Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

This week I got paintings delivered to three group art shows I will be participating in with one more to come. I have two paintings at the Northwest Hills Gallery (7050 E. Village Center Drive, Austin) show now through October 28, five paintings in the Round Rock Artspace Plein Air show (231 E. Main St., Round Rock) through October 22,  three in the Georgetown Hospital Gallery of Healing (2000 Scenic Drive, Georgetown) through October 22 and will have three paintings at the Corridor of Art (700 Lavaca, Austin) through November 20. Lots of shows, and lots of schedules to get straight. Each show has an entry deadline, delivery deadline, most have artist receptions, and then of course pick up deadlines for those pieces that don't sell. It's worth it though to get the art out and seen.

This week's daily paintings include a black and white value study done to meet the value study challenge at Daily Paintworks. com.

Value Study Lily 6"x6" oil on board $25.00

Peaceful Farm 6"x6" oil on board up for auction on DailyPaintworks.com

Nightfall in the Forest  6" x 6" oil on board $35.00

Sheltering Trees  6"x 6"  oil on board $35.00

Saturday and Sunday

Yesterday I put together a painting of a Longhorn. The photo for this painting was taken a couple of years ago at a PAA workshop on a private ranch. This steer was pretty curious about what these weird people were doing with their easels and brushes.

"Longhorn Fielder"  6" x 6" Oil on board. Up for auction at www.dailypaintworks.com

This morning I took the DPW weekly challenge and painted the fall colors using a photo from last year since fall is still far from arriving in Central Texas. I loved the brilliant colors of this leaf collection on the rock. Believe it or not, I did not arrange these leaves, they are exactly as they fell (or at least my rendition of how they fell). It did make me start feeling like fall even with the temperatures still in the high 90s to low 100s.

"Fall Banquet"  6" x 6" Oil on board $35.00

Catching up for the week

It's been busy with Plein Air painting excursions, life drawing and gathering and framing pieces for 4 upcoming group shows that I've been accepted into. I have, however kept my daily painting commitment, with at least one piece to post each day. Friday's piece was a pastel cat which is not for sale. "Grace" belongs to a friend of mine and she is the first of a three piece group that I am painting as a retirement gift. I have to get cracking on the other two.

"Grace" 6" x6" pastel on Wallis paper mounted on board NFS

On Thursday I painted with a group from Plein Air Austin at the New Sweden Church. It's a beautiful location to paint and a very challenging church building to render. I was fascinated by the huge tree shadow on what should be the front lawn. Unfortunately the drought has rendered it a dry dead wasteland between the church and the road, but the shadows were wonderful.

"New Sweden Church with Tree Shadows" 8" x 10"  oil on board $65.00

Wednesday was the day that I finally painted a scene I had photographed in Santa Fe just after sunset. The sky was glowing and the light reflected in a few windows and on the windows of the cars parked along the street.

"Nightfall in the City"   6"x 6" oil on board $35.00

Tuesday was a wildlife photo I took of a squirrel availing himself of the facilities of our birdbath. With everything so dry, I was very happy to see he was able to get his fill of water from the bath. While he was at it he gave me the idea for this painting.

"Not Just For The Birds"  6" x 6" oil on board $35.00

Monday was another redo of an earlier painting in another medium. This time I tried "West Texas Wayside" in and 8"x 10" size in pastel punching up the colors a bit.

"West Texas Wayside 2" 8" x 10" pastel on Wallis paper mounted on foam core $65.00

So that was my week's worth of painting. I need to get busy and get my Saturday painting created and ready to upload. Maybe another cat in my 3 cat series... but first I need to varnish the paintings I need to deliver next week.

Monday Posting

Still managing to keep a painting a day, although the first one I did yesterday ended up wiped off. Guess that happens. I had attempted a view of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, but for some reason, even though I've painted it several times before, this one just did not work. A couple of hours in, I decided it was never going to work so off it came. What replaced it on the board was something totally different. In fact a departure from my normal subjects - I painted a single water lily floating in a dark pond. This photo was taken at the Zilker Botanical Gardens some time ago. I had always meant to paint it, but somehow never got the nerve up. I'm glad I finally did it - I thought it turned out well and I liked it.

                                                  "Lily"   6" x 6" Oil on board  $35.00

Saturday's painting was another Colorado scene from one of our many trips to cooler climes. This one was a fairly cloudy day but the sun came out and illuminated it for a brief moment.

                                                "Sunlit Peaks"  6"x 6" Oil on board  $35.00

Off the Wagon?

Well you might think that I failed to get my daily painting done yesterday since I didn't post anything today, but it's not that I didn't do it. I did, but I offered a charity auction several paintings to choose from and they picked the new one I had just finished and intended to post for yesterday's Daily Painting. There didn't seem to be much reason to post a painting I no longer had, so I didn't, but that does not mean that I have let go of my commitment to paint every day.

Yesterday's painting which did not make it to DPW is this one:

                                                 "Darkfall" 6"x 6" oil on board donated to charity

Today's painting is from a photo taken through the windshield of the car as we re-entered Texas on a very dreary, grey day from New Mexico on our way back from a Colorado trip.

