to place and group them so they would not
appear "spotty." In the shot below you can see my first attempt.
I had two areas which fought each other.

then my second attempt...it got even worse.

(Another poor image for the color)
The flowers became too dominant, especially the open one.
I added green leaves and laughed when I stepped back and
saw the bright white flower. Off with its head! I scraped it down
and painted it again with better values. Remember - white in 
the shadows is a similar value to black in the light.
Then I painted a flower bud in front of it. This was an opportunity
for layering (depth) and better linkage of the different values around it.
The nest was still too separate so I thickened the tree branch
in the front of the nest, and added another branch from that one.
Then I made the buds open up a bit in front of the nest and
started to refine all the areas - especially the nest and the texture
of the tree. I did a lot of negative painting for the
background creating the thinner branches.
Hard work for the brain, but the pleasure of trying to solve the problems
is what brings me satisfaction and I forget the stage where I want to
put a razor blade through it. Speaking of that. Guess what? I do not know if
you remember the 48x36 (way back) I was having problems with?
It was the main reason I had to stop blogging for a while.
Well, I ended up putting the razor to it to stop me from
trying to save it. I will be showing that whole process in another post.

Goose-neck Study

Goose-neck Study

7x5in oil on linen $100.

Day 10 in the 30 in 30 Days Challenge
My personal goal  for this challenge - to paint only what I have
never painted or thought of painting before.

I am staying with a friend who owns this goose-neck lamp.
I have been using it to light my still life set-ups, but tonight I
thought why not paint it. It fits the criteria - I certainly have
never painted it before and I love the reflective surface.

I have computer problems - again. This time the wireless
is not working. Started this afternoon. Hope tomorrow is better.

Thanks for all the neat comments.  You are all great!