                                            "Welcome to Texas" 6" x6" oil on board $35.00

This Week's Art

I'm madly getting ready to submit art to 4 shows all deadlining this week. I think I'm ready just sorting out which pieces to use and getting them framed up. While doing all this I have also managed to keep up with my daily paintings and attend some life drawing sessions. I feel that I am getting so much out of both painting every day and studying life drawing that I don't mind the hectic pace. I never imagined retirement would be so busy - I seem to be even busier now that I no longer have to go to the office. How did I ever find time to work a job? Anyway here are the latest daily paintings.

"Waiting for Sunday" 6"x 6" Oil on board $35

"Old Work Horse" 6" x 6" Oil on board $35

"Pots, Pots, Pots" 6" x 6" Oil on board $35

"Blazing Skies 2" 8" x 10" Pastel  $55

Fall Lake

My daily painting for Friday was from a photo I took at a paintout at Long Lake (formerly Decker) early in the morning last year. Things were still green even though it was late fall and pretty cold that morning as I recall. I was the only one there early enough for the sunrise, but it was not a spectacular one although I've seen some gorgeous ones there (usually when working a race and unable to snap photos). Now that I think about it, I need to get back out there and get some more sunrise photos over the lake. It's so beautiful there, or at least it was. With this drought nothing looks as good as it did last year.

                                                "Fall Lake" 6"x 6" oil on gessoed board $35

Busy Day

Today was a busy day. I painted "Blazing Skies" first thing this morning before going out to the Hill Country Water Gardens for a paint out with Plein Air Austin. This afternoon was spent on the business side of art. Writing up a sales contract and figuring out a safe method to ship my sold paintings.
I am also working to get paintings framed and ready for four upcoming shows I hope to participate in, The Austin Pastel Society's North Hills Gallery Show, the Plein Air Austin Corridor of Art Show, The Central Texas Pastel Society's Georgetown Hospital Show and the Round Rock Chalk Walk Show.

                                                 "Blazing Skies" oil on board 6" x 6" $35

September 7, 2011

Today's painting is a sunset from a photo I took out of the car while driving to dinner one night. It was such a spectacular sunset it made the sky look like it was on fire. Right now much of Central Texas really is on fire. It's so sad. Pray for rain and for  the safety of everyone in the fire's path.

                                                  "Texas Afire" oil on board 6" x 6" $35

Keeping Up at Least So Far...

I'm proud of myself. I have managed to get at least one painting done each day since I signed up for Daily Paintworks. They may not all be masterpieces but they're not bad and I am learning something from each and every one of them. The more I do the better I will get. I firmly believe that. I am reading something educational about art every day as well as making a painting so my understanding is growing too.
Here are my latest pair.

The pig was done yesterday to meet the Daily Paintworks Challenge Painting of the Week "Draw your Piggy". This was the only piggy in the house. It was a tiny plastic toy pig that I picked up somewhere and intended to give to Aralyn Hughes (you may  know her as the "Austin's pig lady"). Somehow I forgot about it until yesterday. It had been crushed in my art bag with a bunch of other stuff. I had to glue the legs and one ear back on before I could use it as a model. It is less than an inch long so when I say tiny, it's really tiny. Believe it or not this actually does look like it. "Hog Heaven" 6x6 oil on board $35

Today's painting is from a photo I took at the Star Hill Ranch off of Hamilton's Pool Road last month. I thought of it since the fires are burning out that way now. I hope this area is still safe but I remember thinking at the time how dry all the vegetation was and that it really is a tinderbox waiting for an errant spark to kindle it. I plan to donate the proceeds from sale of this painting to the Red Cross to help the victims of the fires in Central Texas. So many are suffering and so much of our homes in the beautiful hill country and piney woods are being lost to fire. "Tinderbox" 6x6 oil on board $35

Two More...

Little did I realize how challenging it really is to try to come up with a new painting every single day no matter what else is going on. So far it's one week and I have managed it but I can see now I'm really going to have to be more organized in order to really make it work. Here are the latest paintings. The pots were Saturday's painting and I just completed my "Whispering Glade" a couple of minutes ago.

                                              "Driving Myself Potty" oil on board 6" x 6" $35

                                              "Whispering Glade" oil on board 6" x 6" $35

Struggling with Greens

"Cool Pool" Oil on board  6x6  - DPW Auction

My Wednesday painting of "Stormy Mountain" and my Thursday painting "Cool Pool" both challenged me with far too many greens. I realized that both these paintings are predominantly green which is something I need to avoid. I remember Charles Gruppe telling me that he did mostly seascapes because "green doesn't sell". Looking at the row of my first week's daily paintings I see that the mostly green ones are the ones that are the least appealing to me. If they don't appeal to me why would they appeal to anyone else. Point taken. I will strive to use less green. Today's landscape "Still Connected" still uses a wide expanse of green, but in this one I have woven in other colors to break up the green. I hope it's a step in the right direction. See what you think.

                                                 "Still Connected" Oil on board 6x6  - $35
                     (yes, this is similar to the pastel I did in the workshop - same reference photo)

Stormy Mountain

My daily painting for yesterday was from a photo taken on a bike ride with family on a new bike trail near Carbondale Colorado. It was a beautiful day but when I stopped to take this photo it looked like a storm was rolling in. It never made it to us, but looked ominous. I'm beginning to get the hang of this every day thing. In addition to Stormy Mountain, I also attended a life drawing session and did two pastel nudes. One I consider successful, the other not so much. So it goes...